CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Chautauqua Institution proudly announces the program lineup for Week Three of its 2022 Summer Assembly. The week, which begins July 9 and concludes July 16, features concerts and other artistic performances, lectures and classes both on the grounds and livestreamed through the CHQ Assembly platform. Week Three includes acclaimed guests such as Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, former NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks and Harvard Law scholar Noah Feldman, plus a special performance of “Aladdin” live in concert by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. 

Chautauqua Institution has returned to a more typical level of activity on its lakeside grounds in 2022, including full schedules for all major programs, back in their usual venues at full capacity. Visit vacationsafely.chq.org for current health and safety precautions, which may vary by program.

Chautauqua’s nine-week season features weekday lectures focusing on weekly cultural themes. Week Three examines “The Future of Human Rights,” in which speakers on the 10:45 a.m. Chautauqua Lecture Series platform examine ethics, morality and human rights both at home and abroad, and what work must be done in this critical global field. The 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture Series tackles a similar topic, “The Spirituality of Human Rights,” in which speakers examine human rights and ethics within a religious context.

The Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews will serve as guest chaplain for the week. Matthews serves as deputy director and chief faith officer for Faith in Action (formerly PICO National Network). He is also co-founder of and public theologian-in-residence with Sympara, a multifaith/interspiritual community of practice, repurposing spiritual assets for the common good.

AMPHITHEATER & HALL OF PHILOSOPHY LECTURES

MONDAY
Chautauqua Lecture Series: Alison Brysk is the Mellichamp Chair of Global Governance in the Department of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has authored or edited 15 books on international human rights, including 2018’s The Future of Human Rights, which will frame her discussion to open the Chautauqua Lecture Series week of the same name.
Interfaith Lecture Series: The Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group, served as vice president in charge of Advocacy at World Vision U.S., and was senior political director at Sojourners. 

TUESDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Nicole Austin-Hillery served until February as the first-ever executive director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch, where her work focused on addressing and combatting systemic racism, improving the U.S. immigration system, tackling rights problems within the domestic criminal justice system, and advocating for policies to address poverty and inequality informed by international human rights standards. She now is president and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Layli Miller-Muro is the founder and former chief executive officer of the Tahirih Justice Center, with which she has worked for over 20 years. Tahirih is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting women, girls, and other survivors from human rights abuses through the provision of client-centered, trauma-informed, interdisciplinary legal and social services; through public education and training; and through non-partisan public policy legal advocacy.

WEDNESDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of HumanProgress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on global improvements in well‐being by providing commentary and free empirical data on long‐term developments. At the Cato Institute, Follett also serves as a policy analyst for the Center for Global Liberty & Prosperity, where she conducts research on human rights and the historic drivers of progress.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, a native of Sudan, is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory Law, associate professor in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. An internationally recognized scholar of Islam and human rights, and human rights in cross-cultural perspectives, An-Na’im teaches courses in international law, comparative law, human rights, and Islamic law. 

THURSDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Axios’ resident legal scholar and a Bloomberg opinion columnist who is regarded as one of the great legal minds of our time. He joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series with a discussion on human rights as they pertain to free expression, Big Tech and social media platforms.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Cornell William Brooks is Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice at the Harvard Kennedy School, where serves as director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership. Brooks is the former president and CEO of the NAACP.

FRIDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: A human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Nadia Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. The founder and president of the non-profit Nadia’s Initiative, Murad will be joined by translator Abid Shamdeen, the executive director and co-founder of the non-profit, for a Chautauqua Lecture Series discussion on the need to create greater awareness of sexual violence and the needs of its victims, and the need to defend the rights of all marginalized ethnic and religious minorities.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Kathryn A. Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Law School and Government Department. Sikkink works on international norms and institutions, transnational advocacy networks, the impact of human rights law and policies, and transitional justice.

ADDITIONAL LECTURES

2 p.m., Saturday, July 9, Hall of Philosophy: The Chautauqua Women’s Club Contemporary Issues forum featuring Candace Fleming, author of Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life.

3:30 p.m., Monday, July 11, Hall of Philosophy: Reva Siegel will deliver the 18th Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States. Siegel is the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where her scholarship draws on legal history to explore questions of law and inequality and to analyze how courts interact with representative government and popular movements in interpreting the Constitution.

3:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, Hall of Philosophy: The Heritage Lecture Series features a lecture by Jari Villanueva on “The Life and Times of Chautauqua’s Oliver Willcox Norton, the First Bugler to Sound ‘Taps’.”

3:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 13, Hall of Philosophy: The Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, Monday’s Interfaith Lecturer, returns to give a separate address for the African American Heritage House Summer Speaker Series.

