Carver Wayne Price is restoring the 74-year-old Yax té (Big Dipper) totem in Juneau. The work, underway in a U.S. Forest Service workshop in Juneau, began on March 4.
The pole was originally carved by Frank St. Clair of Hoonah in 1941 as part of a Civilian Conservation Corps project. The design of six birds, topped by a raven and featuring a Tlingit woman at the base, was made by Linn Forrest, the Forest Service architect who helped design the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and the totem restoration work at Sitka National Historical Park in 1939. Forrest hoped to create a "Totem Park" near Auke Village similar to those in Sitka and Ketchikan, but World War II intervened.
The pole suffered from weather, pests and vandalism before it was taken down and put into storage a few years ago. Funding recently came through for the restoration project. When work is completed, it will be re-erected at the Auke Recreation Area, on the west end of Auke Bay.
Price, of Haines, is in the front ranks of Tlingit carvers, with several notable traditional and contemporary poles, canoes and reconstructions to his credit. He said working on the old pole was "a great honor" and added, "I look forward to see it stand up again."
When that might be was a detail unavailable at press time.
Salisbury dead at 87
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has reported that Lee Salisbury, the founder of the theater program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, died in Washington state on March 8 at the age of 87.
Salisbury came to Alaska from New York in 1955 and started the college's first drama program with few resources and no stage. Performances were in the gym, now known as Signers' Hall. He directed nearly 100 plays over three decades before retiring in 1988. He returned in 2007 to direct "Picnic." The university named its main theater for him in 1993.
In addition to his stage work, Salisbury was also active in electronic media. He was the commissioner of the Alaska Education Broadcast Commission and largely responsible for creating KUAC-FM, the first public radio station in Alaska, in 1962.
Or so says the Internet. But Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage may have had a non-commercial license in Anchorage before then for KAMU-FM, which became commercial station KNIK and is now KMVN. Maybe an old radio hand can remember and let me know.
Centennial happenings
A new documentary chronicling the history of Anchorage from the 1915 tent city to our modern hometown will be presented at Bear Tooth Theatrepub this weekend. "Anchorage Is" is produced by John Larson and Todd Hardesty and features the earliest known film of the site as well as home movies, scenes following the 1964 earthquake and recently shot images. Hardesty will present an introduction to the film prior to all screenings, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday, March 20-22. Reserved tickets are available for $9 at beartooththeatre.net.
Chang at UA campuses
Award-winning author Jeff Chang will be speaking at three University of Alaska campuses next week. Chang won a American Book Award for "Can't Stop, Won't Stop," a history of early hip-hop music and culture. His latest book, "Who We Be? The Colorization of America," expands on his earlier work to consider the implications of multiculturalism.
Chang will speak in Juneau at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 23, in Egan Lecture Hall on the UAS Auke Lake campus; at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, in Anchorage at the UAA Wendy Williamson Auditorium; and in Fairbanks at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25 in the Wood Center ballroom at UAF.
The talks are free and open to the public, part of the UA's Bartlett Lecture Series.
Anchorage premiere of Beethoven overture
The Anchorage Civic Orchestra will give what appears to be the first Anchorage performances of Beethoven's "Namensfeier" ("Name Day Festival") Overture. The seldom-heard six-minute party in C Major begins with a elaborate slow introduction featuring brass fanfares and up-sweeping strings, then leaps into a joyful, foot-stomping Beethovian dance similar in spirit to the conclusion of the Ninth Symphony but without the singers. The same concert will also present the possible Anchorage premiere of another Beethoven rarity, the Rondino for Eight Winds; it's a bit difficult to be sure, but I can't recall the piece being done here.
Also on the bill -- and probably never played in Alaska before -- William Grant Still's programmatic "Mother and Child" with solo violinist Lee Wilkins and Vasily Kalinnikov's robust First Symphony, which has been heard in Alaska. The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, in Sydney Laurence Theatre and tickets are available at centertix.net.
Cirque deadline is Saturday
The deadline for submissions to the 12th and next edition of Cirque art and literary journal is Saturday, March 21. If you have great work ready for publication, get the submission guidelines at www.cirquejournal.com. You can also review the current and past issues in full-text display at that site. If you want a hard copy, those are available at Blue.Hollomon Gallery in the Olympic Center, Arctic Boulevard and 36th Avenue, or by emailing cirquejournal@gmail.com.