Arkansas Times - April 28, 2016

E IS

FORC

29th Annual Eureka Springs May Festival of the Arts PAGE 51

HEM

WITH T

PLUS

Me e inc t the lud 22n ing d c of E budd lass pis ing of A cop en cad al C gine em olle er W ic A gia ill ll-S te. Ba tar ker s,

THE

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD APRIL 28, 2016 / ARKTIMES.COM

I knew I’d follow my heart into Arkansas Tech’s nursing program, but I didn’t know I’d fall in love with the campus.

Aleksi Stinnett, a junior Nursing major, at Dean Hall Nursing Skills Lab

At Arkansas Tech, you’ll find teachers who know you in the classroom and a large-campus atmosphere outside the classroom. It’s one of the many reasons more than 12,000 students choose Tech. We offer all five of the most sought-after degrees, and we’ve added more than 50 new programs of study in the past two decades. Tech is committed to providing the highest quality education and has one of the highest graduation rates in the state. With Greek Life, campus recreation and various student activities available both on campus and in the surrounding area, you’ll definitely fall in love with Tech.

Take a tour of the campus and discover what you don’t know about Tech.

Get started at discover.atu.edu.

2

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

3.5” x 2.5” | Maximum Font Size: 30 pt

ARKANSAS’S SOURCE FOR NEWS, POLITICS & ENTERTAINMENT 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 www.arktimes.com arktimes@arktimes.com Twitter: @ArkTimes Instagram: arktimes www.facebook.com/arkansastimes

is personally ispersonally what we do. what we do.

134 +/- AC FRANKLIN COUNTY, AR Turner Bend on Mulberry River Price: $2,495,000.00 1005 +/-AC JOHNSON COUNTY, AR Ozark Mountain Retreat Price: $ 2,306,475.00

PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt EDITOR Lindsey Millar

Listing Agent: Jim Rolfe Contact # 318-376-5576

MANAGING EDITOR Leslie Newell Peacock CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt ASSOCIATE EDITORS Benjamin Hardy, David Koon

2600 CANTRELL RD 5 0 1 . 2 9 6.9 955 | R I V E R DA LE1 0.CO M

3.5” x 2.5” | Maximum Font Size: 30 pt

172 +/- AC SCOTT COUNTY, AR Camp on the Fourche River Price: $645,000.00

SENIOR EDITOR Max Brantley

RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA

ARKANSAS Knowing GETAWAY Knowing our our clients clients

BROWN REALTY CO.

Knowing our clients personally we do.

Kelly Ris Journey, AAMS®, Kelly R.what Journey ADPA®, CRPC®

® ®, CRPC®, CRPS® AAMS Kelly R, ADPA Journey, AAMS®, Financial Advisor

.

Financial Advisor ADPA®, CRPC® 10506 Stagecoach Road Suite C Financial Advisor 10800 Financial Centre Parkway, Ste. 270

Little Rock, AR 72210 .

10506 Stagecoach Little Rock, AR 72211 Road Suite C 501-455-5786 Little Rock, AR 72210 501-455-5786 501-455-5786

Jerry Brown, Broker.

318.728.9544 www.BrownRealtyCo.com

Member Member SIPC

SIPC

ELECTRIC RECLINER SEATS AND RESERVED SEATING

SHOW TIMES: FRI, APRIL 29 – THURS, MAY 5 HELP WANTED EVERYBODY WANTS SOME R | 1:00 3:30 7:00 9:10 PAPA HEMINGWAY IN CUBA R | 2:00 4:30 7:15 9:20 MOTHER’S DAY PG13 | 1:30 3:45 7:00 9:30 RATCHET & CLANK PG | 2:00 4:15 7:15 9:25 THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR PG13 | 1:30 4:15 6:45 9:20 ELVIS & NIXON R | 2:15 4:30 7:15 9:30

MILES AHEAD R | 1:45 4:20 7:15 9:25 THE JUNGLE BOOK PG | 1:15 3:45 7:00 9:10 BABERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT PG13 | 1:30 4:00 6:45 9:15 HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS R | 2:00 4:20 6:45 9:15

MACHETE (2010) 7PM 5/5 CAPTAIN AMERICA : CIVIL WAR PG13 7:00 & 9:45 5/5

NOW SERVING BEER & WINE • FULL FOOD MENU • GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE

COPY EDITOR Jim Harris ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Will Stephenson EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Bryan Moats PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kevin Waltermire DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Phyllis A. Britton DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS Rebekah Hardin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Brooke Wallace, Lee Major, Ashley Gill, Stephen Paulson ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Roland R. Gladden ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jim Hunnicutt SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DIRECTOR Lauren Bucher IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Anitra Hickman CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson BILLING/COLLECTIONS Linda Phillips OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Kelly Lyles PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

association of alternative newsmedia

Buy one. Get one free.

VOLUME 42, NUMBER 34 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $74 for two years.

Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year.

For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited.

Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

©2016 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

When you buy a home in Chenal Valley, you’ll be amazed at what comes with it.

For starters, you’ll be just a stone’s throw from The Promenade, voted Arkansas’ #1 Shopping & Dining Destination for the last three years. From fashion to home décor, cozy lunches to a movie and popcorn, a home in Chenal Valley puts you right in the heart of it all. In fact, the neighborhoods of Chenal Valley bring to life everything you could dream of in a community. To begin your search for a new lot, or home go to Chenal.com and see how life happens here.

Life happens here.

FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE CALL: (501) 375-2985 www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

3

COMMENT

Kurrus spoke truth Just so we understand: [Arkansas Department of Education] Commissioner [Johnny] Key, who does not have a teaching certificate, replaced [Little Rock School District Superintendent] Baker [Kurrus] because he did not have a teaching certificate. If that is the reason (no teaching certificate), then why does it not apply to the commissioner as well? Oh yes; the accepting public does not hold Powerful People (PPs) to the same standards as the workers. Baker has a Harvard education in law, and the new guy has an education degree from a state school. We will pay the new guy $75,000 more than Baker, along with other expensive goodies. For that type of treatment, the new guy will make sure the right people get the best choice, and the others will get what is left. Without community support, many kids will fail in the leftovers schools. The new guy will place the blame for the failing schools everywhere except where it belongs. As always, a few students will do well in the failing schools, and their example will be expected of all. The PPs do not understand the hell of poverty. The new guy will maintain choice schools for the right people as long as he can, and will get more and more money

4

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

each year for doing so. Baker’s ethics requires truthfulness, so he spoke out against charter expansion. That cost him and the city big time. So the new guy will be here as long as he does what the PPs tell him to do, no matter what damage is done to Little Rock. I thought Baker was warming to the idea of school villages placed along major traffic corridors. Sadly, my dream will remain just that.

Richard Emmel Little Rock

That I-30 mess I know everyone has opinions about the Interstate 30 bridge mess. I, for one, still think the area needs a bridge from the bottom of Cantrell Hill or Chester Street across to the Pike Avenue/ Pulaski Tech area.

But for me and lots of other people on the north side, an extension of Interstate 630 and/or Interstate 530 to cross the river and link up with U.S. 67/167 would be best in that it would ease the I-30 headache and redesignate the Jacksonville freeway as an interstate.

But that’s a financial pipedream.

The people in the Heights and Hillcrest who are fighting the bridge expansion to 10 lanes should have to work nights and have to come across

the bridge at 7:30 a.m. on their way home. Better yet, let them drive from Jacksonville or Cabot for three months.

We may live elsewhere, but we pay sales taxes in Little Rock and North Little Rock, too.

But the best suggestion is that the project be built as four side-by-side bridges: three or four lanes for the I-30 and I-630 southbound traffic with the exit at Sixth or Ninth streets, and a separate bridge section with a two-lane on-ramp for the [East] Broadway traffic that would exit onto Capitol Avenue or Fourth Street. The two bridges would be separate and traffic couldn’t merge until across the river.

The highway department would need one of those Texas under/over ramps like they have in San Antonio on Loop 410 intersections to move traffic wanting to get on the freeway and Jacksonville traffic wanting to get off at Ninth or Sixth Street.

And it would really help if there were a way to keep part of the North Little Rock traffic from the JFK onramp separate from the I-30 southbound and I-630 bound traffic if they want off at Capitol Avenue.

Again, the main problem with the bridge is the steep, slow climb up the ramp and merging by the [East] Broadway traffic. Make that traffic separate

and you solve most of the backups.

Keith Weber Jacksonville

Smart to invest in pre-K What would you do if you were given an opportunity to invest $1 in an idea that would give you a return of $8.60?

According to the U.S. Department of Education, for every $1 invested in high-quality pre-kindergarten there is a return to the taxpayer of $8.60 in the future. Taxpayers save money in the future when they invest in high quality pre-kindergarten because research shows that children who attend a highquality pre-kindergarten program are less likely to repeat a grade while in school, are less likely to need special education services and are less likely to get arrested as adults.

Research shows that gaps in development between children of lowincome families and middle-class families are apparent by as young as 18 months of age. A study by Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford University, showed that children from professional families were able to identify pictures of simple words faster than children from families living in poverty. The study also followed the children’s language development from 18 months to age 2. The results showed that children of professional families increased their vocabulary by 30 percent more than children living in poverty. Without some type of intervention, the gaps in development continue to increase during early childhood and children from families of low income enter kindergarten 12 to 15 months behind their peers from middle-class families in language and pre-literacy skills.

Research shows that high-quality early childhood education and prekindergarten can help narrow and prevent gaps in development between children living in poverty and their peers because the early years of a child’s life are critical times for development and the brain is most malleable during this time. It is also during this time that it is the most cost-effective to do so.

Sadly, not all children have the same access to attend a high quality prekindergarten program. The current resources available to help lowincome families access high-quality pre-kindergarten are not enough to fill the current need. According to the Department of Education, 60 percent of 4-year-olds are not enrolled in a

public funded state preschool or Head Start. Also, the Child Development Block Grant is only able to help one out of every 10 eligible children attend a high quality early childhood education program.

The good news is that the Strong Start for America’s Children Act of 2015, if enacted into law, can help increase access to high-quality prekindergarten for Arkansas children from families of low income. The legislation will expand access to highquality pre-kindergarten by giving state matching funds to Arkansas Head Starts, Arkansas school districts, and local childcare centers that implement research based high-quality early childhood education standards.

