KCAW

A staple annual Sitka event, the Wearable Arts Fashion Show, is calling for designers for their 2026 show. Bobbi Jordan, board secretary and wearable arts liaison with the Sitka Arts Council, as well as wearable arts designer Caryn Kraft join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the show’s upcoming theme, mentorship opportunities for upcoming designers, and how participants can get involved.

On an uncharacteristically sunny day, Sitkans spread out all across town, kayaking out on the ocean and scaling mountains for a rare, clear view. However, one specific group of Sitkans is tasked with an important quest: rescuing a blacksmith’s daughter from a horde of goblins. 

Armed with their gifted set of dice and assigned character sheets, the seven players wield their pencils to take notes on their surroundings. Gathered around a table at the Sitka Public Library’s multipurpose room, the players range in experience from this being the first time they have played the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (i.e DnD), to veterans with years of experience and DnD podcast recommendations under their belt. 

Riley Whitson is serving the role of what in the game is the “Dungeon Master,” a storyteller who guides the players throughout the whole gameplay experience, from helping them create their characters to narrating their characters’ surroundings. Having regularly mentored middle schoolers in how to play DnD under Parks and Rec, Whitson was recruited to lead a two-week workshop for adults. Having played the game for over two decades, what keeps Whitson coming back for more is DnD’s unique collaborative nature.

“Dungeons and Dragons is kind of a shared story,” says Whitson. “You’re all characters in some type of adventure going on or some activity, and everyone gets a piece to kind of make it a living, breathing story. And that’s what excites me the most.”

After defeating the goblins and freeing both the Blacksmith’s daughter and a captured paladin (played by an experienced player who joined that day), the party uncovers a statue of a knight with a mysterious riddle engraved below it:

“If you are to keep this, you must first give it to me…”

As a fantasy-game that prominently features riddles, Dungeons and Dragons is a game that is fully-dependent on the imagination of its players. As a born and raised Sitkan, Whitson believes that Sitka is a prime location for fueling prospective players’ imaginations. 

“All I ever wanted to do as a child was leave this place,” says Whitson. “We’re very rural and isolated, and so your imagination kind of tends to take you on adventures no matter what, whether you’re imagining just going to Seattle for a weekend, or you’re off in a mythical land where it’s always sunny, you can just put yourself in a world that you want to go to.” 

First-time player Carole Knuth was inspired to attend the Library’s workshop by her grandson’s imagination, and wanted to learn how to play DnD in order to create an opportunity to connect with him. However, learning how to harness her imagination while learning the plethora of unique game mechanics has been a challenge.

“I’m more of a black and white person and to have this much, well, the numbers and the the variety and imagination was just really stretching for me,” says Knuth.

While it can be an adjustment, Whitson believes that the limitless imagination DnD encourages in its players is what makes the game so special.

“All of us played pretend when we were kids, and everybody has some part of them that still wants to,” says Whitson. “And so once you see people kind of get over that initial shock of, oh, there’s numbers and probability and math and stepping outside of your own shoes, you see people just take to it.”

It is moments of learning and camaraderie that the players experienced in their session that led Adult Services Librarian Margot O’Connell to co-create this event with Sitka Parks and Recreation. She believes hosting table top role playing game events are an important way to facilitate community building.

“We kind of think of ourselves as a community living room,” says O’Connell. “And I think with games like Dungeons and Dragons or board games, they are inherently very social. And so anytime we can provide a space for folks to come and build community together, learn new skills, just come and hang out, I am thrilled.”

This upcoming fall, Whitson will lead some intermediate DnD workshops, as well as some middle school and high school campaigns with Sitka Parks and Recreation.

While actors are regularly lauded in the mainstream, the contributions and skills of those behind the scenes are often unknown. Rach Roach from Sitka Fine Arts Camp speaks with KCAW for the Morning Interview on the organization’s upcoming technical theater class, as well as the featured plays in their upcoming season where students will apply their new knowledge.

Have thoughts about how you want to see public building infrastructure improved? Perhaps you’re curious to learn more how certain policy implementation is funded? All of these fall under a process called asset management planning. Sitka Municipal Administrator John Leach joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to break down what that is and how Sitkans can get involved in the process.

This upcoming Sunday is International Overdose Awareness Day. Michelle Kavouras from Sitka Counseling speaks with KCAW for the Morning Interview about an upcoming memorial event to honor loved ones who died from overdoses, as well as strategies and resources to help prevent overdoses in your community.

The event will take place at Totem Square from 6-7:30 p.m. this Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025.

Girls on the Run, an international running program designed to support young girls’ physical and emotional health, is returning to Sitka for its 18th season. Barbara Quinn from Youth Advocates of Sitka and Claire Weber from Sitkans Against Family Violence join KCAW for The Morning Interview to speak on what prospective coaches and participants can expect from the program and how to get involved.

