Alaska Women's Hall of Fame

Honoring, in perpetuity, women whose contributions have influenced the direction of Alaska

SHIRLEY Mae (Springer) STATEN

CLASS OF 2016
Shirley Staten
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Cultural Activist
• Music, Singer
• Educator
DATES
Born: 1946
Inducted: 2016
REGION
Anchorage

Acceptance Speech

SHIRLEY Mae (Springer) STATEN

CLASS OF 2016

A performer, educator and “cultural activist,” Staten brings change through dialogue and the arts. She has been a keynote speaker, inspirational workshop facilitator and is a well- known performing artist with a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Development and a master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology.
Staten stimulates dialogue across race and gender with cultural activities. She has served as coordinator for cultural events at the 1996 United Nations Women’s Conference in Beijing, China. She functions as a cultural ambassador, bringing her music and message of community to many countries.
Music has been a large part of Staten’s life, beginning in the Georgia cotton fields with her grandmother when she was a child. She has performed across the world, including China, Cuba, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India, Russia, France, Uruguay, Argentina and across the United States.
Staten has contributed to many programs such as New Initiatives: The Anchorage Cultural Summit, in September 2016, a Hiland Mountain Correctional Center Lullaby Project to change the lives of imprisoned mothers and their children, and Camp Kaleidoscope, a creative cross-cultural experience for eight to 14 year-olds. With The Alaska Humanities Forum’s Educators Cross-Cultural Immersion Program, she prepared 400 professors and teachers to go to rural Alaska to gain an understanding of the cultures of Alaska Native students. She created “Home Base” in Fairview to teach science, math and technology in a safe after-school environment and to expose children to things “outside their usual world.”
Julia O’Malley described Staten in 2011:“She’s one of those people who seem to look exactly the same when you’re grown up as when you were in third grade . . . part no-nonsense mother figure, part inspirational speaker, with close-cropped hair, a penchant for dangling, jewel-tone earrings and a vibrato singing voice I can still hear in my head.”

 

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