Category Archives: Government

Arkansas Sounds brings legendary Cate Brothers Band to Ron Robinson Theater tonight

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cate_brothersArkansas Sounds music series brings Arkansas music legends The Cate Brothers Band to the Ron Robinson Theater stage tonight.  The band reunites for a special performance of their biggest and best songs.

Arkansas music legends Earl and Ernie Cate, twin brothers from Fayetteville, Arkansas, performed southern soul music in the mid-1960s at clubs throughout the South. Both are singers, with Earl on guitar and Ernie on piano. Since the mid-1970s, they have been prolific performers and recording artists of their signature blued-eyed soul and rock music.

At this special performance, they will perform their biggest and best songs, including their Top 25 hit, “Union Man.”

Admission is $20, the concert starts at 7pm.

Arkansas Sounds is a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System. Focused on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present, Arkansas Sounds presents concerts, workshops, and other events to showcase Arkansas’s musical culture.

Free “Movies at MacArthur Museum” tonight WAY OF THE WARRIOR

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In partnership with AETN, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host a screening of the documentary Way of the Warrior. The screening starts at 6:30pm tonight at the museum in MacArthur Park.  This film was chosen for November as a way to commemorate Native American Heritage Month.

Free admission. Free popcorn and beverages provided.

This documentary examines the visceral nature of war and the bravery of Native-American veterans who served in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War–and came to grips with the difficult post-war personal and societal conditions.

Their stories are examined through the prism of what it means to be “ogichidaa,” one who protects and follows the way of the warrior. Dramatic historical footage, period photographs and sound effects juxtaposed with photos of veterans in more genial settings, away from combat with family and friends stateside, create portrait of not just the warrior, but the paradox of a warrior’s motivations.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History is a program of the City of Little Rock’s Parks and Recreation Department.

New book EMPIRE OF COTTON focus of Clinton School lecture

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In “Empire of Cotton,” Sven Beckert tells the epic story of the rise and fall of the cotton industry, its centrality to the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism. The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners. Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities.

“Empire of Cotton” weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist. The book won the Bancroft Award, The Philip Taft Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Sven Beckert is an American historian and Laird Bell professor of American History at Harvard University, with a particular emphasis on the history of capitalism, including its economic, social, political, and transnational dimensions.

The program starts at 6pm tonight at the Clinton School of Public Service.

Little Rock Look Back: Clinton Center Opened 11 Years Ago Today

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SkipMany remember November 18, 2004, for the rain and cold wind which greeted visitors to the opening of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center and Park.  In the years which lead up to that day, November 18, 2004, was known simply as “Game Day” for a group of people.  The chief one was Skip Rutherford.

Overseeing the planning for the Clinton Presidential Center and the events surrounding it had been the focus of James L. “Skip” Rutherford for many years. A FOB for decades, he had stayed in Little Rock when so many went to Washington DC in 1993.

He oversaw the planning for the Clinton Library and led the Clinton Foundation.  No detail was too small or insignificant for him to consider. For months leading to the opening he led meetings to help restaurants, hotels, and attractions understand the scope of the opening.

Together with Dean Kumpuris and Bruce Moore on behalf of the City of Little Rock and Stephanie Streett of the Clinton Foundation, he reviewed plans for the Clinton Presidential Park and the streets and neighborhoods around the Clinton Presidential Center.

He used his connections with the business community in Little Rock and throughout the state to discuss the importance of a Presidential Library regardless of one’s personal political affiliations.  He withstood critics who second-guessed everything from the cost, the design, the location, the purpose, and even the anticipated tourism and economic impacts.

Finally the big day had come.  If the weather was not ideal, that was almost inconsequential. It was still the culmination of more than seven years hard work.

However, the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center was not the end of the task. It merely was the move from one phase to another. A few years later, Skip’s role would change as he would leave the Foundation and become the second Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service.

Tax proposal for Arts Center, Military Museum, Parks advances

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macmusThe Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission voted to refer a 2% hotel tax to the City Board of Directors to eventually be put before the voters.

arkartsThis tax would be used for capital upgrades at the two MacArthur Park museums.  It is expected to go before the City Board in December for an election in February.

More information on this process and the individual proposals from both museums will be featured on the Culture Vulture blog in coming weeks.

New Public Radio Network in Arkansas launched

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natural state newsThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) awarded a $278,300 grant to four Arkansas public radio stations to support the creation of a statewide multimedia journalism collaboration based at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  Natural State News will be a statewide news service focusing on reaching rural areas of the state.

KUAR, UALR’S public radio station, will be the lead station for the project, joined by Fayetteville’s KUAF, Jonesboro’s KASU, and Texarkana’s KTXK. Ben Fry, general manager of KUAR and classical station KLRE, will coordinate the collaboration to create and broadcast thematically unified content relevant to the interests and needs of Arkansans.

Though the stations have often collaborated, the radio news service marks their first official joint venture. Together, the stations’ staff members at the stations will report stories centered on three themes:

  • Education
  • Health
  • Energy

NSN will report breaking news as well as produce related special interest stories. The resulting multimedia content will be published online and heard on local and national public radio programs such as NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Here and Now.

“CPB is pleased to support this historic collaboration of Arkansas public media stations,” said Bruce Theriault, senior vice president of journalism and radio, CPB. “The Natural State News collaboration is an example of increased media integration and a pathway for stations to work together to maximize resources while expanding their high-quality journalism.”

The grant will help fund four new positions: a managing editor, two additional reporters, and a partner manager, who will raise additional funds for the project. Three of the new positions will be based in Little Rock, with one reporter to work out of Jonesboro.

Natural State News plans to break new ground with in-depth multimedia reporting to reach extensively into rural Arkansas to tell unfolding stories about wealth, poverty, race, and decision-making in education, healthcare, and the environment. Little-told stories from the region will give a distinctive vantage point for understanding larger national experiences.

NSN will partner with the UALR Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), and the print publication El Latino to provide and promote its diverse, nuanced content. All stories will be available in both Spanish and English, and NSN is committed to supporting diversity in its staff, student interns, and stories.

For more information on the partner stations, go to their websites: KLRE/KUAR, KUAF, KASU and KTXK.

 

Four Elections which shaped 20th Century focus of Clinton School lecture tonight

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Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century

6pm, November 16 – Clinton School Sturgis Hall

In her book, “Pivotal Tuesdays,” Margaret O’Mara looks back at four pivotal presidential elections of the past 100 years to show how they shaped the twentieth century. Exploring personalities, critical moments, and surprises of the elections of 1912, 1932, 1968, and 1992, this book shows how elections are windows into changing economic times and how history is made when ordinary people cast their ballots. A book signing will follow.

Margaret O’Mara is an associate professor of History at the University of Washington in Seattle, specializing in the political and economic history of the twentieth century United States. Her research and writing focuses on the history of the high-tech industry, the history of American politics, and the connections between the two. In addition to her academic work, she has collaborated with government, business, and civic organizations on a range of projects exploring how innovation drives growth and change.