Michael Warrick was the winner of the 2015 Sculpture at the River Market Public Art Monument Competition. His winning piece – Mockingbird Tree – will be installed at the corner of Chenal Parkway and Chenal Valley Drive.
Mockingbird Tree is a tree with bubble forms for foliage plus a pair of Arkansas’ state birds. It will be 18′ tall by 11′ wide by 7′ deep. The tree will be stainless steel and the mockingbirds will be bronze.
The Clinton Presidential Center celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month with the Arkansas Jazz Festival, featuring “Blue” Lou Marini. Held in partnership with the Arkansas Jazz Educators and the University of Arkansas at Monticello, this FREE, two-day festival will be held at the Clinton Center Park and will showcase the talent of jazz bands from around the state.
Featured artist, Lou Marini, has been a member of Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Saturday Night Live Band, and the Blues Brothers Band. He is an original member of the Blues Brothers Band, since the first appearances on Saturday Night Live, and appeared in both movies, as well as all recordings and tours.
Arkansas Jazz Festival
April 24 – 25, 2015
Clinton Presidential Center Park
Schedule of Performances:
Friday, April 24
3:30 p.m. Central High School Jazz II
4:30 p.m. West Memphis High School
5:30 p.m. Benton Junior High School
6:30 p.m. Harding University
7:30 p.m. Bryant High School
Saturday, April 25
9:00 a.m. Central High School Jazz II
10:00 a.m. University of Arkansas at Little Rock
11:00 a.m. El Dorado High School
12:00 p.m. Arkansas Tech University
1:00 p.m. Jonesboro High School
2:00 p.m. Texarkana, Texas 8th Grade
3:00 p.m. University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
4:00 p.m. Pea Ridge High School
5:00 p.m. Texas High School
6:00 p.m. University of Arkansas at Monticello, Featuring Lou Marini
Peggy Vining is Arkansas’s Poet Laureate. She was appointed to this position in 2003 by Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Since 1963, Vining has been a member of Poet’s Roundtable of Arkansas (PRA) which is associated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She attributes her writing success to the “wonderful poets of PRA that mentored, encouraged and inspired me to keep writing”. Vining has served as state PRA President for three separate terms. She has been director of the Ozark Creative Writers Conference, the Arkansas Writers Conference and still serves on the official Board of each. She has also served as state President of Arkansas Penwomen and Arkansas Songwriters Association and is a member of Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas. Her bio is listed in Who’s Who of Editors, Writers and Poets and several other such books and anthologies. She is presently compiling a collection of her published works entitled “Tethered to the Moment”.
Loved and appreciated for her artistic abilities and her work with children, Vining has nurtured over 6000 pre-schoolers during her teaching career. For twenty one years, she was Instructor and Director of the UALR Children’s Center having earned a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education. She has also worked with children’s groups at her church for many years.
Married for over 60 years, Vining cherishes her family; She is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. other of five (four daughters and one son)and grandmother of eleven and Greatgrandmother of eight. Vining is also active in many other community organizations. A twenty-seven year cancer survivor, she was honored with a “Point of Light Award” from President Bush for her volunteer work with CARTI.
Arkansas, The Natural State
I stood today on top of Petit Jean And felt a kindredship to all I found, And I, intrigued by such a lovely scene, Was grateful for the beauties that abound. The spirit of a mountain miss was host, Her phantom figure hovered, light as wind, And I became enchanted by her ghost, As we stood on the ledge at river’s bend. I asked her of her legend and its truth; Of how she stowed away to sail from France, Of how she cropped her hair; became uncouth, To give her love and lover one more chance. “It is all truth; the future will proclaim My spirit guards this mount which bears my name.” Then, as we talked, my personage subdued, And I became, as Petit Jean, a ghost, And with uncanny knowledge I reviewed Historic deeds of others who could boast, Of coming to this great green state to live; To homestead and to plow their plots of land; To mine the hills; to hunt the woods and give Their very lives to make it far more grand. I spoke to men who also came to look For ways of life upon the river’s road; They pushed their crafts to every shallow nook And rounded bends of hardship with each load. The Indians told me their tales of woe, Of how they battled as both friend and foe. They told me how De Soto searched for gold And, trudging through the swamps to look for it, As upward, through the mountains and the cold, He traded with the natives, matching wit. La Salle then came to claim the Arkansas But left to join another group of men, De Tonty came to start, as did John Law, A river post where trading could begin. These men with whom I talked could really boast Of being first to settle on this land, Of fighting long and hard to save the Post Where then was housed the laws and all command. My spirit saw the past and lived it through, A vision of the old when it was new. As history passes, the seasons came in view, And time and space and beauty knew no date. I saw each month in its most brilliant hue And gazed at it as if I tempted fate. I looked at Spring and thought it surely best, For everywhere the land was newly green, The pristine white of dogwood seemed to test The worthiness and beauty of each scene. Then summer came with nesting meadowlarks, And I beheld the golden days of fun, As tourists came with camping gear to parks, And found their pleasures under shade and sun. I watched the summer visitors with awe, They loved this state of mine . . .this Arkansas. Perhaps they liked spelunking in a cave, Or digging for a diamond at the mine, Or floating trips that made of them a slave To mountain streams, to setting out trotline. Perhaps they liked the baths at old Hot Springs, Or climbing under rushing waterfalls, Or smelling the sweet air that summer brings, Or listening to whippoorwills’ faint calls. I think they surely liked the little creeks, That tumble down deep-set against tall bluffs. I think they liked the deer and quail that seeks New hideouts when invaders find their roughs. The eager tourists came to see our state Because the opportunities are great. Then suddenly, as Autumn took her turn, The Ozark Hills became a brilliant hue. In blazing reds the forest seemed to burn Across the valleys, up the mountains too. In delta lands I saw vast cotton crops, And harvest fields of rice, bowed down with grain. The short-leaf pines were green with heavy tops, And muscadines hung heavy down the lane. Then winter came attired in snowfall white, And lovely landscapes suddenly seemed bare. The prairie sky was filled with ducks in flight, And sounds of happy hunters filled the air. O Arkansas, which season is your best? Each one seems far more lovely than the rest. What makes you great? I wondered as I looked. Is it your timber, standing straight and tall? Is it your rivers wide and roughly crooked? Is it your lovely Ozarks in the fall? Is it your heritage that makes you grand, Your opportunities . . . yet still unknown? Is it your rich oil fields, or delta land That makes men proud to choose you for their own? O Arkansas, I see your very breath, In hazy clouds that skim your vast terrain. I know about your struggling with death And I have felt your birth with labored pain. O land of mine, I find you truly great, No wonder you are called “The Natural State”.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s final Artspree event of the 2014-15 season will feature a musician regarded as the “greatest flute player alive” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 10, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Building.
