As part of the August exhibit in the Bear Gallery “In a Time of Change: Trophic Cascades”, we welcome Jack Dalton and Daryl Farmer for a Literary Reading on Saturday, August 17th @ 4pm. Please see the authors’ bios and flyer below for more details.
Jack Dalton
Rooted in Naparyarmiut (Hooper Bay), born in Bethel and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Jack Dalton has grown up an ambassador between two worlds, his Yup’ik Inuit and European heritages. A professional storyteller, actor, writer and teacher, and, now, director and visual artist/sculptor, Jack is a Rasmuson Foundation Fellow and has been honored by the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education as a Distinguished Dignitary. He received the first Expressive Arts Grant from the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in 2009. He has created and produced five theatrical works of epic storytelling, written a book, taught tens-of-thousands of students around the world creative writing, co-writes and stars in the play Raven’s Radio Hour, with it’s Summer, State Fair, AFN, Muktukmas, Homer and Rondy versions, performed internationally in Sweden, France, Norway, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, at the National Multicultural Festival in Australia, and headlined the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. His play, Time Immemorial, premiered at Cyrano’s in April 2009, and was selected as part of The Autry National Center’s Native Voices Festival of New Plays. Assimilation, his fourth play, premiered in November 2010, with an encore production in March 2013, and called “one of the most powerful pieces of locally written theatre ever produced here” by Anchorage Daily News Arts Editor Mike Dunham. Cauyaqa Nauwa?: Where Is My Drum? is his first “musical/opera”, co-written with Stephan Blanchett, is in development. Recently, Jack helped the Yup’ik village of Quinhagak return to traditional dancing after over 100 years and accompanied them for their premiere performances at Cama-i Festival in Bethel. His fifth play, The Last of His Kind, premiered May 2013. He is currently working on his first opera, Ada, based on the life of Ada Blackjack.
Daryl Farmer
Daryl Farmer is the author of Bicycling Beyond the Divide, which received a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writer’s Award and was a Colorado Book Award finalist. Farmer’s work has appeared in such journals as Paddlefish, Hayden’s Ferry Review, South Dakota Review, Quarter After Eight and Isotope. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has taught writing at the University of Nebraska, Georgia Tech. and Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Currently, he is an assistant professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks where he teaches creative writing and literature.