Chautauqua at Cafe Muse

The next Cafe Muse program Monday September 20 from 7 - 9 pm 
will feature two chautauqua readers Dave and Janet Northrup.


Cafe Muse
Friendship Heights Village Center
4433 South Park Avenue
Chevy Chase, MD 20815


Chautauqua -- What is it?


Chautauqua continues to be an adult education movement that offers programs on current topics of interest and cultural activities.

Janet Northrup is active with the Chautauqua Women's Club  of Chautauqua, New York. For three years, Ms. Northrup researched the history of chautauqua activities and developed a book based on her research. This is a part of American history few of us in the DC area have had the opportunity to learn about.


Not long ago an advertising jingle reminded women, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”  In many ways that ad campaign idea exemplifies the changes at the Chautauqua Women’s Club over the past 120 years.  When the first Chautauqua lectures were delivered in 1874, women were still forty-five years away from being allowed to vote. The Civil War had ended only nine years earlier and many families still mourned loved ones killed or wounded in battles.  At that time the women’s programs and lectures at Chautauqua typically included topics such as: missionary work, hygiene, managing the home, rearing children, working with servants, and cooking.    --- Janet Myers Northrup, excerpt Founding Women


The Word Works invites you to come hear the Northrups talk about their experience with the chautauqua movement.


Mike Davis will open at 7 pm with live classical guitar music and the chautauqua reading will be followed with a short open mic for poetry. Free to the public.