Yearly Archives: 2013

Wilbur Mills Focus of Legacies & Lunch Today

Posted on by

native arkansas exhibitionKay C. Goss, will discuss the complicated life and times of Congressman Wilbur D. Mills.   Goss is an educator and long-time aide to President Clinton in the Governor’s Office and at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, will discuss her biography of Arkansas’s longest-serving congressman, Mr. Chairman: The Life and Legacy of Wilbur D. Mills.

The book covers the entirety of Mills’s life (1909-1992), including his work on fiscal issues and his relationships with the eight presidents under whom he worked. Goss’s work also delves into Mills’s personal battle with alcoholism, his successful recovery, and his legacy of supporting substance abuse treatment.

Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. The program is held from noon-1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month in the Main Library’s Darragh Center. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert will be provided.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). It was founded in 1997 to promote the study and appreciation of Arkansas history and culture. The Butler Center’s research collections, art galleries, and offices are located in the Arkansas Studies Institute building at 401 President Clinton Ave. on the campus of the CALS Main Library.

For more information, call 918-3086.

Evenings with History Continues Tonight: Moira Maguire

Posted on by

moiraThe Evenings with History series, sponsored by the UALR History Institute kicks off the 2013-2014 series tonight.  This year’s series will focus on how the study and writing of history is done.

The six sessions of the 2013-2014 Evenings with History series will be on the first Tuesday of October, November, and December of 2013 and February, March, and April of 2014.

They are held at the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street in Little Rock. Historic Arkansas’s downtown location and the museum’s adjacent parking lot at Third and Cumberland make the sessions convenient and pleasant to attend.

Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

An individual subscription to the series, at $50 annually, includes admission to all six lectures.

Tonight, Moira Maguire discusses “From Kerry Babies to Precarious Childhood:  The Evolution of Research Agenda”

Dr. Maguire’s presentation traces the evolution of one research agenda, from the graduate student essay that formed the basis of a doctoral dissertation to the commissioned research project that led ultimately to the publication of her new book, Precarious Childhood in Post-Independence Ireland. Focusing on issues such as unwed motherhood, neglected and abused children, adoption, and family dysfunction and pointing up the gap between the rhetoric of government and the Catholic church and their policies, her study addresses questions at the forefront of public discourse in Ireland. Producing such a relevant work means that “doing” history also may inform public policy. Her talk will show how her research has figured in the work of two Irish commissions examining the treatment of women and children in state-run institutions in the first half of the twentieth century.

Dr. Maguire came to UALR in 2003. After receiving her Ph.D. from American University in Washing, D.C., she spent six years engaged in teaching and research at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth. She is in charge of the department’s assessment program. Her book, Cherished Equally? Precarious Childhood in Independent Ireland, is under contract with Manchester University Press.

Corporate sponsors for the 2013-2014 season include Friday, Eldredge, & Clark; Union Pacific Railroad; Wright, Lindsey, and Jennings; and the Teaching American History Program of the Little Rock School District.

Support and gifts in kind are provided by the UALR Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio—KUAR-KLRE; UALR public television; and Grapevine Spirits.

Tales from the South Tomorrow: Kat Robinson

Posted on by

The first Tuesday of each month, Tales from the South features one person sharing their life story. They call it Tin Roof Project.  November features Kat Robinson. The program will be Tuesday, November 5.

Music is by the Salty Dogs and blues guitarist Mark Simpson.

Kat Robinson is a food and travel writer based in Little Rock.  She travels Arkansas and the South searching for good stories, tall tales and the next great little restaurant.

In addition to Tie Dye Travels, Kat writes and blogs all about pie in the state of Arkansas — at ArkansasPie.com.  Her first book, Arkansas Pie, was released in November 2012 via History Press.

Kat previously wrote  Eat Arkansas, the blog for food loversfor the Arkansas Times.   She has written for Arkansas Wild, Serious Eats,  Sync Weekly, 2njoy Magazine, Deep South Magazine, GreenZine, Savvy Kids, Lonely Planet, Little Rock Family Magazine, Living in Arkansas, the Arkansas Times, Forbes Travel Guide, USA Today and Cat Fancy and appeared on KARN Newsradio’s The Dave Elswick’s Show.

Before starting her writing career in 2007, Kat produced and wrote for several Arkansas-based television and radio outlets, including an eight year stint producing Today’s THV This Morning.
Kat lives with her daughter Hunter in her hometown of Little Rock, AR.

“Tales From the South” is a radio show created and produced by Paula Martin Morell, who is also the show’s host. The show is taped live on Tuesday. The night is a cross between a house concert and a reading/show, with incredible food and great company. Tickets must be purchased before the show, as shows are usually standing-room only.

