Tag Archives: Central Arkansas Library System

Hear Jay Jennings discuss nonfiction writings of Charles Portis today at noon as part of CALS Legacies & Lunch series

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Jay Jennings is the foremost expert on the writings of Charles Portis. (And a very talented writer himself!)  Today (July 3) at noon, he will speak about Portis at the CALS Butler Center Legacies & Lunch series.

Charles Portis is well known for his novels, such as the classic True Grit, but his journalism, travel writing, and other short works—many of them touching on his Arkansas roots—remained largely unknown until the collection Escape Velocity was published by Butler Center Books in 2013. Author/editor Jay Jennings, editor of that tome, will discuss the process of bringing together this miscellany and how it relates to Portis’ career.

The program starts at 12 noon in the Darragh Center of the CALS Main Library Branch.

Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas related topics. Program are held from noon to 1 pm on the first Wednesday of the month. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. A library parking discount is available for attendees.

$2 Terror Tuesdays on the CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen – THE TERROR

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The Terror Poster$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (7/2) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1963’s THE TERROR.

The Terror unites two men who have each starred in classic suspense/thriller movies. It was made toward the end of Boris Karloff’s career, but he had caused many a chill as the monster in Frankenstein and other classic horror films.  Up and coming Jack Nicholson would later terrorize moviegoers in The Shining.

The Terror is a 1963 Independent American Vistascope horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The plot concerns a French officer who finds an intriguing woman who is believed to be the ghost of a baron’s long departed wife.

Corman used the same sets and some of the same actors from 1963’s The Raven which he completed filming immediately before this project.  He shot all of Karloff’s scenes in four days. However, he and the other actors improvised much of the film over a nine month period – the longest shoot of his career. One of the second unit directors on this project was Francis Ford Coppola.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.

Tonight on CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen: STONEWALL UPRISING presented by CALS and AETN.

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When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Join CALS as it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots with this screening of the PBS American Masters documentary “Stonewall Uprising”.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Doors open at 7:00pm with general admission seating on a first come, first served basis.

Presented by CALS and AETN/PBS.

Stephen King Rules! Book Club presents 1983’s CUJO tonight on CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen

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Cujo (1983)The “Stephen King Rules!” Book Club is presenting one of the films based on a King novel tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater. The screening will start at 7pm; admission is $5.

Cujo, a 1983 American horror film directed by Lewis Teague, was based on the 1981 psychological horror novel by American writer Stephen King.

In this tale of a killer canine, man’s best friend turns into his worst enemy. When sweet St. Bernard Cujo is bitten by a bat, he starts behaving oddly and becomes very aggressive. As Cujo morphs into a dangerous beast, he goes on a rampage in a small town.

The cast includes Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Ed Lauter, Christopher Stone, and Daniel Hugh Kelly. Five St. Bernards, one mechanical head, and a person in a dog costume were used to play the title character. The dogs enjoyed the filming so much that their tails often had to be tied down to keep them from wagging with excitement.

CALS announces new name, new focus for Literary Festival

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The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is announcing a new name for the Arkansas Literary Festival: Six Bridges Book Festival. Named for the iconic six bridges that cross the Arkansas River, the festival will have a new focus, bridging communities and bringing people together. The library will actively solicit input from a variety of demographic groups with the goal of offering a more widely appealing festival.

“We want to involve many people from our community in the selection of presenters and activities, so they know their reading interests and the stories that fascinate them are central to the festival and they are an integral part of shaping the content of the Six Bridges Book Festival each year,” said Nate Coulter, CALS executive director.

“The Six Bridges Book Festival is a diverse, energetic celebration of all kinds of stories and topics, both literary and mainstream, and we feel the new name reflects the festival’s nature more accurately. Our goal is to draw a wider audience by removing any barriers of perception that this event is only for highbrow tastes.”

Previously known for 16 years as the Arkansas Literary Festival, the four-day event in April celebrates reading, literacy, stories, and wordsmithing. Scores of nationally known authors converge on the city to offer panels on a wide variety of topics, from cooking demonstrations to award-winning comedy.

A slate of programming for children and teens includes hands-on crafts and music, animal visits, poetry contests, and more. Authors also venture out into the community for efforts such as Writers in the Schools (WITS), bringing the joy of writing to hundreds of students in the Little Rock area. Concerts, films, readings, and author parties enhance the festive atmosphere across venues in downtown Little Rock, where events are held in museums, restaurants, the Clinton Presidential Library, and the CALS Ron Robinson Theater as well as in many library buildings.

Brad Mooy, the coordinator of the festival, looks forward to making the variety of the festival’s offerings and presenters more widely known to the community. “The diversity of presenters has greatly expanded over the years,” said Mooy. “We want to let people know that everyone is represented here, with topics and interactive activities that appeal to all age levels, cultural backgrounds, and reading tastes.”

Since the festival’s inception, the event has always been an important showcase for writers known nationally and internationally as well as locally based talent. Presenters from past festivals include 5-time James Beard Award winner Dorie Greenspan, Sebastian Junger, Catherine Coulter, Congressman John Lewis, Issa Rae, and critically acclaimed Arkansas authors such as Kevin Brockmeier and Trenton Lee Stewart.

The 17th annual festival now known as the Six Bridges Book Festival will take place April 23-26, 2020. The festival will feature author Tim O’Brien (The Things They Carried) as part of the NEA Big Read: CALS.

For more information about the Six Bridges Book Festival, please contact Brad Mooy at bmooy@cals.org or (501) 918-3098, or see the website at sixbridgesbookfestival.org.

Sounds in the Stacks tonight at CALS Fletcher Branch Library

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Live music in the library tonight at the CALS Fletcher Branch from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Featured artist: Ship of Fools. Admission is free; registration not required.

Just show up ready to have a good time and bring along friends and family!

The John Gould Fletcher branch of CALS is located at 823 N. Buchanan Street.

HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND is tonight’s $2 Terror Tuesdays film on CALS Ron Robinson Theater screen

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The Spider's Web Poster$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (6/25) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1960’s HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND

Horrors of Spider Island is a 1960 West German horror film directed by Fritz Böttger from his screenplay, and produced by Gaston Hakim and Wolf C. Hartwig. T

he film stars Alexander D’Arcy as a talent agent who invites several girls to a club in Singapore. Their plane ride ends abruptly when they crash-land into the ocean. D’Arcy and the women make their way to an island where they find a larger spider web, and chaos ensues!

The film (also known as The Spider’s Web, and in German as Ein Toter hing im Netz – which translates to A Dead Man Hung in the Net) was first released in the United States in 1962, as an Adults-Only movie titled “It’s Hot in Paradise.” Three years later, trimmed of its nude scenes, it was re-released in the U.S. as a horror/sci-fi monster film, “Horrors of Spider Island”.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.