Margaret E. Davis: Peaks and Valleys
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The laureate rocks
I didn’t expect to hear Mary Oliver’s verse from Montana’s poet laureate, and here Chris La Tray recited her “The Summer Day.” We listened, then bent our heads to draw.
Maybe the Swifties take charge
After talking about journalism and sharing stories, we said bye at Sea-Tac with the idea we might meet up again as I often visited Seattle.
Some pivotal actors are quietest
As we gathered for a quintessential American holiday last week, I found myself also feeling grateful for Norwegians.
Science meets art in Yellow Bay
“Who here loves plants?” Seattle artist and former river guide and garden designer Sarah Jones asked the few dozen of us assembled for a day alongside Flathead Lake.
We can LEARN to save lives
According to federal mortality data, suicide in the U.S. hit an all-time high in 2022. In Montana, the state with the second-highest suicide rate in the country, it increased 42% from 2011 to 2021.
History exudes quirky diversity
One perk of my job came a year after I started at the Northwest Montana History Museum: I got to go to the Montana History Conference.
Democracy fans make it personal
“What is democracy?” Kristina Graber Wilfore asked the audience of about 40 people at her talk last month at the Northwest Montana History Museum.
A memorable performance for several reasons
We thought it was just a piece of trash on the road to Bigfork. It seemed to flutter in the wind like a brown paper bag. As we got closer, we saw it was earthbound and alive.
Six things may be Good enough
Or maybe they were just regular Northwest Montanans, judging from the activities of many current Kalispell residents.
Plots’ points send a message
My family often braked for graveyards in our decades of Montana adventures, and I fondly recall the first cross-country meet of the season in high school, which took place in an Anaconda cemetery.
Everyone's got a story to share
Emcee Barbara Schiffman stepped to the fore in the Arts & Technology Building at Flathead Valley Community College one evening last spring to announce the setup for that night’s “story concert.”
Turn and face the change
We can’t change the certainty of change. That’s the source of our frustration with it. It highlights our lack of control and the folly of foresight as it neatly sidesteps expectation.
We can see clearly now
For more than 50 years, travelers along U.S. 2 might have spied a bison in a plexiglass “tank” mounted atop a pole on the north side of the road where Kalispell gives way to Evergreen.
We craft the future to come
Any one of these things would make a community proud, and Kalispell got three new landmarks in six months.
Traditional craft never gets old
When artist and Salish Kootenai College educator Frank Finley gave a talk at the Bigfork Art & Cultural Center last summer, he shared many ways to look at Native American art. One thing he said in particular caught…