Category Archives: Food

Bridge to the Future Festival – today at Clinton Presidential Center and Clinton Presidential Park

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emcpc042815bThe Clinton Presidential Center will host the Bridge to the Future Festival on Saturday, May 2, 2015, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event, which will be held in the Clinton Presidential Park, will bring together organizations that support the missions of early learning, health and nutrition to provide fun, interactive educational activities for children and parents.
Bridge to the Future Festival
Saturday, May 2, 2015
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Clinton Presidential Park
The festival will kick off with a walk from the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge by HIPPY Arkansas participants. From there, visitors can venture into several learning zone “Villages” with the following themes: Education, Health and Fitness, Nutrition and Gardening, Safety, Environmental Health, and Activity. Each will feature interactive educational activities, as well as healthy snacks.
Each child will receive a passport, which will be stamped when they visit and participate in the Village activities for the chance to have their name entered in the grand prize drawing at the end of the festival.

Event Partners:
Arkansas Better Beginnings, Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas GardenCorps, Arkansas Imagination Library, Arkansas Minority Health Commission, Central Arkansas Library System, Clinton Health Matters Initiative, Delta Dental, HIPPY Arkansas, Knowledge Tree, Master Gardeners, Reading is Fundamental, Renaissance Learning, Too Small to Fail

Josh Ruxin discusses how creating a restaurant revitalized a community 

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Today at noon at the Clinton School, Josh Ruxin will discuss his book A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope and a Restaurant in Rwanda.

In the book, Ruxin recounts the trials of rebuilding a village from the ashes, then constructing a restaurant from scratch.  He makes the case that entrepreneurship and the private sector are the keys to long-term sustainability in Rwanda. 

Ruxin is assistant clinical professor of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the founder of Health Builders, which improves management systems in 86 health centers across Rwanda and has constructed 5 health facilities serving 150,000 people. 

He is director of the Access Project, Rwanda Works, and the Millennium Villages Project in Rwanda. Dr. Ruxin has extensive experience operating at the intersection of public health, business, and international development. He has led projects in several developing countries and was an advisor to government and private sector leaders on business strategy and economic development. 

Dr. Ruxin was a Truman Scholar at Yale University, where he received his undergraduate degree, and a Marshall Scholar at the University of London. He is currently based in Kigali, Rwanda.

Light Up the Night This Weekend with LANTERNS! at Wildwood

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Don’t miss THE MOON! at this year’s LANTERNS! Festival March 6 – 8. You can check out our giant moon balloon, delight in a moon-pie, and sip on a Blue Moon beer. Visit six locations spread throughout the park!

Located in Wildwood’s award-winning Asian Woodland Garden, the Asian Vista is a perennial highlight of LANTERNS! Don’t miss the wide variety of foods, including sushi, dumplings, egg rolls and fried rice. Sake and beer will be available as well as hot jasmine tea. Two bands, The Lemon Drops and The News Kids will perform in the garden’s Tea House while a Chinese harpist and a calligrapher will be on hand to showcase their art!

Wildwood is alive with the sound of music! Austria comes to Arkansas in the lobbies of Wildwood’s Cabe Theatre. Piping hot Viennese beef soup with crepe slivers will be served with apple strudel and delectable pastries. Be on the lookout for bands of gypsy vagabonds. The theatre’s south lobby has been transformed into a Alpine winter wonderland – complete with gourmet chocolate shoppe, mountain goats and polka band!

There is a literal pot of gold at the end of Wildwood’s Ireland rainbow, and a bit o’ gold for everyone who makes it through the leprechaun’s maze. Traditional Irish dancers entertain while festival goers dine on two Irish staples: beer and potatoes. For those looking to stay warm, there’s a steaming cup of Irish coffee waiting for you, and there’s Fizzy Leprechaun punch for the kids! Be careful where you step! Daffodils are a’bloom and William Wordsworth, one of Ireland’s greatest poets, will be on hand to tell you all about them!

Are you ready to live la vida LANTERNS!? All the tastes of Mexico can be found in Wildwood’s gazebo. Beer and tequila shots will be on hand, while a mariachi and DJ get the party started. The festival’s famed floating lanterns are launched from the gazebo, piñatas will be broken nightly!

It is England in 1600 in Wildwood’s Studios, and Shakespeare’s greatest works are being performed on the hour! Smoked turkey legs and brats are for sale and you’ll find a few lovely ladies hawking cherry tarts to passers by. Make your way down High Street and be on the lookout for carnival performers of all kinds. If you’re visiting with someone special, get them a fresh orange – these rare fruits are the ultimate symbol love!

Visit America in the 1950s as the Greatest Generation is home and ready to rock! Stop by your local soda shop to enjoy a Coke Float and snack on some classic American treats. Grab your poodle skirt and get on the dance floor where Elvis, Chuck Berry, and the Supremes are waiting for you. When you’re ready for a break, sit bit and enjoy a show by amazing performance artists!

