Programs

Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood leaders made a unique boat trip through the waters of the inside passage this month. Their voyage harkened back to the days when local camp officials from towns and villages around the region would travel on fishing boats to attend Grand Camp conventions. The brotherhood was founded a century ago, followed a year later by the sisterhood. So this journey had special meaning for the cultural and civil rights organizations. KFSK’s Matt Lichtenstein caught up with them when they stopped in Petersburg.

When I first met Tonei Glavinic in 2008 he was a senior at Stellar Secondary High School in Anchorage. Now, four years and four Pride Foundation scholarships later, he is about to graduate from American University with a double major in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies with his senior capstone project poised to impact the lives of transgender students all over the country. Learn more.

Amazing, no snow, the first week of April in New York City! The thermometer read mid-thirties, surprisingly colder than Anchorage as I subway’d around Manhattan in search of art. A former professor once told me “find me something I haven’t seen before.” It took some scrounging around as the downturned economy has reduced exhibitions. Good news: many shows are staying up longer and there appear to be bigger crowds in galleries and gift shops than last fall. Read more.

Jesse Lee Home, in the late 1940's and early '50's, was a Methodist church sponsored home for Alaskan Native orphan children. It was located several miles outside the town of Seward, Alaska. When I was perhaps eight, in 1949, my parents were active in the Methodist church and accepted positions as houseparents in the boys' dorm of the Home. Our family moved from Anchorage to Seward, and my two older brothers and I lived with the other boys at the Home. Read more.

Director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. KAKM: Thursday, 4/19 at 9:00pm

A rare example of Aleutian petroglyphs has been donated to the University of Alaska Museum of the North’s archaeology collection and will be used in a variety of research projects to better understand the cultural roles of rock art in Unangam culture. Learn more.

On Tuesday, April 3, at the 5th Mudrooms event, 7 Juneau community members shared a personal story related to the evening's theme: Transitions. Here's a sample story about the transition from youth to middle age (and being born with a second stomach) as told by Kirk Hardcastle. Read more.

Last November, Facebook made headlines when it announced plans to build a $760 million internet server farm in Lulea, Sweden. The cold climate was a factor since all those machines need to be kept cool. But access to long-term, stably priced energy from hydropower was critical. Server farms use a huge amount of energy - as much worldwide as some small countries - and knowing that its cost for energy would stay stable for the long-term played a major role in the social media giant’s decision. In Alaska we are home to vast supplies of energy, yet we have communities that pay some of the highest energy prices in the country. In some rural villages, residents pay more than five times the national average for electricity. Read more.

From the courtroom to the living room (thanks to the hit television series “CSI”), forensic science is king. Expertise on fingerprints, ballistics and bite mark analysis are routinely called on to solve the most difficult criminal cases — and to put the guilty behind bars. KAKM: Tuesday, 4/17 at 9:00pm

In a world where everyone seems to find their own set of facts somewhere out there on "the Internet," how can communities find common grounds around which to organize discussion, debate, and decision-making? Weaver will explore this and other questions with participants next Wednesday. The Alaska Community Foundation invites you to join us for a discussion about journalism in the 21st century with former ADN editor Howard Weaver. Read more.