In the ’50s, jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald was on the top of her game, performing everything from bebop with Dizzy Gillespie to opera with The Mikado. Singer Patti Austin said that this spectrum-spanning of American song made “The Queen of Jazz” a star of pop.
On Thursday, 15 or so Chautauquans sat on Hale and Judy Oliver’s porch to chat about adoption over red-peppered quiche and coffee.
A school-wide Teddy Bear Picnic helped wrap up the last week of Children’s School as Chautauqua’s season comes to a quiet close. Although the morning rain and overcast skies made for the first indoor “campfire” in years, the kids still celebrated with as much sunny enthusiasm.
A philosopher once visited the Buddha and asked: “Without words, without the wordless, can you tell me the truth?”
For Gwen Papania, the director of Youth Services, Chautauqua has always been her “happy place.”
Eighth Century. Córdoba, Spain: At the time, the country was under Islamic rule, and cities like Córdoba absorbed the language, beliefs and religion of the Islamic people. Córdoba, now a World Heritage Site, was unique in the sense that there was unification between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam — a notion of “shared worship” that, as evidenced in contemporary media, has increasingly diminished.
John Denton looks down at 5-year old Caroline, who has just managed to pull off a second-long handstand near the playground. It’s his last day at Children’s School.
Last Wednesday at Children’s School, “shapes” were made in the form of alligators and oceans, and with an artist’s paintbrush instead of a poet’s pen.
It’s a Wednesday, and librarian Lynn Moschel is reading to Group 1 at Children’s School. She holds up a book called Bats at the Library, rotating it around for the 6-year-olds in the front row on their knees, some pointing at the illustrations, all matching her cheer.
Jay Lesenger, the general/artistic director of the Chautauqua Opera Company, has always said that if kids are to get interested in opera, then “there has to be somebody bringing it to them” on a weekly basis.
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