Sitkans to Tell Tales About Being at Home

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Created on Wednesday, 11 December 2024 15:11

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A chance airport meeting led to two Sitkans talking about the Homeless Coalition, storytelling and the “importance of humanizing experiences about home.”
    Artchange Inc director Ellen Frankenstein and Homeless Coalition programs director Denise Shaffer said the early morning conversation in the boarding area at the Sitka airport put the wheels in motion for a solid theme for Thursday’s live storytelling event.

Sitkans Tell Tales organizers Denise Shaffer, left, and Ellen Frankenstein work out details for Thursday’s story-telling event at Harbor Mountain Brewery. The theme of the show is “A Place to Be: Stories of Belonging, Community and Home.” (Sentinel Photo)

    Artchange Inc., Sitka Homeless Coalition and KCAW will present Sitka Tells Tales with the theme “A Place to Be: Stories of Belonging, Community & Home” at 7 p.m. Thursday at Harbor Mountain Brewery.
    It’s a busy time for the Homeless Coalition, which makes a fundraising push in November and December for Shelter Sitka and other services for Sitka’s unhoused residents, and Shaffer said Thursday’s storytelling event will fit in well with the group’s efforts at this time.
    “We’re excited to add this to the repertoire of events that we’ve had these two months,” she said. “And we’re there to give life to our neighbors in need and promote their voices in this event.”
    She’s also eager to share “I am” poems from clients.
    “Poems are a great way to tell your story, where you can describe yourself, what you love and different pieces of who you are,” Shaffer said. “What you hope for and what you dream of, which will be really impactful, because it really paints a picture of a person.”
    She added, “We’ll also talk about what home means to those neighbors that are without a home and those we pass by on a day-to-day basis, and may not realize what they’re experiencing in their lives.”
    Frankenstein, director of artchange and main organizer of the live storytelling series for the past 10 years, added that, “We have stories that will be filled with hard moments, twists, turns, some tears and realizations.”
    Storytellers include Lakota Harden, Peter Vu, Laura Bruck, Blossom Teal-Olsen, Toccoa Wolf and Chip Camden. Frankenstein works with the storytellers, and they work with each other, to improve the quality of the stories so the true tales are stage-ready by the time the live event happens.
    One of the purposes of Thursday’s event is raising awareness as well as funds for Homeless Coalition projects, including an overnight warming shelter at the United Methodist Church, the Hítx’i Sáani (Little Houses in Tlingit) Community project, free dinners and numerous other services provided by the coalition.
    Shaffer started her work with people experiencing homelessness in 2022 as a Jesuit Volunteer at Covenant House in Anchorage, where she worked with those ages 18 to 24. She met Frankenstein at a Homeless Coalition annual meeting, where the two planted the seed for a future storytelling event around a “home” theme.
    Some of the live storytelling events are broadcast live on KCAW; this particular one will be recorded, and broadcast in January.
    Besides seeing the storytellers work together, Frankenstein said another favorite aspect of Sitka Tells Tales is shedding light on the work the co-sponsoring nonprofits do in the community.
    “We love that layer,” Frankenstein said. “I like stories, and I really believe in listening deeply and think it connects us, and changes us. If you sit down and really listen to a story that’s true ... these stories have a depth to them.”
Shaffer said the theme raises questions about related themes.     “All these things we go through in our lives – what makes us feel safe, what are the meanings of the words “healthy, belonging, cared for ... I think dignity and humanity are also really, really big words: if you don’t feel dignified you don’t feel human whenever you don’t feel at home.”
    Teal-Olsen has told live true stories at previous STT events and is looking forward to sharing her experiences.
    “I was kind of brought up everywhere, my family moved around a lot,” she said. “I was born in Kotzebue and raised in Fairbanks but we moved around so much I’ve never really had a grounding, in my mind. All of my childhood memories are predominantly of Fairbanks, and the realization of what home really was to me, was from the upbringing I had there.”
    She knows she can’t fit that entire topic into the six-minute storytelling limit, and will focus more about her family.
    “I was raised very religious: my mother was very grounded in her faith and the people around her were very faith-based people,” Teal-Olsen said. “My story is about the people I encountered in that kind of realm of belief.
  “It’s mostly about my interactions with the people I grew up with. My mother was extremely extroverted so she encountered these kind of eccentric personalities, amazing different people of all different walks of life, so I’m kind of a victim of her social life.”
    The story will also incorporate her older sister Rosebud, who lives in California.
    There is a suggested donation of $15 for the event.