Scott Burton, KTOO

2013 Grand Slam champion Ziggy gave a charged performance to a packed Juneau Arts and Culture Center. Give it a listen:

But tonight, Ziggy will not compete. Instead, he will be the “sacrificial poet” who is used to help the judges normalize their scoring. Ziggy and his fellow poets have been performing at monthly open mics and poetry slams throughout the year and winners from those events compete in this evening’s grand slam. Christy NaMee Eriksen helped create the arts nonprofit in 2010.

“We wanted to start Woosh Kinaadeiyí, and we didn’t have a name for it at the time, it was just Juneau Poetry Slam, just to create a safe space that was open to teach people about what spoken word is, and how it could be good for them as individuals and good for us as a community,” Eriksen says.

Among tonight’s performers is Nathan Block. He says his poetry “always starts off with some egotistical idea and then shows how we need to break those down in order to rise to the occasion of solidarity.”

After pieces by several opening performers, Block will compete against four fellow poets: David Parish, M.D. Christensen, Max Suzuki and Bill Merk. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. There will be food, music, drinks and a cake to celebrate Woosh K’s fourth birthday.

It’s First Friday in Juneau and galleries and businesses around the city will stay open late to showcase new art. Annie Kaill’s will feature emerging artists. Owner Colleen Goldrich says she wanted to do something a little different.

“You know, I like to change things up and just showing some new people. There’s all this young energy in town and I just wanted to provide a place to do a great show.”

Among the four artists in the show, three of them will be showing for the first time. Catherine Walsh is a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School who works with a variety of mediums. She enjoys creating contrast in her work and says that her piece, “Fire Guy,” exemplifies her attention to the details.

“And the thing that I really liked on it was the flames. It was not like getting the actual white of the fire, it was getting the grays, the slight grays in it to actually make it look—rather than make it look like a white scratched out blob–that it actually had the texture to it.”

Mandi Johnson uses puff paint, scrapbook paper and scrap-booking scissors to make Alaska themed landscapes and wildlife pictures.

“I was back from college years ago and I was bored so I decided to go to Joanne’s and get some scrapbook paper. Sherry MacDonald is someone I really like her art and look up to. So I kind of took an idea from that, but then used my own spin with scrapbook paper and edges with scissors and things like that.”

The other two artists showing at Annie Kaill’s are Elizabeth Jurgeliet and Kaila Buerger.

Close to 500 community members gathered between Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall and Gajaa Hit on Monday to celebrate the raising of a new Eagle and Raven totem poles.

Brothers Joe and T.J. Young began carving the 40 foot, red cedar poles last September to replace the two poles originally carved in 1977. Between their apprentices and others, T.J. Young says it was a collaboration.

“We got to talk to Nathan Jackson who is a Tlingit artist down in Ketchikan. He came in and visited us for a while and gave us some pointers, and a handful of other artists came by and wished us good luck,” T.J. Young says.

“All the artists, we all know each other—it’s like a community of artists and we all feed off of each others’ energy. It’s always good to see them, pick each others’ brains and have a fun time creating.”

Joe Young says the most fulfilling part of the project had to do with the all the people at Monday’s pole raising.

“Probably that all the people came out and all the young kids get to see this. We didn’t get to see too much when we grew up. Hopefully they realize they’re seeing something that’s not done every day and hopefully they learn to appreciate it.”

With help from a boom truck, a lift, and several helpers, both poles were successfully raised.

The Canvas is decorating its building downtown with a new community art mural made of handmade clay tiles. The final mural will be 8-feet by 12-feet, and consist of hundreds of 6-inch square tiles. After months of planning, 135 people gathered at Sandy Beach throughout the afternoon on Saturday and began decorating and firing the tiles.

Among hotdogs, music and s’mores, participants worked to give their tile its own personal touch.

The mural is planned to go up in the spring.

The Canvas’s Brandon Howard and Kathryn Kell were on A Juneau Afternoon on Thursday with host Shona Strauser and spoke about the Tiles and Fire community art project.

Interview highlight

“You put whatever you want on the tile and you don’t really have complete control of what comes out. What comes out is heavily influenced by what Kathryn does and what I do, and by what the fire does. What comes out is a real collaborative unit.” –Brandon Howard

Friday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon, Pat Moore hosts.

Dr. Richard Nelson and Hank Lentfer will be on the show to talk about their Evening at Egan lecture titled “Voices of Glacier Bay: Listening through the Art of Recording”;

James Wycoff will be here to tell us about the Community Garage Sale at Centennial Hall on Saturday,

Members of the Brew Crew, Wayne Stevens and John Blasco, will be on the show to tell us about the 3^rd annual Capital Brewfest on Saturday,

And Tom Paul and Greg McLaughlin will be here to tell us about Saturday’s Barn Dance.

That, Writer’s Almanac, Bird Note, music and more, Friday at 3 on A Juneau Afternoon.