“Who’s your Daddy?” Janay Johnson, executive director of the Bozeman Public Library Foundation, got a stunning answer to that question when she took a DNA test recently.
At the next PechaKucha Night, Janay will share the details of this life-changing event and tell us how, at 53, she adapted to the news about her new family. The event will be held at Downtown Bozeman’s Ellen Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday, May 15th and 16th. Both shows start at 6:40pm and feature the same presenters.
In a very different journey of discovery, Barbara Phinney, will describe her recent off-the-beaten-path hike with a group of five on the “Camino” de Costa Rica, a six-year-old trek through the backcountry, staying in people’s homes and seeing a very different side of this beautiful land. Jacob Myers will present on his travels to a much colder part of the world with “What it Takes: My Journey Alone in Antarctica.”
May’s PK Night will also feature several presentations on Yellowstone and local history. Steve Sarles, who was a park ranger at Yellowstone for 18 years and then worked three years as a snow-coach driver/guide, shares his special passion for the park in the winter. And Peggy Kimmet will talk about what it was like to take a coach into Yellowstone more than 100 years ago in her PK on the Morning Glory Stage Coach. The M-Y Line operated from 1898-1912, and carried passengers from the railroad station at Monida, MT through the Centennial Valley to the Dwelle’s stage stop just outside of present-day West Yellowstone.
Mary Sadowski will regale us with another piece of Montana history with her stories about Bear Canyon, including tales of a tough woman homesteader, Bozeman’s first ski area, bootlegging, and the long-gone logging town of Commissary.
Steve and Anna Neff have been retracing and reliving history, with their passion for riding abandoned railroad tracks in Montana and California on “rail-bikes” they built themselves.
In another effort to preserve history, local architect Rob Pertzborn will offer “the rest of the story” about the remarkable transformation and rebirth of the US Bank building on Main Street in Bozeman. Award-winning author and MSU English Instructor Glen Chamberlain will present “An Autobiography of Bozeman Creek,” her tribute to the creek so important to the local water supply and so close to the hearts of many long-time residents.
Aaron Banfield will offer insight into a side of Bozeman restaurants many of us have never seen, having worked as a dishwasher, sous-chef and baker at more than 30 local eating establishments over the past 20 years. And Tracey Robecker will talk about surviving the sudden death of her husband, the common and often inappropriate ways people react when they do not know what to say or do, and will provide some practical ways that friends and family can be helpful in the healing process.
Emcee will be Bradford Rosenbloom, actor, director and Montana State University public speaking instructor. American Rivers is sponsor of the May event. Tickets are available at www.theellentheatre.com for $9 (including facility fee). Students may purchase tickets at the door for $5.50.
PechaKucha (peh-chak-cha) offers anyone with a passion or a vision – designers, artists, inventors, architects, adventurers, entrepreneurs – an opportunity to share their ideas with the community during a fast-paced, friendly social get-together. There’s just one catch: presenters have only 20 slides x 20 seconds each, a total of 6 minutes, 40 seconds! •
