Welcome Michaela Stith in discussing her memoir WELP: Climate Change & Arctic Identities with guest Alice Mayne-Ashworth!
This event will be held in-person at Lost City Books and is limited to 40 attendees. Masks will be required during the event.
Accessibility note: This event is held up two flights of stairs. Lost City Books does not have an elevator. This event will be simultaneously live streamed on our YouTube channel.
About WELP: Climate Change & Arctic Identities:
When author Michaela Stith left her home in Alaska to visit the Lower 48, she learned that many people think of the Arctic as an icy wasteland devoid of people and filled with polar bears. Welp: Climate Change and Arctic Identities challenges that misconception—by inviting you to witness a side of the Arctic few southerners ever get to see.
Through intimate interviews, laugh-out-loud stories, and Stith’s own keen observations, this travel memoir explores the effects of global warming, white supremacy, and cultural biases on Indigenous, Black and dark-skinned residents of the Arctic. You’ll accompany Stith as she pieces together a beautifully honest portrait of the Arctic—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking—against the backdrop of Norway, Iceland, and her Alaskan home. Above all, Welp offers those living in the North the opportunity to define themselves through their own eyes.
Stith is a firm believer that a truthful story from the heart is the one people most need to hear. If you’re ready to meet the Arctic heart to heart, and to learn what you can do to support the people who live there, allow these stories to guide you.
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Michaela Stith has coordinated more than three dozen high-level events and publications at the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, and previously worked in Tromsø, Norway at the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat. As a first-generation college student, she graduated with distinction from Duke University in Environmental Science & Policy. When she's not working or writing, you may find her looking on the bright side or creating scrapbooks of her many adventures.
Alice Mayne-Ashworth is a DC-based musician and organizer known for their work integrating music and the arts into DC protest actions. Having worked closely with Sunrise Movement DC and other climate actions, they can be found through their company Melting Virgo, LLC.
WELP: Climate Change & Arctic Identities is available at Lost City Books!