By AlaskaWatchman.com

The Saturday Night Live’s “Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley” was a wildly popular spoof on the idea of sappy self-affirmation. Created by comedian and former U.S. Senator Al Franken, the skit was a SNL mainstay for much of the 1990s. It often began with the line, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggone it, people like me.”

That hasn’t discouraged the Anchorage Museum from rolling out its very serious “Affirmation Chair,” which features more than 60 affirmations and mantras under the title: “Extra Tough: Women of the North.”

An announcement on the project urges Alaskans to “engage in self-care while you’re hunkered down.”

The audio recordings in English, Yup’ik, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, and Iñupiaq feature number of prominent left leaning women from Alaska including former First Lady of Anchorage Mara Kimmel (wife of Ethan Berkowitz), Alaska Public Media’s Lori Townsend and retired Alaska Supreme Court Justice Dana Fabe, among others.

The meditations range over a wide swath of topics, but personal identity issues, systemic injustice and social equity feature prominently.

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Anchorage Museum offers ‘affirmations’ for the hunkered down

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


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