Creative Corridor Banners Unveiled 

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The designs for the Main Street Creative Corridor banner competition were officially “unveiled” 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, at the parking deck at 2nd and Main streets as artists Stephano and Virmarie DePoyster who created the winning works are introduced.
Also speaking were Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, Downtown Partnership Executive Director Gabe Holmstrom, and Arkansas Arts Center Executive Director Todd Herman.

Funding for the two outside banners and lighting for all three comes from the private foundation ArtPlace. Funding for the middle banner comes from the Little Rock Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Science after Dark at Museum of Discovery tonight – Science of Animals

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sep mod science after darkEach month the Museum of Discovery hosts “Science after Dark” for adults aged 21 and up.  This month’s theme is “Science of Animals.”

The program will feature a lot of animals for guests to meet at this month’s Science After Dark ! It’s all happening this Thursday from 6-9 p.m. Admission is $5. Bring cash for pizza by Damgoode Pies, beer by Stone’s Throw Brewing and cocktails by Juanita’s Tex-Mex Restaurant & LIVE Music Hub. Thanks to the event sponsor Whole Foods Market Little Rock!

The program runs from 6pm to 9pm. Cost is $5, FREE for museum members. (Go ahead and get a membership, it will more than pay for itself within a year!)

BEND, examining Japanese American experience in World War II, to be presented tonight

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Bend-DrawingCloseUp72-bannerTonight at 7pm at the Ron Robinson Theater, the Arkansas Archeological Survey presents a play about the Japanese American experience during World War II.
Kimi Maeda’s solo performance, Bend, tells the true story of two men interned in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II: Maeda’s father, an Asian Art historian currently suffering from dementia, and the subject of his research, Isamu Noguchi, a half-Japanese-half-American sculptor. Weaving together live feed projections of sand drawings with archival footage from the 1940s, Maeda’s performance poses important questions about how the Japanese American internment camps will be remembered.
The Arkansas Archeological Survey is partnering with the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s Japanese Club, and the University of Arkansas in Little Rock (UALR) to help teach the public about the state’s rich history. Art, particularly the performance and active creation of art, as Maeda does, is an important way to communicate the emotion of past events. Bend will be performed in Little Rock and McGehee. Dr. Johanna Miller-Lewis, a historian at UALR, and Richard Yada, who was born at Rohwer, will participate in a talk back session following the performance.
Bend in Little Rock – Thursday, August 27, 7 PM
Ron Robinson Theater
100 River Market Avenue
Purchase your tickets now. $10.00
This project is supported by The Jim Henson Foundation, Tapp’s Arts Center, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, Alternate ROOTS, the Arkansas Arts Council, the New England Japanese American Citizens League (NEJACL), the Arkansas Humanities Council, the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and the Ko Festival of Performance.

Tonight at 8 at South on Main, the Oxford American presents Pokey LaFarge

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OA SOM PokeyThe Oxford American magazine is excited to welcome Pokey LaFarge to the South on Main stage! Pokey is kicking off our 2015 – 2016 Concert Series as part of the Archetypes & Troubadours sub-series. Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time.

The concert starts at 8pm.  This series is made possible in part by the generosity of The Summer Foundation.

Tickets are $17 (General Admission), $22 (Reserved), and $25 (Premium Reserved). View the South on Main reserved seating map here. Please take a look at this very important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets. Full season ticket pricing and options are also available in a consolidated format, here.

St. Louis-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Pokey LaFarge draws from a deep well of American musical traditions to create distinctively personal music that’s timeless rather than retro, transcending the confines of genre in a manner that reflects the artist’s openhearted attitude. Incorporating elements of early jazz, ragtime, country blues, Western swing, and beyond, LaFarge has created a vibrant, deeply expressive body of work that embodies an expansive musical vision and vivid storytelling sensibility that are wholly his own. He’s also earned a reputation as a tireless and uniquely charismatic live performer, winning a loyal international fan base that regularly packs his rousing, celebratory live shows.

Pokey LaFarge’s latest album, Something in the Water, was released in April 2015. Something in the Water finds the artist doubling down on his established creative strengths, expanding and deepening his musical reach on such new originals as the wry, rollicking title track, the swaggering ragtime workout “Wanna Be Your Man,” the infectiously jazzy “Underground,” the evocative instrumental “Cairo, Illinois,” the exotic ballad “Barcelona,” and the swinging album-closer “Knocking the Dust off the Rust Belt Tonight,” whose witty lyrics underline the album’s proudly Midwestern sensibility.

Tonight’s Oxford American Local Live at South on Main – Marcella & Her Lovers

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llsom marcellaTonight at 7:30pm at South on Main, join the Oxford American magazine for this week’s Local Live concert.  This week it features Marcella & Her Lovers! As always, Local Live is free and open to the public. To guarantee a table/seat for this popular series, call ahead at (501) 244-9660. Local Live is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Ben and Jane Hunt Meade.