Buy your tickets at http://bit.ly/1v4DDa4.

Chinese New Year – Celebrate the Year of the Goat with Heifer International

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heifer goatToday marks the Chinese New Year. As part of the twelve year cycle of animals, this year marks the Year of the Goat.

A few years back, a goat was featured on the TV show The West Wing in conjunction with Little Rock-based Heifer International.  For $120, an entire goat can be donated which will go to a family to help it achieve nutritional independence.  This link tells how to make a donation for part or all of a goat.  Even contributing $10 from one person can be combined with other donations to add up to $120 for a goat.  Information on other animal sponsor opportunities is available on the Heifer website.

Visitors to the Heifer Village can learn more about Heifer International.  The center features unique, hands on exhibits about the work of Heifer as well as facts about hunger, poverty, and empowerment of individuals.  It is located on Heifer International’s World Headquarters campus in downtown Little Rock next to Clinton Presidential Park.

Heifer International’s mission is to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth. Dan West was a farmer from the American Midwest and member of the Church of the Brethren who went to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as an aid worker. His mission was to provide relief, but he soon discovered the meager single cup of milk rationed to the weary refugees once a day was not enough.

And then he had a thought: What if they had not a cup, but a cow?

That “teach a man to fish” philosophy is what drove West to found Heifer International. And now, over 70 years later, that philosophy still inspires our work to end world hunger and poverty throughout the world once and for all.

A Mary Birthday

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MarySteenburgenDec09It is Oscar month, so it is fitting to highlight at Arkansas’ own Academy Award winning actress, Mary Steenburgen on her birthday.  She was born on February 8, 1953 in Newport, Arkansas.  After moving to North Little Rock as a schoolgirl, she had her first starring role as Emily in the 1971 Northeast High School production of Our Town, which was the new school’s first play.

After moving the start of a successful film career, she started returning to the stage in a London production of Holiday in 1987.  In 1993, she made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Candida (during Roundabout’s initial season with a Broadway house).  Her costars included Robert Foxworth and Robert Sean Leonard.

The next year, she starred in Marvin’s Room in Los Angeles.  She returned to the New York City stage with 2000′s The Beginning of August at the Atlantic Theater Company.  Steenburgen has remained an active supporter and is now a member of Atlantic.  In 2007, she and husband Ted Danson were honored by the Atlantic Theater Company.

Throughout her career, Mary Steenburgen has been a champion of the arts in Central Arkansas.  She has long been a supporter of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, where she and Danson served as honorary chairs of the Rep’s recent successful capital campaign.  In addition, she has been very involved in two other Central Arkansas arts endeavors.  Steenburgen has spoken at acting workshops and lent her support in many other ways for The THEA Foundation (which encourages arts education in Arkansas).

Steenburgen has also been an active supporter of the Oxford American magazine as well as South on Main restaurant and performance venue.

Science of Mixology at this month’s Museum of Discovery Science After Dark

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MuseumMixologysmEach month, the Museum of Discovery stays open late for an event geared for adults.  Science After Dark, held the last Thursday of the month, is for the grown-ups. Why? Because, science is fun…at any age!  

The event takes place from 6pm to 9pm tonight at the Museum of Discovery.

Science After Dark provides visitors the opportunity to have fun and learn about science in a unique setting. Museum educators pick a science-related topic and build an entertaining, interactive evening around it. You never know what will sprout, pop, fizzle, or glow. We invite you to discover the science of having fun.

This month, just in time for Super Bowl and Oscar parties – Explore the science of cocktails and mixology at the first Science After Dark of the year!

This month’s Science After Dark will include mixology with Louis Uzcategui of Big Orange Midtown, molecular mixology with Chef Stephen Burrow of  Forty Two, distilling with Rock Town Distillery, the history of prohibition with Old State House Museum, density columns and more!

Cash bar by Juanita’s, beer sold by Stones Throw Brewery and pizza sold by the slice by Damgoode Pies

Admission: $5 per person; members FREE

YTOG featuring Matt Dickson on tap for Local Live at South on Main tonight

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ytog_cropped.jpg.190x140_q60_cropJoin the Oxford American magazine at South on Main this week for the free Local Live music series, welcoming YTOG featuring Matt Dickson! Call ahead and make a reservation to ensure your seat.

YTOG is a group of Little Rock musicians that have been forming a bond over the last two years.  Little Rock stalwarts Ted Seibs (drums) and Walter Henderson (trumpet) anchor a band steeped in local musical culture and tradition.  Chris Michaels (bass), Matt Dickson (saxophone), and Chris Parker (piano) round out the quintet.

The music gets going at 7:30 p.m.  In order to assure a place to view them, show up early – grab a bite or a drink.