3:30 p.m., Thursday, July 14, Hall of Philosophy: In presenting their book Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know, Erica Chenoweth — one of the world’s leading scholars on the topic — explains what civil resistance is, how it works, why it sometimes fails, how violence and repression affect it, and the long-term impacts of such resistance.

AMPHITHEATER ENTERTAINMENT

Aside from the daily lectures, Week Three features a variety of arts and entertainment programs live at the Amphitheater each evening.

7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 9, Amphitheater: Get ready to see “Aladdin” the animated movie live in concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra! Rediscover the magic of the mythical city of Agrabah and the love between Jasmine and Aladdin while the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra plays the unforgettable Academy Award-winning score in its entirety.

2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 10, Amphitheater: The Rhythm Project All-Stars is a world percussion ensemble dedicated to the nurturing of self-esteem through individual and cooperative achievement focusing on instilling discipline and dedication in students through performance and touring opportunities.

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, Amphitheater: American music icon and nine-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow brings hits like “All I Wanna Do” and “Soak Up the Sun” to the Chautauqua Amphitheater after opening performances by five-time Grammy-winning bluesman Keb’ Mo’ and the soulful Memphis-based blues band Southern Avenue.

8:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 13, Amphitheater: An internationally acclaimed concert handbell choir that dazzles audiences with unique interpretations of sacred, secular and popular music, The Raleigh Ringers have performed in 39 U.S. states and are known for holiday concerts that have been broadcast on over 250 American public television stations.

8:15 p.m., Thursday, July 14, Amphitheater: Acclaimed soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with conductor Gemma New in a program including selections from Samuel Barber, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

8:15 p.m., Friday, July 15, Amphitheater: ABBA The Concert continues to be the top ABBA tribute group in the world, dazzling all who see with their fantastic performance while playing the most iconic hits from ABBA, including “Mamma Mia,” “S.O.S,” “Money, Money, Money,” “The Winner Takes All,” “Waterloo,” “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,” and “Dancing Queen.” 

MORE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT OFFERINGS

Patrons are advised to bring a mask with them as some performances and venues will require masks.

Current Chautauqua Visual Arts Exhibitions include “Undercurrents,” “All that Glitters,” “Natural Rhythms” and “The Shape of Things to Come.”

Multiple dates, Bratton Theater: Chautauqua Theater Company continues the run of its production of Indecent, a play full of joyful human passion inspired by true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway production of Sholem Asch’s The God of Vengeance.

4 p.m., Saturday, July 9, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall: The Chautauqua Chamber Music Guest Artist Series features the Alexander String Quartet with Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra principal clarinetist Eli Eban.

4 p.m., Monday, July 11, Norton Memorial Hall: The Chautauqua Opera Company stages its 2022 production of Thumbprint, a chamber opera inspired by the experiences of Mukhtār Mā’ī, a contemporary real-life warrior for women’s rights and education in Pakistan.

4 p.m., Monday, July 11, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall: Pianist Aldo López-Gavilán and violinist Ilmar Gavilán, both renowned, will be performing in the Chautauqua Chamber Music series.

7 p.m., Monday, July 11, Chautauqua Cinema: The beloved Chautauqua Cinema continues its weekly Family Film Series, available to anyone with a gate pass, with the classic comedy “The Princess Bride.”

5 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, Smith Wilkes Hall: Chautauqua Institution welcomes artists from Syracuse University presenting an encore performance of the 2022 Young Playwrights Project Festival. This show includes 10 short plays imagined by Chautauqua County 3rd and 4th grade students, from their unique points of view.

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 12, Chautauqua Cinema: The Chautauqua Cinema continues its weekly Documentary Film Series, available to anyone with a gate pass or concert ticket, with the documentary about Sheryl Crow’s life, called “Sheryl.”

4 p.m., Friday, July 15, Norton Hall: The Chautauqua Opera Company stages its production of Tosca. Puccini’s glorious score brings to life one woman’s struggle for love, art, and freedom in a male-dominated world at the turn of the 19th century. Religion, politics, and passion collide in this stirring work.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGEMENT

Chautauqua’s Mystic Heart Interspiritual Meditation Program offers community members daily meditation sessions at 7:45 a.m. in the Presbyterian House Chapel throughout the week.

Chautauqua Dialogues provide a forum in which people of diverse backgrounds can bring their political, religious, cultural and social beliefs, experiences and knowledge to conversations that matter. They take place Wednesdays through Saturdays of the Summer Assembly at various times, but primarily in the afternoon.

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION

Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer — and year-round through the CHQ Assembly online platforms — with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through engaged dialogue.

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