What's being billed as "Defy Fear Week" starts Friday, April 1, with a reception at 6:30 p.m. at the Anchorage Museum. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz will attend along with Murry Sidlin, who is in town to lead the Anchorage Concert Chorus in a performance of "The Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin." The "multi-media concert-drama" inserts historical images of and testimony about the Nazi's Terezin concentration camp into a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Messa da Requiem," which the abused prisoners managed to perform even as they anticipated their imminent deaths.
More about that next Friday when the work is presented. But in our opinion, the soloists alone will be worth the price of admission. They are already well-known to Anchorage music lovers: soprano Mari Hahn, mezzo Marsha Miller-Ackerman, tenor John Nuzzo and bass Anton Belov. Tickets are available at centertix.net.
Between now and then, there are several other events planned, including the screening of a PBS documentary about "The Defiant Requiem" at 8 p.m. Monday at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub; a panel discussion about refugees in Alaska at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the BP Energy Center; and a screening of the Academy Award-winning film "Schindler's List" at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Loussac Library.
The week will culminate with two performances of "The Defiant Requiem" on Friday, April 8, and Sunday, April 10, in Atwood Concert Hall. More information and events can be found at anchorageconcertchorus.org/devy-fear-week.html.
Barrow film goes national
"Children of the Arctic," a documentary by Nick Brandestini following a year in the lives of Barrow teenagers, will receive its national broadcast premiere on Tuesday, April 5, on the WORLD Channel as part of the acclaimed "America Reframed" series. The movie was included in the 2015 Anchorage Film Festival and has received excellent notices at other film festivals.
After the broadcast, it will be streamed online at no cost. Check their page at worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s4-e410-children-arctic and watch the trailer here:
Duo tours from Glennallen to Homer
Guitarist Valerie Hartzell, who transplanted from Alaska to England a couple of years ago, will return for a concert tour around the state. She'll be performing as one half of a team, Duo Amici, with Anchorage pianist and singer Tamara McCoy. Their repertoire will feature work by Liszt, de Falla, Boccherini, Albeniz and The Beatles. (Really!) Here's the schedule:
6 p.m. April 5, Glennallen High School Auditorium
6:30 p.m. April 8, Homer Council on the Arts
6 p.m. April 9, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Seward
4:30 p.m. April 10, Anchorage Lutheran Church
TBA April 12, St. John Lutheran Church, Palmer
7 p.m. April 14, Grant Hall Auditorium, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage
7:30 p.m. April 16, Christ Lutheran Church, Soldotna
Anchorage author an Essence pick
"Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV" by University of Alaska Anchorage assistant professor of English Jervette R. Ward received a big thumbs-up in Essence Magazine this month. Writing in the "Patrik's Picks" column, book guru Patrik Henry Bass called it "the read of the season" and said Ward "has produced the definitive volume on how Black Women are portrayed on reality TV. Cue the book club debates!"
Published by Rutgers University Press, "Real Sister" is described as "a frank meditation on the images of black women in television's most dominant form (that) exposes the ways in which the ambivalent pleasures derived from reality TV's obligatory train wrecks implicate black women as both victim and entrepreneur."
Storyknife taking writers' applications
The Storyknife Writers Residency, the women's writers retreat near Homer, will have its first official session in September and will accept applications for the inaugural fellow starting April 15.
Author Dana Stabenow, best known for her murder-mystery novels, began the work to create the retreat on her property overlooking Cook Inlet three years ago, planning to eventually have a main house for meals and meetings and six private cabins. One cabin where the selected writer can spend from two to four weeks is now ready. The residency includes a $250 stipend for food and transportation.
Storyknife has announced Erin Coughlin Hollowell, a Homer-based poet, as the first executive director of the organization. More information is available at storyknife.org.
Murder and the Apocalypse
Speaking of murder mysteries, three Alaska novelists will take part in a panel discussion at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at Fireside Books in Palmer. Stan Jones, Tom Brennan and Mary Wasche will consider topics like "What is different about Alaska as a character in crime narratives?" and "How best to write Alaska into description of crime?" They might even divulge how to get away with the perfect crime, although we're sure that none of our readers would ever consider such a thing.
Post-apocalyptic fiction writers Benjamin Percy and Don Rearden will give a Crosscurrents talk sponsored by 49 Writers at 7 p.m. on April 7 at the Anchorage Museum.
Construction shortens library hours
Loussac Library, in the throes of a major overhaul, will shorten its hours and restrict elevator access for the next four weeks or more starting Monday, April 4. The temporary opening time, Monday-Saturday, will be at noon. Sunday hours, 1-5 p.m., will stay the same.
The two public elevators between levels 1 and 4 will be closed and patrons will be encouraged to use the stairs. The staff elevator will be available for those who need it.
The Alaska Room will be closed during this time, but Alaska collection materials can be retrieved by staff. Branch library hours will remain the same and some programs may be moved to The Mall at Sears or other locations. Updated information can be found at anchoragelibrary.org.