Tag Archives: KLRE-KUAR

A Mozart Serenade part of Arkansas Symphony River Rhapsodies tonight

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ASO_revThe Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Philip Mann, Music Director and Conductor, presents the next concert of its 2014-2015 Landers FIAT River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series: Mozart: “Gran Partita” Serenade.

The program takes place in the Grand Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center, November 11th, 2014 at 7:00 PM, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, AR. A cash bar is open at 6 PM and at intermission, and patrons are invited to carry drinks into the hall. Media sponsor for the Landers FIAT River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series is KUAR/KLRE.

The program is:
Smetana – String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life”
Mozart – Serenade No. 10 in Bb “Gran Partita,” K. 361/370a

Tickets are $23; active duty military and student tickets are $10 are can be purchased online atwww.ArkansasSymphony.org; at the Clinton Presidential Center box office beginning 60 minutes prior to a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 49th season in 2014-2015, under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than sixty concerts each year for more than 165,000 people through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series, Landers FIAT River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series, and numerous concerts performed around the state of Arkansas, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 26,000 school children and over 200 schools.

Tonight END OF THE LINE at Old State House “2nd Friday Cinema”

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End of the lineJanuary’s installment of Second Friday Cinema features End of the Line, a 1987 movie directed by Arkansan Jay Russell and featuring Arkansans Mary Steenburgen and Levon Helm. The film is about two rail workers from Little Rock who hop aboard a train to Chicago in a last ditch effort to save their jobs and way of life.

Joining in the cast are Wilford Brimley, Barbara Barrie, Bob Balaban, Henderson Forsythe, Holly Hunter and Bruce McGill.  Perhaps, most importantly, Kevin Bacon is one of the stars making this a key component of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” games everywhere.

The movie was filmed in Central Arkansas.  The Culture Vulture very clearly remembers working overnight to construct balloon arches for a scene to be filmed at the Missouri Pacific rail yards the next day. The Culture Vulture later donned his 1970s era band uniform (with fake satin tunic, dark pants, dark shoes and fuzzy black cowboy hat) and stood in the August heat for several hours while a “simple” scene was shot and re-shot countless times.

Ben Fry, general manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening.

The screening starts tonight at 5pm at the Old State House Museum, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

 

“Racial Redistricting in Little Rock, Arkansas” is the focus of tonight’s UALR Evenings with History

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Slum-AreaswebTonight Dr. John Kirk and Dr. Jess Porter discuss racial separation in Little Rock’s history as part of the 2014-2015 UALR Evening’s with History series.

This year marks the 24th year for the History Institutes’ Evenings with History.  This nationally recognized series has featured a variety of subjects.  The sessions take place at the Ottenheimer Auditorium of Historic Arkansas Museum. Refreshments are served at 7 with the program beginning at 7:30 pm. The cost is $50 for admission to all six programs.

The contemporary urban landscape of Little Rock evokes questions of racial separation because of the persistently high rates of ethnic separation in housing and a public-private race cleavage in the local schools. How can these patterns be explained? Has it always been this way? Is the 1957 desegregation crisis at Central High School a reason for the persistent patterns of geographic separation between African Americans and whites within the city?

In fact, the story of ethnic separation in Little Rock begins prior to the Central High Crisis. This talk begins with an examination of spatial patterns of racial segregation in the first half of the 20th century. It then discusses these patterns as they evolved in Little Rock and shows, in particular, the role of urban renewal in the mid-century decades in producing the separation of races that came into existence.

John A. Kirk joined the department as Chair and Donaghey Professor of History in 2010. He was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, in the United Kingdom, and holds an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of Nottingham and a PhD in American History from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Dr. Kirk taught at the University of Wales, Lampeter (1994-99) and Royal Holloway, University of London (1999-2010) before coming to UALR.

