Category Archives: Lecture

15 Highlights of 2015 – Chelsea Clinton was 1,000th Clinton School Speaker

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chelsea

Eleven years to the day of the first Clinton School Speaker Series public program, that initiative celebrated its 1,000th speaker on September 18, 2015.

In “It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!,” Chelsea Clinton tackles the biggest challenges facing us today. She combines facts, charts, photographs and stories to give readers a deep understanding of the world around them and how anyone can make a difference. With stories about children and teens who have made real changes big and small, this book inspires readers of all ages to do their part to make our world a better place.

One of Clinton’s favorite childhood books was “50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth.” As an elementary school student in Little Rock, she helped start a paper-recycling program at her school; as a teenager in Washington, D.C., she led her school’s service club; and as a student at Stanford University, she volunteered as a reading and writing tutor and at the Children’s Hospital.

Today, she is Vice Chair of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation where she helps lead the work of the Foundation across its various initiatives, with a particular focus on work related to health, girls and women, creating service opportunities, and empowering the next generation of leaders. Chelsea holds a BA from Stanford University, an MPH from Columbia University, and an MPhil and doctorate degree in international relations from Oxford University.

The lecture featuring Chelsea Clinton was the 1,000th public program for the Clinton School of Public Service. On September 18, 2004, the Clinton School welcomed their first public program speaker, Senator Bob Dole.

This event will be at the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center at 6pm.

Flying Solo is focus of final LR 2015 Tales from the South, tonight at the Arkansas Arts Center

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talesfromthesouthThe saying goes “It takes a village,” but at times one can find herself “Flying Solo.” Tonight, Tales originates at Best Impressions at the Arkansas Arts Center. The storytellers exploring the theme for this edition are Lennie Dusek, Sherry Rankins-Robinson, and Deborah Carroll.

Music is by The Salty Dogs.

“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. 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.

Dinner is served from 5pm to 6:30pm, the show starts at 7pm.  Admission is $15.  Dinner can be purchased separately.

You MUST purchase your ticket before the show.

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio.

Elysse Newman discusses “NEW (OLD) DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE” tonight at the ADN Lecture

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AN_WENewman_ArchHeadElysse Newman, recently installed as Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design (FJSAD), will be the final 2015 first speaker for the Architecture and Design Network’s lecture series. Her remarks are entitled “NEW (OLD) DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.”

Newman will speak tonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception at 5:30 will precede the remarks.

She has been tasked with developing a “curriculum for the 21st Century”, one that will prepare students for new, unexpected and increasingly complex challenges likely to be encountered in the practice of architecture. Building on the “old” while incorporating the “new”, much of it research based, is what she and her staff will be doing. FJSAD dean, Peter MacKeith, calls Newman “one of a new generation of architectural educators.”

The focus of Newman’s academic research has been and will continue to be multidisciplinary studies involving the fields of perception, psychology and neuroscience, disciplines whose relationship to architecture is of increasing interest to the profession.

Newman received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in history, with psychology and anthropology minors, all from the University of Texas at Austin. She also received a Master of Architecture, a Master of Philosophy in history of technology and science, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in architecture, urban design, planning and landscape architecture, all from Harvard University. She has taught at Florida International University since 2011. She previously was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Tennessee, and a teaching fellow at Harvard University. Newman was a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Architecture and Design Network lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.
Supporters of the non-profit Architecture and Design  Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

Tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Jonathan Karl delivers JN Heiskell Distinguished Lecture

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jonathankarlJonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, will present the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture on Monday, December 7, at 6:30 p.m. in the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. This event was previously scheduled for October but was rescheduled due to Mr. Karl having to cover breaking news.
 The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the program. Seating is general admission. Reservations are appreciated, but not required. RSVP at lellis@cals.org, or 918-3024.
Jonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, covers the White House for World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America. Karl joined ABC News in January, 2004, and has also served as the network’s Senior Congressional Correspondent, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Senior National Security Correspondent, and Senior Political Correspondent.
Karl has covered political campaigns in virtually every state and has reported from more than 30 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, and Sudan. He traveled internationally with the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense to cover topics such as three presidential elections, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the intelligence community, and Congressional reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Jonathan Karl’s extensive experience and political knowledge allow him to discuss foreign affairs, America’s role in the post-September 11 world, national politics, and current events with insight and expertise. Karl also elaborates on what he has learned as moderator and organizer of Sustaining Democracy, a series of panel discussions on America’s changing political landscape. In 2001, Karl won the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting and in 2013 was awarded with a Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism award.
The Heiskell Distinguished Lecture is named for J.N. Heiskell, the longest-serving member of the Library’s Board of Trustees and editor of the Arkansas Gazette for more than seventy years. J.N. Heiskell was the longest-serving member of the Library’s Board of Trustees, serving from 1910-1972, and he served as President from 1950 until his death in 1972. Speakers and programs honor Heiskell’s commitment to excellence in journalism as well as his support of the library. Past speakers include Helen Thomas, Ernest Dumas, Walter Mears, David Pryor, Dexter Filkins, and John O’Hara.