Investing tax dollars into a program that yields a return of $8.60 for every $1 initially invested is a wise investment for all taxpayers. Please consider supporting the Strong Start for American’s Children Act of 2015.

Chelsie Kennedy Farmington

From the web In response to last week’s cover story, “The war on Little Rock schools”: The Waltons, with strong support from Hussman, Madison Murphy, et al., will not rest until they have destroyed the LRSD and others are to follow. Key and Hutchinson are merely the puppets put on stage to perform the dirty deeds and take the flack that follows. The previously named culprits do not have the intestinal fortitude to come out front.

It is all a part and parcel of the Koch brothers to eliminate GOVERNMENT

BY THE PEOPLE! And take over this great country so the poor guys don’t have to pay taxes.

Ralph Cloar Little Rock Where is our government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

Why do we allow ourselves to be ruled so haughtily by the 1 percent?

Is Asa now a King, with his jester Key? Is the Chamber of Commerce the Chamber of Earls and Dukes? Is Walter Hussman now Count Hussman?

How did all this inherited wealth come to believe that they know better than the people whose sweat created that wealth?

WHY DID THE PEOPLE OF LITTLE ROCK ALLOW DEMOCRACY TO BE TAKEN FROM THEM?

Paying Top Dollar for Legislators I am admittedly more than a little cynical about all of this, but ...

Think about all of the pieces mentioned above.

1. State board approves charter expansions. Lots of new seats to fill.

2. School report cards come out and show that LRSD middle schools are BETTER or just as good as the charters that were just expanded.

3. [Baker] Kurrus brought stability (read: trust) to the district and talked a lot about how the LRSD was going to have to “compete” with the charters, even opens a new middle school.

4. Oh, shit! How do we fill all of those new seats at the charter schools?

Get rid of the stability. The resulting shake-up will send enough parents, kids and maybe teachers, running for the exits. Seats filled. Problem solved.

Oh, and by the way, we can let Baker off easy now so that this new guy can take the real fall for all of this in another year or two.

Morris I was struck while listening to the video by [new LRSD Superintendent Michael] Poore that he stated he had been offered the job two weeks earlier.

For two weeks, Key and Hutchinson had planned this change and yet they made no effort to inform the public or Baker Kurrus or any of the elected representatives of the Little Rock area.

I am so angry with this usurpation of the people’s right to have a voice in government. Public schools belong to us, not to the Department of Education or the appointed (not elected) Board of Education. Every citizen of the state should protest this unwarranted exercise in fascism by the very politicos who claim to be opposed to authoritarian big government. Well-meaning people can work together on issues but there must be trust. Where was trust in Commissioners Key’s action?

Nell Matthews CORRECTION Last week’s issue of the Times incorrectly reported the title of the book from which Guy Lancaster read at the unveiling of the Readers Map of Arkansas. He read from “The Moaner’s Bench” by Mars Hill, not “Mourner’s Bench” by Sanderia Faye.

Lancaster notes that there is another book, “The Mourner’s Bench,” by Susan Dodd. He did not read from that book, either. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

5

EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the Week:

— State Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) explaining his decision to back Gov. Hutchinson’s workaround plan to continue the private option, Arkansas’s version of expanded Medicaid. Hester was one of 10 Republican senators fighting to end the private option — which provides insurance to over 250,000 lowincome Arkansans — but in the end the pressure was too great for him. The governor signed the bill last Thursday, thus continuing the program (now rebranded as “Arkansas Works”).

Jason Rapert targets Plan B What would a legislative session be without a grandstanding crusade

by Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway)?

During debate over the private option, Rapert jumped into the mix to protest coverage of emergency contraception under Arkansas Medicaid. Plan B — the “morning after pill” — amounts to “killing little babies,” Rapert declared, and he threatened to attach an amendment to the Medicaid appropriation on the matter. Never mind that federal law requires coverage of emergency contraception under private health insurance policies like those subsidized by the private option.

Yet Rapert’s antics might do tangible harm. Mindful of his need for every vote in the Senate, Gov. Hutchinson placated Rapert with a letter last week stating that he’ll seek federal waivers to end coverage of emergency contraception under all Medicaid programs. The governor’s request on the private option is going nowhere — but the rules are 6

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

“When I realized I was not willing to shut down Medicaid, then it was like, what are we going to do now?”

EMPTY SHOES: Christopher Epperson, board chair for the Arkansas chapter of of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, arranges shoes on the steps of the state Capitol last week to represent the more than 500 Arkansans lost to suicide each year.

different for traditional Medicaid programs, including coverage for extremely low-income parents and thousands of people with chronic medical problems.

Because states have some discretion over which family planning services are covered, Arkansas could potentially prevent its traditional Medicaid beneficiaries from getting Plan B. If the feds go along, that is.

Huckabee comes home No, not to Arkansas — to Fox News.

The former Republican governor and twice-failed presidential candidate will be returning to Fox to provide election cycle coverage on “various daytime and primetime programs,” according to Deadline Hollywood. Huckabee formerly had a weekly talk show on the cable network, which he left in January 2015 to pursue his presidential ambitions. Those fizzled a year later with a bottom-tier showing in the Iowa caucuses, but Huckabee’s brand still has some cache among the Fox crowd.

Is that you, Hernando?

The Arkansas Archaeological Survey last week announced a major discovery: Researchers at Parkin Archaeological State Park in eastern Arkansas believe they have found the remains of a cross erected by the expedition of Hernando de Soto in 1541.

Parkin is the presumed site of Casqui, an American Indian village that was documented by de Soto soon after the Spanish conquistador and his men crossed the Mississippi River into what is now Arkansas. According to the expedition’s journals, the Spaniards raised a cross on top of the village’s largest mound, supposedly because the chief of Casqui asked the Europeans to lend the divine assistance of their deity to help alleviate an extended drought. De Soto continued westward, but the cross remained. A portion of a cypress post unearthed by archaeologists has been sent to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for analysis to determine if it is indeed De Soto’s.

Crimes against history Vandals struck Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock last week, smashing several Italian marble statues within a family plot and damaging gravestones and monuments throughout the cemetery. American and Arkansas flags were also

pulled down and shredded. Sexton Steve Adams said this is the first act of large-scale vandalism he’s seen while employed at Mount Holly. Because the cemetery knows of no living members of the family in question, Adams said, the cost for attempting to repair the damage will likely fall to Mount Holly.

Devine out at Youth Services Marcus Devine last week stepped down as director of the Division of Youth Services of the Department of Human Services, the state entity responsible for juvenile justice. Days later, news emerged that Devine has been hit with liens due to $72,000 in unpaid state income taxes and accumulated charges. It’s not a huge surprise for those who’ve followed Devine’s career: A search of court records (available online for all to see) reveals years of legal action on debt collection, tax liens, child support arrearages and more.

Perhaps the governor should have run a background check before naming Devine to the job.

OPINION

Low tactics

S

tate Education Commissioner Johnny Key fired Baker Kurrus as Little Rock superintendent last week because he ventured off the reservation when he presented data to the state Board of Education on the damaging impact of charter schools on the district, which the state now runs. Kurrus was questioning proposed expansions of two charter schools already draining easier-toeducate children from the LRSD. Key said he got no orders from the Walton Family Foundation to do this. He needed no orders. After years of carrying their legislation, including support for their 2015 bill to allow privatization of the entire Little Rock School District, he hardly needed to gauge their unhappiness when Kurrus went rogue.

When howls of anger erupted at the firing, Walton apologists were at the ready.

They came from the school “reform” program at the University of Arkansas, its existence and subsidized salaries owed to Walton millions. Some universities resist taking gifts tied to educational units to avoid such appearances of conflict of interest. Not UAF.

First came a blog post from the Walton-backed Office of Education Policy at UA defending the sacking of MAX Kurrus and extolBRANTLEY ling the choice maxbrantley@arktimes.com of Bentonville superintendent Michael Poore to succeed him. Then Gary Ritter and Sarah McKenzie of the office cranked out an op-ed for Saturday’s Arkansas DemocratGazette further defending Kurrus’ ouster.

It was research-deficient editorializing, a funny thing for an outfit hoping to maintain academic credentials. It lacked heft against the abundant, specific evidence of Key’s long advocacy for Walton education wishes or the decision of Key’s department to further batter the Little Rock district with charter school expansions that demonstrated no evidence they’d fill an unmet need or exceed what public schools were doing. The latest school report cards were full of numerical scores that showed Little Rock excellence against the eStem, LISA and KIPP schools so often invoked

No independence

N

ow that the spectacular musical “Hamilton” and a new book that hails him as the father of the U.S. economy have burnished the reputation of the most brilliant of the Founders, it behooves political columnists to incorporate him.

So here is my tribute to Alexander Hamilton. We should now honor him in sorrow, for just as his star is rising again we must mourn the passing of the great American experiment of which he was the foremost exponent: the independent judiciary.

The U.S. Senate majority issued the death notice for the noble experiment in February when it said that filling a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court was no longer a constitutional duty of the president and Senate but only a political gesture, which voters were to exercise nine months hence.

Reversing 220 years of history, a president who does not face re-election no longer can make appointments.

The Supreme Court itself, the exemplar of independence, has seemed unsure of its fate. After saying people could not stop vast and often secret wealth from exercising its choice to buy elections, the court’s majority was not quite sure they

should be able to buy judicial elections. Efforts to protect against such corruption, in Arkansas and elseERNEST where, seem likely DUMAS to fail, because people who vote for Jason Rapert for the legislature want to vote for judges just like him.

As if it had accepted its role of political avenger in the wake of the Senate’s capitulation, the U.S. Supreme Court picked up its cudgels with new vigor last week when the first big political case after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia came before it: President Obama’s immigration order.

But let’s revisit Hamilton on the subject of independence — well, Hamilton and sometime friend/sometime foe James Madison. The two big things missing in the confederation of states, they realized, were a strong central government with the power to solve problems across the states and an independent judiciary and supreme court, which would hold themselves above politics and interpret the Constitution and laws without favor, either to a political party or to a momen-

by charter advocates such as Walter Hussman, publisher of the Democrat-Gazette.

For solace, Ritter and McKenzie pointed to a tweet from a DemocratGazette columnist that said Poore might be a left-winger. So what? But, since he mentioned it: Poore’s opposed to an LGBT nondiscrimination policy for the Bentonville School District. Some lefty.

