Dark Winter Nights

ROB: Ready? Well... welcome to the first
ever Alaska statewide storytelling event.

Lets just give ourselves a round of
applause to that.

[applause]

My name is Rob Prince.
I am Chair of the Journalism Department

at UAF, and also host of Dark Winter
Nights: True Stories from Alaska,

which is the Fairbanks storytelling event.
And Dark Winter Nights, just to give you

a little background of what we're doing
up here in Fairbanks.

Dark Winter Nights is a live event, it's
a radio program on KUAC FM,

it's a podcast on iTunes, and we try
to do some weird stuff like this as well.

If you'd like more information about our
storytelling program, you can find it at

DarkWinterNights.com and again, we're on
iTunes too.

And we started Dark Winter Nights
because we were frustrated

with how Alaska is depicted in many

of the popular reality tv programs.
And we thought that it would be cool

if Alaskans could share the real Alaska
with the world, and so that's the goal

of Dark Winter Nights. and I'm excited
to see the state coming together

to share stories with each other now
because I think the rest of the world

needs to know how great the state
really is. That Alaska's cool enough

we don't need to make up stuff about it.

So that's sort of our origin story, if you will,

Our locations this evening are the Kodiak
Public Library,

the Valdez Consortium Library,

the Kenai Community Library, and the
Juneau Public Library.

How are you all doing? just shout

Yay! BETH: You do break, you break up
a little bit, Eric-er- Rob- just so

you know you break up a little bit

when you're talking.
So, I don't know if your microphone's not

very close to you, but ROB: Okay, it is
pretty close. But maybe

I'll try and talk this way.
Is this better?

AUDIENCE: yeah, yes, ROB: okay

all right
Well, I'll try not to animate so much

But I want to look at you at the same
time, so I'm not really sure.

I'll just talk this way
don't take it personally ok?

[laughter]

All right, I want to say I'm happy to be
connected with

the four most beautiful cities in Alaska.
This is pretty awesome for me

It is feels sort of like being
in high school and getting to sit with

all the beautiful cool kids. So,
thanks so much to all of you for that

This is a really neat opportunity

and I really thank you
for trying this out

this is a new kind of weird thing so

I'm excited to see you all
get on board with this.

What I'd like to do now is some quick
introductions

with all of our different locations
I'd like to know

who is going to be hosting
from these different locations and

what, if anything, you-all have going on
in regard to storytelling programs.

So, let's why don't we start off with Juneau,
where I believe

we have Beth and Alida there
How are you-all doing?

BETH: We are doing well. I am Beth
Hello everybody at the other places

and welcome to our audience here
I run the programs here at

at the Juneau Public Library and we do
have a really healthy, wonderful

storytelling community in Juneau and
Alida's going to just come up real quick

and tell us a little bit about
Mudrooms

and Pete Griffin can also tell you
a little bit about Tellebration

so you guys can stand right there on the X
and everyone can see you

ALIDA: where do I look?
BETH: right there's the camera

ALIDA: Hi, everybody, my name is Alida Bus
I'm one of the founding members of

the Mudrooms Story Board. We've been
five seasons with Mudrooms,

doing monthly storytelling events and
it's been very successful.

We have a website - it's mudrooms.org
We hold our events in downtown Juneau

in a church. We usually get about
250 to 300 people coming out

We do the same model that Anchorage and
Kodiak do where it's seven people each

telling a seven minute story
I think they have a similar thing

happening in Haines too now
and so, Thank you

PETE: Hi folks, my name is Pete Griffin.

I am the Alaska liaison for
the National Storytelling Network

We have an annual Tellebration event,
which is sponsored by the

National Storytelling Network.
A number of local Juneau storytellers

get together and we put on an evening
of free stories.

Our latest was at the new
Mendenhall Valley Public Libary,

which was well attended and
very well received. We do that annually.

BETH: and that's Juneau.
so pass it off to the next library.

ROB: All right thank you very much Juneau

Kodiak, I believe we have Katie and Brianna there

KATIE: Yes, welcome everyone. Kodiak is
celebrating its new building

We are two years young and the space is
really a joyous space for our storytellers

We've reached out to the youth in Kodiak
this year

It's a story "build and tell" workshop so
we're slowly increasing

the number of kids who are learning
storytelling regarding their own lives

You can hear their stories on KODK
which is 90.7

Thanks to the
Kodiak Public Library Association

Dog Eared Reads radio program so the
Story Build and Tell segment is an

evolving segment with that show.

In addition, tonight we have about-
just under-twenty people here.

for this wonderful event. And around
Kodiak, similar to Juneau's Mud Room

we have a great fan base for the
Galley Tables and I'm happy to introduce

Brianna Gibbs.
She'll be our host tonight.

Brianna was instrumental in getting
Galley Tables underway

and we have some of those storytellers
with us here this evening. So, Brianna

BRIANA: Hi, as Katie mentioned, I'm Brianna Gibbs

and I was one of the cofounders of
Galley Tables which was actually

inspired by Mud Rooms in Juneau
So thank you ladies!

