Tag Archives: University of Arkansas

Little Rock Look Back: Mayor Webb Hubbell

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Mayor HubbellOn January 18, 1948, future Little Rock Mayor Webster “Webb” Hubbell was born. After playing football in high school, he played for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.  He also received his law degree from the U of A.

At the age of 30, already a successful attorney, Hubbell was appointed to the Little Rock City Board of Directors to fill a vacancy in September 1978.  In 1980, he was elected to a four year term on the City Board.

In June 1979, there was a vacancy in the office of Mayor of Little Rock.  Hubbell was selected by his fellow City Directors to serve as Mayor until December 1980.  In January 1981, he was selected to serve another term as Mayor.  In June 1981, he stepped down as Mayor but continued to serve on the City Board of Directors.

In 1984, Hubbell was appointed to serve as Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court to finish out the term of Richard B. Adkisson.  Following his service on the court, he returned to the practice of law at the Rose Law Firm.  He later served as the Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration.

Hubbell resigned from the Justice Department due to an investigation related to Whitewater.  He has been an author and management consultant.  His novel, When Men Betray, was published by Beaufort Books in May 2014.  His next novel Ginger Snaps was released in May 2015.  A Game of Inches, another mystery novel, will be released in 2016.

David Starr & Ben Harris headline tonight’s Local Live at South on Main

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llsom dsbhThis week’s installment of South on Main’s Local Live concert series features David Starr & Ben Harris.  Presented by the Oxford American magazine, Local Live showcases the best of local and regional music talent and is always free and open to the public. Call ahead to South on Main to make your reservations and ensure a table: (501) 244-9660.

The concert starts at 7:30 tonight (January 13).

 

David Starr is a singer/songwriter/musician with Arkansas roots and a Colorado mountain address. He has shared the stage with artists as diverse as John Oates, Kenny Edwards, John McEuen, Dan Fogleberg, and Sonny Bono.

His sixth solo album, Love and Sabotage, includes fifteen songs (originals, co-writes and one cover) as well as cameo vocal and instrumental performances by John Oates, Steve Cropper, Richie Furay, and Dana Cooper.

Starr tours stateside and in the UK, both as a solo artist and with guitarist Ben Harris. He also fronts the David Starr Band several times a year. Ben Harris is a versatile guitarist and educator based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he is the Instructor of Guitar at the University of Arkansas.

Senator David Pryor in conversation with Skip Rutherford at today’s Legacies & Lunch

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CALS PryorLegacies & Lunch: Senator David Pryor
Senator David Pryor, founding dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, will be interviewed by Skip Rutherford, current dean of the Clinton School. Topics will include Pryor’s interest in history including his founding of the Pryor Center at the University of Arkansas, his life in politics, and his work at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics at Harvard and at the Clinton School.  Senator Pryor will also discuss his late colleague Senator Dale Bumpers.

The conversation will take place today, January 6, at 12 noon at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

Pryor is the only person in Arkansas political history to have served in the Arkansas State Legislature, the United States House of Representatives, as governor of Arkansas, and in the U.S. Senate.
As a student at the University of Arkansas, Rutherford supported Pryor in his 1972 U.S. Senate campaign against Senator John McClellan. When Pryor was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, Rutherford joined his staff and served there for almost six years. When Pryor stepped down as dean of the Clinton School in 2006, Rutherford succeeded him.
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.
They are expecting a large turnout for Legacies & Lunch . Parking at the CALS Main Library campus, where the Ron Robinson Theater is located, is very limited. Please plan to arrive early to allow ample time for parking and walking to the theater. Attendees may park for $2/hour per vehicle at the River Market Parking Deck, 500 East 2nd Street, which is operated by the City of Little Rock. This is the closest paid parking option. Attendees may also park for free at the Clinton School of Public Service and walk to the theater (approx. 0.5 mile, 10-15 min. walking distance).

2015 In Memoriam – “Daddy Jack” Fryer

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1515 FryerIn these final days of 2015, we pause to look back at 15 who influenced Little Rock’s cultural scene who left us in 2015.

Though his vocations ranged from furniture sale to the financial industry to farming, it was as a singer that “Daddy Jack” Fryer made an impact on the cultural scene.

While in college at the University of Arkansas, he received the nickname “Daddy Jack” for his receding hairline. The nickname stuck and would later be used in a series of bands.

Daddy Jack loved singing, whether it was in a Michigan restaurant, a church choir or fronting a band at a gig.

Though he had spent most of his life in a church choir (starting at an early age), he never learned how to read music.  Whether as a solo or part of a choir, Daddy Jack sang the notes he wanted to sing the way he wanted to sing them — and figured out a way to make it work.

Among his bands rock ‘n roll, R&B and blues bands over the years were Daddy Jack and the University Soul Association, Daddy Jack and the Seven Screamers, and Daddy Jack and the All Stars.

