Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. What a week it has been! We’ve been incredibly busy at the Chautauqua Institute. To begin the week we had the annual Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) graduation. This historic celebration welcomes new members to the CLSC, Chautauqua’s resident book club. This is one of the oldest book clubs in the United States. It was founded as an institution that supported marginalized groups in pursuing education. Now the group welcomes dozens or even hundreds of people every year with a week of celebration. Outside of simply enjoying the events and soaking in the unique Chautauqua culture, me and the other interns were responsible for staffing the events and helping guide people through the process.
Graduation night
The other project that has taken up much of my time and attention this week has been my work on the Chautauqua anthology. This book has been one of the most challenging and engaging projects I have ever worked on. We received a new folder filled with more submissions to look through. So it has been a lot of reading. But more than that we were each asked to submit our own pieces for consideration. I can’t describe how exciting/nerve wracking this was. This will be my first time ever submitting anything and, if all goes well, my first time being published. As you can imagine, I spent much of the week going through everything I have ever written and then maybe considering starting something from scratch. In the end, I decided to revise a piece I wrote in one of my creative writing classes at Cornell. It will be a while before I find out whether or not it's been accepted. But it has been a fundamental first step in my professional writing career.
On the entertainment side, this week has been packed! There have been two ballets, one by the students at the Chautauqua Dance School and the other by the Houston Ballet Company. There have also been a couple of performances by the orchestra and two plays. My favorite was the one-act plays they did. Three plays, each only one act. Every play told a powerful moving story. Finally, easily the best experience I’ve had since coming to Chautauqua, was the concert on Friday. When my friends mentioned a singer would be performing at our friendly neighborhood amphitheater, I had no idea who he was. “Apparently he’s really famous” one of my friends said “It's something to do” said my other friend.
They told me a name which meant nothing but a quick google search revealed a handsome young man who was only twenty one. The same age as me. My interest was piqued, and I decided to go. The amphitheater was packed, but my friends had managed to get seats pretty close to the floor.
Stephen Sanchez on stage.As the music started, familiar notes drifted into my ears. The song, Evangeline, was like gas to the crowd. The amphitheater burst into cheers, and I was on my feet cheering too. I had never seen Stephan Sanchez before, but I knew his songs. I’m a firm believer in separating the art from the artist. But there’s something about seeing someone live that brings their music to another level. I was a casual listener before, but that night I became a fan.