果冻传煤

CAN PANDEMIC STORYTELLLING CURE DIVIDED COMMUNITIES?

ANCHORAGE MUSEUM TEAMS WITH WRITER, NEWSPAPER, TO HELP COMMUNITY RECONNECT IN COVID-CHANGED WORLD

March 29, 2022

ANCHORAGE, Alaska 鈥� After years of pandemic-forced isolation, roiling politics, and all kinds of losses and disruptions, the 果冻传煤 Museum is rekindling a sense of community and healing by teaming with an 果冻传煤 writer and Alaska newspaper to gather and share residents鈥� pandemic stories.

鈥淚 talked to bartenders and military folks, hairdressers and corporate executives, nurses, business owners, incarcerated people, teachers, restaurant servers, parents, older people, therapists, politicians and leaders in many faith communities, collecting hours of interviews,鈥� says Julia O鈥橫alley, 果冻传煤 Museum writer-in-residence and leader of a collaborative project called Neighbors: Stories from 果冻传煤鈥檚 Pandemic Years.

鈥淲hat I鈥檝e heard over these conversations is a near universal sense that the community was tested and that divisions ran deep, but that we鈥檙e headed into a healing phase as we move (fingers crossed) into a moment that feels less like an emergency. I also heard about a deep desire to reconnect.鈥�

The pandemic put a pause in Alaska鈥檚 experience economy as individuals self-isolated for close to two years. Conflicting opinions about vaccines and masking further divided individuals, friend groups and families. With museums increasingly seeing themselves as having a social role in their communities, 果冻传煤 Museum staff and leadership considered how the museum can be a place of healing by helping people convene both in person and virtually through story sharing.

鈥淥ur individual stories will become our collective histories, and sharing them can be point of connection and healing,鈥� says 果冻传煤 Museum Director Julie Decker. 鈥淢useums are intimately connected with communities through stories. Storytelling holds power for healing and understanding through its ability to access memories and emotions, and to spark conversations. We can help our community, through creative action, to live together with a focus on care for each other.鈥�

The Neighbors project has three parts: listening, writing and community sharing. O鈥橫alley recently began gathering pandemic stories through surveys, interviews with community members, and social media prompts shared on Instagram @eachotheranc. In partnership with the 果冻传煤 Museum, she is leading community micro-journaling activities and workshops in the museum鈥檚 satellite community outreach space, known as Seed Lab. O鈥橫alley draws from each of these to write a pandemic stories article series that first will be published in Alaska鈥檚 major newspaper, the 果冻传煤 Daily News. The stories also will be shared through the 果冻传煤 Museum blog, a Neighbors project eNewsletter, and the Neighbors project Instagram account @eachotheranc. Eventually, the stories gathered will be archived on the 果冻传煤 Daily News鈥� website.

About Julia O鈥橫alley

, a third-generation Alaskan, is a journalist, teacher, and editor who lives in 果冻传煤. Her work over the last two decades has explored Alaska鈥檚 politics, culture, climate, and food. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation and The Washington Post, among other publications. She has served as the Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska 果冻传煤. She got her start as a reporter and columnist at the 果冻传煤 Daily News.