Tonight at Clinton Center, Patterson Hood delivers latest Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture

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Over the course of ten albums with the Drive-By Truckers, the band he co-founded, and three acclaimed solo records, songwriter Patterson Hood has developed a style that blends a heart-rending observation of Southern culture with a healthy respect for the power of myth in ways that have placed him firmly in the company of great American storytellers like Twain and Welty.

“As a songwriter, I’ve spent the better part of my career trying to capture both the Southern storytelling tradition and the details the tall tales left out, putting this dialectical narrative into the context of rock songs,” Hood says of a career that has seen him turn his hand to prose with success as well. Last July, Hood’s op-ed piece, “The South’s Heritage Is So Much More Than Just A Flag,” appeared in the New York Times Magazine, shortly after Hood published the lyrics to a new song inspired by the events in Ferguson, Missouri.

Tonight, Friday, December 4, Patterson Hood tells stories and sings songs about living in (and leaving) the South and his life in Rock and Roll and the Drive-By Truckers in the next installment of the Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series, in partnership with the Clinton School of Public Service and AT&T.

When: Friday, December 4, 2015
Doors Open: 6:00 P.M., Address begins at 7:00 P.M.

Where: Clinton Presidential Center Great Hall 

Sandwich in History today at the Albert Pike Memorial Temple

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Albert Pike Memorial TempleThe monthly architectural history program “Sandwiching in History” visits the Albert Pike Memorial Temple, located at 712 Scott Street. The program begins at noon today.  A historian with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program delivers a brief lecture about the church before leading guests on a tour.

Completed in 1924, the three-story, Classical Revival-style temple was designed by George R. Mann and Eugene John Stern for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. In 1952 a fire damaged the southern end of the building, which was rebuilt and rededicated in 1956. The building’s monumental front facade, which encompasses an entire city block, is lined with nineteen Ionic columns. The interior features beautifully decorated spaces with ornate plaster molding, stained-glass windows, and pink and gray marble.

Sandwiching in History is a program of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.  The AHPP is responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources. Other DAH agencies are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Old State House Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Historic Arkansas Museum.

 

Little Rock’s historic Sanders/Darrow debate recreated tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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Rabbi Sanders (top) and Mr. Darrow (bottom)

Tonight the Central Arkansas Library System offers a chance to go back 85 years and one month to November 3, 1930.

On that date the nationally-known religious skeptic Clarence Darrow debated immortality with Rabbi Ira Sanders at Little Rock High School in an auditorium packed with more than 2,000 people. This event will be explored anew as the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) 2015 Sanders Distinguished Lecture on Thursday, December 3, at 6:30 p.m. in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Avenue. The event is free and open to the public, and will include a reception. The reenactment is in conjunction with Temple B’nai Israel’s sesquicentennial anniversary.

Jason Thompson (Rabbi Sanders) spent ten years acting, writing, and directing for Red Octopus. At Arkansas Repertory Theatre he was featured in The Comedy of Errors, Barefoot in the Park, Wit, and One Ninth. Thompson has trained in improvisation, toured as a stand-up comedian, and performed in films, voice overs, and commercials.

Mark Johnson (Clarence Darrow) has appeared in many plays at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. His film work includes A Time to Kill, The Last Ride, and the forthcoming God’s Not Dead 2. His paintings are shown at Stephano’s Galley in the Heights. He lives in Hillcrest with his son.

The Sanders Distinguished Lecture was established in 2000 to commemorate Rabbi Sanders’ forty years of service on the Boards of Trustees of Little Rock Public Library and CALS, the lectures include topics that support Rabbi Sanders’ commitment to intellectual freedom. Past speakers include Taylor Branch, Alex Kurzem, James Cone, John M. Barry, Ron Mallett, Bobby Roberts, and Lilly Ledbetter.

Reservations are requested, but not required. RSVP online via Eventjoy. For more information contact 918-3000.