Introduction

Michale Gabriel grew up in fear of the hammer and sickle. Her concerns were heightened by the fact that she was born and raised in Alaska — essentially as close to Russia as you can get in the United States — and that the fear of nuclear war was seemingly immediate, both temporally and geographically.

Despite this, Michale didn’t allow dread to rule her life. In fact, she would eventually move to the forefront of the driving force for peace and citizen diplomacy, leading multiple delegations of citizen diplomats to the Soviet Union, forming a nonprofit organization to facilitate these efforts, and supplying a vision to a group of passionate disciples that would carry out her goal of “peace through story.”

This exhibit will explore Michale’s impact as a citizen diplomat in relation to her vision of peace through story, especially as it pertains to the creation and subsequent practices of Accent on Understanding.