Poore’s lack of experience with a school district with any significant number of black students was brushed over by Ritter and McKenzie for his experience in a heavily “minority” district. They didn’t mention it was a small district with a large Latino population in Colorado. Nor did they mention a mixed bag of standardized test scores in Bentonville, including a decline in the graduation rate of poor students over the last five years.

The obvious flaw in the op-ed was its failure to mention the Walton influence behind the writers’ employer. Ritter, in email exchanges with me, says he’s his own man. His work demonstrates an effort to lift needy children. But his Walmart slip shows when he wonders whether it is only the “elites” or parents of magnet schoolers unhappy about Kurrus. Only a few meaningless liberals care, in other words.

I’ve been in the schools. I know Mabel-

vale and Henderson — to name two schools outperforming the expanded charter schools — are neither magnet schools nor populated by “elites” as defined by those who use the word to demonize critics. Ritter should attend a meeting of Arkansas Community Organizations, a group angered by Kurrus’ dismissal, and do a head count there on elites.

Ritter and McKenzie also tried to make the public think the outcry was an unfair attack on Poore. Poore dodged an interview with KATV, making himself available so far only to the friendly Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which missed a chance to ask him probing questions. I hope he’s a good educator, but it’s a shame that Little Rock must start all over again.

Ritter downplayed recently released progress in test scores in Little Rock as happening before Kurrus took over. True, but it is both hilarious and infuriating to hear it used as a defense. The improvement happened under that bad old school board that the state evicted so Johnny Key could be put in charge. Still, the continuing signs have been positive. Kurrus didn’t get even a full year to show what his herculean work has accomplished.

But 600 people gathered at the Capitol last Saturday to show they appreciated Kurrus. They will not soon be quiet.

tary popular majority. The judiciary might never be loved for its decisions, but the public had to have confidence that it was trying to follow the law and not political whims.

The idea of a Supreme Court above politics was central to getting the Bill of Rights into the Constitution. Madison at first was not as sure as were Hamilton and Jefferson that a constitutional declaration of human rights was workable, but Jefferson persuaded him that if the rights were placed in the hands of an independent judiciary, the rights of unpopular minorities (think blacks, gays, immigrants) would be protected from the whims of politicians and the majority.

Until recently, we paid lip service and often substance to judicial independence.

Justices often did not follow their benefactors. Liberal John Kennedy’s sole justice was the most conservative postwar judge.

The appointees of Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan gave us the great social decisions of our time: racial integration, abortion rights, same-sex marriage and rights of the accused like effective counsel.

But last month we had the spectacle of the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the assent of all his colleagues but one, attacking Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the ultraconservative appointee of his party, as a traitor to the cause because he

did not follow current party orthodoxy to the last. In the Obamacare case, Roberts, like every Republican justice since 1940, recognized the authority of Congress and federal agencies to enact laws or rules governing activities of nationwide consequence. His four Republican colleagues stood their political ground.

Then came the hottest political issue of them all, save gay marriage: Obama’s executive order to forego deportation of millions of undocumented residents who came here as children before 2007 or parents of children who are citizens or legal residents. Although Obama’s order carried out previous Republican policy, the party had lurched violently the other way.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana wrote an op-ed in The New York Times explaining how the order was perfectly in line with current law and the tradition of giving presidents broad latitude in enforcing immigration rules. A 2012 opinion written by a Reagan Republican said the law gave the president and immigration officials broad discretion about whether, when and how to deport people. But political conditions had reversed, and the judges were expected to recognize it. The oral arguments last week demonstrated that, from Roberts on down, they got the memo. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

7

Get real

C

A solo performance Written & Performed by Michael Fosberg

One Man = Race Diversity Identity “Fosberg has clearly thought a lot about American life and his piece is full of insights about how we construct our personal identities and how, in an instant, one’s sense of self can be altered forever. The fact that it is also, at times, hilarious, is just gravy.”

- THE DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, APRIL 29 • 6PM James H. Clark Auditorium 2300 Prince Street, Conway, AR 72034 FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC incognitotheplay.com/presentations/ about-the-presentation

8

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

all me unpatriotic, but whenever I hear people prating about the “American Dream” it sets my teeth on edge. The thing about dreams, see, is that they’re imaginary. A figment of your imagination.

So you have a dream. Good for you.

I had a dream, too. When I was 12. I was going to be a major league pitcher. Over the ensuing years, however, it became gradually apparent that the fastball that wowed them in Little League might not carry me to World Series stardom.

To me, that’s one of the big lessons of sports: realism. How good you are, how good you’re not. How to deal with it.

It’s when people bring unfettered illusions into the economic and political realm, however, that the trouble starts.

One such example is a provocative essay in the May issue of The Atlantic by Neal Gabler.

Despite five well-received books and hundreds of magazine articles in all the prestigious places, Gabler finds himself dead broke at age 66 — ducking creditors, driving a 19 year-old junker, in thrall to the IRS and having to borrow money from his adult daughters to pay the heating bill.

“Financial impotence,” he calls it.

While he says he’s not looking for sympathy, Gabler identifies with economically squeezed Americans who told pollsters for the Federal Reserve Board that they would have to meet a $400 emergency by borrowing or selling something, or worse.

“Four hundred dollars!” Gabler writes. “Who knew? ... Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47 percent.”

Well, Mitt Romney knew, if you recall. He expected GOP voters to be angry that a near majority of Americans didn’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes (although many end up remitting a greater proportion of their wealth to the government than Romney himself.)

However, Gabler’s point isn’t really political in the electoral sense. He professes concern about the aforementioned “American Dream.” He thinks it’s a pity that only 64 percent in a 2014 New York Times poll professed belief in this phantasm, defined as “that great, glowing, irresistible American promise that has been drummed into our heads since birth: Just work hard and you can have it all.”

Actually, no you can’t. And you never could. Respectfully, Gabler appears to

have spent too much time on planet Hollywood. He worries that people’s money problems GENE have “perhaps LYONS begun to diminish our national spirit. People want to feel, need to feel, that they are advancing in this world. It is what sustains them.”

Some would say that defining the national spirit entirely in material terms can only lead to sorrow. But let’s not get metaphysical in a newspaper column, shall we?

The author of biographies of Walt Disney, Walter Winchell, and Barbra Streisand, Gabler appears to have fallen into what my friend Gwen Moritz aptly defines as “the fatal trap of believing that [he] deserved a lifestyle [he] simply couldn’t afford.”

To somebody like me whose professional career roughly parallels Gabler’s, the man’s personal choices are mindboggling. As he correctly points out, “writer … is a financially perilous profession.” To keep your head above water, it’s important to keep your wits about you. Without my wife’s steadfastness and hard work, I’d never have made a go of it. But if wealth and status are your primary goals, you’re probably in the wrong game.

Gabler appears to have made one financially ruinous decision after another — hiding the truth from himself and his family with equal facility. Even his confession sometimes conceals as much as it reveals. Moritz said she actually screamed when Gabler mentioned cashing out his retirement account to pay for his daughter’s wedding — this after spending his father’s savings sending his children to costly private colleges.

He wanted them to be “winners.”

Me, I was flabbergasted when he mentioned buying a house in East Hampton, N.Y., the most exclusive CEOand celebrity-enclave on the East Coast.

A visit to the yacht club there could make an ordinary peasant nostalgic for the age of piracy. This two years before selling his family’s Brooklyn co-op. His combined mortgage payments must have rivaled Portugal’s national debt.

Then there was Gabler’s stretching out a lump-sum book advance by failing to pay taxes. Slate’s Helaine Olen said, “I don’t believe there are 10 people in the United States who couldn’t tell you that would end badly.”

‘Second chance’ citizenship

J

ust before the March 1 election, I was campaigning in the Capitol View neighborhood encouraging support for the ill-fated Pulaski County transit tax. I asked one man out building a fence whether he planned to vote. His response: “I can’t because I was a felon.”

The interaction with this man working hard on a Sunday afternoon nagged at me despite a great afternoon of canvassing with numerous positive interactions with voters, many of them old friends.

Late last week, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order to create an opportunity for 200,000 former felons in his state to regain the vote.

While there have been moves to lessen the impact of felon disenfranchisement in a number of states in recent years, McAuliffe’s move was unusual in that it was a blanket restoration of voting rights to all former felons who had completed their sentences and was carried out through the pen of a governor rather than legislative action. McAuliffe’s action was carefully crafted to work within the constraints of a 1902 state constitutional amendment that disenfranchised felons, and he also promised to issue monthly orders to allow newly released felons to register to vote.

As Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project (a national organization dedicated to creating a more just criminal justice system across the states), put it, “This will be the single most significant action on disenfranchisement that we’ve ever seen from a governor.”

While not as severe as the situation in Virginia (where ex-felons have to wait for years to ask a judge for reinstatement to the voting rolls), Arkansas removes inmates, parolees or probationers from the voting rolls. To regain one’s right to vote, a former felon must take proof of being discharged from the criminal justice system along with evidence of the payment of all fees, fines and restitution to the county clerk. If the ex-felon lacks any of these various documents, he has to seek them out from corrections officials; over time, it becomes more likely that key records will be lost. Moreover, the documents differ according to where the felon was in the corrections system. At the end of the day, local county clerks end up with significant power in this arena; over time, some have been more lax and others more stringent as they scrutinize the papers required to allow an ex-felon

to regain his or her voting rights.

According to The Sentencing Project, approximately 65,000 of JAY Arkansas’s resiBARTH dents were disenfranchised as of 2010. That equals just under 3 percent of the entire voting age population. But, unsurprisingly, there is a disparate racial impact of Arkansas’s felon disfranchisement laws. Just under 8 percent of the African-American voting age population in the state is shut out by the disenfranchising measures, and among African-American men the rate jumps into double digits. Indeed, during my own campaign for state legislature a few years back, the response, “I can’t vote because I was incarcerated” became so common a response from African-American men of all ages whom I met going door-to-door that I found myself hesitant to ask the question regarding their registration status because of the inherent awkwardness in the conversation that too often followed.

Unfortunately, because the disenfranchisement of felons (and the convoluted process through which voting rights can be regained) is enshrined in the hyperspecific Amendment 51 to the Arkansas Constitution, ratified by the state’s voters in 1964, any action as sweeping as McAuliffe’s will be difficult in Arkansas (even in an altered partisan environment). However, absent fundamental reform to the system that should ultimately come, actions could reduce the state’s disenfranchisement rate: The various data required for re-entry to the voting rolls could be streamlined into a unified electronic database easing the process for ex-felons and creating uniformity across counties, and ex-felons could be educated about regaining their vote and be assisted in that process as they depart the criminal justice system.

