Singer-songwriter Quinn Christopherson sat on a chair on the backyard deck he built at his home in Anchorage practicing songs on his guitar.

“I tell my stories through music,” he said with his mini poodle, Taylor Moon, sitting on his lap in the sunshine.

An Ahtna Athabaskan and Inupiaq singer, Quinn became known in 2019 when he won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest with his submission “Erase Me.” In the video, recorded at the Anchorage Museum in front of a painting of Mount Denali, he wears a baby blue suit from a thrift store and his whole being vibrates with energy.

At the time, he was working with youth at Cook Inlet Tribal Council, a Tribal nonprofit serving Alaska Native and American Indian people in southcentral Alaska. Music was a hobby he took up with a borrowed guitar. 

Now, with support from a 2024 Aywaa Creative artist fellowship, Quinn is a full-time artist, writing and recording original music, performing and touring. 

“These fellowships gave artists unparalleled freedom to bring into being Alaska Native art on their own terms while also having the opportunity to join other Alaska Native artists in sharing experiences and creating together,” Cathy Tagnak Noland said. 

Cathy is the Aywaa Creative Project Manager who developed artist support projects for Alaska Native creatives and artists. The Aywaa Creative Artist Fellowship enabled nine Alaska Native artists to share experiences, build community, and create original pieces around three culturally resonant themes.

On this spring day in Anchorage, Quinn is practicing for an upcoming tour where he’ll be opening for Samantha Crain, a Chocktaw Nation songwriter, producer and singer. 

In addition to performing, he writes songs for other musicians. He recently wrote a song for the Alaska rock band Portugal. The Man. He collaborated on a song about a glacier in Alaska with YoYo Ma and the drag queen Pattie Gonia. He’s written a song about America’s first people for Sesame Street. The song is now recorded and sung by kids. “It’s really cute,” he says with a big whole-body smile.

Being a full-time artist in Alaska taught Quinn to go into what he calls “commercial mode.” Creating songs for others gives him the opportunity to share his perspective as an Alaska Native who was born and raised in Anchorage. Perhaps, just as important, the work allows him the freedom to write his own songs while remaining in Alaska where there really isn’t a music industry. 

For Alaska Natives and nonnatives alike, Quinn’s songs can feel like home, with lyrics like, “Your boy needs some sun,” and “grandma told me that I should get out once in a while. She said this our land, you come back when you need.” His song Hot Dog on a Stick features natural sounds he recorded from glaciers, water, and snow. 

Through his lyrics and often-soft musical style, Quinn creates safety by example. He gives people permission to show up as their authentic selves. 

He wrote “Memory” during the Aywaa Creative Fellowship. The song reflects on gifts passed down by his great-grandfather Frank Hobson, a luthier whose hand-built violins are coveted by collectors.

Only about 60 Frank Hobson violins exist, and the family didn’t own one. Quinn hadn’t even seen one when he learned that a Hobson violin would be auctioned at a fundraising event. 

“My whole table of these really powerful Native women,” Quinn said, “they made sure I won the violin. I won the most beautiful birch violin with my great grandfather’s handwriting inside,” he said. 

The song is “a celebration of finding our way back home and gratitude for these gifts. Family gifts,” he said. His friend, Heidi Senungetuk, an Inupiaq violinist and ethnomusicologist, plays the violin in the song.

Quinn said he felt a sense of freedom when creating “Memory” that he doesn’t normally feel. Because he didn’t need to create a song that would sell on an album or think about the marketability of the piece, he simply created a piece of art inspired by his family’s gifts.

Quinn Christopherson’s tour started June 12 in Kansas City. He’ll open for Samantha Crain until July 2nd in Colorado Springs.

This feature is dedicated in loving memory of Jenny Irene Wiagañmiu Miller, whose life was a gift.

Aywaa Creative is a project of Alaska Venture Fund. The central goal of Aywaa Creative is to directly invest in Alaska Native Artists individually and collectively, and to elevate their voices and stories. Three programming strategies guided Aywaa Creative in 2024 to 2025: Artist Fellowships, Artist Workshops, and the formation of an Alaska Native Storyworkers Guild. These programs formed new and important spaces for Alaska Native creatives and artists to come together and build community. The focus on bringing Alaska Native artists together to build their creative and professional practices as a community is rare in the broader art world and is vital in strengthening Alaska Native narrative sovereignty. 

Other Aywaa Creative Artist Fellows included the late photographer Jenny Irene and Tlingit weaver Lily Hope. 

Written by Laureli Ivanoff, Communications Lead for Indigenous Programs and Projects
Photos courtesy of Quinn Christopherson
Published: June 2025