Tag Archives: Arkansas Humanities Council

Legacies & Lunch – Chris Engholm discusses White River Memoirs today at noon

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white_riverThe White River and its tributaries represent the most ecologically intact watershed in the continental United States. Over a million people inhabit it, living in 234 communities in 60 counties. For the past two years, Chris Engholm has traveled the White River in a cedar strip canoe, listening to people connected to it and collecting the artwork of 25 fine artists who maintain a special relationship with the river.

This artwork is showcased in a gallery exhibition, White River Memoirs, on view in Butler Center Galleries, 401 Pres. Clinton Ave., now through July 25, 2015. At Legacies & Lunch, Engholm will discuss his experiences and present visual documentation of his findings.

The program takes place today at noon at the Darragh Center on the Main Library campus.

Legacies and Lunch is sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided.

Rebecca Wells headlines first day of 12th Annual Arkansas Literary Festival

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2015 ALF 1The 12th annual Arkansas Literary Festival kicks off today.

  • From 5pm to 7pm, there will be a book sale preview party at River Market Books & Gifts in the Cox Creative Center.
  • At 5:30, the exhibit “Page Turners” featuring Bryan Collier will open at Hearne Fine Art.
  •  At 6pm, there will be a Summer Reading Club Preview on the 3rd floor of the Main Library.
  •  Rebecca Wells will discuss “Divine Secrets” at 7pm on stage at the Ron Robinson Theatre. She is the author of the “Ya Ya Sisterhood” books. She will also return to Little Rock in 2016 to perform her one-woman show at the Arkansas Rep.

Through the Writers In The Schools (WITS) initiative, the Festival will provide presentations by several authors for Pulaski county elementary, middle, and senior high schools and area colleges.

Support for the Literary Festival is provided by sponsors including Central Arkansas Library System, Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries (FOCAL), Arkansas Humanities Council, Fred K. Darragh Jr. Foundation, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, ProSmart Printing, Little Rock Family, KUAR FM 89.1, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sync, Arkansas Life, Clinton Foundation, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Windstream, Arkansas Federal Credit Union, Arkansas Times, Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP, Hampton Inn Downtown/McKibbon Hotel Group, Capital Hotel, Historic Arkansas Museum , TransAmerica, Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, Arkansas Library Association, Pulaski Technical College, Union Pacific, Sequoyah National Research Center, Gibbs Elementary School, Rockefeller Elementary School, Hendrix College, Hendrix College Project Pericles Program, Arkansas Women’s Forum, Philander Smith College, University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, East Harding, University of Arkansas at Little Rock English Department, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Rhetoric and Writing, Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing/Hearne Fine Art, Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, Literacy Action of Central Arkansas, Christ Episcopal Church, and Lamar Advertising. The Arkansas Literary Festival is supported in part by funds from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Arkansas Literary Festival is a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. The Festival’s mission is to encourage the development of a more literate populace. A group of dedicated volunteers assists Festival Coordinator Brad Mooy with planning the Festival. Katherine Whitworth is the 2015 Festival Chair. Other committee chairs include Kevin Brockmeier, Talent Committee; Susan Santa Cruz, Festival Guides; Laura Stanley, Hospitality Gifts; and Amy Bradley-Hole, Moderators.

Legacies & Lunch Examines Arkansas’s Free Black Expulsion of 1860    

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legaciesIn 1860, Arkansas became the only state to prohibit free blacks from residing within its borders. What happened to those who left? Dr. Brian Mitchell will discuss this little-known chapter of Arkansas history at Legacies & Lunch, the Butler Center’s monthly lecture series, on Wednesday, April 1, from noon-1 p.m., in the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.

Brian Mitchell is a researcher, social policy analyst, and historian at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is currently developing a database identifying free blacks expelled from Arkansas in 1860 and writing a narrative detailing their experiences.

Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. For more information, call 501-918-3033.

Legacies & Lunch Looks at “The Way It ‘Wuz’ Back Then”    

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Lonoke County native Aretha Dodson attended segregated public schools and worked for the same school district during and after integration. She details these experiences in her memoir, That’s the Way It “Wuz” Back Then, which she will discuss at Legacies & Lunch, the Butler Center’s monthly lecture series, on Wednesday, March 4, noon-1 p.m., in the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street. Books will be available for purchase, and Dodson will sign copies after her talk.

