As I write this, we’re a week out from Tanya Tagaq and on the cusp of a whole new adventure for FCA.
It’s been more than two years since I first saw Tanya showcase at the Western Arts Alliance conference. Fifteen minutes at midnight. I watched, along with my colleague Katie Oliver from the Kodiak Arts Council, when we left, we simply looked at each other and asked “How do we not do this?”
For two years, those fifteen minutes drove us to make this performance happen. What compelled us to bring an Inuit throat singer from Nunavut Island to Alaska, to FCA, and to you? My only answer lies in the power of her performance.
Tanya is the first truly avant garde performer we’ve ever presented. Also the first artist from the Arctic. Hence the new adventure.
We met her after her performance. A sweet, gentle woman, a young mother, a fellow resident of the arctic who’s soft demeanor belied her fierce performance. Like us, she cares about where she lives, and how. She cares about tradition, about art and about message.
People are coming from all over the state to see Tanya’s performance. I’ve already heard Juneau, Anchorage and Barrow. Her performance will have an impact unlike any artist we’ve presented.
Between now and next Thursday we’ll offer some events to further enhance that impact. We hope you’ll join us!
4:00 PM Sunday, November 6th, the Morris Thompson Center
Maya Salganek, Filmmaker and Director of Film Studies will moderate a panel discussion on
Representation and Misrepresentation in Indigenous Film
Panelists: Ronald Brower Sr.; Allan Hayton; Da-ka-xeen Mehner; Princess Lucaj, and Kavelina Torres
followed by a light snack of akutaq and fried bread (donated by Mary Keyes)
Inu-Yupiaq Dance group will perform several dances
Monday, November 7th, the Morris Thompson Center
6:00 PM Leonard Kamerling, Curator of Film, UA Museum of the North
Nanook Revisited: Robert Flaherty’s Seminal 1922 film, Nanook of the North
7:15 PM Dr. Paul Krejci, UAF Music Dept.
Inuit Throat Singing and Cultural (Mis)Representation
6:00 PM Wednesday, November 9th, Mushers Hall
Join us for a pot luck and welcome Tanya to Fairbanks
Dene Intertribal Dance Group will perform.
Tanya will speak.
7:30 PM Thursday, November 10th, Hering Auditorium
Tanya Tagaq in concert with Nanook of the North
Our artist selection committee deserves a lot of credit for keeping me working on this — as do Paul Krejci and Walkie Charles for all their work putting together the outreach coming up this week. Our thanks to them, to Maya Salganek and members of our panel, to Len Kamerling, Mary Keyes and to our dancers.