Kenny Lake, AK
September 5, 2017
Population: 355
Venue: Kenny Lake School, Kenny Lake Town Hall
On September 4, we had a day off to relocate from Denali to the Copper River Valley, “A countryside as wild & vast as any place you can reach by road.” We drove the 135-mile Denali Highway to get there, which isn’t actually a highway but rather a gravel road. As such, you can only drive about 30 mph in a U-Haul. We were blessed with beautiful weather and fall colors, so we took our time to enjoy and take a lot of pictures, including wheeling out the piano to the side of the highway and taking what would become iconic Gather Hear press photos.
Our first stop in the Copper River Valley was Kenny Lake, a small farming community where 10% of the population is Alaskan Natives. We first visited the Kenny Lake School, a K-12 school with about 65 students, and played two presentations for all of the students. I loved the pure display of delight and curiosity, not only from the younger kids, but the teens as well.
The evening’s concert was at the town hall. This event was the only one in which I couldn’t reach the organizer by e-mail, only phone. And instead of e-mailing her the event flyer, as I did for all other organizers, she asked me to mail it by post. She would put it up around Kenny Lake, including at the community water well - the place that gets the most traffic in town. That was the extent of our arrangement. She mentioned on the phone that she probably wouldn’t be in town for the concert, but someone would be at the town hall to let us in. Not the most solid concert plan I’ve ever had.
We showed up to the town hall to set up, only to find out that there was a town meeting going on with about six members. I announced myself, and everyone seemed vaguely unsurprised that I was there to bring a piano in and play a concert. I didn’t see any Gather Hear flyers all day, and I’m not even sure they ever made it by post to Alaska from New York. Luckily, the lead teacher from Kenny Lake School, Shawna, had smartly made the decision earlier that day to e-mail all the school parents about the concert. Thanks to her, there was a nice gathering, of older residents and students/families. There was one memorable student who trudged through the incessant rain and cold on foot to the town hall, dragging his mom with him.
Shawna was incredible, one of those teachers you thank your lucky stars that they exist. She has that kind of quiet, irrefutable conviction that teachers often do - that you don't dare disagree with - that music is absolutely a necessary part of education. Unfortunately, Kenny Lake’s music budget had been eliminated by the time I had visited. I transcribe our conversation from the video clip:
“I think the biggest thing is I need the kids to be the ones who really speak up and say, ‘WE WANT THIS.’ And if they would speak up and say, ‘This is what we want.’ And to feed them music, like today - to expose them to things like that - and make them want to hunger.
There were some kids here tonight, their home life is very humble. And for them to have this experience…What a gift. So thank you.”
Thank YOU, Shawna and Kenny Lake.
Taken on the side of the Denali Highway by Andrew Rizzardi