From providing felons a “second chance” in employment to ensuring access to high-quality housing, there are many issues tied to the reintegration of those who have completed their debts to society back into that society. But, there’s nothing more fundamental than the steps that should be taken to provide ex-felons a “second chance” at citizenship’s core component: the right to vote.

Custom stamped jewelry and one of a kind designs

523 S. Louisiana, Little Rock, AR Thurs & Fri 11 - 5:30 & Sat 10 - 3 • 501-396-9146 www.bellavitajewelry.net

THURSDAY: CRAFT BEERS

10% OFF Including Growlers

2516 Cantrell Road Riverdale Shopping Center

366-4406

Join Us!

Wild Wines Ninetieth at Night Come Raise A Glass or Two For the Zoo’s 90th Birthday

Featuring Hundreds of Wines Food from 50 of Arkansas’s Premier Restaurants

Live Music • Saturday, April 30

General Admission: 7-10 pm ~ Reserve Room 6-8 pm

Presented by:

Beverage Sponsor:

Get details & tickets at: www.littlerockzoo.com/wildwines www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

9

Rigged system

W

DOE’S KNOWS LUNCH & DINNER Lunch: Mon- Fri 11am-2pm Dinner: Mon-Thur 5:30-9:30pm • Fri & Sat 5:30-10pm FULL BAR & PRIVATE PARTY ROOM 1023 West Markham • Downtown Little Rock 501-376-1195 • www.doeseatplace.net

10

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

elcome to the Arkansas Department of Education, where inequity, ideology and incompetence are our specialties — but trust us with your kids.

Who would have thought Johnny Key, Gov. Hutchinson’s man running the Department of Education, would become the poster child of big government incompetence?

Say this about Key: He believes. He believes so much in the Walton agenda to privatize schools that he is sacrificing nearly every other principle to get there.

So Baker Kurrus was fired for doing his job and advocating for the 25,000 students in the Little Rock School District.

The system is rigged. Some people screamed this from the get-go with the state takeover of LRSD and elimination of our newly elected African-American majority school board with a reform agenda. The governor and Key’s advocacy for proposed legislation allowing the state to give control of LRSD to a private corporation further eroded confidence.

But many others couldn’t believe it yet. I played along, upset by the takeover, but willing to work to try to make it a success.

The ADE board ruling to approve the eStem and LISA charter expansions shook the public’s confidence even more.

Kurrus presented overwhelming data showing eStem and LISA expansions will harm the vast majority of Little Rock’s children. The charters countered with a string of cute kids offering anecdotes.

The board that said it wanted to make a data-driven decision did precisely the opposite.

Commissioner Key slammed the door last week on any remaining illusion of fairness by firing Kurrus for having the integrity and gall to challenge the desires of the great Walton machine. Kurrus stood up for kids. In particular he stood up for low-income, special needs and minority kids who the ADE is actively working to segregate and leave behind.

Commissioner Key, by firing Kurrus, boiled the whole LRSD takeover into one word: rigged. Key can try to explain and aw shucks the decision away, or try to “press release” it to death, but it fails the most basic eyeball test. Kurrus beat the state at its own game, so it declared victory and kicked him off the field. You can be sure of the chill sent across our state — get in line or you are next.

Then Key introduced Little Rock to our new superintendent Michael Poore, a yes man who can’t seem to state his

position on the controversies that have rocked our schools. Poore walks in the door tainted. He has BILL no legitimacy on KOPSKY which to showcase his “leadership skills.” It’s hard to see how such a “leader” could not see this is a situation to run from, not embrace.

The incompetence of the Hutchinson administration’s attempt to smooth talk this is staggering. Everything about this disaster has been mishandled: the firing and the hiring, the bumbling announcements, the vacuous and uncomfortable news conferences and the disingenuous attempt to say this is about academic and leadership skills. Key, who needed waivers from academic requirements to be hired, touted Poore’s academic credentials as the reason for the change.

Rigging a system as Key has done corrodes the credibility of the whole institution of public education. If the state can rig the system against Little Rock kids then it can rig the system against any child. No one in Arkansas can see the Department of Education as a credible, unbiased agent for education anymore.

Incompetence is like a cancer in an organization. It spreads from any position out, but the higher it goes the faster it spreads. The commissioner of education being so clearly in over his head infects the entire department. Good people flee or give up. Performance drops across the whole organization.

The governor needs to put an end to this madness and make Little Rock whole again. This bumbling mess has already done far too much damage to our kids and community. It’s time to get back to proven reforms — pre-K, reading, afterschool and nutrition programs — and away from an ideological experiment that has already left other cities in ruin.

The governor needs to reconsider the leadership of ADE. He needs to freeze charter school expansion until we have a plan that considers the full impact on our community. He needs to freeze the state takeover of more school districts, and he needs to give local control back to someone with our students’ best interests in mind: Little Rock’s elected school board.

Anyone who thinks this is going to blow over is not paying attention.

Bill Kopsky is executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel.

11200 W. Markham 501-223-3120 www.colonialwineshop.com facebook.com/colonialwines

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Hope springs

T

he Observer observes.

It’s right there in the job title, folks, and we knew it from the first moment we donned the sacred ring regurgitated by a magical, wish-granting catfish in exchange for releasing him back into the moonlit Arkansas River many and many a year ago. That said, it ain’t quite as complicated as brain surgery or shortorder cookin’. We just try to keep our peepers open and give a loud and cheerful “present!” when our name is called, both skills you have to cultivate if you don’t want to make the common mistake of going to bed hale and hearty at 20 years old, only to wake up an old fart on your deathbed, wondering where all the years went.

Happens all the time.

The Observer doesn’t often do visual Observers, but today, only a photo will do. As someone once said (maybe Abraham Lincoln, as every quote we see on Dr. Zuckerberg’s Mechanical Book of Faces seems to be attributed to ol’ Abe, even when the quote is “Don’t believe everything you read on Facebook”), a picture is worth yadda-yadda-yadda.

Every morning after dropping Junior off at Central High School, we drive past the following tableau there on Daisy Bates near bustling Broadway. We noticed it some weeks back, and thought it beautiful, cars streaming past, never slowing, never noticing, never Observing. But we do. We see. Right there in the job description, sons and daughters, part and parcel.

Some mor n ing s, when The

Bushmills Irish Whiskey $41.98 Everyday $48.99

Woodford Reserve Bourbon $59.98 Everyday $69.99 Absolut Vodka $29.97 Everyday $36.99

Sauza Hornitos Reposado or Plata Tequila $29.98 Everyday $42.99

Dewar’s 12yo Blended Scotch Whiskey $27.98 Everyday $35.59 Maker’s Mark Bourbon $23.98 Everyday $28.99 Belvedere Vodka $26.98 Everyday $32.99

4/27– 5/

3

The Fürst Riesling or Pinot Blanc $9.97 $14.99

Louis Martini 2013 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon $13.97 Everyday $17.49

Palazzo Maffei 2013 Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore $13.98 Everyday $17.99 Treasure Hunter 2014 King’s Schilling Grenache/Cinsault $17.98 Everyday $22.99

Alienor la Roseraie 2010 Lake County Rosé $21.98 Everyday $26.99

Plymouth Small Batch Gin $24.99 Everyday $30.99

Beringer Founders’ Estate Cabernet, Chardonnay & Merlot $12.98 Everyday $19.99

MacPhail 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir $27.97 Everyday $39.99

BEST LIQUOR STORE

Observer has been in a particularly low place, seeing it there has damn near brought us to grateful tears.

The Observer is a romantic, which is the nice way of saying we’re a sappy puss. We understand that. But there’s something about this that speaks to a lot of things we’ve been through, here on the backside of 40, and the meaning changes, depending on where our head is. Something about time, maybe. Hope. Renewal. Maybe just the way nothing ever truly disappears. Hopefully it will speak to you as well. So we ask you, dear friend: Have you slowed down to see the world today? Have you ever seen a poem without words? www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

11

Arkansas Reporter

BRIAN CHILSON

THE

SPEAKING UP: Activist Toney Orr addresses the crowd at the Capitol on Saturday, April 23.

Standing up for the LRSD Kurrus may be out as superintendent, but fight for the district continues.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY

L

ast Saturday’s rally at the Capitol, organized by the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, drew an estimated 600 people opposed to the firing of Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus. The speakers represented divergent viewpoints regarding Little Rock’s schools, from John Riggs, a businessman and former Democratic legislator who advocated for state takeover of the LRSD last year, to local education activist and takeover opponent Tony Orr. The usually hyper-cautious Mayor Mark Stodola said he considered the firing “a tragedy.” Little Rock Education Association head Cathy Koehler told the crowd that the teachers’ union had “a better working relationship with Baker Kurrus than any superintendent in 22 years.”

Democratic Sens. Linda Chesterfield and Joyce Elliott of Little Rock 12

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

rallied the crowd at the end of the protest. Chesterfield admitted she’d had her doubts about Kurrus’ appointment last summer. But, she said, “I’m so glad I was wrong,” as Kurrus proved himself to be “about this community” and “reached out to everybody — not just those north of I-630.” Elliott said Kurrus’ firing was the equivalent of a mugging. “I’m just at a point where I’m not taking it lying down,” she declared.

Elliott also pointed out the sentiment of relative unity around the issue of Kurrus, an elusive thing in Little Rock public education. “We are all one color today,” she said. “The color of change.”

Yes, almost everyone was united last weekend in decrying Education Commissioner Johnny Key’s unilateral action forcing Kurrus out of the job. The question is whether it makes any difference. The day before the rally, Key said that he stands by his decision to

hire a new superintendent, Michael Poore of Bentonville (even as the education commissioner ineffectually apologized for the “timing” of the announcement). Key answers directly to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has indicated he knew the firing was coming and said it won’t be reversed. Because the LRSD was taken over by the state Education Department in January 2015, Key and Hutchinson would seem to hold almost all the cards. If this deal is done, why bother making any noise about it?

Actually, those opposed to the decision need to keep doing just that. Even if Kurrus is out for good, the fight over the direction of Little Rock schools continues — and the coming days are crucial ones in which public pressure matters more than ever. Here are four reasons why.

