Turtle Island

Chautauqua Institution is proud to announce the program lineup for Week Two of its 2017 season. The week, which begins today and concludes Saturday, features presentations by renowned guests such as paleontologist Lee R. Berger, photojournalist Brian Skerry, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa James A. Joseph, explorer Shah Selbe and writer Kristin Romey.

Chautauqua Institution’s nine-week summer season features morning and afternoon lectures focusing on weekly cultural themes. The morning lecture series will take place at 10:45 a.m. Monday through Friday in the Amphitheater. Held in partnership with National Geographic, the Week Two theme, “The Human Journey: Origins, Exploration and Preservation,” focuses on ecological issues — on how mankind has interacted with and changed the environment through the ages and what the future could hold for that relationship.

The Interfaith Lecture Series, at 2 p.m. weekdays in the Hall of Philosophy, opens with the theme “Celebrating the Genius and Soul of a Nation.” Encompassing America’s birthday, this week’s theme invites introspection about both the faults and successes of the nation’s democracy.

The Rev. J. Peter Holmes will serve as the ecumenical guest chaplain for the week. The minister of the congregation at Toronto’s Yorkminster Park Baptist Church since 2001, Holmes has served as a guest preacher in many churches, including Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and Canonmills Church in Edinburgh.

Monday

Morning: Lee R. Berger is an award-winning researcher, explorer, author and palaeoanthropologist. His explorations into human origins on the African continent, Asia and Micronesia for the past two and a half decades have resulted in many new discoveries, including the most complete early hominin fossils ever discovered that belong to a new species of early human ancestor: Australopithecus sediba. Berger is the founder of the Lee R. Berger Foundation for Exploration, a founder of the Palaeoanthropological Scientific Trust and a founding trustee of the Jane Goodall Society of South Africa.

Afternoon: Khalid J. Qazi, MD, MACP, is MPAC-WNY’s (Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York) founding president and senior advisor, as well as the inaugural president of Buffalo’s Catholic Health System Medical Staff. He also serves as professor of clinical medicine at the University of Buffalo Medical School.

Tuesday

Morning: Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments, covering such environments for National Geographic since 1998. In 2014 he was named a National Geographic Photography Fellow. For National Geographic, he has covered a wide range of stories, from the harp seal’s struggle to survive in frozen waters to the alarming decrease in the world’s fisheries. Over the last 30 years, he has spent more than 10,000 hours underwater.

Afternoon: Ambassador James A. Joseph is professor emeritus of the practice of public policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is also leader in residence for the Hart Leadership Program and founder of the United States – Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke and the University of Cape Town. He has served in senior executive or advisory positions for four U.S. presidents, including appointments by President Jimmy Carter as Under Secretary of the Interior and President Bill Clinton as U.S. ambassador to South Africa.

Wednesday

Morning: Asha de Vos is a Sri Lankan marine biologist who oversees the Sri Lankan Blue Whale Project, the first long-term study on blue whales within the northern Indian Ocean. For her work, she was named a 2016 National Geographic Emerging Explorer. An invited member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Cetacean Specialist Group, de Vos is a TED Senior Fellow, a Duke University Global Fellow in Marine Conservation and was recently selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Thandiwe Mweetwa is a senior ecologist at the Zambia Carnivore Programme where she is also manager of the organization’s conservation education program. In 2016, she was also named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Mweetwa’s research focuses on studying lion population dynamics in one of Africa’s last remaining strongholds for the species. At the Zambia Carnivore Programme, Mweetwa coordinates outreach programs with local schools and leads students in designing and conducting field-based science research projects. With support from National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative, she has also started a training program for Zambian young women wishing to pursue careers in wildlife conservation.

Afternoon: Rabbi Arthur Waskow founded and directs The Shalom Center. In 2014 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award as a Human Rights Hero from T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and in 2015 the Forward named him one of the “most inspiring” rabbis. His most recent books out of the 22 that he has written are “Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus & Wilderness across Millennia,” co-authored with Rabbi Phyllis Berman, and “Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex & the Rest of Life.”

Thursday

Morning: Shah Selbe, an explorer at the National Geographic Society, is an engineer and conservation technologist who works with communities, NGOs and developing countries to identify and deploy technologies that can help with their greatest conservation challenges. He founded Conservify, which uses open source technology to empower local communities to bring innovative tools into how we change our planet’s’ future. He is principal investigator for SoarOcean, a grant project funded by National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions to use low-cost conservation drones for coastal monitoring.

