At Alaska Native storytelling event, students let their spirits speak

Jack Dalton, Ishmael Hope make guest appearances

April 9, 2015

UAA’s popular annual Alaska Native storytelling competition returns 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 11 in UAA’s Fine Arts Building.

The campus’ Alaska Native Oratory Society invites college and high school competitors from the Anchorage School District, Kenai Peninsula College, Alaska Christian College and Lower Yukon Kuskokwim School District.

The event’s theme is Let Your Spirit Speak: Finding Our Voices. Categories include Native language story, spoken word (poetry or rap), new media (apps), and real stories.

Yup'ik performance artist Jack Dalton serves as master of ceremonies, and Tlingit/Iñupiaq artist Ishmael Angaluuk Hope is the event’s keynote speaker. Hope helped create the indigenous language video game “Never Alone” (Kisima Innitchuna).

Free. Learn more at uaa.alaska.edu/native.

Sponsored by the Alaska Native Studies Program, UAA's Diversity Action Council, and Kenai Peninsula College.

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