Category Archives: Literature

Noon today – Kent Babb discusses new book on Allen Iverson at Clinton School

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UACS iverson bookToday at noon, the Clinton School Speaker Series features Kent Babb discussing his new book: Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.

Kent Babb is a Sports Enterprise Writer at The Washington Post, which he joined in October of 2012, and has had his long-form sports journalism honored eight times by the Associated Press Sports Editors, including first place in feature writing in 2005 and 2010.

In his new biography, “Not A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson,” Babb profiles one of the America’s most famous athletes and his rise from a troubled past to become one of the most successful and highly compensated athletes in the world, as well as what drove his failures. Babb illustrates how Iverson was both the hard-charging athlete who played every game as if it were his last, as well as the hard-partying athlete who spent more money than most people could spend in a dozen lifetimes – blowing more than $150 million of his NBA earnings alone.

Through interviews with those closest to Iverson, Babb brings to life a private, loyal, and often generous Allen Iverson who rarely made headlines, revealing the back story behind some of Iverson’s both memorable and darkest moments.

THE COLOR PURPLE shown and explored tonight as part of Banned Books Week

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cals bbweek purpleThe Arkansas Literary Festival will celebrate Banned Books Week with an interview reenactment, a film, and a writing contest. A program based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award-winning novel, The Color Purple, will be presented on Wednesday, September 30, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. After the presentation, the 1985 film will be shown. The event is free and open to the public.

Actresses Verda Davenport Booher and Vivian Norman will reenact part of an interview with Alice Walker. The interview touches on Walker’s inspiration for the book and on the success it has had, as well as the film and the musical.

Written as a series of letters, the 1982 novel been challenged repeatedly because of language, sexuality, and violence. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for eleven Academy Awards. A successful musical based upon the book opened on Broadway in 2005, and was nominated for ten Tony awards. Oprah Winfrey, nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress in the film, was one of the producers of the musical. A pared-down revival of the musical is slated to open on Broadway in December, 2015.

Banned Books Week (September 27−October 3, 2015) is an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association celebrating the freedom to read. It highlights the value of free and open access to information and the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship and books that have been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.

The Festival’s celebration of Banned Books Week is sponsored by the Fred K. Darragh Foundation. This is the Festival’s fifth annual Banned Books Week presentation. Other titles that have been featured include The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, A Clockwork Orange, A Doll’s House, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The Arkansas Literary Festival is a program of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). For more information about the 2016 Arkansas Literary Festival, visit ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org, or contact Brad Mooy at 918-3098. For information on volunteering at the Festival, contact Angela Delaney at 918-3095.

Happy 50th Birthday to the National Endowment for the Arts & National Endowment for the Humanities

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NEANEH50On September 29, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 at a White House Rose Garden ceremony, attended by scholars, artists, educators, political leaders, and other luminaries.

The law created the National Endowment for the Humanities as an independent federal agency, the first grand public investment in American culture. It identified the need for a national cultural agency that would preserve America’s rich history and cultural heritage, and encourage and support scholarship and innovation in history, archeology, philosophy, literature, and other humanities disciplines.

On this occasion, President Johnson said: “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.”

This new law was the fruit of two presidents, several senators and representatives, and four previous pieces of legislation. Separate bills had been introduced, in previous years, into the House by Representative Frank Thompson (D-NJ), and into the Senate by Senators Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) and Jacob Javits (R-NY). Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI) had overseen hearings on some of this preliminary legislation, beginning in October 1963, before the death of President John F. Kennedy.

Over the years, the NEA and NEH have awarded millions of dollars to Little Rock based institutions, organizations and individuals through direct appropriations.  They have also impacted Little Rock cultural life through funding of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Arkansas Arts Council, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, and U.S. Conference of Mayors among others. These groups have either re-granted the dollars to Little Rock entities or undertaken projects which have directly impacted and improved life in Little Rock.

 

My Favorite Banned Books

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BBW15_518x800This is Banned Books Week.  Here are some of my favorite banned books.  Heck, they are some of my favorite books period.