1. The real issue isn’t Kurrus. It’s what education “reform” advocates plan to do next.

To grasp why Kurrus’ firing really matters in terms of the well-being of the children in the district, recall HB 1733. That’s the failed 2015 bill that would have allowed for the systematic privatization of the LRSD by farming out its schools to charter management organizations. The bill is also Exhibit A in the argument that billionaire charter supporter Jim Walton or his family’s

influential foundation is playing some role (however obliquely) in big picture decision-making about the LRSD: It is widely known that HB 1733 originated with a Walton-affiliated education lobbyist.

Ultimately, this is what public school advocates fear is coming: The destruction of the LRSD, either slowly (if charters keep proliferating) or rapidly (if legislation like HB 1733 does come to pass and the district is actively dismantled). These past months, Kurrus spoke out against the proposed expansion of two Little Rock charter schools with surprising boldness, arguing that the plans forwarded by eStem and LISA Academy would harm the LRSD and its children by effectively concentrating struggling students in traditional public schools. It is widely presumed that Kurrus’ outspokenness on the issue caused Key — a supporter of charter schools — to deem him unsuitable. (Key denies this; his explanation is that Kurrus was a fantastic leader, but he found an even better one in Michael Poore.)

But Kurrus as superintendent couldn’t have stopped a resurrected HB 1733 in the 2017 legislature any more than he was able to stop the eStem and LISA expansions when they appeared before the state Board of Education on March 31. All he could do was use the megaphone provided by his position and his stature in the community — the latter of which is only enhanced by the sense of quasi-martyrdom this firing has engendered.

What stopped HB 1733 last spring was a combination of community outcry and behind-the-scenes lobbying by education interest groups that hold powerful sway with legislators. The representative who sponsored the bill, Rep. Bruce Cazort (R-Hot Springs), pulled it from the education committee without a vote. Note that Kurrus wasn’t yet in the superintendent’s chair when HB 1733 appeared and when it was defeated.

In other words, in terms of actual power, the direction of the district is as much in the people’s hands as it has been at any point since January 2015 when the LRSD’s elected school board was dissolved. Local democracy was suspended with the state takeover, but public pressure still matters.

3. The relative unity around this issue provides an opportunity.

It may be confusing to some that Sens. Chesterfield and Elliott wanted Kurrus to stay, given that they objected to his appointment last summer. Their concerns were legitimate, however.

Kurrus’ hiring (like his firing) was done with no community input — and because Kurrus lacked any academic background in education, his appointment required a waiver of statute by the state Board of Education.

For many Kurrus skeptics, it was his willingness to take on the eStem and LISA charter school expansions that proved he was indeed acting in good faith and wasn’t simply following marching orders from the charter-happy education commissioner.

Over his 10 months in the office, he’s built trust slowly and steadily and has mostly kept a lid on strife, a monumental accomplishment given how rancorous Little Rock school politics can be.

The unique and perhaps irreplaceable thing that Kurrus brought to the table was his ability to shrewdly broker the complex transactional politics at the

heart of the district, informed by a lifetime in Little Rock and 12 years on the school board.

Yet some of Kurrus’ decisions have been controversial — most prominently, a renegotiated teachers’ contract that was accepted by union leadership but angered some rank-and-file members, and a planned West Little Rock middle school campus that Rep. John Walker (D-Little Rock) and other advocates of disadvantaged students say indicates a prioritization of the affluent above the needy. Even more contentious decisions were coming down the pike, including likely school closures in the 2017-18 school year.

BRIAN CHILSON

2. The governor is listening, believe it or not.

About 15 months into Asa Hutchinson’s governorship, we have a fair sense of how he operates. He likes stability and steady, incremental progress toward his conservative agenda. Ever the cautious prosecutor, he prefers arguing his case when he stands on firm rhetorical ground and wants differences to be resolved through discreet negotiations rather than messy public standoffs.

He loves a good task force.

Hutchinson probably isn’t going to reverse course on the Kurrus decision, but it’s clear he’s trying to manage the fallout. He’s met with city directors and the mayor, with business leaders and Little Rock legislators.

To be clear, paying such attention isn’t some praiseworthy move on Hutchinson’s part. It’s his job, and it would be politically foolish for him to do otherwise. The point is that Hutchinson seems discomfited by just how explosive Kurrus’ firing has proved to be, and he is surely keeping an eye on the public mood. Even if Arkansas’s political center of gravity has shifted northwestward under his administration, the governor still lives in Little Rock. And given how much Hutchinson likes his politics to be well-ordered, the volley of calls and letters his office has been receiving aren’t going unnoticed.

RALLYING AROUND KURRUS: The firing of the LRSD superintendent has engaged Little Rock residents throughout the city.

Ironically, Kurrus’ firing may have rallied the community together in a way that he couldn’t fully accomplish while being superintendent. Such solidarity wouldn’t be occurring now if Kurrus hadn’t mostly done the right things as district leader. The reaction we’re seeing now is the result of 10 months of decisive action and proactive trust building on his part. But the fact that Kurrus evidently is being removed for vocally defending the district gives him new credibility among even some LRSD advocates inclined to be suspicious of his motives from the beginning.

This provides the opportunity, however tenuous, to establish a coherent agenda for a broader coalition on a number of issues, no matter who is the superintendent. Opposition to privatization is only one example. There’s also the construction of a new high school for under-resourced Southwest Little Rock; the public needs to hold the new superintendent accountable to Key’s pledge to proceed with those plans. Teachers and staff who’ve

already willingly made a number of concessions in the name of detente (sacrificing two paid days to ease budget pressures, for example) shouldn’t be forced capriciously into giving up even more. If underpopulated school buildings need to be closed, that must be done with maximum transparency and minimum disruption to students and families.

But maybe the most important item on such an agenda is a return to local control of the district. This gets complicated: Kurrus, remember, would never have been superintendent if the state hadn’t taken over the LRSD. He was appointed by Key just as unilaterally as he was removed. It’s unclear how Kurrus felt about the state takeover to begin with, but he didn’t speak out against it publicly back in January 2015.

Setting aside arguments about the merits of the takeover, let’s just recognize that there were many who supported the takeover (like John Riggs) who are dismayed that Kurrus is gone — just as there were those (like John Walker) who fought the takeover tooth and nail but aren’t huge fans of Kurrus. When the state Board of Education dissolved a majority African-American school board, including two members elected just months before on promises of delivering greater equity to the district, most of the anguish came from the city’s black community. That same sense of impotence and disfranchisement didn’t fully hit home among much of the white community until Kurrus was fired last week.

Whatever his thoughts on the takeover initially, Kurrus recently has suggested a return to local control sooner rather than later. The superintendent told reporters last week that he thought “there’s a good question about the relative [academic] distress” of the LRSD when its latest test scores are compared to those of its “peers,” meaning nearby districts and charter schools. The district was taken over by the state because six schools out of 48 were deemed to be in “academic distress,” meaning under half of students in those schools performed proficient or advanced on standardized tests. But the latest scores show relative parity between LRSD schools and Little Rock charters. Kurrus said he thought the LRSD wouldn’t remain under state control for the full five years allowed under law. Is it possible Kurrus’ firing could prompt a groundswell of support for expediting a return to local governance?

LISTEN UP

Tune in to our “Week In Review” podcast each Friday.

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

4. A federal lawsuit is at play.

The wild card in all of this is the three-pronged federal lawsuit currently before U.S. District Judge Price Marshall alleging racially discriminatory motives on behalf of the state Education Department and the state board. That suit, which was brought

by Walker, aims to (1) halt the construction of the planned West Little Rock middle school, (2) stop charter school expansions and (3) reverse the state takeover of the LRSD. The first prong was adjudicated last month when Marshall ruled that the West Little Rock school can proceed as planned. Note that this portion of the suit also pitted Walker directly against Kurrus, illustrating the complex fault lines at play in the district. However, the other two prongs have yet to be heard.

A judge can’t be lobbied by the public. But the question of whether an action is discriminatory must take into account the context of the community in which it occurs. In ruling on the state’s decision to take over the Little Rock schools, it would seem appropriate for the court to consider the popular legitimacy of the leadership appointed by the state — or its lack thereof. Moreover, in the March hearing over the new West Little Rock campus, Marshall indicated his confidence in Kurrus specifically.

“This city and this school district need renovation, and need a new birth,” Marshall said at the time, “and I must say that I am hopeful, after hearing what has been said here in the court these past few days, that that is a prospect under Mr. Kurrus’ leadership.”

It’s not the judge’s call whether Kurrus should be reinstated as superintendent. The questions before Marshall in the coming months are whether the state should be in charge of Little Rock’s schools at all, and whether charter expansions (which require approval by the state) will increase segregation in Little Rock public education. Considering Kurrus was fired so soon after he presented information to the state Board of Education alleging charter schools have a de facto segregative effect, those questions now seem inextricably entwined. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

13

2016 Academic All-Stars

STANDOUT STUDENTS The 2016 Arkansas Times Academic All-Stars.

M

eet the 20 best and brightest high school students in the state.

The class of 2016, our 22nd, is made up of inventors, Olympic-caliber athletes, poets, programmers and Quiz Bowlers. There’s rarely a B on the transcripts of these students — in not just this, their senior year, but in any year of their high school careers.

Back in 1995, we created the Academic All-Star Team to honor what we then called “the silent majority — the kids who go to school, do their homework (most of it, anyway), graduate and go on to be contributing members of society.” Too often, we argued then, all Arkansans heard about young people was how poorly they were faring. Or, when

14

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

students did get positive attention, it came for athletic achievement.

As you read profiles of this year’s All-Stars, it should be abundantly clear that good things are happening in Arkansas schools and there are many academic achievers who deserve to be celebrated. You should get a good idea, as well, of how these stellar students are busy outside school, with extracurricular activities, volunteer work, mission activities and more.

They’ll be honored this week at a ceremony at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with plaques and $250 cash awards.

The final deadline for college decisions has not yet arrived. College plans listed are, therefore, not set in stone.

