Category Archives: Lecture

J. William Fulbright’s domestic, international politics is focus of Old State House Brown Bag Lunch Lecture today

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Today at noon at the Old State House Museum, the next installment of their regular “Brown Bag Lunch Lecture” will take place.  

This edition features Micah Roberts discussing “Fulbright’s Balancing Act: How Domestic and International Politics Converged in 1959.”

Senator J. William Fulbright’s 1959 “Face the Nation” interview is used to assess how the Arkansas senator prioritized the Civil Rights agenda in Arkansas with his ambitions as a Cold War statesman. Response letters from Arkansans following the interview and also used to assess the importance of domestic vs. international politics for Arkansans.

Micah Roberts is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas where he studies United States foreign relations and politics during the Cold War, with special attention devoted to the Eisenhower-Khrushchev relationship and their use of personal and public diplomacy.

The Old State House is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

 

Michael Bearden of Ballet Arkansas is featured at Clinton School today at noon

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Michael-Bearden-Arkansan-of-the-Year-220x300Today at noon, Ballet Arkansas artistic director Michael Bearden, will discuss the upcoming performance by that company at the Clinton School.

Under the artistic direction of Michael Bearden, Ballet Arkansas will be performing its annual spring mixed repertory show April 17-19, 2015 at the Arkansas Repertory Theater. The show is entitled “Who Cares?” after the finale piece created by world-renowned choreographer George Balanchine with music by George Gershwin.  The entire evening has a line-up of five works.

This show will be groundbreaking for Ballet Arkansas in two ways: Hilary Wolfley, the winner of Ballet Arkansas’s first annual Visions Choreographic Competition will debut the full length version of her award-winning piece and this will be the first time an Arkansas entity will be performing an official Balanchine work.

Bearden will give a presentation on George Balanchine and his impact on the world of dance and what it means in the greater dance world that Ballet Arkansas was authorized by the Balanchine Trust to perform a piece of his work.

Bearden is in his second season as Ballet Arkansas‘ Artistic Director and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Utah Department of Ballet. A native of Searcy, Arkansas, he received his training at the Academy of Ballet Arkansas and went on to have a fourteen year career with Ballet West, in Salt Lake City. As a Principal Dancer at Ballet West, Michael performed leading roles in ballets by some of the world’s greatest choreographers including Balanchine, Ashton, Tudor, Forsythe, Stevenson, Welch, Dove, Tetley, Tharp, Kylian and Christopher Bruce.

With a strong interest in project management, in May 2005, Michael led a team of Ballet West dancers in organizing a special performance to benefit Utah Cancer Foundation. The event, “A Dance for Life” raised more than $20,000. In 2007, he was the project manager for Ballet West‘s 2007 calendar, which highlighted the Artists of Ballet West in some of Utah’s most memorable settings. As a choreographer, Mr. Bearden has created or staged his works for Ballet West, the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, the University of Cincinnati, Belhaven University and Texas Christian University. Michael is grateful for the continued opportunity to give back to the community by helping to guide Ballet Arkansas to new heights.

“Where We Learn Matters” is topic of tonight’s Architecture & Design Network talk given by former LR resident Anisa Baldwin Metzger

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anisaLittle Rock native Anisa Baldwin Metzger will headline an Architecture and Design Network discussion tonight entitled “Where We Learn Matters.”  The program starts at 6pm in the lecture hall at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception will precede it starting at 5:30.

As School District Sustainability Manager for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), headquartered in Washington, D.C., Anisa Baldwin Metzger, oversees a  national effort that  provides guidance and support for the Council’s state subsidiaries and their sustainability efforts. Here in Arkansas, the state USGBC hosts the Arkansas Green Challenge (AGC), a program that pairs mentors – architects and engineers among them – with students and staff to find ways of greening their schools. Now in its fourth year, the Arkansas AGC has reached  eighty schools and more than forty thousand students, helping them understand the influence of school facilities design on matters relating to learning, health and the environment. 

Ms. Baldwin Metzger, who grew up in Little Rock, received a B.S degree in architecture from Washington University, St Louis and earned an M.Arch from the University of Washington, Seattle. Following the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she worked in New Orleans, helping schools rebuild in ways that reflected their commitment to USGBC’s  principles of greening.   Drawing on her own experience, she asserts that “the pursuit of environmental sustainability requires that we utilize design thinking to deal with many complex problems our world faces.” In her talk, she will share strategies for working with schools and school districts throughout the country to develop ways of insuring sustainability.
Growing up in Little Rock, Anisa rode to kindergarten on the back of her dad’s bike. She was raised by parents (Jim Metzger and Deborah Baldwin) who made it second nature to try to waste less, and so she understands the importance of raising sustainability natives—children and adults who act to benefit the earth without needing to be asked.
 
The Arkansas chapter of the USGBC is the co-sponsor of Ms. Baldwin Metzger’s talk.  Supporters of Architecture and Design Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the UA Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture and friends in the community. 
 
All ADN lectures are free and open to the public

“The Golden Hour: Africa’s Rise and the Challenge for American Diplomacy” is topic of Todd Moss talk at Clinton School today at noon

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As Africa’s prominence on the global stage increases, it offers challenges and opportunities for the US.  Todd Moss will examine this today at noon in a Clinton School address.

