After landing in Buffalo, I was driven an hour and a half to the beautiful campus of the Chautauqua institute. Located twelve miles from the ocean-like Lake Erie, Chautauqua Lake is home to a hidden community of art and culture. Upon reaching the Institute, I was greeted by my roommate Tara–a fellow intern from the University of North Carolina. Tara and I share our building with ballet dancers and opera singers. Some nights as we sit in our room, both consumed with our own writings, we can hear the sweet angelic melodies of the sopranos across the hall. The only strict part of our schedules is our work in the Poetry Makerspace and the workshops we have the privilege of attending for free. The Poetry Makerspace is an office dedicated to the making and sharing of poetry. Our most popular work is the community thread poem. All throughout the week, people from the community come to the Makerspace and contribute lines and stanzas to the poem. At the end of the week, everything is brought together and organized into one large poem that is published in the weekly newsletter. Our job here is simply to facilitate. To provide a safe space and a smiling face to the individuals bold enough to share their work. For those who simply want to write their own poem, we have a dedicated creative space where they can work privately and pin up their creations on our wall of poems–if they feel comfortable sharing.
Chautauqua offers an incredibly wide range of classes and workshops in the arts. I am a novelist, so the majority of the workshops I am taking are focused on prose. The workshop I took this week was taught by Stacy Hawkins Adams. I had never heard of her before coming to Chautauqua. But she has been a professional author for twenty years, and she has published over a dozen books. The opportunity to take a class taught by someone as experienced as her and to simply be able to speak to her and learn from her is the exact reason I came to Chautauqua. With this week being at an end, my class with Stacy is over. But I am taking workshops every week that I am here, and I can’t put into words how excited I am.
In the time outside my work at the Makerspace and the workshops, there is an endless array of activities to do, so many that it feels impossible to do it all. Every morning and afternoon there are lectures and readings in the Hall of Philosophy.
And every night there are performances in the amphitheater. Just this week I’ve gone to the Ballet, Hansel and Gretel: the Opera, an orchestra performance, and tonight we’ll have a concert by Boys II Men.
On days that I want to lounge and relax, the lake is only a five-minute walk from my dorm. The water is clear, mildly warm and perfect for an afternoon dip. There are pebble boats available to rent, and boat tours that go all around the lake–though I’ve yet to try them. After swimming and enjoying the water, I often sit on the dock drying out while writing or reading. It is a beautiful place to be. I can’t express how lucky I feel to have this opportunity.