Brian Jones & Bruce Adami present recital tonight for Central Ark. Chapter of American Guild of Organists

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Tonight, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents a benefit concert for Out of the Woods Animal Rescue of Arkansas.  

The organists are Brian Jones & Bruce Adami.  The concert is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted for Out of the Woods Animal Rescue.
It starts at 8pm at First Presbyterian Church.

Brian Jones, one of America’s most highly regarded church musicians, is Emeritus Director of Music and Organist at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston, where he directed a widely acclaimed program from 1984 to 2004. He has since served in three interim positions: Director of Cathedral Music at the Cathedral of St John, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Director of Music at Old South Church in Boston; and Associate Organist of Memorial Church, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is active as an organ solo concert artist, and is in demand as guest conductor and accompanist.
In June, 2009, he was Organist in Residence at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco while the cathedral choir was on tour in Europe. He is Director of the Copley Singers, a Boston-based choir he founded in 2006, and with which he has appeared in the New England area as well as on Bermuda, where the singers collaborated with the Ensemble Singers of Bermuda in a concert in May, 2009 celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the island. From January through May, 2010, Brian was Visiting Artist at Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington, Kentucky, where he collaborated with Erich Balling, Director of Music, in the outstanding program which features a choir of girls, boys, and men.

Bruce Adami is organist at Christ Episcopal Church, Exeter, New Hampshire. He has given solo organ recitals throughout New England. For more than thirty years, he has taught organists of all ages. From 1984 through 2004, he was director of music and organist at Brookside Congregational Church, UCC, in Manchester. He holds a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Haskell Thomson.

He is active in the New Hampshire chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), for which he has served as treasurer and dean. In 2009, he was the faculty coordinator for the AGO Pipe Organ Encounter in Manchester. Since 2008, he has taught students through the Young Organist Collaborative, and currently serves on the Young Organist Collaborative Committee.

Juggling Career and Family focus of Anne-Marie Slaughter remarks at Clinton School

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AMS-alt2_300dpiThis evening at the Clinton School at 6pm, Anne-Marie Slaughter will be discussing her book Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family.

When Anne-Marie Slaughter, former dean of the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, accepted her dream job as the first female Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department in 2009, she was confident she could juggle the demands of her position in Washington, D.C., with the responsibilities of her family life in suburban New Jersey.

But then life intervened. Parenting needs caused her to make a decision to leave the State Department and return to an academic career that gave her more time for her family. After that decision and the reactions to it, she began to question the feminist narrative she grew up with and wrote an article for The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” which created a firestorm, sparked intense national debate, and became one of the most-read pieces in the magazine’s history.

In her new book, “Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family,” Slaughter provides a powerful, persuasive, and deeply inclusive vision for how to finish the long struggle for equality between men and women, work and family.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, former dean of the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, served as the first female Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. Slaughter is president and CEO of New America, a nonprofit think tank that is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the digital age through big ideas, technological innovation, next generation politics, and creative engagement with broad audiences.

Our America exhibit at Arkansas Arts Center celebrates Latino presence in American Art

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The Arkansas Arts Center welcomes the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, a major collection of modern and contemporary Latino art from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,  through January 17, 2016.

The exhibition Our America includes 93 works in all media by 72 artists who participated in various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual and performance art and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture and scenes of everyday life.

Our America presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-20th century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s pioneering collection of Latino art.

To enhance the “Our America” exhibition, the AAC is incorporating several digital components including an exhibition preview video on YouTube, a six-part documentary film series and podcasts to accompany several works. The video can be viewed at tiny.cc/YouTubeOurAmerica.

In collaboration with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the AAC is hosting a free film series in six parts. Latino Americans: 500 Years of History is a landmark documentary produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA), featuring interviews with nearly 100 Latinos and exploring more than 500 years of history. Each episode will be shown Sundays at 2 p.m. in the Lower Level Lecture Hall beginning October 18 with a special community discussion led by Dr. Kristin Dutcher Mann, UALR associate professor of history and social studies education coordinator.

