Culture & Language

“Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land, The Juneau Histories Theater Project,” is a one-of-a-kind theatrical event in which 5 Alaska Native community members share their real stories, illuminating their deep connections with the past, present, and future of Juneau and Southeast Alaska. With music and video projections, they weave their memories with little-known histories revealing massive changes that have marked the heart of Alaska’s Capital City. “Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land” lifts up enduring community and cultural values towards a more inclusive and just future for all Alaskans.

“Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land” is written and directed by Ryan Conarro and Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, in collaboration with the storytellers: Ernestine Hayes, Khinkaduneek Paul Marks, Lillian Petershoare, Marcelo Quinto, and Walter A. Soboleff, Jr.

Produced by Juneau Arts & Humanities Council in association with Ping Chong + Company.

A discussion following “Aan Aan Yátx’u Sáani:The Juneau Histories Theater Project”

“Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land, The Juneau Histories Theater Project,” is a one-of-a-kind theatrical event in which 5 Alaska Native community members share their real stories, illuminating their deep connections with the past, present, and future of Juneau and Southeast Alaska. With music and video projections, they weave their memories with little-known histories revealing massive changes that have marked the heart of Alaska’s Capital City. “Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land” lifts up enduring community and cultural values towards a more inclusive and just future for all Alaskans.

“Aan Yátx’u Sáani: Noble People of the Land” is written and directed by Ryan Conarro and Frank Henry Kaash Katasse, in collaboration with the storytellers: Ernestine Hayes, Khinkaduneek Paul Marks, Lillian Petershoare, Marcelo Quinto, and Walter A. Soboleff, Jr.

Produced by Juneau Arts & Humanities Council in association with Ping Chong + Company.

Join Dr. Katherine Ringsmuth for a presentation and community conversation about the NN Cannery History Project, a collaborative effort to preserve the history of more than a century of cannery lives. The NN Cannery is located on the south side of the Naknek River, one of the five rivers that make up the Bristol Bay salmon fishery.
Dr. Ringsmuth is a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage and the author of five books for the National Park Services, including two on canneries. She also has a personal connection to the NN Cannery. Her dad, Gary Johnson, was the last of the Alaska Packers Association superintendents, and she labored as a cannery worker to pay for college.

[Read more…] about MUG UP: THE NN CANNERY HISTORY PROJECT

For thirty-five years, Alaskan icon painter Deacon Charles Rohrbacher has been a part of an international rediscovery of the icon and rebirth of icon painting in Russia and in the West. Rohbacher’s exhibit, Windows into Heaven: Contemporary Icons, offers a place where refuge, solace, and peace can be found in imagery. Deacon Charles Rohrbacher is one of eight artists selected for the Alaska State Museum 2017-2019 Solo Artist Exhibition Series.

Visiting maritime historian Philippe Fichet-Delavault presents interesting material on Lituya Bay, including the contact between La Perouse, the French explorer, and the Tlingits in 1786 through the megatsunami of July 9, 1958.

In this NEA Big Read keynote event, playwright Vera Starbard, poet Joan Naviyuk Kane, and novelist Don Rearden discuss the power of art in a colonized, indigenous Alaska. Through an examination of their own work and the Big Read selection, Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, the panel will discuss the notion that “survival is insufficient” in the wake of widespread cultural and social upheaval.

This live, onstage conversation preceded a Q and A session and book signing.