Storytime

By Christopher Daniels

Author Barry Lopez states “the only thing holding us together are stories and compassion.” I love stories of all genres and media. I live for terrible made-for-TV movies, binge on gripping Netflix dramas, have a stacks of books on my nightstands (that I vow I am going to read before purchasing more new books), gleefully research the mythologies of various world wisdom traditions, and watch, with wide-eyed wonder, the magic of live theatre.

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Young Chautauquans Mix Scholarship, Acting . . . and Magic

By Frank X. Mullen

If you want to get to know someone well, walk a mile in their shoes, so the saying goes.

The scholars in the Nevada Humanities Great Basin Young Chautauqua program go further than a mere mile: for a time, they inhabit historical characters from the inside out. It’s scholarship as performance. They act— then react— to an audience.

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Growing Up with Young Chautauqua

By Kelbey Hilliard

I was never a kid who was afraid of the spotlight. My whole life, I’ve always been happy to take center stage and put on a show. I was shy meeting new people, and still can be, but always dreamed of performing one day in a huge, bright theatre.

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Dear Miss Harper Lee

By Gavin Markovic

This letter is one of the 2019 “Letters About Literature” winners for the state of Nevada.

The right book can change your life. It happened to me. During seventh grade, I was to read a coming-of-age novel and present on the book and its author to my English class. My mom suggested I read her favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird.

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Preservation of the Pollen Nation

By Nikki Florio

The Great Pollen Nation
The Pollen Nation is a collective of thousands of species of winged and terrestrial insects, birds, bats, and small mammals. These animals have evolved with flowering plants in ecosystems throughout our planet. Without them, we will be left with only wind pollinated plants.

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Bristlecone in Blue

By Jennifer Battisti

Ascending takes effort.

My hamstrings protest; dizzy spells,

a cold sharp ache coiling in my ears,

my mind like an open door— all the flies let in, the bodies below, still

waiting on warm asphalt.

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The Path Home

The Path Home
By Ashley Vargas

I was welcomed to the desert,
By a flower,
Whose petals burned as a sunset.
Like lights guiding me home,
I followed.
No question.
No hesitation.

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A Bad Rap for the American West

By Frank Bergon

The rural West and its small towns get a bum rap. Or no rap at all. That’s what I hear from friends and relatives everywhere from Battle Mountain, Nevada, to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, to Madera, California, all places where I’ve lived.

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Our Daily Bread

By Sean C. Jones

For the past 20 years as a public school art educator, I’ve asked my students to do a “Daily Drawing” at the beginning of class. I write a prompt on the board, usually silly, to help them begin.


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