‘Dark Winter Nights’ hosts free live event

March 8, 2016

“Dark Winter Nights: True Stories from Alaska” will offer a live storytelling event Friday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in Pioneer Park’s Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts theater.

The event is part of Arctic Science Summit Week at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Admission is free.

The storytelling session, dubbed “North Through Our Eyes,” will highlight stories about scientific explorations related to Alaska’s landscape.

Fairbanks resident Dan O’Neill, author of “The Firecracker Boys” and “A Land Gone Lonesome,” will take the stage. UAF researcher Jeanette Moore will offer a live demonstration of hibernating ground squirrels.

This is the seventh “Dark Winter Nights” live event since UAF journalism Professor Rob Prince started the project in 2014. Prince wanted to counter the depictions of Alaska found in reality television shows.

“Many reality TV programs are creating a caricature of Alaska,” he said. “I figured if people wanted to know what life in Alaska is really like, it should be Alaskans bringing them those true stories.”

Prince and his crew create a monthly radio program and podcast, along with occasional live events. The “Dark Winter Nights” radio program airs the third Saturday of each month at 7 p.m. on KUAC-FM 89.9. The podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play or the “Dark Winter Nights” website.

“Dark Winter Nights” is always looking for storytellers, so if you have a great story about living in Alaska, contact Prince at 907-474-6249, rob.prince@alaska.edu, or visit www.darkwinternights.com.

The Journalism Department, which hosts “Dark Winter Nights,” is housed within in the UAF College of Liberal Arts. The college, the largest of UAF’s academic units, comprises 20 academic departments representing the arts, humanities, social sciences and language disciplines.

CONTACTS: Robert Prince, journalism professor, 907-474-6249, rob.prince@alaska.edu; Naomi Horne, College of Liberal Arts advancement officer, nehorne@alaska.edu, 907-474-6464

ON THE WEB: www.darkwinternights.com, www.uaf.edu/cla