Flutist William Bennett will perform including a rendition of Piano and Flute Sonata in A Minor from opus 64 by Mel Bonis accompanied by pianist Kaeko Suzuki.
General admission is $15 and $10 for non-UALR students. Admission for UALR students, faculty, and staff is free.
By raising the profile of the flute to that of an instrument capable of a wide range of tonal colours, dynamics, and expression, Bennett is considered one of the foremost musical artists performing today.
He studied in London with Geoffrey Gilbert, and in France with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Marcel Moyse.
According to Artspree Director Naoki Hakutani, Bennett is a legend in the music world and in many circles is considered the greatest flute player alive.
His long list of accomplishments include earning the title of “Flute of Gold” from the Italian “Falaut” Flute society and the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E) for his distinguished Services to Music from Queen Elizabeth II.
Prior to the April 10th performance, Bennett will host a free master class featuring students from UALR and local high schools at 12:15 pm. Thursday, April 9.
For more information, contact Hakutani at 501.683.7230 or nxhakutani@ualr.edu.
Artspree is funded in part by the UALR Chancellor’s Circle Foundation and KLRE Classical 90.5.
2nd Friday Art Night starts its 2nd decade tonight.
Among the highlights are:
Historic Arkansas Museum (5-8 pm)
Two Exhibit Openings:
The Year of Arkansas Beer, sponsored by Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation and presented by Arkansas Brewers Guild, continues in April with Lost Forty Brewing’s Belgian Blonde.
Old State House Museum (5 – 8pm)
Join violinists Geoff Robson and Ryan Mooney and cellist Felice Farrell for a performance of works for string trios by Boccherini, Schubert, Mozart, Dohnanyi, and Beethoven. The event is free and music will be performed on an informal schedule starting at 5 p.m. The museum will remain open until 8:00. This is a casual event and guests are welcome to drop in and seat themselves after the music has started.
Butler Center Galleries (5 – 8pm)
Opening exhibition – White River Memoirs: An Exhibition by Chris Engholm
The 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 it. This artwork, photographs, and information about the river are presented in White River Memoirs.
Featured artist: Sheliah Halderman
Sheliah Halderman is a retired teacher who now paints pastels full time. Her paintings have won local and national awards, and she is very active in the Arkansas Pastel Society.
Featured musician: The Arkansas Weather
This band comprises graduates of the UALR music program who play an unpredictable combination of jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and pop.
In 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.
Arkansan Colette Honorable was confirmed as a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and sworn in earlier this year. Today at noon at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, she makes her first speech in Arkansas since assuming this new position.
Prior to serving as a FERC Commissioner, she served on the Arkansas Public Service Commission. From January 2011 until January 2015, she was chair of the PSC. As Chairman of the Arkansas PSC, Commissioner Honorable oversaw an agency charged with ensuring safe, reliable and affordable retail electric service. She participated in rate case proceedings, plant acquisitions, transmission buildout applications, regional transmission efforts and other transactions to ensure the reliability of the Arkansas grid and diversity in generation in the state. During Commissioner Honorable’s time at the PSC, Arkansas led the South and Southeast in comprehensive energy efficiency programs, and electric rates were consistently among the lowest in the nation.
Her remarks today are entitled “The Clean Power Plan and the Evolving Power Grid.”
FERC is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydropower projects.
Honorable is past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and is known by her peers as a fair, pragmatic, moderate and hardworking leader who is able to build consensus across party lines for common goals. Honorable represented NARUC on an array of issues ranging from pipeline safety to reliability and resilience efforts, and diversity. She testified before Congress on multiple occasions and advocated for infrastructure development to ensure safety and efficiency, increased reliability and resilience efforts, and diversity of energy and the energy workforce.
A native of Arkansas, she is a graduate of the University of Memphis and received a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 