Whether arcing the curve of the highest golden high, or lighting the depth of the lowest blue low, the music and voice of Marcella Simien and her Lovers can take you there, to that magic spot where time slows down, worry and concern retreat, and everybody feels fine, primed and ready for an unforgettable time.

Like savoring the flavors in a dish made by a master chef, one detects in Simien’s music subtle yet devastating touches of the Memphis and Muscle Shoals sounds infused with the fingerprint of her Creole ancestors—that now laughing, now sighing Zydeco accordion and exhortations shouted in Creole French.

Throughout, Simien’s voice, an instrument fierce and galloping with dignified pleading, floats above the music’s cradled melee like a night star, fondly reminding us of a mysterious past while at once exciting us with the romance of the uncertain future.

An eclectic mixture of the dark magic of Louisiana swamps and the angelic grind of Memphis soul, Marcella’s repertoire spans Stax classics to wall-of-sound pop unforgettables.

Learn more at: marcellaandherlovers.com

Little Rock Look Back: City Council approves 1935 auditorium plan

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An August 25, 1935, rendering in the ARKANSAS GAZETTE of the proposed Little Rock auditorium at Capitol and Scott Streets.

An August 25, 1935, rendering in the ARKANSAS GAZETTE of the proposed Little Rock auditorium at Capitol and Scott Streets.

On August 26, 1935, the City of Little Rock took its first significant step in a decade for the creation of a City auditorium..  Under the leadership of Mayor R. E. Overman, the City Council approved authorization for the City to apply for $1,000,000 from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (PWA) for the construction of an auditorium.  The PWA had issued a September 16, 1935, deadline for applications to be received as it sought to spend $4.8 billion in construction projects.

The auditorium plan was announced on Saturday, August 24, 1935.  Much preparation had already been undertaken before the project was publicly unveiled.  Private presentations hhad taken place, a team of architects had been chosen (Eugene Stern and the firm of Wittenberg & Delony), and a location had been selected.

The auditorium complex was slated for a block bounded by Capitol, Scott, Fourth and Cumberland Streets.  The Women’s City Club building on that block would remain with the new structure being built to wrap around two sides of the existing structure. The site was chosen because it was one block east of the Main Street business corridor and near existing meeting locations such as the Boys Club, Albert Pike Hotel, Albert Pike Masonic Lodge and several churches.

As planned by the architects, this structure’s front façade would have run the length of the Capitol Avenue side of the block.  The building was proposed to be constructed of concrete, stone and steel.  It would have a large hall with a proscenium stage and seating capacity of 4,000 with overflow of an additional 500.  The adjoining exhibition hall could seat 3,500 people.  The plan called for 150 cars to be parked in the building, and an additional 100 cars to be parked on a surface lot on the site.

Following an August 26 closed door meeting to discuss the project from which members of the public and press were excluded, in open session the City Council voted to pursue the funding for the million dollar auditorium.  If approved by the PWA, the funds would be provided in grants and loans, to be paid by over a 35 year period.

The auditorium proposal was filed with the PWA in Washington in September 1935.  Throughout the next several months, Mayor Overman and the city were engaged in a series of conversations and negotiations with the PWA for the expansion of both the water system and the sewer system. This diverted attention from pursuing the auditorium immediately.  This specific auditorium project stalled.  But because the plan had been filed by the September 16 deadline, it allowed the City to make use of PWA funds a few years later which would lead to the construction of Robinson Auditorium.

 

RSVP today for August 29 Lights! Camera! Arkansas! FREE seminar at Old State House Museum

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LCA_topThis Saturday, the Old State House Museum will host a FREE seminar to explore Arkansas’s connection with the film and television industry.  It will take place from 9am to 2:30pm on August 29.

Activities will include a screening of the 2001 Academy-award winning Best Live Action Short Film “The Accountant.” Speakers including Robert Cochran, Suzanne McCray, Ben Fry, Stephen Koch and Philip Martin will discuss topics including women in film, Broncho Billy Anderson, music in Arkansas and Arkansas in the rise of regional Southern cinema.

“It gives a great sense of state pride knowing how incredibly important Arkansas has been to the film industry from a historical, technical and social standpoint,” said Suzanne McCray, one of the seminar’s presenters. “From the very first cowboy in film to the great up-and-coming actors and directors of today, Arkansas has made its case as a relevant and essential part of film and television.”

OSH logoSimilarly, presenter Bob Cochran said that his talk about a common film character-type is a perfect analogy for Arkansas. “There’s a standard trope of Hollywood films, the outsider — the character who the audience doesn’t expect anything from,” Cochran said. “However, by the end of the film this outsider reveals unexpected qualities and potential. That’s a wonderful analogy for the film industry in the state of Arkansas.”

An RSVP to the free event is required, and reservations can be made by emailing georganne@arkansasheritage.org or calling (501) 324-9685 today to reserve a place. The seminar is programming in support of the “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” exhibit at the Old State House Museum, which will be on display until January 25, 2016.

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