Category Archives: Literature

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap. FIGHT CLUB tonight on CALS Ron Robinson screen

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Image result for fight club filmAs part of Banned Books Week, the Central Arkansas Library System is showing the 1999 film Fight Club, which is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk.

Starring Helena Bonham-Carter, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt, Fight Club tells the story of an insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soapmaker who form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more. The movie was directed by David Fincher.

The screening starts at 7pm tonight (September 26) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

Prior to the screening, at 6:00pm, UFC and Bellator professional fighter and jujitsu competitor Roli DelGado will appear in person. Meet him and get a few fighting tips! Del Gado was featured on The Ultimate Fighter Season 8.

Also, the winner of the 2019 CALS Banned Books Week Writing Contest will be announced and awarded a $300 prize.

Science After Dark: Wizards, Muggles and Science at the Museum of Discovery

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The Museum of Discovery is turning into Hogwarts tonight (Sept 26) for Science After Dark: Wizards, Muggles & Science!  The event lasts from 6pm to 9pm.

Not only are guests going to spend the evening casting a spell of science, they can support an amazing non-profit and one of the regular Science After Dark partners, Raptor Rehab Of Central Arkansas!

If you purchase your tickets in advance at https://sales.museumofdiscovery.org/generaladmission.aspx, you will see at checkout there is an option to donate to a “community partner”, your donation in any amount will go to rescuing and rehabilitating injured birds such as owls and hawks. If you purchase tickets at the door, you will have the option to donate as well.

Thank you for helping us support Raptor Rehab Of Central Arkansas!

You must be at least 21 to enter. Tickets are $5 or free for members and can be purchased online or at the door.

BEYOND THE BIG SHOOTOUT is topic of noon Clinton School program today

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Image result for mark mcdonald beyond the big shootout

December 1969 – the top two college football teams in the country faced off in Fayetteville with the national championship on the line.  In the stands were the US President, a future US President and several leaders of congress.

Known as The Big Shootout, it was more than just a football game.  Today (September 24) at noon, author Mark S. McDonald will be discussing his book at that historic game that changed the face of football forever. This is part of the Clinton School’s speaker series and will be held at Sturgis Hall.

Right after the game, your life changed, everything changed … recruiting of black athletes in Dixie, new safety rules in football, tighter crowd control, more TV coverage and bigger money in college athletics … Suddenly, for the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns, and players and coaches nationwide, bulbs on a scoreboard no longer defined them. Instead, life came rushing at them.

In a blur, these superior, highly trained athletes were no longer football stars. They were fathers, community leaders, victims of car wrecks and cancer, businesses and marriages gone bad. Some Saturday’s heroes lost their way, others used football to find faith. The competition took on new and different meaning. Who could have predicted such outcomes?

It’s all here, in words of those who lived this epic journey, supported by dozens of period photos and clever original illustrations from award-winning artist Bill DeOre. In his Beyond The Big Shootout – 50 Years of Football’s Life Lessons, author Mark S. McDonald has emerged from his own football past to create a historical narrative on a giant canvas, unlike any other.

For some, the game itself was cruelly damaging. For others, it brought dance-in-the-street joy. But today, looking back, who really won? Was there really a loser?

After reading this one, you will know.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

Celebrate Banned Books Week with the Central Arkansas Library System

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Join CALS for its annual celebration of Banned Books Week, during which entertaining CALS events will commemorate the battle against censorship!

Groups that resist book banning have protected classic works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Lord of the Flies. These books that address important themes often contain disturbing scenes, as they reflect realistic challenges and situations in our world. But without disturbing us, authors would not be able to convey important truths such as the violence and injustice caused by racism, or the mistreatment of the mentally ill.

Banned Books Week honors freedom of choice for individuals, as well as the freedom to write on and read about important cultural topics even when those topics have the power to offend.

More information on the CALS Banned Books Week activities can be found here: https://cals.org/banned-books-week/

Points South, new podcast series from Oxford American, is launched

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The Oxford American has announced the premiere of Points South, a new magazine-style podcast.

The first episode, now available across platforms, features Ken Burns and Rhiannon Giddens on African and African-American contributions to country music—from the Carter Family to Lil Nas X—and how those influences have been erased in American cultural memory. Filmmakers Julie Dunfey and Ken Burns discuss the soundscape of their PBS documentary Country Music. Plus: Dom Flemons performs from Black Cowboys live from the Oxford American stage.

The premiere season, which will air through the end of the year, will feature longform storytelling, live music performances, and conversations with Southern artists and writers. Upcoming episodes include John Paul White, Mary Miller, Los Texmaniacs, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and many more. The season will also include “The Prologue,” a series of feature-length segments that examine underreported stories in Southern history and their reverberations in the present.

Points South’s music is arranged by Trey Pollard (S-Town), co-owner of Spacebomb Group, the podcast’s post-production team, which includes a house band that performs the Points South theme music and score. Spacebomb will also co-produce adaptations of stories from the OA. In addition to live music recorded from the Oxford American stage, Points South will feature performances and conversations captured by Fayetteville Roots Festival.

This podcast is made possible by support from Arkansas Humanities Council, UAMS, and Andy and Somers Collins.

For more information, visit oxfordamerican.org/pointssouth. Points South is available across podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and Simplecast.

Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields discuss The Long Southern Strategy at Clinton School and Clinton Foundation program tonight

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44765473Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields will speak tonight about their book The Long Southern Strategy tonight (September 19) at 6pm.  The program, a joint presentation of the Clinton School and Clinton Foundation, will take place in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center.

The Southern Strategy is traditionally understood as a Goldwater and Nixon-era effort by the Republican Party to win over disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the GOP, the party abandoned its past support for civil rights and used racially coded language to capitalize on southern white racial angst.

However, that decision was but one in a series of decisions the GOP made not just on race, but on feminism and religion as well, in what Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields call the “Long Southern Strategy.”

In the wake of Second-Wave Feminism, the GOP dropped the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and promoted traditional gender roles in an effort to appeal to anti-feminist white southerners, particularly women. And when the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention became increasingly fundamentalist and politically active, the GOP tied its fate to the Christian Right. With original, extensive data on national and regional opinions and voting behavior, Maxwell and Shields show why all three of those decisions were necessary for the South to turn from blue to red.

To make inroads in the South, however, GOP politicians not only had to take these positions, but they also had to sell them with a southern “accent.” Republicans embodied southern white culture by emphasizing an “us vs. them” outlook, preaching absolutes, accusing the media of bias, prioritizing identity over the economy, encouraging defensiveness, and championing a politics of retribution. In doing so, the GOP nationalized southern white identity, rebranded itself to the country at large, and fundamentally altered the vision and tone of American politics.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.