{"id":317578,"date":"2016-01-20T08:10:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grist.org\/?post_type=grist-50-profiles&amp;p=317578"},"modified":"2016-01-20T08:10:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T13:10:52","slug":"allison-aku-matu-warden","status":"publish","type":"grist-50-profiles","link":"https:\/\/grist.org\/grist-50\/profile\/allison-aku-matu-warden\/","title":{"rendered":"Allison \u201cAKU-MATU\u201d Warden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Green cred:<\/strong> For Warden, the climate fight is personal. The native Alaskan traces her roots to Kaktovik, a mostly\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">Inupiaq<\/span> village that battles oil companies drilling off its Arctic coastline. Despair might seem easy, but not for this multidisciplinary badass: Warden uses a combination of theater, visual art, and hip-hop to mate climate action with cultural identity.<\/p>\n<p>Over her career, she\u2019s written plays, performed as rap artist AKU-MATU, and overseen visual art installations across Alaska. In the doing, she\u2019s earned a spot as a spiritual MC for indigenous rights at climate events worldwide, even\u00a0performing for thousands at COP21. In 2015, she won the State of Alaska Governor\u2019s Award in the Arts and Humanities &#8212; despite the governor\u2019s avowed pro-drilling stance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone like me, you have to ask, &#8216;What\u2019s my part?&#8217;\u201d she says. \u201cScientists are good at science, administrative people are good at that part. My background is in theater. So I started addressing these issues through art, and that rolled into actual activism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hear it from the expert:<\/strong> Says Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA: \u201cOne of Allison\u2019s most valuable talents is her ability to engage and involve many different audiences across generations and cultures, whether they&#8217;re school kids, gallery-goers, or activists in kayaks. From the <a href=\"https:\/\/polarlab.anchoragemuseum.org\/projects\/unipkaa%C4%A1usiksu%C4%A1uvik-the-place-of-the-futureancient\">Anchorage Museum<\/a> to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/news\/meet-the-rappers-and-kayaktivists-out-to-stop-shells-giant-oil-rig-20150522?page=2\">\u201csHellNo!\u201d protests in Seattle<\/a> to COP21 in Paris, Allison\u2019s voice has been present and powerful as she speaks up against the threats of Arctic drilling and climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to expect in 2016:<\/strong> In addition to completing a record, October will see the debut of the art installation \u201cUnipkaa\u0121usiksu\u0121uvik (the place of the future\/ancient)\u201d at the Anchorage Museum. The installation recreates an Inupiaq ceremonial house and fills it with traditional artifacts (like a waterproof whaling suit) crafted with hyper-modern materials.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spirit animal?<\/strong> Polar bear: \u201cI\u2019ve dreamt of being a polar bear throughout my life &#8212; I feel like I am a polar bear, not to freak anybody out,\u201d she says. \u201cWe Inupiaq have a story that they take off their coats and they are people inside. So I think I was born without a polar bear coat on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch the throne, Sarah:<\/strong> As both visual artist Allison Warden and rapper AKU-MATU, Twitter remains a powerful tool for mobilizing action. \u201cI\u2019m trying to get more followers than Sarah Palin,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I could just beat her on that I\u2019d feel better about life. It\u2019s a pretty good goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the leaders shaping green in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54839989,"featured_media":490314,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[1],"class_list":["post-317578","grist-50-profiles","type-grist-50-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","grist-50-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Allison \u201cAKU-MATU\u201d Warden - Grist 50<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Allison \u201cAKU-MATU\u201d Warden\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the leaders shaping green in 2016.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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