A man who struggled with personal shortcomings, Daddy Jack believed in the redemption. He devoted the last few years of his life to prison and recovery ministries.  Even when he was facing his own challenges, he still had a quick wit and a big heart.

It was fitting that his memorial involved both a worship service at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church (where he had spent countless hours in the choir) and a reception at the Country Club of Little Rock featuring music by Johnny Roberts and the All Stars.

Elysse Newman discusses “NEW (OLD) DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE” tonight at the ADN Lecture

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AN_WENewman_ArchHeadElysse Newman, recently installed as Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design (FJSAD), will be the final 2015 first speaker for the Architecture and Design Network’s lecture series. Her remarks are entitled “NEW (OLD) DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.”

Newman will speak tonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception at 5:30 will precede the remarks.

She has been tasked with developing a “curriculum for the 21st Century”, one that will prepare students for new, unexpected and increasingly complex challenges likely to be encountered in the practice of architecture. Building on the “old” while incorporating the “new”, much of it research based, is what she and her staff will be doing. FJSAD dean, Peter MacKeith, calls Newman “one of a new generation of architectural educators.”

The focus of Newman’s academic research has been and will continue to be multidisciplinary studies involving the fields of perception, psychology and neuroscience, disciplines whose relationship to architecture is of increasing interest to the profession.

Newman received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in history, with psychology and anthropology minors, all from the University of Texas at Austin. She also received a Master of Architecture, a Master of Philosophy in history of technology and science, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in architecture, urban design, planning and landscape architecture, all from Harvard University. She has taught at Florida International University since 2011. She previously was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Tennessee, and a teaching fellow at Harvard University. Newman was a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Architecture and Design Network lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.
Supporters of the non-profit Architecture and Design  Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

New Public Radio Network in Arkansas launched

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natural state newsThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) awarded a $278,300 grant to four Arkansas public radio stations to support the creation of a statewide multimedia journalism collaboration based at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  Natural State News will be a statewide news service focusing on reaching rural areas of the state.

KUAR, UALR’S public radio station, will be the lead station for the project, joined by Fayetteville’s KUAF, Jonesboro’s KASU, and Texarkana’s KTXK. Ben Fry, general manager of KUAR and classical station KLRE, will coordinate the collaboration to create and broadcast thematically unified content relevant to the interests and needs of Arkansans.

Though the stations have often collaborated, the radio news service marks their first official joint venture. Together, the stations’ staff members at the stations will report stories centered on three themes:

  • Education
  • Health
  • Energy

NSN will report breaking news as well as produce related special interest stories. The resulting multimedia content will be published online and heard on local and national public radio programs such as NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Here and Now.

“CPB is pleased to support this historic collaboration of Arkansas public media stations,” said Bruce Theriault, senior vice president of journalism and radio, CPB. “The Natural State News collaboration is an example of increased media integration and a pathway for stations to work together to maximize resources while expanding their high-quality journalism.”

The grant will help fund four new positions: a managing editor, two additional reporters, and a partner manager, who will raise additional funds for the project. Three of the new positions will be based in Little Rock, with one reporter to work out of Jonesboro.

Natural State News plans to break new ground with in-depth multimedia reporting to reach extensively into rural Arkansas to tell unfolding stories about wealth, poverty, race, and decision-making in education, healthcare, and the environment. Little-told stories from the region will give a distinctive vantage point for understanding larger national experiences.

NSN will partner with the UALR Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), and the print publication El Latino to provide and promote its diverse, nuanced content. All stories will be available in both Spanish and English, and NSN is committed to supporting diversity in its staff, student interns, and stories.

For more information on the partner stations, go to their websites: KLRE/KUAR, KUAF, KASU and KTXK.

 

SOCIALIGHT, a lecture by Mark Manack, AIA and Frank Jacobus AIA tonight at 6pm.

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Marc Manack (L)  and  Frank Jacobus (R)

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN NETWORK presents

 
SOCIALIGHT
a lecture by
 
Marc Manack, AIA, NCARB, Assistant Professor, Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design 
Frank Jacobus, AIA, Associate Professor, Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design
          Principals, SILO AR+D, Fayetteville, AR and Cleveland, OH 
 
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Place: Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall
Time: 6:00 p.m. preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.  
 
Marc Manack and Frank Jacobus, the former a founding principal and the latter a principal of  SILO AR+D, an award winning architectural, research and design collaborative, will share their insights into the evolving role of the architect in relation to contemporary design, technology and changing perceptions of the built environment. 
 
While they, like other architects, still deal with bricks and  mortar, glass, steel and other traditional building elements, the two men have sought out and  experimented in unexpected ways with new, non-traditional  materials and techniques, employing them in the design and making of  temporary as well as permanent  structures, installations and objects. 
 
The work of the two architects has been published widely and has been  featured in ARCHITECTURE, Dwell, Slate, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal.   
 
Architecture and Design Network (ADN) lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information about this and other ADN programs contact ardenetwork@icloud.com. Supporters of ADN include the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the UA Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Arkansas Arts Center and friends in the community.