AMRIT KANNAN Age: 18 Hometown: Fort Smith High school: Southside High School Parents: Ragupathy and Porkodi Kannan College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Flying high AMRIT KANNAN BELIEVES that there are, at the very least, two kinds of students. “There are the ones who sort of sit back and observe and absorb what the teacher is saying,” he explained recently, “and then there are others who ask questions and offer their opinions.” Amrit belongs to the latter group. “I like to engage,” he said. “I guess you could say it’s closer to the Socratic method.” As an AP Scholar with distinction, a volunteer at Fort Smith’s Mercy Hospital, a tutor for Mu Alpha Theta, and a captain of the Southside High School Quiz Bowl team (among other activities), Amrit has found many outlets for his form of engagement, an intensely active approach to schooling and extracurriculars that he attributes to “a combination of being intrinsically motivated and having supportive parents.” Amrit, who plans to major in biochemistry at the University of Arkansas (having been offered the school’s prestigious Honors Fellowship), has also maintained a more purely creative outlet over the years, in the endearingly idiosyncratic

form of commercial airline photography. This, too, he has approached with an outsized degree of ambition.

Several years ago, Amrit discovered that a subculture existed on the Internet for airline photography enthusiasts, and dove in. He bought his first DSLR camera, trained himself in Photoshop and began accumulating newer and better lenses and gear.

Since then, his interest in the hobby has only increased “exponentially.”

Today, Amrit is a leading figure in aviation photography circles and has even garnered press for his expertise in this arena (“Fort Smith Teen Turns Love Into High Profile Hobby,” ran the headline of a recent profile in Fort Smith’s daily newspaper, the Southwest Times Record). Why aviation photography? “For thousands of years, man dreamed of flight,” Amrit explained, “and in what’s really been the blink of an eye in terms of geological history, flying technology has developed at such an incredibly fast pace. And, I don’t know, I’ve just really been astounded by that.”

2016 Academic All-Stars TARYN IMAMURA Age: 18 Hometown: Conway High school: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Parents: Bryan and Cynthia Imamura College plans: Undecided

CHARLOTTE JEONG Age: 18 Hometown: Jonesboro High school: Valley View High School Parents: David Jeong and Suna Choi College plans: Brown University, medicine

STEM is for girls TARYN IMAMURA CALLS herself a STEMinist. It’s a label she embraced last summer after encountering a male peer who expressed disdain for women who love science, technology, math and engineering. “I had never truly experienced sexism before,” she says, “but I’m glad it happened. Before that, I didn’t notice that I was the only girl who did a lot of the things that I did. It made me appreciate the things I love and how that makes me who I am. And it also made me realize that we have to get more girls involved [in STEM]. This has to be a thing!” That guy who dismissed Taryn’s abilities should know she won the state science fair this month for a project in which she used genetically engineered bacteria to ferment a substance from rice hulls, an abundant agricultural waste product. The resulting molecule is a surfactant, a substance that Taryn explains is “used in everything from manufacturing to medicine to oil

spill remediation.”

Then, she realized that she could turn the surfactant into what’s essentially biodiesel; a Massachusetts company, Modular Genetics, is now attempting to scale up Taryn’s research into a commercially viable process. “Arkansas is the largest producer of rice and rice by-products in the nation,” she says. “Why not take something seemingly useless and make an industry out of it?”

In May, she’ll head to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix. Taryn’s interests range from robotics to swing dance (she’s captain of both clubs at ASMSA), but “STEMinism” has given her a righteous cause. One day, she wants to set up a scholarship to help girls become engineers. In the meantime, she’s committed to being an advocate, “not just for women, but for anyone who’s having hardship in doing what they want to do.”

For the children THIS FLUTE-PLAYI N G N AT I O N A L Merit scholar has set her sights on becoming a pediatrician. “I love interacting with [children],” Charlotte Jeong told the Times. As vice chair for the March of Dimes Chain Reaction Youth Council, she’s worked to raise money to promote awareness and help prevent birth defects, prematurity and infant mortality. That work has taken two major forms: She organized the Wonder Walk walkathon fundraiser at an elementary school “in hopes of spreading our message to a younger audience,” and the event raised more than $4,000 for March of Dimes. The March of Dimes Prom Fashion Show she helped put on raised a staggering $14,000 in 2015. Charlotte has also used her musical ability to raise funds, joining with her flute teacher

SARAH HANDLOSER Age: 17 Hometown: Sheridan High school: Sheridan High School Parents: Kimberly and Michael Handloser College plans: Arkansas State University, international business

Cheers!

TO BE HONEST, there’s a stereotype about cheerleaders that they’re not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer. That’s a misconception handily refuted by Sarah Handloser. Second in her class at Sheridan High, with a G.P.A. of 4.34, Sarah is both the school’s Quiz Bowl team captain and part

of the school’s two-time state championship winning cheerleading team. A National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, Sarah plans to devote her life to the cause of furthering the rights of women around the world. To get there, she hopes to attend law school after she finishes her undergraduate studies at Arkansas State University, where she has been named an A-State Scholar. The importance of rights and education for women is a subject she became passionate about after hearing the story of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl

to organize a performance in Memphis by an 18-member flute choir to benefit the Refilwe Bophelo medical clinic in South Africa. Charlotte’s embrace of the community prove that she has recovered from the culture shock she received when she moved to Jonesboro from Bethlehem, Pa., five years ago. “I came from an area where there was a lot of diversity,” the native of Korea said. “Here, I was basically the diversity.” She and her family will visit Korea this summer before she heads off to Rhode Island.

who became an activist for education — and, later, a Nobel laureate — after she was shot in the head in 2012 for speaking out against the Taliban. “That inspired me,” Sarah said.

“I don’t think anybody should be discriminated against based upon gender, especially on the right to education. I think that one of the keys to fixing our world’s problems today is for everyone to be educated, and to include females in that.” Sarah says her work ethic comes from her faith, and from a sense that if she is able to do something well, she should. “I’m motivated by the idea that I have the capability to be whoever I want to be in this world,” she said. “Using the talent that God has gifted me with to the best of my ability, I feel that’s almost a duty of mine. I feel that if there is anything I can do to use those talents and show God through them, I should be doing it.” www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

15

2016 Academic All-Stars AKHIL MADDUKURI Age: 17 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Pulaski Academy Parents: J. Rao and Leena Maddukuri College plans: Undecided

Students helping students

Presented by:

Something for the entire family.

Friday, April 29 - Sunday, May 1

World-Famous Championship Toad Races Live Music Children’s Activities Carnival Rides Toad Suck Daze provides funding for education initiatives in Faulkner County.

FREE ADMISSION | DOWNTOWN CONWAY 16

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

AKHIL MADDUKURI FIRST became interested in K-12 education in ninth grade, when his American government class spent a month studying the U.S. school system. For Akhil, who lived in Poland until age 9, it was a shock to learn about inequality in educational opportunity in America. “It really inspired me to try to change that as much as I can as a high school student,” he remembered.

Akhil contacted the volunteer coordinator in the Little Rock School District and began tutoring LRSD fifth-graders using math lessons of his own design. He’s since recruited seven high school friends and one college student to join him; over the past two years, they’ve worked with kids at McDermott and Williams elementaries.

“My goal is to make learning fun. I have

a 6-year-old sister and we go on all these crazy adventures. We build pillows and covers into a rocket to Mars; she’s interested in medicine, so we perform neurosurgery on her stuffed pony. I took what I do with my sister and tried to directly apply it to education. … I build my lesson around an interest of the student.” Akhil is also interested in international relations; and has participated in Model U.N. since eighth grade. This year, he headed a delegation from Pulaski Academy that won first place in Arkansas out of 135 teams. Between his early childhood in Poland, his South Asian heritage and his time in Arkansas, Akhil has already gained a global perspective — something he calls his “masala worldview,” from the Indian word meaning “a mixture of spices.”

COOPER LAIR Age: 17 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Little Rock Christian Academy Parents: Craig and Wendy Lair College plans: Undecided, probably Duke University, engineering

What is ‘an All-Star’?

WHILE OUR YEARLY crop of All-Stars is always an impressive bunch, it’s not often that we run across one who had the opportunity to show his smarts before a nationwide audience. For Little Rock’s Cooper Lair, however, that’s the situation he wound up in as a sophomore, when he competed in the 2014 Jeopardy! Teen Tournament.

Though he didn’t win the whole shebang, he did take home $31,200 in prize money.

With an astonishing 4.6 G.P.A. and an academic rank of No. 1 in his class of 148 at Little Rock Christian Academy, Cooper is well on his way to achieving more than his 15 minutes of TV fame. A National Merit semifinalist, he was also named an

AP Scholar with distinction, and has performed as a violinist in the Arkansas Youth Symphony. He’s been playing violin for six years. His favorite subject is calculus. “I love the analytical side of education,” he says. “I really enjoy solving problems of all kinds and working through math problems.”

In his rare spare time, he likes to watch or play sports, read, and watch movies.

While still weighing his options for college, he’s leaning toward Duke, where his father attended graduate school. For Cooper, pushing himself to be the best academically is its own reward. “I think for me it’s always been sort of a joy to learn,” he said.

2016 Academic All-Stars

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

17

2016 Academic All-Stars

Congratulations Akhil Maddukuri!

2016 Academic All-Star

www.pulaskiacademy.org facebook.com/pulaskiacademy

ARKANSAS TIMES

Tweet

LOCAL b h c l r. e d u

DYLAN THOMPSON Age: 18 Hometown: Sheridan High school: Sheridan High School Parents: Jason and Dawn Thompson College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Driven to win FOR AS LONG as he can remember, Dylan Thompson has loved military history. “My parents were a little freaked out when I was in first grade and I started bringing home library books on World War II and the Civil War,” he says. His fascination with the past has never subsided and he’s read volumes on the history of conflict, especially the two world wars. Dylan lived in Las Vegas until his family moved back to Arkansas in 2009. “It was quite the culture shock back then,” Dylan says, but he has since adjusted fully to life in Sheridan. He’s been captain of the tennis team all four years of high school and is a leader in the Blue Crew, the school’s student spirit group. Rallying the crowd at

ROY MCKENZIE Age: 17 Hometown: Prairie Grove High school: Prairie Grove High School Parents: Sarah and Michael McKenzie College plans: Undecided

Nursing

Histotechnology

Occupational Therapy Assistant

Medical Laboratory Science Radiography

a commitment beyond academics

Nuclear Medicine Technology

Sleep Technology

Surgical Technology

Apply online at bhclr.edu For additional information please call 501-202-6200 or 1-800-345-3046.

Baptist Health College Little Rock does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, creed, physical challenges, gender, marital status, race, national origin, or religion. Gainful employment and consumer information can be found at bhclr.edu/outcomes BHCLR-Schools of Allied Health are licensed by the Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education. BHCLR-Schools of Nursing are licensed by the Arkansas State Board of Nursing.

