Tag Archives: Central Arkansas Library System

Legacies & Lunch: Annie Abrams

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The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will host Annie Abrams as the speaker for Legacies & Lunch on Wednesday, December 5, at noon in the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.  Abrams has been involved in Arkansas politics for over 60 years and will discuss experiences gained with her many civic and political duties.

Abrams has served as a consultant to many Arkansas governors, including Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker, and Mike Beebe. She currently serves on the board of directors for Our House and as commissioner for the Fair Housing Commission.

The Butler Center’s Legacies & Lunch program is free and open to the public, and supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert will be provided.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System. It was founded in 1997 to promote the study and appreciation of Arkansas history and culture. The Butler Center’s research collections, art galleries, and offices are located in the Arkansas Studies Institute building at 401 President Clinton Ave. on the campus of the CALS Main Library.

Legacies and Lunch: Deering Discusses Fisher and Political Cartoons

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John Deering, Chief Editorial Cartoonist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will discuss the history and importance of cartoons created by George Fisher.  The talk takes place today as part of the monthly “Legacies & Lunch” program.

Fisher was a political cartoonist for more than 50 years whose work influenced and helped define Arkansas politics and politicians for a generation.

Among his legacies were Orval Faubus and the Farkleberry Tree (pictured at right), Bill Clinton graduating from buggy to tricycle to bike to pickup, David Pryor and his coon dog, Frank White and his banana and the Old Guard Rest Home.

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

It will take place in the Darragh Center inside the main library building.  The program starts at 12noon and ends at 1pm.  The program is free.

Darragh Distinguished Lecture Tonight at CALS

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Henry Petroski, the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and professor of history at Duke University, will give the Fred K. Darragh Jr. Distinguished Lecture tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.

In his talk, Why Ships Sink and Bridges Fall Down, Petroski will discuss how success and failure are related to each other from engineering and design perspectives. His newest book, To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure, is about why ships sink, bridges collapse, and engineered systems of all kinds can misbehave. The lecture will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Seating is open, and reservations are requested, but not required, to Lee Ann Blackwell, CALS PR Specialist, or 918-3029.

Petroski has written broadly on the topics of design, success, and failure, and the history of engineering and technology. His seventeen books on these subjects include To Engineer Is Human, Design Paradigms, and Engineers of Dreams, which deal principally with large structures like bridges. He has also written about small, common things in his books The Pencil, The Toothpick, The Evolution of Useful Things, and Small Things Considered. His most recently published books include An Engineer’s Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession, which is a collection of serious and not-so-serious observations, lists, reflections, and speculations relating to the engineering profession.

Legacies and Lunch: Roy Reed

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The first Wednesday of each month, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies presents “Legacies and Lunch.”  This month features legendary newsman Roy Reed.

A native Arkansan who became a reporter for the New York Times, Reed begins his memoir with tales of his formative years growing up in Arkansas and the start of his writing career at the legendary Arkansas Gazette. The book Beware of Limbo Dancers will be for sale at the event, and the author will sign copies after the lecture.

The program will take place from 12noon to 1pm at the Darragh Center on the main campus of the Central Arkansas Library System.

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

First Annual Arkansas Sounds

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Headliners for the Arkansas Sounds Music Festival will be Lucero, a country-punk rock band fronted by Little Rock native Ben Nichols; southern rock band Black Oak Arkansas; and rock and roll pioneers Sleepy LaBeef and Sonny Burgess (appearing with his band the Legendary Pacers). Arkansas Sounds is hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), and will be held September 28-29, 2012, in the Riverfest Amphitheatre and the River Market Pavilions. Admission is free.

The Festival will feature a tribute to two Arkansas artists who died this year, Levon Helm and Michael Burks-featuring and hosted by Amy Garland Angel. Additional acts include the Cate Brothers Band, Runaway Planet, Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers, Tyrannosaurus Chicken, the Salty Dogs, and Velvet Kente.

Focusing on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present, the Festival will also work to get musicians and songwriters involved in local schools, create songwriting workshops for kids and adults, and host related performances and events throughout the state.

Greil Marcus discusses The Doors Tuesday the 25th

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greil marcusAs part of Arkansas Sounds Music Festival, nationally-recognized music critic Greil Marcus will discuss his book, The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, in the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Darragh Center at the Main Library, 100 Rock Street, on Tuesday, September 25, at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Arkansas Literary Festival and ProSmart Printing, the program is free and open to the public.

In a book mostly about listening to the music of The Doors, Marcus revisits a parade of great performances-L.A. Woman, Roadhouse Blues, Light My Fire, When the Music’s Over, End of the Night and more-and explores why and how The Doors have endured. The program will be presented in an interview format, with Tom Wood, local radio personality from TOM-FM, asking questions of Marcus. A book signing and reception will follow. Seating is open and reservations are requested, but not required, at lblackwell@cals.org or 918-3029.

Marcus is the co-editor of A New Literary History of America. His other books include Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, and Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives. He has taught at Princeton University; University of California, Berkley; New York University; and the New School in New York. His column “Real Life Rock Top 10” appears regularly in The Believer.

Arkansas Sounds is hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a CALS department, and will be held September 28-29, 2012, in the Riverfest Amphitheatre and the River Market Pavilions. Admission is free. Focusing on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present, the Festival will also work to get musicians and songwriters involved in local schools, create songwriting workshops for kids and adults, and host related performances and events throughout the state. For more information, visit www.arkansassounds.org.

The Arkansas Literary Festival’s mission is to encourage the development of a more literate populace, and is the premier gathering of readers and writers in Arkansas. Visit www.ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org for information on the 2012 Festival.

For more information contact 918-3098.

Moon Fest

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Join us September 22 for Moon Fest!

Hosted by the Central Arkansas Astronimcal Society, UALR Physics and Astronomy Dept.,
Museum of Discovery, Central Arkansas Library System Main Branch and Arkansas Studies Institute.

Special guests include Mr. Steve Arnold of the Science Channel’s TV show “Meteorite Men”. He will be appearing at MOD between 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, he will also be joining us on the observing field that evening for telescope views of the Moon

Moon Fest Schedule of Events

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Museum of Discovery) Construct a Lunar Base Activity for kids, Tinker Shop, Museum of Discovery

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM “Meteorite Man” Steve Arnold lecture in the Museum of Discovery Great Hall (Sponsored by the UALR Physics and Astronomy Department)

2:30 PM to 5:00 PM Meteorite Sales with Steve Arnold in the Museum of Discovery Great Hall

2:30 PM to 4:00 PM “For All Mankind” a documentary film of the Apollo Moon Missions at Arkansas Studies Institute Room 124

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Making Moon Craters with Dr. Tony Hall at the CALS Main Library Branch Children’s Room

3:00 PM to 6:00 PM Walking the Solar System. Starts outside the front of the Museum of Discovery

7:00 PM to 10:30 PM Lunar Telescope Viewings with members of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society and the UALR Physics and Astronomy Department.
Guest appearance by Mr. Steve Arnold
Parking will be available in the Clinton Library parking lot after 6 PM.

For more information call 537-3074.