I think anywhere you live, you can make your world pretty small.

You know, if that's your tendency or if that's what you choose to do, but you can also

make it really huge by getting to know more about your neighbors and where they came from,

why they came here and what their lives have been like here. I think there's so many ways to

experience this beautiful place and I think archives and places like museums and libraries help

make it possible to make your world larger and see things from a different perspective.

That was Julie Marie, the community outreach archivist at the Anchorage Museum.

So much of her life has been dedicated to helping others. She grew up in a household

back in Gary, Indiana that put a lot of energy into philanthropy. In fact, her earliest memory is

of tagging along with her mom and her grandmother to help the elderly people in her neighborhood.

That sense of purpose and charity would define her professional life well into adulthood.

Julie got out of philanthropy and development at 60 years old and began pursuing another career

with the Anchorage Museum. The first exhibition she worked on was Black Lives in Alaska,

Journey, Justice, Joy. It's told through archival photos and collective materials and showcases

the richness and resilience of Black Lives in Alaska. Julie says that exhibitions like this one

can help people be more open to the stories of other people's lives and experiences,

that their way of experiencing the world is not the only way or the best way or even the

right way to experience the world. So here she is, Julie Marie.

Welcome to Chattermarks, a podcast of the Anchorage Museum,

dedicated to exploring Alaska's identity through the creative and critical thinking of ideas,

past, present, and future.

My name is Cody Lyska and I'll be your host.

...