On August 14, 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a speech that has gone down in history: “I saw the war. I’ve seen war on land and sea, he said. I hate war. » 32e President (1933-1945) had chosen for his intervention a place “eminently appropriate” for “discuss the subject of peace” : the Chautauqua institution. Period images show him in the amphitheater of the cultural center. The stands are filled with spectators.
On August 12, Hadi Matar, 24, chose this same amphitheater to stab the writer Salman Rushdie, an emblem of freedom of expression. Was he aware of the institution’s tradition of tolerance? Of its weight in American intellectual history? The investigation may tell. The attacker, however, traveled 400 miles from his home in Fairfield, New Jersey, to reach this village on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, New York ; a lake which takes its name, it is said, from its shape of “moccasins tied together”in the Iroquois language.
In American collective memory, Chautauqua is a hotbed of shared family values and ecumenical tradition. Founded in 1874 by two Methodists, John Vincent and Lewis Miller, the center opened up to other Protestant denominations. Over the decades, it has become less religious and more cultural, but still based on the “four pillars” of a healthy existence: education, arts, religion and recreation. Other Chautauqua centers have opened in several states, but it is especially that of New York which has remained the beacon of the movement. “A magical place”, whose objectives “transcend the boundaries of race, creed, gender and political opinion”, write Deborah and James Fallows, two authors familiar with the area.
Bucolic atmosphere
For nine weeks each summer, Chautauqua functions as a festival of open-air discussions, concerts, pottery classes, sailing lessons, in a bucolic atmosphere. Since the 19the century, hundreds of personalities have intervened there, from Mark Twain to Bill Clinton. Theodore Roosevelt is said to have claimed that Chautauqua was “the most American thing in America”. Today, the institution welcomes more than 140,000 participants each summer.
Friday the 12th, like every day, began with an interspiritual meditation, followed by an Episcopal Eucharist and a Roman Catholic Mass (Muslim prayer was scheduled for 12:30 p.m.). The theme of the week – the seventh – was “Beyond Shelter”. The conversation with Salman Rushie was announced from 10:45 a.m. to noon in the amphitheater. Subject: the asylum provided by the United States to writers in exile. On stage to interview the writer, Henry Reese, philanthropist and co-founder of the City of Asylum association in Pittsburgh, the largest residency program in the world for writers persecuted in their country.
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