FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitkans to Come Together, Share Their Stories
By ABIGAIL BLISS
Sentinel Staff Writer
The most successful stories uncover something new and unexpected in even the most familiar places, says Ellen Frankenstein, executive director of Artchange.
The Sitka group’s upcoming live storytelling event will put that theory to the test, as five speakers whose faces are familiar around town take the stage to tell personal stories for a hometown audience.
Lakota Harden tells a six-minute story during a “Sitka Tells Tales” event at the Larkspur Cafe in 2017. (Sentinel file Photo)
The event is the latest installment of Artchange’s “Sitka Tells Tales” series, and will be presented Sunday, Feb. 25, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. downstairs at the Mean Queen. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and there is a suggested donation of $5.
At a “Sitka Tells Tales,” a speaker spins a six-minute yarn about a true personal experience in line with the core theme of the evening.
This time around, the theme will be “Faux Pas – false steps and desires for a do-over.” After the featured speakers have told their stories, audience members chosen by pulling names from a hat will have their chance to tell a two-minute story on the same theme.
Frankenstein said that this recounting of personal stories in a public setting, of expressing vulnerability and relating personal convictions in front of fellow Sitkans, strengthens the community as a whole.
“When we listen to others’ stories, it kind of changes us,” she said. “When we walk past each other, we often don’t know each other.”
She pointed to an “amazing story of love and loss” told by Rebecca Himschoot at a previous Sitka Tells Tales event as an example of a story that reveals the background of someone met in passing, offering insight into their character and inspiring the audience to view the storyteller from a new perspective.
“When Rebecca told her story, I had known her, but not known her, for years,” Frankenstein said. “I saw her in a new light and appreciate her all the more.”
It is this commitment to the power of communal storytelling that led Frankenstein to take over an organizing role from Elise Pepple, who started the series under the name “Sitka Speakeasy” in 2012, and has since moved away.
Frankenstein partners with local non-profits to produce themed shows, putting on two to three storytelling events a year, inspired by everything from David Bowie’s legacy to the Sitka Seafood Festival each year.
On Feb. 25, the five performers will sift through their recollections of personal mistakes and misadventures, and select one savory anecdote to hone, tweak, and share.
One of the speakers, Hillary Seeland, said she was inspired to step on stage after seeing a long-time acquaintance perform at a previous “Sitka Tells Tales” event.
“I didn’t know that she had had such an adventurous life,” Seeland said. “It was really inspiring, and it made me want to learn from her. As for the young folk (who performed), it made me want to help them connect to our community, too.”
Seeland has not yet selected her story, but plans to kick around a few ideas at a team workshop Frankenstein will host for all five storytellers on Monday, and take advantage of her peers’ perspective on each option to gauge possible audience reactions.
“I coach them, but sometimes sit back and let them coach each other,” Frankenstein said, explaining her hands-off approach to the workshop. “It creates new bonds in town, which is really one of the points of this.”
Local author Brendan Jones will be one of Seeland’s fellow storytellers, and is similarly still parsing his options.
“So many times, I’ve committed some sort of faux pas, so I’m trying to think of the best one,” he said.
Jones said he took part in story slam events in Philadelphia about a decade ago, and finds the Sitka Tells Tales environment to be more “welcoming” in comparison to the competitive event of slams, where judges in the audience give each performer a score.
Still, the story slams helped him develop an appreciation for the tenets of a compelling narrative: “Definitely, voice is really big. Unique voice. Tone is a big one,” he said. “Creating the mood with your story. Humor. Having some sort of narrative arc. Some sort of twist is always fun. Mostly, I think, knowing when to step on the gas pedal and when to let off.”
For performers new to the game, Frankenstein offers a list of tips for crafting and performing a successful story: no to notes on stage, yes to vulnerability, she advises.
“I like stories that are humble, that we can all relate to,” she said.
In addition to organizing local live storytelling events, Frankenstein is a filmmaker by trade.
Some of the tips available to Sitka Tells Tales performers are similar to the guidelines Frankenstein employs for another Artchange project: a series of Sitka-centric video micro-documentaries called “14 Miles: Dispatches from an Island in Alaska.” Just as Sitka Tells Tales participants aim to give their audience a sense of their stories’ settings fleshed out with specifics and characters, so, too, Frankenstein’s “14 Miles” strikes at the personality of a place – namely, Sitka.
“It’s really exploring the challenges of living here, as well as the things that bring us together,” Frankenstein said.
Her team has filmed nine episodes so far, each ending with a thought-provoking question. The next one, “Karla’s Story,” is scheduled for release this weekend.
In previous episodes, Frankenstein has taken viewers on a drive down the 14 miles of road in Sitka, behind the scenes of Sitka School of Dance’s yearly Nutcracker production, and on a trip to the Fortress of the Bears.
Seeland said that one episode in particular caught her attention and compelled her to rewatch it several times: “Episode 2: Giving Back,” which focuses on meal preparation at Sitka’s Salvation Army Corps.
“I think I watched that episode seven or eight times,” she said. “I don’t see that community on a regular basis, and it was really inspiring to watch the joy and the passion and the dedication that is happening all the time that I don’t see.”
Frankenstein said that when she first started filming episodes, she wasn’t sure what audience would be for stories about Sitka. But she has found that the series appeals to people who live here, people who have moved away, people who fantasize about moving to Southeast, and the farflung friends and families of Sitka people. “Our journey begins,” Frankenstein’s first cinematic foray into a life in a island town of 9,000, has received some 33,000 views on the Artchange website, Artchangeinc.org.
Though Frankstenstein started “14 Miles” to inform her viewers about Sitka, she’s found herself learning about her hometown in the process, too.
“I had a couple years where all of my work and my attention was not focused in Sitka,” she said. “This has kind of grounded me in the town in a different way. We’re in a time where there’s a lot of talk about polarization and what divides us, and I’ve started to see a lot of themes running through people’s lives,” she said.
Seeland seconded Frankenstein’s sentiment, insisting that the voicing of personal narratives in both Artchange projects allows Sitkans to tease out similarities in their stories.
“It brings us together around our humanity,” she said. “If a group of people can’t be tied to a plight, or a goal, or an existence, then we’re not a community. We need to ensure that everyone has a voice in the collective good.”
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....