Dr. Kirk’s research focuses on the history of the civil rights movement in the United States, the South, and Arkansas, and the history of post-New Deal southern politics, society and culture. He has published five books and written in a wide variety of journals, edited book collections, and popular history magazines including BBC History, History Today and Historically Speaking. He has won a number of awards for his research including the F. Hampton Roy Award (1993) from the Pulaski County Historical Association, and the Walter L. Brown Award (1994), the J. G. Ragsdale Book Award (2003), and the Lucille Westbrook Award (2005) from the Arkansas Historical Association.

Jess Porter came to UALR in 2009 and holds a PhD from Oklahoma State University where he was awarded with the Susan Shaull Medal for Excellence in Teaching Geography. Prior to UALR, Dr. Porter taught at Oklahoma State University, developed and implemented geospatial curriculum for rural schools, worked as an environmental analyst and mapping specialist in the oil and gas industry, and was employed by an adventure tourism company in Colorado.

Dr. Porter’s research interests include the American Dust Bowl, geospatial technology education, and urban geography. His research on the Dust Bowl was featured in an episode of The Weather Channel’s When Weather Changed History. He has published four, interactive textbooks in the Encounter Geography series.

Friday, Eldredge, & Clark and the Union Pacific Railroad help make these lectures possible. Other sponsors are the Ottenheimer Library, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio—KUAR-KLRE; UALR public television; and Grapevine Spirits.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Ann Nicholson

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ann_nicholsonAnn Nicholson has been in Little Rock since the 1970s. She maintains the distinctive accent of her native Great Britain, which she puts to use as the “voice of UALR Public Radio” and the host of the weekly interview show “Art Scene.”

For more than 25 years, Ann Nicholson has shared the news and promoted cultural events in Central Arkansas via the KLRE/KUAR airwaves.  Host of “The Arts Scene,” an in-depth interview program that features local and international artists in all genres and a weekly arts calendar, Nicholson has loyal listeners who have enjoyed her interviews, her soothing and inviting British accent and her tireless enthusiasm for the arts. Those at KLRE/KUAR often refer to her as “the heart of Little Rock public radio.”

Being featured on Arts Scene has been a boon to many emerging organizations and institutions.  But more than that, her insightful and engaging interview style allows listeners to learn more about the artists and the artistic process.  The program feels less like an interview and more like a chance to eavesdrop on an entertaining conversation.

In addition to hosting the weekly interview program, she has been an active supporter of Little Rock’s arts community since her arrival.  She has been on the Board of Ballet Arkansas and UALR Friends of the Arts. She is often in the opening night audience at the Arkansas Rep.  She also rarely misses a performance of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.  Ann was a longtime member of the Little Rock Arts and Humanities Promotion Commission. She is a supporter of the Little Rock Musical Coterie and the National Federation of Music Clubs. When that organization’s national meeting was in Little Rock in 2002, she was involved in the planning of the meeting.

 

2nd Friday Cinema at Old State House – Burt Reynolds in WHITE LIGHTNING

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OSH White LightFor this month’s Second Friday Cinema, the Old State House Museum will present a screening of White Lightning. The screening begins at 5:30 pm.

Released in 1973, “White Lightning” stars Burt Reynolds as Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, a moonshiner serving time in an Arkansas prison. When his brother is murdered, Gator agrees to go undercover with the feds in order to expose a corrupt lawman.

Joining Reynolds in the cast are Jennifer Billingsly, Ned Beatty, Louise Latham, Diane Ladd, Bo Hopkins, Dabbs Greer and Matt Clark.  A six year old Laura Dern made her uncredited screen debut playing Ladd’s daughter. She got the job through nepotism since she really is Ladd’s daughter.

Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening.

Second Friday Cinema at Old State House – A FACE IN THE CROWD

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OSH FaceFor Second Friday Cinema, the Old State House Museum will screen A Face in the Crowd.

