erin in hig in Anchorage in September - Where....?

Erin McKittrick and Bretwood Higman are spending the mid-summer weeks in Seldovia, where "hig's" parents live.

"I've been mostly working on my book," writes erin, "while Hig's been working on an image database (so we can put all our photos up free and map-linked online), and we've been juggling canning fish, building a shed, visitors, etc..."

They'll be passing through Anchorage in mid-September, on their way down to Seattle for a visit with more family there.

Last January near the beginning of their mid-winter Anchorage respite from their 4,000-mile motorless trek from Seattle to Unimak Island, Mariano Gonzales, Chairman of the UAA Art Department and I hosted erin and hig at the UAA Fine Arts Recital Hall. They gave a fairly stunning presentation of slides and videos from their trip up to that point.

At their January presentation, erin and hig filled the hall. At least 200 people wanted to hear, see and learn from this amazing couple, who are, as erin observed in her talk then, "just normal people, doing something that isn't quite normal." Anchorage coverage of their trip up to that point, and of their Anchorage visit was high quality, but surprisingly sparse. Shannyn Moore interviewed the couple on her KUDO talk show, and Craig Medred wrote a detailed feature article on their trek for the Anchorage Daily News. In February, APRN's AK series caught up with them.

I've been surprised at how little regional and national coverage the successful conclusion of their trip attracted. My personal view is that people who prove how much we can do on our own with no impact on the planet isn't news, because we're a civilization in rapid decline.

Alaska media and Alaska public figures have been spending most of the time since erin and hig looked across Unimak Pass, talking and writing about the necessity of more drilling, more mining. Our two Senators, our U.S. Representative, our Governor, our Lieutenant Governor (when he comes out from underneath the Governor's skirts) and the Mayor of Fairbanks, have all touted a "clean coal" power project at Eielson Air Force Base within the past two weeks. erin and hig walked 4,000 miles to question the wisdom of ideas like that, ideas like the Pebble Mine, ideas like offshore drilling in Bristol Bay.

Had erin and hig been eaten by bears, theirs would have been a national story. The ADN would have sent a crew of four to the site. KTUU would have spent anything it would take to get THAT story out on national TV first. But their success, its pure simplicity and utter directness is anti-thematic for the development crowd.

I'm wondering whether or not to produce erin and hig's show again at the UAA Fine Arts Recital Hall, or at a larger venue, such as Wendy Williamson Auditorium. We could possibly present their multimedia lecture twice at the smaller venue, or once at Wendy Williamson, which holds four and a half times as many guests - 910 seats.

Any thoughts.....?

images by erin