We have a similar format, seven minutes.
It's a monthly event,

typically on the first Friday and it's
held in our local [inaudible]

And we are currently looking for
new spaces because we have

reached Fire Code capacity
every seasonal event this year

So we are on the lookout for better spaces
so we can better accommodate

the growing audience.

ROB: Excellent so glad to hear about
your success with that.

All right, Valdez? Do you want to
Is Molly available there?

MOLLY: Yeah, I’m right here. So…
my name is Molly Good.

I work here at the library in Valdez.

We’re very excited to see
what this is all about

hopefully it will inspire something
here in our community.

ROB: Great! good and Kenai?
We got Rhianna there

Hi, I am Rhianna from the Kenai library
and I do the programming here.

We do have some storytelling events -
nothing quite as fancy as you all.

We have had Cabin Fever Reliever, where
people come and

tell their stories and their writings.

and of course
We do have a local writers group, as well

ROB: okay
thank you very much for that. So

before we get started tonight, I’d like
to go over some of the guidelines.

First of all, the story should be true.
We certainly allow some poetic license

but let’s have them at least based
in truth; they should be from Alaska;

they should have happened to you, or
someone who is no longer with us -

hopefully that wasn’t by your hand;

We have about a ten minute limit
we are going for right now

If you go over that, the host in your
location is going to cut you off;

because I’m non-confrontational,

I really don't want to be the one who
has to do that

but, if you do go much over that, I
might have to break in;

and if we happen to have more
storytellers than we have time for,

I would encourage you to connect with the
storytelling program in your area

if you can. if you want to reach out
to us at Dark Winter Nights

you can submit stories at
Dark Winter Nights dot com, as well

So, if we don’t get through to you tonight
we still hope to keep track of your story.

and tonight’s event should be recorded
So if you want to share it with others

or re-live it at some point,

we will be posting some information
about that on our Facebook

so you can follow Dark Winter Nights
on Facebook

Before we get started, I want to
throw out some quick special thanks.

First of all, to Ardim Stanov, who is
How close was I on that? Stanov? Shtanoff?

There we go.
This event was entirely his idea and

he came to me
probably more than a year ago and

I just wasn’t in a place to move on it
Finally was able to make the arrangement

This entire thing is his idea and so I
want to thank him very much for that

also Shane Southwick
who we presented the idea to,

the OWL director, who picked up on this
and got the word out

and then here in Fairbanks, I’d like to
thank Melissa Harder and Chris Skidmore

for helping us out with our location here
and to all of you, for coming tonight,

for those of you hosting at your various
locations and to the storytellers.

So, let’s hear some stories.

First off, Juneau. Have you guys
got someone to tell a story there

BETH: We sure do

So, our first storyteller tonight
is well-known community member

Katie Bausler

and I tell you what, she does not
mess around

when she celebrates her birthday.
She pulls the birthday card for things

like getting her children to move rocks
around the back yard in sideways rain

and she brought her friends along
for a long hard hike in the Italian Alps

I can attest to that and was also known
as Katie’s Boot Camp Birthday

But, on a recent birthday weekend,
a few years ago, Katie and I

took a really interesting Alaska road trip.

We flew to Anchorage and then we rented
a sedan we called the Raspberry Roadster

We drove along Turnagain Arm, made it
through the oneway tunnel to Whittier and

we met up with the Alaska Marine Highway
Ferry, Aurora,

and our destination was Valdez.
So we’re coming your way, Valdez

Here’s Katie Bausler!
[applause]

KATIE: Thanks for coming, everybody
here in Juneau and

everybody around the state.

“We’ve been waiting for you” say the
friendly, round women

at the Whittier Ferry Terminal.
Terminal may be a bit of a stretch, since

passengers check in in a building that
looks more like a double wide.

“Waiting for us? but ...we’re not…
late for our ferry "

We shrug it off and pick up our
pre-ordered tickets along with a sign

that we'll affix to the upper right hand
corner of the windshield

It reads capital VLDZ for Valdez
our destination.

and five hours down Prince William Sound.

We have some time to kill
before the ferry departs

and head across the gravel road for a
latte and a cookie

at one of those small shops just opening
their doors for the summer season.

Not much more than a glorified
vendor’s stand the coffee shop looks out

on a harbor full of fishing
and charter boats

It’s early May and my birthday weekend.

My good friend, Beth, and I go big
on birthdays. For her fortieth,

we visited quaint villages
in coastal Italy

This year anniversary of my big 5 0 party
Judy Collins, one of my favorite artists

and still going strong as a touring singer
is performing in the town best known

as the end of the road
for the Trans Alaska pipeline

The next day we’ll revel
in Judy’s gorgeous tones

in the most plush art center in Alaska
courtesy of now long gone oil money

Beth and I set off for our long weekend
road trip in a shiny red sedan

We named her the Raspberry Roadster
as soon as she was spotted

in the rental garage at the Anchorage
airport.

We’re - name any
pop culture lady duo in recent decades -

Thelma and Louise, Lucy and Ethel,

thrilled to be free of work and
responsibility for a few days.

en route to a place we’ve never been.

We amble back to the Raspberry Roadster
parked in front of the terminal.

Usually passengers with a vehicle are
required to line up to board

well before departure time.
But the chain link fence

around the area where vehicles wait
to load onto the ferry is still locked.