Ketchikan is... Where We Gather
Against the rhythm of the sea exists our land.
Here, trees move their limbs to the rhythms of earth, water, light, and air. This is a land apart from civilization, a land of billions of trees untouched by humanity and driven by constant change and growth. Roots, ferns, and mosses intertwine and grow upon each other, influencing each other's trajectories and giving each other life. This northern rainforest, by extension, informs all life here: people here are deeply interconnected, helping each other to grow, and continually searching for character.
We are a people that tend to get together.
In the words of one resident, "We gather together here more than anyplace...we gather together for everything." Says another, "Ketchikan may have cold, wet, dark winters, but it's warm with people." Bands, civic organizations, bars, churches, lodges, dinners, volunteer work, festivals, sports, carnivals, holidays, cultural events, and everyday life have consistently provided reasons for people to come together. We also gather from our surroundings: fish, seaweed, herring eggs, berries, meat for the freezer, glass bottles, stories, signatures on a tablecloth.
All the while, the place itself gathers the people who make it up in a sort of self-generating entity. A lot of people come, but the ones who can make it stay and come to our tables. It is a custom in Ketchikan to have everybody who eats at your table sign their name on your tablecloth. Such a tablecloth is a central object of the exhibit because this sense of gathering is the heart of the place. When someone signs their name onto a tablecloth, they become part of the fabric of the town's history, and so too does their lifetime of stories. This was just a fishing village, a mining town, a stopover to and from the gold rush. But it was also a place with a forward-thinking, gathering mindset.
We are called to this soulful expression, this explosion of life, with the desire to participate, and the ones who can make a go of it...stay.
Links to additional sections of this Virtual Exhibit
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