The film schedule is as follows:

October 18, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.
Latino Americans “Episode 1: Foreigners in their Own Land (1565-1880)”
Following the screening, Dr. Kristin Dutcher Mann, UALR associate professor of history and social studies education coordinator, will lead a community discussion about the continuing relevance of the colonial and early national periods in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands

October 25, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.
Latino Americans “Episode 2: Empire of Dreams (1880-1942)”

November 1, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.
Latino Americans “Episode 3: War and Peace (1942-1954)”

November 8, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.
Latino Americans “Episode 4: The New Latinos (1946-1965)”

November 15, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.
Latino Americans “Episode 5:  Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980)”
Following the screening, Edma Delgado-Solórzano, UALR doctoral candidate and visiting assistant professor will lead a community discussion about the episode which focuses on the development of the “Chicano” identity.

November 22, 2015 | 2:00 p.m.

Latino Americans “Episode 6: Peril and Promise (1980-2000)”

Additionally, the Arkansas Arts Center will offer several programs and events to complement the exhibition and enhance the impact on both English- and Spanish-speaking visitors.

Our America will feature bilingual labels for each work and a Spanish-language website created by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Select works also feature podcasts with the artist’s commentary. Museum goers can simply call a number, scan a QR code or visit a website for more background on the artist and background on each piece—in English and Spanish.

Artists featured in the exhibition reflect the rich diversity of Latino communities in the United States. Our America showcases artists of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican descent, as well as other Latin American groups with deep roots in the United States. By presenting works by artists of different generations and regions, the exhibition reveals recurring themes among artists working across the country.

The 72 artists featured in the exhibition are ADÁL, Manuel Acevedo, Elia Alba, Olga Albizu, Carlos Almaraz, Jesse Amado, Asco (Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk, Willie Herrón and Patssi Valdez), Luis Cruz Azaceta, Myrna Báez, Guillermo Bejarano, Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez, María Brito, Margarita Cabrera, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Melesio “Mel” Casas, Leonard Castellanos, Oscar R. Castillo, José Cervantes, Enrique Chagoya, Roberto Chavez, Carlos A. Cortéz, Marcos Dimas, Ricardo Favela, Christina Fernandez, Teresita Fernández, iliana emilia garcía, Rupert García, Scherezade García, Carmen Lomas Garza, Ignacio Gomez, Ken Gonzales-Day, Hector González, Luis C. “Louie the Foot” González, Muriel Hasbun, Ester Hernandez, Judithe Hernández, Carmen Herrera, Carlos Irizarry, Luis Jiménez, Miguel Luciano, Emanuel Martinez, María Martínez-Cañas, Antonio Martorell, Ana Mendieta, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Delilah Montoya, Malaquias Montoya, Abelardo Morell, Jesús Moroles, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Pepón Osorio, Amado M. Peña Jr., Chuck Ramirez, Paul Henry Ramirez, Sophie Rivera, Arturo Rodríguez, Freddy Rodríguez, Joseph Rodríguez, Frank Romero, Emilio Sánchez, Juan Sánchez, Jorge Soto Sánchez, Rafael Soriano, Ruben Trejo, Jesse Treviño, John M. Valadez, Alberto Valdés and Xavier Viramontes.

The exhibition is organized by E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support for the exhibition has been provided by Altria Group, the Honorable Aida M. Alvarez, Judah Best, The James F. Dicke Family Endowment, Sheila Duignan and Mike Wilkins, Tania and Tom Evans, Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, The Michael A. and the Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello Endowment, Henry R. Muñoz III, Wells Fargo and Zions Bank. Additional significant support was provided by The Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Support for “Treasures to Go,” the museum’s traveling exhibition program, comes from The C.F. Foundation, Atlanta.

Our America is sponsored in Arkansas by Donna and Mack McLarty, The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, Consulate of Mexico in Little Rock and Alan DuBois Contemporary Craft Fund. Media sponsors include ¡Hola! Arkansas and Telemundo Arkansas.

Musical Legacy of Sister Rosetta Tharpe celebrated tonight by Arkansas Sounds, AETN at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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sister_rosettaTonight at 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Arkansas Sounds presents a detailed look at the life of Sister Rosetta Tharpe with a screening of The Godmother of Rock and Roll and a tribute mini-concert of her songs.