11900 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, AR 72210

18

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Loyal to Prairie Grove ROY MCKENZIE’S GREAT-great-great grandfather was headed to Texas in the 1850s when his oxen died in what later became Prairie Grove, and he decided to stay. Since then, generation after generation of McKenzies have stuck around. “It’s really imbued in me deeply,” Roy says of the Washington County hamlet. “It’s also taught me a lot of lessons in small-town community dedication and to work with people to more pragmatically reach goals.”

It’s that spirit that kept Roy at Prairie Grove High School, even though he knew it didn’t have the resources or the course offerings that a charter or private school in nearby Fayetteville might. “I’ve always wanted more opportunities, and that still

2016 Academic All-Stars

football and basketball games is one outlet for Dylan’s competitive nature; another is Quiz Bowl, in which he’s been taking part since fifth grade.

This year, with Dylan as captain, the team made it to the state finals, placing second among Arkansas’s 6A high schools. Dylan was named the

match’s MVP. Though Dylan excels in math, science and other disciplines, history remains his first love and will be his chosen major when he heads to Fayetteville this fall. We were curious: After extensively studying the world wars, how does he feel about the possibility of a future global conflict? “I definitely do not want stuff to go down,” Dylan says. “World War Three would be interesting to read about, but I don’t want to live it. …

There’s that quote from Einstein: ‘I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.’ ”

holds true,” he says. But leaving Prairie Grove didn’t “seem like a pragmatic solution.” Instead, he says, “I worked to create my own opportunities, that not only benefited me, but would help the community.” Dustin Seaton, Roy’s gifted and talented instructor at Prairie Grove High School, describes Roy as “brilliant, creative and a divergent thinker” who “inspires both classmates and faculty to be better involved in the school and community.” To wit, after Roy scored a perfect 36 on the ACT as a sophomore, he began offering free prep for the test after

school to classmates. Meanwhile, he and a friend taught themselves AP Computer Science, a course not offered at Prairie Grove, so they could take the AP test for college credit (and for the $100 Prairie Grove High gives to students for every AP test they pass). Roy said they overprepared. The test was easy. He got a 5, the top score. This year, after more outside study, he plans to take AP tests in microeconomics and calculus. He’s also teaching macroeconomics to three students at lunch and a couple of days a week. Despite his love for Prairie Grove, Roy is finishing high school as a junior and will spend a year living in Madrid with cousins before college. He said he always hears from older people warning him not to rush his life away. That’s not what he’s doing, he says. “I want to get something that I haven’t gotten growing up in a small town, get to see another side of the world.”

Congratulations to

Cabot High School’s 2016 Academic All-Star Sydney Spillane

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

19

2016 Academic All-Stars CARA SHIPLEY Age: 18 Hometown: Fort Smith High school: Southside Parents: Greg and Schawn Shipley College plans: Baylor University, business

Hoping to blend mission work, career THE NO. 1 R ANKED st udent at Southside is pretty sure she wants a career in busine s s . Th at ’s why Cara Shipley chose Baylor University, where she ’l l be in the Business Fellows Program on an all-tuition-paid schola rship.

Too, Baylor is a Christian school “and faith is important” to her, she told the Times.

Cara’s followed through on a business plan of her own, by being president of the Future Business Leaders of America, winning the FBLA Community Service Achievement Award and placing seventh nationally in the FBLA Business Financial Plan Competition. Her math skills — she is a Mu Alpha Theta math club tutor — should serve her well, too. But Cara is not all business: She’s got heart as well, finding enormous satisfaction in volunteering for the Antioch Food Bank and Peachtree Hospice, where she’s worked for two years. The work, she said in an essay, has made her “a more empathetic citizen” with

20

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

a worldview that sees the depth of need that exists in the community and abroad.

“I’m passionate about mission work” as well, Ca ra told the Times: She has spent the last two summers in Haiti teaching in a vacation Bible school and helping con st r uc t a house for the disabled, among other tasks. “I’m not exactly sure how it would work out yet,” Cara said, but after she gets her master’s degree in business she hopes to blend “my career work with mission work.” When she leaves in the fall for Waco, they’ll miss her at Community Bible Church, where she plays keyboard on Sunday mornings and nights.

That talent has earned her two Gold Cups from the National Federation of Music Clubs.

SYDNEY SPILLANE Age: 17 Hometown: Cabot High school: Cabot High School Parents: Tanya and John Spillane College plans: Oklahoma State University, engineering

A thirst for clean water WHILE GOING TO the tap for a glass of safe water is something many people in America take for granted, Sydney Spillane knows that’s not the reality for millions in the developing world. It was a lesson she learned from her father, who was often deployed during his Air Force career in places where water was scarce.

That, along with the stories of friends in drought-stricken Texas and California, convinced her that she should devote her life to the cause of solving the world’s growing water woes.

“It started to hit me that it was a big problem,” she said. “Once I got to jobshadowing, I realized just how big a problem it is. There are 663 million people around the world who don’t have access to clean water. That’s terrifying.” Sydney is well on her way to saving the world. Since choosing her studies over 22 hours of training needed to remain competitive as a gymnast, she’s farmed much of her physical energy into running, com-

peting in local marathons.

At school, her favorite subject is science of any kind. She likes science and math, she said, because you can use it to map the universe.

“Everything works because of science and math,” she said, “so if you can understand science and math, you can understand everything.”

Sydney will attend Oklahoma State University’s nationally recognized engineering program. As a person of faith, she says doing well in her studies is a way of honoring her Creator.

“I honestly believe that God put us on this planet so we could use His blessings that He gave us to the best of our ability so that we can glorify him in everything we do,” she says.

“That’s why I push myself. I don’t want to take that for granted.”

2016 Academic All-Stars GRACE TEDDER Age: 18 Hometown: Jonesboro High school: Jonesboro High School Parents: Barry and Lisa Tedder College plans: Johns Hopkins, Washington University or Vanderbilt; biomedical engineering

WILLIAM YANG Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts Parents: Jack and Mary Yang College plans: Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Vanderbilt or University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Going swimmingly

Cracking cancer’s code

WHEN SHE’S NOT seeking to unlock the mysteries of the universe, you can find Jonesboro’s Grace Tedder in the pool.

She’s been a competitive swimmer since she was 8.

A National Merit Scholarship finalist, Grace’s true calling is science and the laboratory.

With biology and chemistry having long been her favorite subjects, she said that a summer internship at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University reinforced her thinking that she wanted to devote her life to biomedical research.

“I really like science and trying to understand things and break it down to a more basic level,” she said. “I just find that really fascinating.” Grace spends a good bit of her spare time volunteering for good causes, serving as the leader of the school’s Amnesty International club and the president of the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity, the organization that builds homes for the underprivileged. While students might feel like

a volunteer cog when working with other charities, she says that with Habitat, the reward is clear. “With Habitat, you know the goal,” she says. “It’s really fun to go out to the build days and get to see the impact you’re having, and talk to the homeowners and work with them.

That’s a really neat thing to be involved in.” Grace says a lot of her desire to learn comes from the fact that she gets bored easily and always wants to do more. “Even when I was younger,” she said, “I would always pick something that some people might look at as more work, but I’d say, ‘Oh, that would be interesting. That sounds exciting! I want to do that.’ I’ve always been kind of a workaholic, to be honest. To me, it’s fun to be engaged.”

TO SOME, COMPUTER science may sound all mathematical structures and cold logic, removed from human concerns. But talk to William Yang and you quickly realize his work is rooted in something else: a passionate desire to do good. “Computer science is an engineering field where you can make innovations to help other people without too many resources,” he says. “All you have to have is a computer and your knowledge.” William has already made his mark on medical research. Using the Cancer Genome Atlas — a publicly available database from the National Institutes of Health — he worked with the chair of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s computer science department to spotlight differences between the genomes of kidney cancer patients and those of normal patients. “We identified 186 differentially expressed genes,” he explained. “We then looked up functions of those genes and the roles they play in a regulatory network, and saw which [biological] pathways were affected. And from that, we were able

to identify new drug targets that medical researchers can then use.” In 2014, William co-authored a paper on his kidney cancer research, and last summer he won an internship at the University of Texas’ Advanced Computing Center to continue studying the links between genomics and disease. At ASMSA, William has organized a student cybersecurity team that this year advanced to the national finals in a monthlong digital forensics challenge. But he says cybersecurity is more of a hobby, a means of honing his problem-solving skills; William’s real work remains singularly focused on cancer, and he dreams of one day achieving a scientific breakthrough by bridging the gap between various strands of study. “You have statisticians, biologists, computer scientists, doctors, all doing research, but most of them are too specialized in one field. They don’t see the other fields,” he says. “Maybe when you view the problem in a different way, the answer becomes clear.”

AState.edu www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

21

2016 Academic All-Stars

ABIGAIL PICKHARDT Age: 18 Hometown: Fayetteville High school: Fayetteville High School Parents: Mark and Kathy Pickhardt College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, biomedical engineering

Contemplating complexity A B I G A IL P I C KHARDT LOVES animals. Her family has had four dogs and “probably more” than four cats for as long as she can remember.

One of her favorite things to do is to walk Nugget, her golden retriever.

But after a long stretch of volunteering at the Fayetteville Animal Shelter, where she did everything from shaving surgical sites to giving injections to talking to owners about their animals, she’s come to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to be a veterinarian. “I don’t want to deal with owners who don’t care about their pets,” she said.

It’s not that she encountered many owners who purposefully mistreated their animals; rather, she found too many people just didn’t care. Abigail, as demonstrated in the essay she wrote the Times, is anything but apathetic: “As I weave through the crowded halls at my school, I wonder about what causes absorbent matter to appear darker when wet, why males have more muscle mass, why people get so

painfully embarrassed when they fall that when others fall they pity how embarrassing it is. Can we draw a perfect circle? How can we build a rocket to the moon when it’s impossible to draw a perfect circle? My brain rushes through questions like these, jumping from topic to topic, refreshing my mind. It’s a process that makes me alive to the world, to appreciate how complex it is, how complex I am and makes me realize how much there is to learn. It gives me perspective of a colossal reality that I welcome. It is truly exciting. The beauty of the utterly inconceivable complexity that is sitting around me is just breathtaking.” After a trip to the Grand Canyon (speaking of colossal reality), she plans to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas on a path to medical school and maybe a job in research medicine.

