Tag Archives: Ron Robinson Theater

2019 Arkansas Literary Festival events on tap for today

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Though there have been a few events earlier, today (April 25) offers several events to kick off the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival.

During the day at the Clinton Presidential Center and also the Museum of Discovery is a Day of Science and Reading. Students meet Miami-based author Laurie Friedman, Mallory McDonald, Super Sitter and Can You Say Catastrophe? and Nashville-based illustrator, Higgins Bond, A Place for Turtles and Lorraine: The Girl Who Sang the Storm Away. Both successful presenters are originally from the Natural State. Limited seating is available. 

Tonight at 6pm at the ESSE Purse Museum a program will feature Anita Davis, the museum’s founder.  The author of What’s Inside?: A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900–1999, she is a native Arkansan and lifelong collector who loves outsider art, Gladys Knight, dream work, her two daughters, and learning about the mysteries of life. Her varied life experience includes owning a mail-order catalog called Pure and Simple in the 1980s and co-owning Vagabonds coffee house and vintage store in the 1990s. She has a talent for finding valuables (“They’re valuable to me!”) in unexpected places and has led the revitalization of Little Rock’s SoMa neighborhood, where ESSE Purse Museum & Store is located. What’s Inside? is an extension of her endeavor to explore concepts of art, history, and the feminine at ESSE – the only purse museum in the United States and one of only three in the world.

At 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Elliot Ackerman & Charmaine Craig participate in a discussion entitled, The Human Element of War. Despite the dehumanization that goes hand in hand with war and the media coverage of conflict, moments of deep humanity can be glimpsed even in the most harrowing of circumstances. How do we ensure that those moments are not overlooked, and that our stories – even fictional ones – reflect the nuances of a historical moment? Join 2017 National Book Award Finalist Elliot Ackerman (Dark at the Crossing) and 2017 Longlister Charmaine Craig (Miss Burma) for a discussion on depicting conflict, preserving humanity, and finding truth in fiction. This session is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (or is it Fronkensteen?) tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater as part of 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival

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Young Frankenstein PosterThe laughs come alive as the Arkansas Literary Festival presents Mel Brooks’ comic masterpiece YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

This 1974 comic riff on Mary Shelley’s story, features Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, and Madeline Kahn (along with a cameo by Gene Hackman).

An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
The movie was nominated for two Oscars: Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The screening starts at 7pm.

GOLDFINGER at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater as part of the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival

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Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, and Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger (1964)Before Goldfinger was an iconic film (with a great song sung by Shirley Bassey), it was a novel by Ian Fleming.

Kick off the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival with a screening of the 1964 film Goldfinger, the third in the franchise.

The screening starts tonight at 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

Directed by Guy Hamilton from a screenplay adapted by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn, this is considered by many to be the best classic Bond film.

Goldfinger is stockpiling gold reserves. Bond investigates and uncovers an audacious plan to commit the heist of the century.

Sean Connery returned as the suave spy. Joining him in this outing were Gert Frobe, Honor Blackman, Harold Sakata, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson, and Lois Maxwell.

The film won the Oscar for Best Sound Effects, which went to Norman Wanstall.

 

End of Life and Palliative Care is focus of film and discussion tonight

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April 17 is National Health Decision Day.  In conjunction with that, there will be a screening of the Oscar–nominated short documentary “End Game“, followed by a presentation by Dr. B. J. Miller. The evening will end with opportunity for interactive Q&A.

The program will begin at 6:30pm (doors open at 5:30pm) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.  It is presented by the UAMS Division Of Palliative Medicine funded by a grant from the Dorothy Snider Foundation.

BJ Miller, M.D., is a palliative care physician in San Francisco who began his “formal relationship with death”at age 19 when he was involved in an accident that resulted in the amputation of one arm below the elbow and both legs below the knee. Drawing on his expertise as a physician, former executive director of Zen Hospice Project, and as a patient, he is an advocate for a health care system that maximizes quality of life and that minimizes unnecessary suffering.

His TED Talk, “What Really Matters at the End of Life,” about keeping the patient at the center of care and encouraging empathic end-of-life care, and has garnered over 6 million views and ranks among the most viewed talks. He encourages us to reorient and reframe our relationship to the inevitable, that which we don’t control, and brings creative power and meaning-making to death, believing that death is the agent that helps us experience anything precious in life.

Go on THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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Tonight (4/16) at the Ron Robinson Theater, the 2014 documentary The Search for General Tso will be shown.  This screening, which starts at 7pm, is a part of the Becoming American: Immigration and Popular Culture documentary film and discussion series.

This mouthwateringly entertaining film travels the globe to unravel a captivating culinary mystery. General Tso’s chicken is a staple of Chinese-American cooking, and a ubiquitous presence on restaurant menus across the country. But just who was General Tso? And how did his chicken become emblematic of an entire national cuisine?

Director Ian Cheney (King Corn, The City Dark) journeys from Shanghai to New York to the American Midwest and beyond to uncover the origins of this iconic dish, turning up surprising revelations and a host of humorous characters along the way. Told with the verve of a good detective story, The Search for General Tso is as much about food as it is a tale of the American immigrant experience. A Sundance Selects release from IFC Films.

CALS Butler Center’s The Galleries at Library Square and AETN present “State of the Art” film premiere

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Join CALS and AETN for the Arkansas premiere of a one-hour documentary by Brent and Craig Renaud that captures the personal stories of seven diverse artists who are redefining the American aesthetic.

The screening is tonight (April 13) at 8pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

These artists were a part of “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now”, a groundbreaking exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. To create this exhibition, the curatorial team crisscrossed the nation to find extraordinary contemporary art happening in unexpected places. Be one of the first to experience this powerful story of artists working across our country, including here in Arkansas, prior to its debut on PBS nationally on April 26.

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 The Galleries at Library Square and AETN/PBS.

Arkansas Sounds presents Dara Tucker tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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Image result for dara tuckerArkansas Sounds presents Dara Tucker at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater tonight at 8pm.

Nashville-based vocalist and composer Dara Tucker is establishing herself as one of the premier voices in jazz and beyond. From opening for Gregory Porter to appearing on the “Tavis Smiley Show” to winning the silver medal and the Ben Tucker Jazz Award in the prestigious American Traditions Competition in 2017, Tucker is making her mark with a unique blend of soul, Americana, gospel, and jazz. Her latest album, “Oklahoma Rain”, showcases her as a formidable songwriter, able to express love, loss, and healing.

Tickets are $10 for general admission seating. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the concert starts at 8:00 pm.

Sponsored by Friends of the Central Arkansas Library System (FOCAL), Acansa Arts Festival, FM 89.1 KUAR, Dr. Elizabeth Fletcher Dishongh Charitable Trust and David Austin at The Charlotte John Company.