Wednesday,
July 8 7 p.m. - Lead-in program: musical performance performance
by Andrew McKnight
An Evening with Woody Guthrie, performed by
David Fenimore
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie(1912-1967) was an American singer-songwriter, folk musician, and social critic. Living through some of the most significant events of the twentieth century – the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II, and associated social and political upheavals – he became an advocate for free speech, economic justice, and the right to unionize. He was a prolific writer, whose songs, ballads, prose, poetry, and drawings captured the plight of working people. Many of his widely recorded songs have become classics, including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Roll on Columbia,” the official Washington state folk song. Guthrie’s life and music inspired the Sixties folk revival and a new generation of socially conscious musicians, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and most especially his son, Arlo Guthrie.
David Fenimore is Director of Undergraduate Studies in English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he teaches literature, writing, and the humanities. At the Maryland Humanities Council’s first Chautauqua in 1996, he portrayed Horace Greeley, and he also performs as Zane Grey, John A. Sutter, Donner party survivor Lewis Keseberg, and Woody Guthrie. He has published a memoir Bicycling across America: A Journal on the Open Road and a play based on the life of Zane Grey, A Bad Boy Grown Up. Fenimore has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Thursday,
July 9 7 p.m. - Lead-in program: musical performance by Soul in Motion An Evening with Jackie Robinson, performed by
Gregory Gibson Kenney
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson(1919-1972) Jackie Robinson's 1947 Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended 60 years of baseball segregation, breaking the baseball color line. He was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year and in 1949 received the league’s Most Valuable Player award. After his baseball career, Robinson worked in business and helped to establish the Freedom National Bank in Harlem. He was an activist for social change and served on the board of the NAACP. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
Gregory Gibson Kenney is a professional actor who has performed in theatre, feature films, and television commercials. He has served as a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Education Advisory Board since 2000 and is the winner of the 1998 YWCA Racial Justice Award. In addition to Jackie Robinson, his portrayals include Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Louis Armstrong, and Roberto Clemente. He has presented over 3,500 programs for schools and community organizations throughout the East Coast and the Midwest. Kenney studied at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in association with Point Park College.
Friday,
July 10 7 p.m. - Lead-in program: musical performance by Paula Monks An Evening with Eleanor Roosevelt, performed by
Suzan King
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) Although born to wealth and privilege, Eleanor Roosevelt was deeply committed to service and was involved in a wide range of social issues, including civil rights, women’s and children’s rights, education, world peace, and the alleviation of poverty. She married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and played an integral role in his presidency. After his death, she continued to be an internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist. President Truman called her the “First Lady of the World” for her work as chair of the commission that wrote the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Suzan King taught American literature, creative writing, and freshman composition at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma for 30 years and now devotes herself fulltime to performing Chautauqua characters throughout the country. She has appeared as Abigail Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Angie Debo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Eudora Welty, Dorothy Parker, Margaret Bourke White, and Eleanor Roosevelt. King received her BA in humanities and her MA in English from Oklahoma State University.
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) was an American singer-songwriter, folk musician, and social critic. Living through some of the most significant events of the twentieth century – the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, World War II, and associated social and political upheavals – he became an advocate for free speech, economic justice, and the right to unionize. He was a prolific writer, whose songs, ballads, prose, poetry, and drawings captured the plight of working people. Many of his widely recorded songs have become classics, including “This Land Is Your Land” and “Roll on Columbia,” the official Washington state folk song. Guthrie’s life and music inspired the Sixties folk revival and a new generation of socially conscious musicians, including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and most especially his son, Arlo Guthrie. 
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919-1972) Jackie Robinson's 1947 Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended 60 years of baseball segregation, breaking the baseball color line. He was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year and in 1949 received the league’s Most Valuable Player award. After his baseball career, Robinson worked in business and helped to establish the Freedom National Bank in Harlem. He was an activist for social change and served on the board of the NAACP. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) Although born to wealth and privilege, Eleanor Roosevelt was deeply committed to service and was involved in a wide range of social issues, including civil rights, women’s and children’s rights, education, world peace, and the alleviation of poverty. She married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and played an integral role in his presidency. After his death, she continued to be an internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist. President Truman called her the “First Lady of the World” for her work as chair of the commission that wrote the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.