Palmer Museum hosting virtual Untold Stories event Friday

WASILLA — The Palmer Museum of History and Art is hosting a virtual version of their annual live storytelling event, Untold Stories this Friday at 6 p.m.

This coming show’s theme is “A Pleasant Surprise,” featuring several local artists and storytellers sharing their tales of persevering through the pandemic.

“Stories of grace, beauty, love, and friendship and all that found in each other during the whole pandemic… Stories of how people adjusted, how they adapted, and ultimately persevered through this whole thing,” Dinges said.

According to Dinges, this event will operate more like a panel discussion than the typical setup with individual segments

“I think it’s just a little more engaging since we’re not doing them live yet… But the big focus for this session and this topic is to kick off a conversation about the pandemic, to take an active rather than a reactive approach to gathering history,” Dinges said. “We’ll have some questions that will be asked live on-air… We’ll have some footage that we’ll share, so kind of a mixed media presentation.”

Dinges said they’re hoping to hold at least one more event this year, ideally at its usual home at the Palmer Depot with a live, in-person audience instead of a Zoom meeting. Either way, he’s exciting they’re able to keep this annual storytelling tradition going, fueling their ongoing efforts to chronicle the living history of the people of Palmer.

“Storytelling is important. A lot of history ends up being second-person perspectives… Sometimes you can get lost in the balcony view. Storytelling brings your right down to the ground level and kind of centers your perspective on an individual person,” Dinges said.

All proceeds from this event support the Palmer Museum’s ongoing efforts documenting the pandemic’s effect on the community. Dinges said this event will help them open up the invitation to their latest endeavor recording locals’ experiences with the pandemic. He said they will be collecting written and audio-recorded testimonies from people throughout the summer and encourage anyone who might be interested to call and find out more.

“We’re all contributing to the story of Palmer just by living here. It’s an opportunity for your piece of that story to be told,” Dinges said.

Untold Stories will be live-streamed over a Zoom meeting in addition to Facebook Live. Dinges said that public interactions are encouraged and people can participate in the Zoom meeting by following the link posted on their website.

For more information, call 907-746-7668 or visit palmermuseum.org/untold-stories.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com