With scenes shot in Piggott and other Arkansas locations, A Face in the Crowd tells the story of an Arkansas native, Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith in his first screen role), who becomes a media sensation. Director Elia Kazan used many Arkansans as extras in the film and praised the people of Piggott for their hospitality. The film has achieved notoriety in recent years because of its predictions about the rise of the cult of celebrity and the power of television to make and break personalities and politicians.

Joining Griffin in this film are Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick and Kay Medford.  Also in the cast are Lois Nettleton, Charles Nelson Reilly, Diana Sands and Rip Torn. Lending an air of reality to the movie is a series of cameos by media personalities playing themselves including Bennett Cerf, Faye Emerson, Betty Furness, Burl Ives, John Cameron Swayze, Mike Wallace and Walter Winchell.

Ben Fry, General Manager of KLRE/KUAR and coordinator of the film minor at UALR, will introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening.

The screening starts at 5:30 pm.

UALR Public Radio welcomes Frank Deford

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book3-maggyThe Friends of KLRE/KUAR will host a fundraiser featuring an evening with legendary sportswriter and public radio commentator Frank Deford on Thursday, September 19, at 7 p.m.

Admission to the event at Embassy Suites in Little Rock is $100, and tickets can be purchased online or by calling us at 501-569-8485.

$50 of the ticket amount is a tax-deductible donation to your non-profit public radio stations.

“Sports: The Hype and The Hypocrisy” will be the theme, and the event will include a dinner, talk and book signing with Deford.

Arkadelphia native and Southern Fried blogger Rex Nelson will be the master of ceremonies. A cash bar will precede the dinner in the foyer of the Embassy Suites ballroom.

“We are very excited to welcome Frank Deford to Little Rock,” says Katherine Lu, board president of the Friends of KLRE/KUAR. “He’s more than just an NPR personality. He’s a writer of great fiction and a national sports icon,” she says of the Baltimore native whose work appears regularly in Sports Illustrated, on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and on National Public Radio.

Deford is the author of 18 books, nine of them novels, and was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama on July 10. His Wednesday morning sports commentaries are broadcast on KUAR FM 89 at 7:50.

Rex Nelson will be introducing Deford and conducting a question-and-answer session at the end of Deford’s presentation. Nelson is a regular political commentator on KUAR news, head of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges & Universities association, and a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. His career started as broadcaster and sportswriter covering the Ouachita Baptist Tigers.

“Nelson is going to be a great host because he’s an expert on Arkansas culture with a background in politics, sports, and writing,” says Lu. “We hope that this event will help public radio reach a new segment of our listeners and get to know some of our more occasional listeners better.”

klre_logoImportance of the Fundraiser
The top priority is replacing the stations’ aging audio control boards used to broadcast programming and record local content.

“The equipment is more than 15 years old and starting to fail,” says General Manager Ben Fry, “and some of the parts for these control boards are getting hard to replace because they are no longer available.”

“Reporters, producers, and board operators are having technical problems. It’s time to update,” says Fry.

KUARAbout The Friends of KLRE/KUAR
The Friends of KLRE/KUAR is a non-profit organization that financially supports the two stations of UALR Public Radio.

With public radio, “members” of the Friends of KLRE/KUAR make financial contributions to support the stations’ annual operating budgets.

“Hundreds of listeners participate in our semi-annual fund drives and become members of UALR Public Radio,” says Development Director Mary Waldo. “But it’s been several years since we’ve hosted a major fundraiser,” she says. “This year our focus is to improve the equipment for KUAR FM 89 and KLRE Classical 90.5. We do rely on the support of our listeners and members to serve central Arkansas.”

About KUAR FM 89.1 and KLRE Classical 90.5
KLRE FM 90.5, Little Rock’s first public radio station, went live in 1973 and became a member of National Public Radio in 1984. KUAR FM 89.1 went on the air in 1986. Today, the two stations serve a third of the state’s population and even more people through live streaming on the internet. KUAR broadcasts news and information programming, including daily newsmagazines from NPR and local news. KLRE broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day.