Tag Archives: Clinton School Speaker Series

Tonight, the Clinton School presents Dr. Ibram X. Kendi discussing his book HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST, in partnership with Philander Smith College and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

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Image result for how to be an antiracistIn partnership with Philander Smith College and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Clinton Schoool of Public Service presents Ibram X. Kendi discussing his book How to be an Antiracist tonight (October 7) at 6pm.

The event will take place at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. A booksigning will follow.

Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices. He is a New York Times-bestselling author and the Founding Director of The Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. A professor of history and international relations, Kendi is an ideas columnist at The Atlantic. He is the author of “The Black Campus Movement,” which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

His recently released book, “How to be an Antiracist,” weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

This event is in partnership with JusticeCon 2019 and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. JusticeCon is organized by the Social Justice Institute at Philander Smith College, which brings together students, activists, thought-leaders, knowledge-seekers and renowned speakers to share ideas and inspire one another in the pursuit of social justice. Limited seating is available.

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This evening at the Clinton School – Theo Witsell discusses his Bicentenary interpretation of Thomas Nuttall’s exploration of the Arkansas Territory

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Image result for theo witsellThe year 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the great botanist and naturalist Thomas Nuttall’s year-long journey of discovery through the Arkansas Territory, present day Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Tonight at 6pm, as part of the Clinton School Speaker Series, Theo Witsell will discuss Nuttall’s trek and the implications it has for today.

Nuttall would be the first trained naturalist to record observations and collect specimens in most of the territory. His first-hand account of this trip, later published as “A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory in the Year 1819,” provides some of the earliest reliable information on the natural history of the region. These observations and his surviving botanical specimens are central to our understanding of what the region was like before it was forever altered by the ravages of human progress.

To commemorate the bicentennial of Nuttall’s trip, Theo Witsell, Ecologist and Chief of Research for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Curator of the ANHC Herbarium, worked for the past several years on a “200 years later” reinterpretation of all the natural history observations he made in Arkansas Territory.

This included retracing his route using both historical and modern geospatial datasets, updating the nomenclature and taxonomy of all the plants and animals he mentions, and weaving his own observations gained over the past 24 years conducting field work for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. The aim is to provide a fairly detailed interpretation of Nuttall’s natural history observations, and discuss changes in the landscape since his trip, specifically as they relate to ecological and biological diversity.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

BEYOND THE BIG SHOOTOUT is topic of noon Clinton School program today

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Image result for mark mcdonald beyond the big shootout

December 1969 – the top two college football teams in the country faced off in Fayetteville with the national championship on the line.  In the stands were the US President, a future US President and several leaders of congress.

Known as The Big Shootout, it was more than just a football game.  Today (September 24) at noon, author Mark S. McDonald will be discussing his book at that historic game that changed the face of football forever. This is part of the Clinton School’s speaker series and will be held at Sturgis Hall.

Right after the game, your life changed, everything changed … recruiting of black athletes in Dixie, new safety rules in football, tighter crowd control, more TV coverage and bigger money in college athletics … Suddenly, for the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns, and players and coaches nationwide, bulbs on a scoreboard no longer defined them. Instead, life came rushing at them.

In a blur, these superior, highly trained athletes were no longer football stars. They were fathers, community leaders, victims of car wrecks and cancer, businesses and marriages gone bad. Some Saturday’s heroes lost their way, others used football to find faith. The competition took on new and different meaning. Who could have predicted such outcomes?

It’s all here, in words of those who lived this epic journey, supported by dozens of period photos and clever original illustrations from award-winning artist Bill DeOre. In his Beyond The Big Shootout – 50 Years of Football’s Life Lessons, author Mark S. McDonald has emerged from his own football past to create a historical narrative on a giant canvas, unlike any other.

For some, the game itself was cruelly damaging. For others, it brought dance-in-the-street joy. But today, looking back, who really won? Was there really a loser?

After reading this one, you will know.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

AMERICAN MOONSHOT is focus of Clinton School program tonight

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American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space RaceAfter the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing passes, the award-winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon.

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy

On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. In the world of public history, he serves on boards, at museums, at colleges, and for historical societies.The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” The New-York Historical Society has chosen Brinkley as its official U.S. Presidential Historian.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

After the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing passes, the award-winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon.

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy

On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. In the world of public history, he serves on boards, at museums, at colleges, and for historical societies.The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” The New-York Historical Society has chosen Brinkley as its official U.S. Presidential Historian.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields discuss The Long Southern Strategy at Clinton School and Clinton Foundation program tonight

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44765473Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields will speak tonight about their book The Long Southern Strategy tonight (September 19) at 6pm.  The program, a joint presentation of the Clinton School and Clinton Foundation, will take place in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center.

The Southern Strategy is traditionally understood as a Goldwater and Nixon-era effort by the Republican Party to win over disaffected white voters in the Democratic stronghold of the American South. To realign these voters with the GOP, the party abandoned its past support for civil rights and used racially coded language to capitalize on southern white racial angst.

However, that decision was but one in a series of decisions the GOP made not just on race, but on feminism and religion as well, in what Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields call the “Long Southern Strategy.”

In the wake of Second-Wave Feminism, the GOP dropped the Equal Rights Amendment from its platform and promoted traditional gender roles in an effort to appeal to anti-feminist white southerners, particularly women. And when the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention became increasingly fundamentalist and politically active, the GOP tied its fate to the Christian Right. With original, extensive data on national and regional opinions and voting behavior, Maxwell and Shields show why all three of those decisions were necessary for the South to turn from blue to red.

To make inroads in the South, however, GOP politicians not only had to take these positions, but they also had to sell them with a southern “accent.” Republicans embodied southern white culture by emphasizing an “us vs. them” outlook, preaching absolutes, accusing the media of bias, prioritizing identity over the economy, encouraging defensiveness, and championing a politics of retribution. In doing so, the GOP nationalized southern white identity, rebranded itself to the country at large, and fundamentally altered the vision and tone of American politics.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

In conjunction with ACANSA, the Clinton School presents a discussion of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in context of #MeToo era

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Tennessee Williams was always disappointed that “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers” did not elicit the audience laughter he wanted in his Pulitzer Prize winning A Streetcar Named Desire.

In partnership with Argenta Community Theater, the ACANSA Arts Festival of the South is proud to present Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. Seeking solace from her crumbling world, Blanche arrives at her sister, Stella’s, apartment bringing her face to face with the menacing masculinity of Stanley Kowalski. Directed by Clinton School student Ben Grimes, the production is a raw exploration of family, sexuality, gender roles, and survival.

A Community Conversation will be led by Dr. Virginia O. Craighill, Professor of English from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

The production opened on September 17 and runs through September 22.  Performances are at 7:30pm through Saturday with a 2:00 matinee on Sunday.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.