Tag Archives: Legacies & Lunch

Artist David Bailin at today’s Legacies & Lunch

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Legacies & Lunch: David Bailin 
Wednesday, September 2, noon – 1:00 p.m. 
CALS Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street
David Bailin (work pictured above) is an artist who currently works primarily in drawing, but has worked previously in painting, writing, theater, and performance. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council.

At Legacies & Lunch, Bailin will discuss the artistic community he has found in Arkansas with artists Warren Criswell and Sammy Peters over the past thirty years. Their work has evolved, changed focus, and acquired new media and techniques, but has remained a central part of their lives, both individually and collectively.

Some results of those years of companionship are featured in the exhibition, Disparate Acts Redux: Bailin, Criswell, Peters, on view through Saturday, October 31 at Butler Center Galleries, 401 President Clinton Ave.

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

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.

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.

Black History Month is focus of discussion sponsored by Butler Center and Clinton School

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legaciesIn honor of Black History Month, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies’ monthly Legacies & Lunch will feature a discussion on the benefits and potential detriments to setting aside a month to focus on the history of African Americans.

Panelists will be Henderson State University history professor John Graves, Arkansas State University history professor Cherisse Jones-Branch, community leader Freeman McKindra, and Butler Center staff member Rhonda Stewart.  Among the topics they will discuss include: Does the promotion of Black History Month lead to decreased attention to this topic in other months, or does setting aside an entire month build commitment to the history of African Americans?

This program is co-hosted by the Clinton School of Public Service.

It will take place from noon to 1pm at the Ron Robinson Theatre in the Arcade Building.

Ed Bethune speaks at Butler Center Legacies & Lunch today

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EdBethune-580x323Former Congressman Ed Bethune’s diverse career has included service in the Marine Corps, as a special agent in the FBI, and as a prosecuting attorney.

Bethune will provide an “Arkansas autobiography” at Legacies & Lunch, the Butler Center’s monthly lecture series, on Wednesday, January 7, from noon-1 p.m. in the Main Library’s Darragh Center, 100 Rock Street.

Bethune, a native of Pocahontas who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives, will share details about his childhood during World War II and his career. He will also discuss his family and cultural changes in his lifetime. Finally, Bethune will talk about how he and his wife attempted to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in a 31-foot sailboat, detailed in his memoir, Jackhammered. Copies of Jackhammered and Gay Panic in the Ozarks, a novel by Bethune, will be available for sale; Bethune will sign books after the program.

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, contact 501-918-3033.

History of Arkansas State Fair focus of December Legacies & Lunch at noon

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ark state fairThis month’s Legacies & Lunch program focuses on the Arkansas State Fair.

Numerous state fairs and livestock shows have been held in Arkansas since the 1860s.  The Arkansas Livestock Show Association has existed for 75 years. While early fairs promoted agriculture and tourism, these events struggled financially.  Following the social upheaval caused by the Great Depression, a group of businessmen, farmers and educators led by oilman T. H. Barton envisioned a new Arkansas economy not dependent on cotton farming.

Deb Crow, museum and archive director for the Arkansas State Fair, and Dr. Jim Ross, professor of history at UALR ,will share details about the fair’s rich history, including rare photographs.

Legacies & Lunch is a monthly program of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a division of the Central Arkansas Library System.  The program, sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council, takes place at 12 noon.  This month’s program will be at the Darragh Center of the main library.