Todd Moss is chief operating officer and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. Moss also serves as vice president for programs and secretary of the board. In addition to his institutional and fundraising responsibilities, his work focuses on U.S.-Africa relations and financial issues facing sub-Saharan Africa, including policies that affect private investment, debt, and aid. Moss directs the Emerging Africa Project and is currently working on energy in Africa, cash transfers in new oil economies, and new ideas for upgrading US development policy. In the past he led the Center’s work on Nigerian debt, Zimbabwe, the future of the World Bank’s IDA, and the African Development Bank.

Moss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from May 2007 to October 2008 while on leave from CGD. He originally joined the Center in July 2003 from the World Bank where he served as a consultant and advisor to the Chief Economist in the Africa Region. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a Lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the postgraduate Development Studies Institute. Previously, Moss has worked as an Analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and was Assistant Director of U.S. Policy Programs at the Overseas Development Council (ODC). Moss is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and the author of numerous articles and books, including Adventure Capitalism: Globalization and the Political Economy of Stock Markets in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors (Lynne Rienner, 2nd ed., 2011).

Moss is also the author of The Golden Hour  (Penguin/Putnam, 2014), a thriller about American diplomacy and infighting after a coup in West Africa. The novel’s sequel Minute Zero will be released in 2015.

Pulaski County Historical Society tours the Holtzman-Vinsonhaler House this afternoon

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VinsonhalerWhile often the Pulaski County Historical Society hears presentations at its meetings, today the meeting focuses on a tour of a historic Little Rock residence. Refreshments start at 2pm with the tour commencing at 2:30pm.

The Holtzman-Vinsonhaler House stands on the northeast comer of Ninth and Commerce Streets, in Little Rock. This large brick home was constructed about 1898 by William D. Holtzman, a contractor.  Holtzman also built the house two doors to the east, the Holtzman-Vinsonhaler-Vogler House, designed in the Queen Anne Revival style and constructed in the early 1890s (note the stained glass window on its porch) and the W. D. Holtzman house three doors to the east, constructed about 1905 and designed in the Colonial Revival style.  The extended Holtzman family built and/or occupied almost the entire 500 block of East Ninth Street at various times from the 1850s through the 1930s.

Join the PCHS for this wonderful tour to learn the full rich history of one of Little Rock’s most prominent residences.

The Pulaski County Historical Society is dedicated to the following:

 

  • Documenting the history of Pulaski County from the earliest known period to the present.
  • Promoting interest in locating, collecting and preserving historical information on the county’s history.
  • Identifying the contributions of individuals and institutions to the broader community.
  • Popularizing stories of the county’s citizens, its business life and its institutions.
  • Recognizing the relationship of Pulaski County history with that of Arkansas and the South
  • Stimulating research and its presentation.
  • Publishing information about the county’s history.
  • Marking historic places.

“Art. Race. Identity. Bringing ’30 Americans’ to Little Rock” – An Arts Center discussion at Clinton School today

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The Arkansas Arts Center premieres a new exhibit tomorrow – “30 Americans.”  Today at noon at the Clinton School, Dr. Todd Herman will discuss the exhibit.

“30 Americans” presents a sweeping survey of artwork by many of the most important African American artists of the last four decades. Organized by the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, the exhibition features work by such early and influential artists as Barkley L. Hendricks, Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and those of younger and emerging artists, like Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu, and Shinique Smith. Often provocative and challenging, “30 Americans” explores what it means to be a contemporary artist and an African American today. Whether addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, politics, or history—or the seeming lack thereof—the works in the exhibition offer powerful interpretations of cultural identity and artistic legacy.

Dr. Herman, executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center will discuss the steps taken to bring a nationally recognized exhibition to Little Rock and the impact it will have.

A Tin Roof Project Tales from the South: Ruth Coker Burks-the Cemetery Angel

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ruthcokerburksGenerally the first Tuesday of the month is a special Tales from the South called “Tin Roof Project” which involves an autobiography.  While all are special, this one is even more special.

Ruth Coker Burks was a young mother in her 20s when the AIDS epidemic hit Arkansas in the early 1980s. She took it upon herself to care for AIDS patients who were abandoned by their families, and even by medical professionals, who feared the disease. Coker Burks, now 55, has no medical training, but she estimates that she has cared for nearly 1,000 people over the past three decades. She became involved after visiting a friend at a Little Rock hospital where one of the state’s early AIDS patients was dying. “The nurses were drawing straws to see who would go in and check on him,” says Coker Burks. “And so I snuck into his room. And he wanted his mama. And so I marched myself out to the nurses’ station and I said, ‘Can we call his mother?’ And they go, ‘Honey, his mama’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming.’

“And so I went back in and he looked up at me and he said, ‘Oh, Mama, I knew you’d come.’ I stayed with him for 13 hours while he took his last breath. I called his mother and I told her that he had died and she said, ‘I’m not burying him.’ So I had him cremated and I brought him home… I’ve buried over 40 people in my family’s cemetery, because their families didn’t want them.”

Ruth Coker Burks has been featured in regional and national publications and shows, including The Arkansas Times, StoryCorp, the BBC, and NPR’s Morning Edition. Originally from Hot Springs, Ruth now lives in Northwest Arkansas with her family.

Tonight’s program will take place at Best Impressions restaurant at the Arkansas Arts Center.  Music will be provided by The Salty Dogs and bluesman Mark Simpson.

“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.

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.  Any tickets still available at the door can be purchased for $20.

Previous episodes of “Tales from the South” air on KUAR Public Radio on Thursdays at 7pm.  This program will air on April 16.