Arkansas native Rosetta Nubin Tharpe (Sister Rosetta Tharpe) was one of gospel music’s first superstars, the first gospel performer to record for a major record label (Decca), and one of the first artists to cross over from gospel to secular music. Tharpe has been cited as an influence by numerous musicians, including Bob Dylan, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Arkansan Johnny Cash.

In partnership with AETN, Arkansas Sounds will celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth with a screening of the PBS American Masters documentary The Godmother of Rock and Roll, followed by a musical tribute performance of her songs.

T-o-n-i-g-h-t The Rep opens The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

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Rep Spelling BeeF-U-N is guaranteed at the Arkansas Rep production of the Tony winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This musical comedy opens tonight for a run through November 8.

From William Finn, the composer of Falsettos, A New Brain and Little Miss Sunshine, comes a Tony Award-winning look at the all-too-familiar world of adolescence, told with hilarity, catchy tunes and surprising poignancy. The musical features a Tony-winning book by Rachel Sheinkin.  It was conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss.  The Rep’s production is directed by Nicole Capri.

The gloves are off in the take-no-prisoners, cold-blooded, dog-eat-dog world of competitive spelling as a menagerie of pre-pubescent misfits vies to d-e-c-i-m-a-t-e their young rivals on the cutthroat path to the national spelling bee championship.

Hormones rage and pulses pound as our awkward adversaries engage in feats of o-r-t-h-o-g-r-a-p-h-i-c prowess. The winner will receive a shining trophy and a luxurious DC hotel room with a big screen TV. The loser – nothing but a broken heart, a pat on the back and a juice box.

“A truly funny, unpredictable night of theatre,” said Bob Hupp. “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeis never the same musical twice. The actors’ wit and verbal agility are put to the test night after night as each new audience brings new hilarity to the performance. If you can spell “cow”, then this musical is for you.”

Join The Rep onstage (quite literally, since several lucky audience members will be asked to show off their spelling chops alongside the cast each night) as we bring you this sidesplitting, irreverent, interactive musical comedy hit!

Intended for adult audiences.

Creative Class of 2015: Jay Jennings

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jennings_jayAuthor, raconteur, and music aficionado Jay Jennings contributes to Little Rock’s cultural life in a variety of ways as a participant and promoter. He may well know more about author Charles Portis, than the author himself.  When not traveling to discuss or create good literature, he is often found at various Little Rock music venues.

Jennings is a freelance writer whose journalism, book reviews and humor have appeared in many national magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, and Travel & Leisure. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review and the San Francisco Chronicle, and is a past chair of the Arkansas Literary Festival.

He began his writing career as a reporter at Sports Illustrated, where he covered college football and basketball, followed by four years as the features editor at Tennis magazine. While at the latter, he edited an anthology of short stories and poetry, Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game(Breakaway Books, 1999), which the New Yorker called “a delight—and perhaps a surprise—to those who know and care about literature.” His work has been recognized by The Best American Sports Writing annual and has appeared in the humor anthology Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor. He is a two-time MacDowell Colony fellow in fiction and was awarded a grant in 2008 from the Arkansas Arts Council for a novel-in-progress. Most recently, he edited a collection of Charles Portis’s work, Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany, which was published in 2012 by Butler Center Books and in paperback in 2013 by Overlook Press.

Carry the Rock: Race, Football and the Soul of an American City was his first book and was named a 2010 Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.

A British Invasion at the Little Rock Wind Symphony tonight

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LRWS flagThe Little Rock Wind Symphony opens its 2015-16 season with “British Invasion,” a program of British music for winds.  Israel Getzov conducts in his debut concert as the LRWS music director.  The concert starts at 7:30pm at Second Presbyterian Church.

The program includes:

  • Jacques Offenbach: La Belle Hélène
  • Gustav Holst: First Suite for Military Band
  • John Williams: Cowboys Overture
  • Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations
  • Malcolm Arnold: The Padstow Lifeboat

Sponsored by Robert and Jo Ann McQuade.

Admission is $10, $8 for seniors, free for students.

The Little Rock Wind Symphony was created in 1993 to recognize the outstanding heritage of the wind band in Arkansas by providing a performance opportunity for professional and semi-professional wind and percussion musicians.