-Chautauqua has always been considered a safe space to explore controversial subjects.

But in the summer of 2022, that all changed when author Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage.

For years, Rushdie faced threats after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death because his novel, "The Satanic Verses," angered many Muslims, who considered it blasphemy.

-Now to that chaotic scene in Western New York, where author Salman Rushdie was stabbed by a man who stormed the stage just as Rushdie was beginning a lecture.

-I sat there on the stage and while the introduction was being made, I was just looking out at the audience to try to say, "What's it like to be in front of so many people for a talk?"

I mean, Salman Rushdie is used to doing this, and I figured, you know, he's going to carry the weight here.

But, so, I was busy looking out, getting comfortable, because it was certainly, in terms of a sit-down conversation, the biggest audience I'd ever been in front of.

And when Matar came across the stage, at some point I could see him.

And my first reaction, because you couldn't really see any knife or anything like that, was that this is, like, the stupidest prank I've ever seen.

This guy coming up to do something to emulate this kind of threat.

And then it became real.

-So, freeze frame for me is important writers saying things that need to be said.

And then there was the stabbing, which was truly a portion of humanity's desire to silence everything that that stood for.

The next image I would paint for you, which I think says as much about Chautauqua as anything can, is that a good chunk of the audience ran toward danger.

They didn't run away.

They ran onto stage as medics to help.

They tackled the assailant.

They helped us make that space accessible so that critical care could get there.

-Our audience is older, and I was so afraid that there would be a stampede, that another attack would happen.

And we got everyone out.

And immediately, everything turned into finding out how to keep people safe, and not just the security of the grounds, but how to keep people safe through this.

-I arrived back on the grounds that night and clearly saw a community that had been traumatized in a place that really is committed to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of worship, freedom of expression, all of these, and their power to build community, to see that be violently assaulted, that idea be violently assaulted, that, I think, really tore at the fabric of the place and the faith of the place.

-What we experienced at Chautauqua today is unlike anything in our 150-year history.

It was an act of violence, an act of hatred, and a violation of the one thing that we have always cherished most -- the safety and the tranquility of our grounds and our ability to convene any conversation, even if it's difficult.