“Tales from the South” is a showcase of writers reading their own true stories. While the show itself is unrehearsed, the literary memoirs have been worked on for weeks leading up to the readings. Stories range from funny to touching, from everyday occurrences to life-altering tragedies.

The program takes place at Starving Artist Café.  Dinner is served from 5pm to 6:30pm, the show starts at 7pm.  Admission is $7.50, not including dinner.

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.

Sculpture Vulture: Patronus

Posted on by

Today’s sculpture is passed by tens of thousands of persons each day – and they have no idea.  It is Greer Farris’ 1983 sculpture Patronus which sits on the grounds of the John L. McClellan Memorial Veteran’s Hospital.  Though it faces I-630, it is hidden by highway berm, chain link fencing and the fact that cars on I-630 are driving at high speeds.

Patronus consists of five identical forms which are placed aside each other equidistantly in a slight curve.  It was fabricated at the Arkansas Valley Steel Company and each section was trucked down separately on the back of a flatbed truck.

The simplicity of the design and the clean lines make this a powerful piece of abstract art.  Its design was inspired by battlements used in World War I, very appropriate for a veteran’s hospital.

It was installed in 1984. Since then, there has rarely been a time when the VA and/or UAMS or some other nearby entity has not been in construction mode.  The sculpture was never on a huge plot of land (which would have been more appropriate given its scale) but is now reduced to a small peninsula next to a few picnic tables in the parking lot.

It has been featured on this website before, but in keeping with Veteran’s Day later this month (and the fact that it is a personal favorite), it is being revisited.  Luckily the construction fencing that once surrounded it has been removed so it is easier to see.

5 Time Tony Winner Audra McDonald in Concert Tonight at UCA

Posted on by

audraTony winning actor and singer Audra McDonald will be in performance tonight at 7:30 at the UCA Reynolds Performance Hall.

Audra Ann McDonald didn’t waste any time starting her career. She made her Broadway debut as a replacement in The Secret Garden while she was still in school at Juilliard, won three Tony awards in five years, and, at age 27, became the first person to win three before the age of 30.

She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, including leading roles in Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, Master Class and Carousel. Her first starring role on Broadway was in Marie Christine, written specifically for her by Michael John LaChiusa after he saw her audition for Carousel. In 2007 she starred in 110 in the Shade on Broadway and joined the cast of Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett, and spent the first 9 months of 2012 singing Bess in Porgy and Bess on Broadway. She has won five Tony Awards, sharing the record for most Tonys won by an actor with Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury.

McDonald has released five solo albums and appeared as a vocalist on many others.  In October her TV appearances ranged from Great Performances to “The Colbert Report.”  This December she will play the Mother Abbess in the live TV production of The Sound of Music.

Dia De Los Muertos at the Zoo Tonight

Posted on by

DiadelosMuertosThe passage of Halloween did not mean the end of Boo at the Zoo.  For the first time ever it extends into November by continuing tonight.  The Little Rock Zoo has partnered with the Mexican Consulate and Hola! Arkansas to present the first ever Boo at the Zoo Dia de los Muertos.

Boo at the Zoo is Arkansas’s largest Halloween festival featuring trick-or-treating in a safe environment along with dozens of Halloween themed activities.  For the first time this year, the Zoo is partnering with Hola! Arkansas for a special Dia de los Muertos Boo at the Zoo night on Friday, November 1, that will include all the fun of Boo at the Zoo along with special Dia de los Muertos activities including and altar decorating competition, costume competition, Hispanic dancers, Dia de los Muertos decorations, and much more.

General admission to Dia de los Muertos Boo at the Zoo is $10 for General Admission and $20 for an all-inclusive wristband that includes admission and all rides and attractions at Boo at the Zoo.  Zoo members receive a $5 discount. You can learn more at www.LittleRockZoo.com or by calling (501) 666-2406.

Fright Night at the Museum

Posted on by

frightTonight there is a chance to spend Halloween at one of Little Rock’s historic sites.

The 1836 Club presents Fright at the Museum on Thursday, October 31st from 7 to 10 p.m. This 21 and up party will be held at the Old State House Museum. Costumes are optional but encouraged. Dinner, drinks and live music will be provided.

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $40/person at oldstatehouse.com/RSVP. For more information call (501) 324-8647. The 1836 Club is a non-profit friends group that supports the Old State House Museum.

Some over the years have claimed that the Old State House is haunted, though staff have dismissed this.  The ghosts have been alleged to have been Rep. J. J. Anthony who was stabbed in a fight there, Speaker of the House John Wilson who killed Anthony, or even Joseph Brooks who made a claim to be governor of the state and was removed from office after President Grant intervened.  This building has also been a site of the University of Arkansas med school, which brings about its whole other set of options.

While the building may not be haunted, it is historic.  And will certainly be the site of a fun evening.