Dodson is a school improvement educational consultant who worked nearly forty years for the Lonoke public schools. That’s the Way It “Wuz” Back Then uses Dodson’s experiences, interviews she conducted, and clippings from the Lonoke Democrat to depict “the hardship and suffering of black families during the early twentieth century, segregated schools in the South, and the unrest experienced in the South during the desegregation of schools.”

Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. For more information, call 501-918-3033.

Integration of Little Rock’s Junior Highs topic of panel today

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Seven students who desegregated Little Rock’s junior high schools will discuss their experiences for the first time from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

Laverne before and after

Dr. LaVerne Bell-Tolliver, first African American to attend Forest Heights Middle School in 1961 and currently an assistant professor in the UALR School of Social Work.

During the event, titled ”Phase II: The Desegregation of Little Rock Public Schools,” the former students will discuss their roles in the desegregation process in the early 1960s.  Between 1961 and 1962, 25 black students enrolled at junior high schools throughout Little Rock that had previously been closed to them.

Dr. LaVerne Bell-Tolliver, Judge Kathleen Bell, Henry Rodgers, Wilbunette Walls Randolph, Glenda Wilson, Dr. Kenneth Jones, and Judge Joyce Williams Warren will participate in the panel discussion to share their stories.  For many of them, this will be the first time they will discuss their experiences publicly.

The panel will be moderated by Rhonda Stewart, local history and genealogy expert at The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.  Dr. John A. Kirk, George W. Donaghey Distinguished Professor of History and chair of the UALR Department of History, will provide an overview of the history of school desegregation in the area including the landmark Brown vs Board of Education decision and 1958, a so-called “lost year” when all schools in the district were closed in order to block integration.

In addition to the presentations and discussions, copies of historic documents and artifacts from the era will be on display for public viewing.

The program in sponsored in part by the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitors’ Center, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers, and a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council’s African American Heritage Fund.

Charley Sandage and Harmony tonight at the Ron Robinson Theatre

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sandage

In its continuing quest to cover the depth and breadth of Arkansas’ musical heritage, tonight Arkansas Sounds presents another concert at the Ron Robinson Theatre.

Charley Sandage and Harmony, a Mountain View trio comprising Mary and Robert Gillihan and Dave Smith, present original songs that tell stories about people and events that shaped Arkansas. The group uses an array of traditional instruments including fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, autoharp, bass, button accordion, harmonica, pickin’ bow, and spoons.

The concert is free.  It starts at 7:30 pm at the Ron Robinson Theater.

The Charley Sandage & Harmony concert is supported by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This concert is also supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Black History Month Spotlight – Dr. Erma Glasco Davis

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Photo by Staton Breidenthal for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Photo by Staton Breidenthal for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Erma Lee Glasco Davis was born in Keo, Arkansas and was reared in south central Little Rock, also known as the South End.  She is a product of the Little Rock Public School System, graduating from Dunbar High School in May, 1945.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree from AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff).  A year or so after the Central High desegregation crisis of 1957, she and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Most of Dr. Davis’ professional career was spent in Detroit, Michigan  as a teacher, counselor and administrator.  She retired from an administrative position in the Detroit Public Schools’ Management Academy.  She also taught as an adjunct professor at Marygrove  College in Detroit.  While in Detroit, Dr. Davis has had a wealth of community involvement, serving in leadership positions on boards and committees and in organizations ranging from the NAACP to Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  In 1979, she co-chaired the Mayor’s Education Task Force for Detroit’s International Year of the Child event.  In 1987, she won the Spirit of Detroit Award, the city’s highest community-service award.

Dr. Davis is a past national president of the National Dunbar Alumni Association, and is co-author of a book about the school, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School of Little Rock.  She has been instrumental in marrying the goals of the association with those of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the state-funded museum which showcases the history and achievements of black Arkansans.  A fruit of that marriage is the museum’s Dunbar exhibits on the museum’s first floor.  She is passionate about educating people on Dunbar’s role in the state’s history.

In 1990, Dr. Davis moved back to Arkansas form Michigan.  After her return, she quickly busied herself with community work, sitting on the boards of the Central High Museum and the Arkansas Humanities Council; taking two turns as chairman of the board of the Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation; she also chaired the gala for the opening of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.  In addition, Dr. Davis worked nearly four years as a founding volunteer for the Clinton Presidential Central.  In 2005, she was appointed by then-Governor Mike Huckabee to the State Review Committee for Historic Preservation, and reappointed by Governor Mike Beebe in 2007.  In 2009, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

For more on Dr. Davis and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.