Afternoon: Barbara Williams-Skinner has made an indelible imprint in American public policy, government, diversity, and community relations. She began her career serving as a senior congressional staff member, and became the first female executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. She continues to serve as advisor to CBC members and to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

S. Douglas Birdsall is a Presbyterian minister who has spent most of his 37-year career in the global mission of the church. In 2004 Doug was appointed Executive Chairman of the Lausanne Movement. He led the revitalization of the movement culminating in the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held in Cape Town in 2010. After completing his service with the Lausanne Movement, he was appointed to serve as the 27th President of American Bible Society.

Friday

Morning: Kristin Romey covers archaeology and paleontology for National Geographic magazine and National Geographic News, and is the former executive editor of Archaeology magazine. Before joining the National Geographic editorial staff, she served as the field operations director for National Geographic Society’s multi-year archaeological expedition at Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan — an area described as the Atlantis of the Central Asian Silk Road. A fellow of the Explorers Club, Romey was one of the first Westerners to survey and excavate in the former Soviet regions of the Black Sea.

Afternoon: E.J. Dionne Jr. is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University, where he teaches in the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Government Department.

Dionne analyzes politics weekly on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and is a regular analyst for MSNBC and ABC News’ “This Week.” He is the author of six books and has edited or co-edited seven other volumes. In 2017 Bloomsbury published “We Are the Change We Seek,” a collection of President Obama’s speeches that Dionne edited with Joy-Ann Reid of MSNBC.

Additional Lectures

¯ 3:30 p.m. Thursday, July 6, Hall of Philosophy: Ed Yong is an award-winning science writer who reports for The Atlantic and whose blog, “Not Exactly Rocket Science” is published as part of the National Geographic blog network. His writing has appeared in Nature, Scientific American, Slate, The Guardian, The New Yorker and The New York Times. For his work, Yong has received the National Academies Communication Award from the National Academy of Sciences; the National Union of Journalist’s Stephen White Award; and the Best Science Blog from the Association of British Science Writers for “Not Exactly Rocket Science.” Yong visits Chautauqua this week to discuss his book “I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life” as the CLSC author.

Amphitheater Entertainment

Aside from the daily lectures, Week Two features a variety of evening entertainment programs at the Amphitheater.

At 2:30 p.m., today, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Chautauqua Theater Company will host a special arts matinee and an Amphitheater celebration. CSO will perform Beethoven’s overture to “The Consecration of the House” and his “Ode to Joy,” Stravinsky’s prelude to “The Rake’s Progress” and Monteverdi’s prelude from “L’Orfeo.”

The Music School Festival Orchestra performs at 8:15 p.m., Monday in the Amphitheater. The program for the evening features Haydn’s Symphony No. 97, Bruce Stark’s “Symphonic Dances” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.” As part of a series of Community Appreciation Nights, tickets are $20.

The “Independence Day Pops Celebration” takes place at 8:00 p.m., Tuesday. Stuart Chafetz serves as conductor and Capathia Jenkins as solo vocalist. Tickets are $43.

The Charlotte Ballet performs a Dance Salon at 8:15 p.m., Thursday.

Featuring songs from their February 2016 album, “Side Pony,” Lake Street Dive performs at 8:15 p.m., Friday. Seamlessly incorporating R&B, pop, ’60s-era rock, and soul into a unique, dance party ready mix, Lake Street Dive promises an evening of exhilarating feel from start to finish. Tickets are $43-73.

Ottorino Respighi’s realization of Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” makes its first U.S. stage appearance at 8:15 p.m., Saturday. Experience the premiere as the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra fills the grounds (from a brand new orchestra pit) with this luscious and romantic score and as the Chautauqua Opera Company stages its first production in the new Amphitheater. Tickets are $43.

Alternative Entertainment Options

Chautauqua Theater Company stages Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” throughout the week in Bratton Theater. The piece is a roller-coaster, side-splittingly funny look at theatre – both onstage and off – as a hapless troupe of actors attempt to mount a dreadful, ill-fated farce of a play. Tickets are $35.

The Grammy Award-winning string quartet Turtle Island performs at 4 p.m., Monday in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall and at 5 and 7 p.m., Tuesday in Smith Wilkes Hall. Celebrating Independence Day, the group will provide a program that combines music and family. The performances on Tuesday are a free family event. (Pick up your free passes at the Main Gate Welcome Center.)

Gate Pass Information

Day tickets are available for purchase at the Main Gate Welcome Center Ticket Office on the day of your visit. Morning tickets grant visitors access to the grounds from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for $24. Afternoon tickets grant access from noon-8 p.m. for $17. Combined morning/afternoon passes allow access from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and cost $41. Evening passes grant access from 4 p.m. to midnight with the cost varying based on the evening entertainment. For tickets and information, visit chqtickets.com or call 357-6250.

About Chautauqua Institution

Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer 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 civil dialogue.