Professional Artists DIMI MACHERAS, LEE POST, and MELISSA SHAGINOFF will lead youth ages 12-16 in a five-day creative workshop series focused on comics and cartoon illustration, Dena’ina and Ahtna Language & Culture, visual storytelling, and more.

“Sukdu” is the Dena’ina word for “Story.” Our intention for SUKDU LAB is to inspire creativity, celebrate culture, and embrace storytelling for local youth.

Space is limited. Scholarships are available at a sliding scale for those with demonstrated financial need. See registration page for details.

On or after March 1, click “Register Here” below for signup and scholarship application.

Lead Comics Instructor for SUKDU LAB 2026

Dimi Macheras is an Ahtna Athabascan visual artist and Chickaloon Village Tribal Citizen. He was raised by his storyteller mother Patricia Wade and taught Ahtna cultural values and traditions by his grandmother, Clan Elder Katherine Wade. An alumni of Ya Ne Dah Ah School, Alaska’s first Tribally owned and operated full time K-12 school, Dimi began his journey as an artist illustrating his family’s traditional Ahtna stories into graphic novels. He also helped design Ahtna language learning computer programs for Chickaloon Village’s Education Department. He has teamed with storytellers and culture-bearers from other tribes to help turn their legends into graphic novels. In 2010, he co-founded 80% Studios and has self-published a variety of projects, including in the recently released graphic novel Chickaloonies: First Frost.

We are proud to welcome Dimi as one of our first Lead Instructors for SUKDU LAB 2026!

Lead Comics Instructor for SUKDU LAB 2026

Lee Post is a lifelong Alaskan, growing up in Palmer and living in Anchorage. He has spent his career working with youth, beginning as a social worker with child protective services, then twenty years as a Juvenile Probation Officer for the State of Alaska. He retired as the the Chief of Juvenile Probation for the Anchorage area in 2021.

Lee is also a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, who had a comic strip, “Your Square Life” published in the Anchorage Press for six years, a total of 300 comic strips from 2001 to 2007. He produced several books, including a “Best of Your Square Life” and “Alaska!: Big and Small”, contributed a chapter to a collaborative Alaska history graphic novel, “A Native Lad”, and produced the book "Portraits" for the Alaska Immigration Justice Project and the Humanity Forum.   His work has been shown in several galleries in Alaska, including a solo retrospective at the Dorothy Page Gallery in Wasilla.  He’s presented at the Anchorage Museum and had his work published as far afield as Omaha, NB and Johannesburg, South Africa.   He's done live "visual harvesting" for a number of large audiences including the Salmon Project, the Foraker Group's Leadership Summit, and several sessions of Step-Up AK.  He's also taught many drawing classes for young children, teens and adults across Alaska at sites such as the Homer Library, the Anchorage Library, 49 Writers, and at McLaughlin Youth Center.

Lee is constantly developing new curriculum using his years of teaching visual thinking to help youth and adults to express themselves more clearly, reflect on their strengths and life experiences, and nurture their love of drawing.

We are delighted to have Lee Post at the helm of our first SUKDU LAB at The Nave.

Dena’ina and Ahtna Language & Culture Facilitator for SUKDU LAB 2026

Melissa Shaginoff is an Ahtna and Paiute citizen of the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and a member of the Udzisyu (caribou) clan. An interdisciplinary artist and museum specialist living on Dena’ina lands in Dghayitnu (Anchorage), her practice centers on conversation for understanding, gifting for survival, and creating access points to cultural knowledge. She has completed residencies in Alaska, Canada, Sweden, and New Mexico, and has curated for the International Folk Art Museum, the Coe Center, and the Anchorage Museum. Melissa operates Kuzuundze’ ts’eghaanden, “the place where we make/destroy pretty things,” an Indigenous-centered studio-gallery that supports Elders, youth, and emerging artists. Her writing appears in Material Intelligence, Alaska Humanities FORUM, First American Art, and Inuit Art Quarterly. She is also a founding member of Łuk’ae Tse’ Taas "fish head soup" Comics and leads Dena’ina teh/theh eł Ahtna k’ae “this is a Dena’ina and Ahtna place,” a project promoting language visibility and cultural reclamation in Dghayitnu.

We are excited for Melissa to share about Dena’ina and Ahtna Language and Culture with students at SUKDU LAB 2026.