  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
  • All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
  • The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
  • A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
  • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
  • A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  • A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Go to the Central Arkansas Library System or a bookstore and get a copy of one of these this week.  Or if you already own them all, read one this week.

Sculpture Vulture for Banned Books Week – Dee Brown

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20120519-114242.jpgThis week is Banned Books Week.  One of the books which has often appeared on Banned Books list is Arkansan Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.  In honor of that, today’s Sculpture Vulture revisits Kevin Kresse’s sculpture of the author which is located at the CALS branch which bears his name.

Visitors to the Dee Brown Library are greeted by Kevin Kresse’s 2004 sculpture of the celebrated author. The bronze likeness depicts Brown with a bepenciled hand raised to his chin as if in the midst of a wondrous thought while writing. The titles of some of his books surround the pedestal including his most famous book: 1971’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Brown was a graduate of Little Rock High and Arkansas State Teachers College (now Little Rock Central and University of Central Arkansas, respectively). After a career as a librarian and bivocational but prolific author, he returned to Little Rock in 1973 and focused full time on his writing. He died in 2002.

Sanderia Faye reading from MOURNER’S BENCH tonight

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The UALR Institute on Race and Ethnicity and UALR Public Radio tonight are sponsoring a reading by Arkansas native Sanderia Faye  at 7:00 p.m. at the UALR Ottenheimer Library.

Originally from Gould, Faye will read from her debut novel, Mourner’s Bench, and take questions from the audience. A book signing will follow and copies of Mourner’s Bench will be available for purchase at the event.

Parking is available in Lot 4, just north of the Ottenheimer Library, or in the lot to the east of the parking deck on the east side of the UALR campus on 32nd street.

Related Event:

Mourner’s Bench is also the book we are discussing during KUAR’s Readers Review on October 7.

In partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System, KUAR introduces community conversations for book lovers, called KUAR’s Readers Review.

PUSS IN BOOTS launches Ark. Arts Center’s 2015/16 Children’s Theatre season

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PussInBoots_posterThe Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre is excited to begin the 2015/2016 Main Stage season with Puss in Boots, September 18-October 4.

Based on Charles Perrault’s world famous feline fun-time fairytale, Puss in Boots is an electric story set in song and dance. This fun for all ages show will run Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. September 19 through October 4.

Be amazed as swashbuckling Puss the Cat raises his master, Claude, from a down-and-out miller’s son to the heights of happiness. Enjoy all the madcap fun as Puss brandishes, not his sword, but his superior feline intellect to conquer kings, ogres and even a few rabbits along the way. It’s all about brain over brawn. Oh, and you’ll just love his shoes.

The cast includes:

  • Chad Bradford of Little Rock as Puss;
  • Mark Hansen of Little Rock as Claude;
  • Katie Campbell of Little Rock as Coquette;
  • Nick Spencer of Nashville, Tenn. as Major Domo;
  • Jeremy Matthey of Little Rock as the King;
  • Lauren Linton of Memphis; Aleigha Morton of Beebe; and Moriah Patterson of Sheridan as the Trio.

Bradley D. Anderson is the artistic director for the production. Costumes are designed by Erin Larkin and Nikki Webster, technical direction by Drew Posey, lighting design by Mike Stacks, setting and properties design by Miranda Young, choreographed by Erin Fowler and Sarah Gasser is the stage manager.  

The 2015/2016 season of the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre will feature six Main Stage shows: Puss in Boots; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; The Gingerbread Man; The 13 Clocks; Schoolhouse Rock Live! and The Adventures of Peter Rabbit. And is sponsored by: Presenting Sponsor, Arkansas BlueCross Blue Shield; Fall Season Sponsor, Centennial Bank; Spring Season Sponsors, The Fine Arts Club of Arkansas and Dr. Loren Bartole, ‘Family Foot Care’; Additional Support Provided by The Morris Foundation and Media Sponsor, Little Rock Family Magazine.

$12.50 General admission, $10 for Arkansas Arts Center members, $10 per person for groups of 10 or more (Children 2 years of age and under are free, however the child must remain in an adult’s lap at all times.)

Best enjoyed by all ages.