Nebraska Humanities Council Website Nebraska Chautauqua Home Page Nebraska Chautauqua History and Archives Kansas-Nebraska Chautauqua Archive "Beauty in Hard Times: Depression Era Quilts in Nebraska" (Website) Chautauqua Schedule, June 22-26, Aurora (PDF) 20-page tabloid of Aurora Chautauqua (PDF) "All The Kings Men" book discussion, 2 p.m. May 21, Alice Farr Library Recommended books (PDF) Youth Program: "Dear Eleanor, Dear Michelle" First Lady Michelle Obama and Bo The letter above is from First Lady Michelle Obama to 2011 Chautauqua youth who wrote to her as part of the "Dear Eleanor, Dear Michelle" program. She writes:   "Dear Students:   Thank you for writing me in the White House! Your letters are so wonderful, and I appreciate the effort each one of you put into your note.   Every American, no matter what age, has a special role to play in the future of our country. That is why it is so important that all of you focus on your education and stay active in your community. You have exciting lives ahead of you, and if you keep studying hard I know you will have the tools you need to achieve your dreams.   Again, thank you for writing. Keep up the good work!   Sincerely,   Michelle Obama"

Chautauqua 2011   Hamilton County courthouse in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Hamilton County Historical Society. Hamilton County courthouse today. Photo courtesy of Cecil Smalley.   Everyday life in Hamilton County is documented in the program"Iconic Images: Then and Now"   "Iconic Images: Then and Now” is a program of the “Bright Dreams, Hard Times:  America in the Thirties” Chautauqua, visiting Aurora June 22-26. Inspired by the images of the Great Depression that captured everyday life in the Dust Bowl Era, it also allows modern-day photographers to capture iconic images of the everyday lives in their own community.   Participating photographers develop an understanding of iconic images by examining the work of Dorothea Lange, Bill Ganzel, and local photographs from the 1930s. They then seek to identify and document iconic images that represent their community.   As witnesses to a modern-day economic crisis and as the generation that will continue the development of the culture and society we live in, participants have the opportunity to share their expressions and impressions of current life, as they would want it to be remembered in the future.   To see historical images of Aurora and Hamilton County click here.   To see modern-day images of Aurora and Hamilton County click here.   Each summer this event brings historical figures to life and provides a week of educational entertainment for children and adults under the Chautauqua tent. For more information, call (402) 474-2131 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org.   Aurora plans special events for 2011 Chautauqua   Gov. Dave Heineman has declared June 22-26 “Chautauqua Days,” in recognition of the Nebraska Chautauqua “Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties,” which will be hosted by the community of Aurora.   Aurora organizers have planned a five-day schedule of events surrounding the visit of the 2011 Nebraska Chautauqua. Among the opening-day events is a 6 p.m. social at the Plainsman Museum to meet the Chautauquans. Among other highlights are an exhibit of Dust Bowl photographs at the Plainsman Museum and an exhibit of Depression-era quilts.   Main events will be held each evening June 23-26 under the Chautauqua tent at 12th and L streets, just southwest of the square. Evening stage presentations begin at 7 p.m. and offer local entertainment and first-person interpretations of historical figures from the era of the Great Depression. Daytime workshops will be held for adults at the Alice M. Farr Memorial Library and workshops for youth of all ages will be held at The Scrapbook Page. All Chautauqua events are free and open to the public and are being held in conjunction with the annual A’ROR’N Days celebration.   Scholars will portray five historical characters who helped shape America’s response to the Great Depression. The scholars are Doug Watson as humorist Will Rogers, Patrick McGinnis as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fred Krebs as Louisiana governor and U.S. Sen. Huey Long, Tonia M. Compton as evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and Carmaletta Williams as WPA folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.   A program of the Nebraska Humanities Council, the “Bright Dreams, Hard Times” Chautauqua has visited the cities of Hastings, Falls City, Broken Bow, Plattsmouth, Columbus, and North Platte during the summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010. The “Bright Dreams, Hard Times” Chautauqua is funded in part by support from the We The People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, the State of Nebraska, and the Hamilton Community Foundation.   For additional information on this summer’s Chautauqua, go to the Nebraska Chautauqua website, www.nebraskachautauqua.org, or contact Kristi Hayek at (402) 474-2131 ext. 108 or kristi@nebraskahumanities.org.   top   Aurora to host 2011 Nebraska Chautauqua   The Nebraska Humanities Council will present the 2011 Nebraska Chautauqua in downtown Aurora June 22-26, in conjunction with the city’s annual A’ROR’N Days celebration.   In an encore presentation, the theme is "Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties," with scholars portraying historical characters who helped shape America’s response to the Great Depression, a time of economic collapse, the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl, and signs of worldwide political unrest.   "There is still a great deal of interest in exploring themes from the 1930s, considering the economic stresses that many are still facing, and that an encore of this well-received Chautauqua was in order," said Kristi Hayek, NHC program officer. "The community of Aurora and the partnership with A’ROR’N Days provides the Nebraska Humanities Council a great opportunity, and we look forward to bringing Chautauqua to Aurora for the first time."   Initially planned as a three-year series, the "Bright Dreams, Hard Times" Chautauqua has visited Hastings, Falls City, Broken Bow, Plattsmouth, Columbus, and North Platte during the summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010.     Fred Krebs to discuss the novel "All the King's Men"   Fred Krebs will lead a public book discussion of "All the King's Men," a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, published in 1946.   "All the King's Men" is a loosely fictionalized account of Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana, one of the nation's most complex and controversial politicians. Krebs is portraying Long in the "Bright Dreams, Hard Times" Chautauqua.   The novel portrays the dramatic political ascent and governorship of Willie Stark, a driven, cynical populist in the American South during the 1930s. It is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter who comes to work as Governor Stark's right-hand man.   The discussion begins at 2 p.m. May 21 at Alice Farr Library in Aurora.   top   Rodgers to discuss "The Plow That Broke the Plains"   Warren Rodgers, an independent scholar from Grand Island, will lead a public discussion following a 7 p.m. screening of the film "The Plow That Broke the Plains," April 14 at the 12th Street Cinema in Aurora. The 25-minute documentary, released in 1936, shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when over-tilling and uncontrolled erosion led to the Dust Bowl.   Sponsored by the United States Resettlement Administration to raise awareness about the New Deal, the film was written and directed by Pare Lorentz, who was later criticized for appearing to blame settlers for the ecological disaster, but the film nonetheless succeeded in raising awareness of problems caused by misuse of the land. In 1999, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."   As a speaker in the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau, Rodgers presents programs on "Fencing, the Windmill and the Steel Plow" and "The Horse: Dominant Footprints Through History." A native of southeastern Nebraska. He attended Falls City High School and Hastings College, and did graduate work at the American Institute for Foreign Trade, in Glendale, Ariz., the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. From 1958 to 1974, he taught U.S. and Nebraska history at schools in Ogallala and Grand Island. In 1975, he began working at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island in all areas of museum work, including research, interpretation, education, preservation, collections and outdoor exhibits. In 2002, he retired as assistant director of the Stuhr Museum.   top   UNO professor to lead discussion on "Mules and Men"   University of Nebraska at Omaha professor Peggy Jones will lead a discussion on "Mules and Men," a novel by Zora Neale Hurston, 2 p.m. March 22 at the Alice Farr Library in Aurora. Books are available at the library.   Peggy Jones is an assistant professor in the Black Studies Department at UNO. She is also a faculty member of the women and gender studies program and graduate studies. She received an individual artist fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council for her play, “The Journey,” about Aaron Douglas.   top

For more information, contact the Nebraska Humanities Council. Phone 402-474-2131 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org.

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