Back when she was an art manager at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2017, Sydney Akagi would frequently spot people using weaving kits. Inspired by the weaving surrounding her, she scored a spot in Ravenstail and Chilkat weaver Lily Hope’s class, and Akagi was hooked. 

“Weaving felt pretty, almost addictive at first. I couldn’t stop,” said Akagi. “I was up late at night. I’d be sitting in bed with tiny projects and wouldn’t go to sleep, and I kind of just lost time.”

Since then, Akagi continued to study under Hope’s tutelage as an apprentice in Juneau, mastering the intricate finger-twining steps of Ravenstail weaving and the geometric designs of the Chilkat style. As her skills improved, Akagi says she was able to find healing and empowerment in her own Lingít identity.

“I think it started to kind of heal some maybe cultural things, a little bit of cultural trauma that I had had from growing up and not feeling accepted and kind of keeping my culture kind of like just at bay and not fully accepting it,” said Akagi. “So it was kind of like my gateway into having that healing with my culture.”

With Hope’s encouragement, Akagi quit her job at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2020 to pursue weaving full-time. Now, with nearly a decade of  weaving under her belt, she is excited to share her knowledge with Sitkans as the current Native Artist Resident at the Sheldon Jackson Museum.  

There, visitors can witness a Killer Whale Chilkat tunic Akagi completed in 2023. The tunic immediately snatches your attention when you enter the Sheldon Jackson Museum, with its vibrant yellows and blues blasting through its black and white borders to define the whale’s geometric shapes. The tunic’s design mirrors itself on either side in what is known as a distributive design. The tunic is a recreation of one Akagi observed at the Anchorage Museum back in 2022, in order to learn how to weave a traditional tunic.

“There’s not very many weavers that understand the process of creating the shoulders on that tunic, so it felt more almost 3d versus the flat surface of like a robe that’s hanging on a loom,” said Akagi. “So what I really wanted to do was understand that shoulder, the techniques of creating that and that construction.”

Next to the tunic is one of Akagi’s works-in-progress–a black wall of thread with diamonds swimming across a budding yellow line below it across her weaving loom. These initial threads will eventually culminate into a Chilkat robe depicting a salmon. This robe is unique in that unlike Akagi’s previous pieces like the distributive killer whale tunic, this one will have a configurative design, or an asymmetrical design across the piece.

“So I might be a little anxious before starting that and just having that understanding, but again, that I think that’s part of my evolution as a Chilkat Weaver, and like understanding that and gaining all that knowledge,” said Akagi.

The salmon robe was inspired by Akagi’s experience as a resident of the Taku River near Juneau and her advocacy work as a Salmon Beyond Borders Ambassador fighting mining companies whose wastewater endangers the health of the river’s salmon.

“So I was kind of trying to figure out how the art I make, what I could make to kind of bring in a more traditional conversation to these conversations I’ve been having with the CEOs and presidents of these mining companies to ask them to respect our rivers and to do the cleanup,” said Akagi.

 Akagi says the work she does, both on her loom and as an advocate for environmental justice, is connected. 

“Every part of what I’m creating is from the earth, and so not protecting the Earth only affects what I am creating,” said Akagi.

In addition to a lecture, as part of her residency Akagi will lead a sold-out weaving workshop where participants can create their very own keychains. Akagi is excited to introduce students to the wide-variety of benefits weaving has to offer.

“For kids, weaving can be used as a hands-on method to teach math,” said Akagi. “There’s pattern recognition for anybody older. Just understanding how to do this and use your hands, and even for the cultural reason of being able to connect with the culture or understand the culture. I think there’s so many things that anybody can benefit from learning about weaving.”

Amidst the chaos of balancing numerous other weaving projects with navigating grants and family life, Akagi is grateful to be present in Sitka and engage with the community, exchanging ideas like two threads being woven together to create something meaningful. 

Combining the tranquility of reading with the excitement of trivia, the Friends of Sitka Public Library encourages adults to partner up with their friends and sign up for its upcoming book challenge. Board members Kathy Ingallinera and Kari Sagel join KCAW for the Morning Interview to speak more on what the challenge entails and how to best prepare to take on the competition.

Over 200 Sitkans gathered at the city’s airport on Saturday (8-16-25) for the long-awaited reveal of the community’s first ever escalator. KCAW’s Ryan Cotter attended the ribbon cutting ceremony unveiling the modern marvel along with a brand new waiting area, and a mural honoring Lingít culture. 

With a new indoor venue and renewed commitment to welcome attendees of all ages, Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s annual Fall Equinox event is ready to ring in the new season. Jean Swanson joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to speak about what attendees can expect for the Back to School Fall Equinox Dance Party, as well as other upcoming Sitka Tribe of Alaska programming from Zumba classes to intergenerational kayaking.