DAVID XIANG Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Central High School Parents: Dong Xiang and Wencheng Zhu College plans: Harvard University, arts and humanities

A poet and a scholar THE TIMES CAUGHT up with David Xiang upon his return from teaching a poetry workshop in Oklahoma City and before he was off to present at a national junior science symposium on his research at Harvard last summer on mitochondrial DNA. The son of medical professionals, he once thought medicine was in his future, too. But then he started writing poetry. He wrote it well enough that last October he was honored at the White House, where first lady Michelle Obama gave him a hug for his designation as one of five National Student Poets, an experience he called “surreal.” The fan of Pablo Neruda says that because of his appreciation for and desire to write poetry, “I feel like I would be much happier in the arts and humanities. My dream job would be as a screenwriter, or to write movies and plays.” He loved his teaching stint in Oklahoma, where he talked about poetry’s ability “to make us see something about ourselves.” A musician — he’s played piano for 13 years — David also shares with

students the importance of rhythm in poetry. David, who was born in China but moved to the United States at age 2, includes allusions to Chinese culture in his writings. In the first stanza of his “Sleeping Gypsy,” for example, he writes: If I tried to paint your lion my brush strokes would be stalactite sharp, we would hear the roar over the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, his mane as majestic as a meteorite’s tail.

But with his background in genes, neurodegenerative therapies and heart disease, will his mentors at Harvard be able to resist pushing him into science? Research he could translate into Chinese, since he is fluent? We’ll check in with him in the future and find out.

#WolvesUp 22

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

2016 Academic All-Stars

DA’VIONA SIMS Age: 17 Hometown: North Little Rock High school: North Little Rock High School Parents: Angela and David Sims College plans: Washington University, education

Friend and mentor WHEN DA’VIONA SIMS was a kindergartener in the North Little Rock School District, she’d await the return each month of her “big friend” — one of a group of high school students who mentored youngsters like herself. “I remember thinking, ‘The high schoolers are coming!’ and getting really excited,” she recalled. Now that Da’Viona is a senior at North Little Rock High, she has six “little friends” of her own (in four NLRSD elementary schools) that she visits weekly as part of a school-sponsored program called STARS, or Serving Today’s At-Risk Youth. She also mentors children at her church. Da’Viona excels in math and science — as a junior, she scored a 4 on the AP Calculus exam — but she says reading and writing are what really motivate her. Her goal to major in education is a natural outgrowth of her passion for working with kids held back by circumstances. In 2012, Da’Viona watched her brother, despite good grades and test scores, miss out on

attending the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville because of a missed application deadline. “Neither of my parents graduated high school, and they didn’t know much about scholarships and college. They thought the school would handle all of that. …

And so my brother ended up having to go to Pulaski Tech.”

(He later transferred to UALR.) That’s one reason Da’Viona is enrolled in Arkansas Commitment, a program that helps African-American students in Central Arkansas with the college selection and application process. It’s helped her tremendously, she said. “I just think about the kids who I mentor,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in North Little Rock, and all over the place, who are really smart and really want to do things, but they don’t know how to go about it. … Which is why I want to come back and work with high school students and their families. How cool that would be?”

on, on, on, to Victory...

WILLIAM BAKER Age: 17 Hometown: North Little Rock High school: Episcopal Collegiate School Parents: Frank and Mary Kaye Baker College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, chemical engineering or biochemistry

Right and wrong THERE IS NO right or wrong in Ethics Bowl, but how you argue your case.

That’s a life lesson, really, and one that Will Baker knows from his participation in Episcopal Collegiate’s Ethics Bowl, where his team took up the issue of paying money for the release of hostages held by terrorists.

Episcopal placed third, not bad for a team fielded by a private school against mammoth Central High (which took first and second). The National Merit finalist and No. 2 student in his class has also enjoyed being a senior peer leader, which means he’s shown freshmen that there is right and wrong when it comes to behavior at school.

He’s told those he’s mentored to talk respectfully to figures of authority, “which is a really important skill in my opinion,” Will said; act responsibly at parties, avoid peer pressure and the like. Freshmen pay attention to Will, an imposing 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior: He said a few who had not learned to “follow the Golden Rule”

had straightened up.

Last summer, Will indulged his interest in science with a stint at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where he worked with researchers testing the effectiveness of a drug to reduce the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome. Despite his scientific bent, Will’s volunteer activities have taken him to Wildwood Park for the Arts, where since his freshman year he’s worked as usher, greeter, ticket-taker and as “manual laborer.”

He also plays in Episcopal’s Percussion Ensemble and Steel Band, which recently treated the school to a performance of “Margaritaville” and “Hot, Hot, Hot.” When he’s not volunteering, you might find Will at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock, where he and his father — a mechanical engineer for Dassault Falcon Jet — are making a light saber using 3-D software. He hopes to get the saber complete by the Maker Faire on May 7, when “I can look cool and dazzle young kids.”

AState.edu www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

23

2016 Academic All-Stars

ANGELA WANG Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High school: Little Rock Central High School Parents: Jingyi Wang and Yan Huang College plans: Stanford University, human biology

Concertmaster MUSIC IS CENTRAL to Angela Wang’s life.

She started playing violin at 3, joined the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra in sixth grade and, for the last three seasons, she’s served as concertmaster — the first chair violinist who sits just to the conductor’s left, tunes the orchestra and serves as a leader of the orchestra — of the ASYO’s top youth orchestra.

Mendelssohn might be her favorite composer, but it just depends on her mood. “Music is a really good outlet for emotions,” she says.

It’s good that she has an outlet, considering how crammed her schedule is. On top of maintaining a full load of AP classes and a 4.49 GPA, she also serves as president of Little Rock Central High’s Junior Civitan, which she says is the largest branch of Junior Civitan in the world. The group helps out with community activities such as Race for the Cure, Walk for Community and at local animal shelters; she is charged with recruiting classmates to volunteer.

Central’s SECME (Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engi-

24

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

neering) team, of which she serves as copresident, recently won the regional division of the BEST Robotics competition. Angela was especially proud, considering that her crew, which scrounges for funding and works out of garages, defeated some teams with significantly more resources. She also serves as senior editor of the Memory Project Team, the civil rights awareness group formed in honor of the Little Rock Nine.

One of her favorite projects with that group was writing a script for a readers’ theater on the discrimination of Asian Americans in the U.S. She got to interview a former internee who’d been taken to the Rohwer Internment Camp in Southeast Arkansas; she also talked to her mom, who grew up in China, about that country’s one-child policy. Coming soon to your phone, a project of Angela’s and her Memory Project colleagues: a podcast that visitors to the Central High National Park site can pull up as they walk along the route Elizabeth Eckford took in 1957.

2016 Academic All-Stars

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

25

2016 Academic All-Stars

ANASTASIA MILLS Age: 18 Hometown: Benton High school: Benton High School Parents: Richard and Gabriell Mills College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, food science and music

Feeding the needy W HEN SHE WAS 7 years old, Anastasia Mills’ mother took her shopping for food to help feed hungry families. The value of helping the hungry instilled in her early, Anastasia has pursued it at every turn since. She’s organized a soup drive, raised money for the annual Hunger Hike fundraiser in Benton and distributed baskets of food to families during the holidays.

In 4H, in which she’s been active for five years, she leads the 4H Team Cuisine. They learn about food and cooking and have prepared freezer meals for nightshift workers at local hospitals. She hopes to study food science at the University of Arkansas next year. “I’d like to work for Tyson, or somewhere worldwide, trying to help with food distribution problems,” she says. “A whole lot of food that gets thrown away doesn’t get to the peo-

26

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

ple who need it.” She’s also considering a second major in music, another long held passion.

This year, she was the first chair oboe in the first band at the All-State Band Competition. She’s also principal oboist in the All-State Chamber Orchestra, a member of the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra and a member of the Southern Belles a capella ensemble, which is doing a collection of Disney songs for its spring concert. Before she heads off to college late in the summer, she’ll go on her church’s annual choir tour, which will take her to Washington, D.C., with stops in between, and to a homeless shelter in New York, where, naturally, she’ll be helping feed people.

COLTON HUNTER Age: 17 Hometown: Vilonia High school: Beebe High School Parents: Lisa and Ralph Hunter College plans: Harding University, biochemistry

Prioritizing religion BEEBE HIGH S C H O O L’ S top student is thinking about majoring in biochemistry as a prelude to a career in pharmaceuticals. He wants to help people “in a big way, hopefully doing research and development making medicines.” In his essay for the Arkansas Times, Colton Hunter wrote, “Mother Teresa once said, ‘Let no one come to you without leaving happier.’ I’d like to think I live life by these words, or at least do my best.” In the past few years, Colton, a member of the Church of Christ, has “started prioritizing my religion more.”

He leads the choir at church, sings bass in the Gents Choir and Beebe High School Choir and made All-Region Choir. Like chess club, though, singing is just a hobby. He’s also a member of the Comic Book Club at school, but he put aside the comics when the tornado came through Vilonia in 2014 and pitched in to help with cleanup efforts. His home wasn’t hurt, but his

cousin’s property was damaged.

Colton’s also a scifi fan: “I’ve always loved reading from a really early age, particularly science fiction. “[Doug Adams’] ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s just a great read. It’s hilarious.” That Colton enjoys humor makes sense: As he wrote in his essay about how his friends think of him, “I only hope that I’m remembered as someone who made them smile, someone who made them laugh, and someone who did his best to make a small piece of the world a little bit better.”

2016 Academic All-Stars BLAKE YOUNG Age: 17 Hometown: Fayetteville High school: Fayetteville High School Parents: Jenifer and Deryn Young College plans: Harvard University, premed

Always learning YOU DON’T MEET many kids like Blake Young, according to his counselor and track coach Joey Newman. “He’s personable, down to earth and has every talent known to man, and he probably doesn’t realize it.” He’s also a future Olympian, Newman says. Told of his coach’s estimation of his talents, Blake laughs and demurs. “No, no. He’s biased,” he says. But on the other hand, Blake has never lost a meet in discus and shot put, including at state the past three years. Track became his primary athletic focus after he slipped a disc his junior year — at 6-foot-5, he had previously concentrated on basketball and was Fayetteville High’s leading rebounder; he’ll continue to throw the shot and discus at Harvard. It’s more than his athletic talent that’s sending him to the Ivy League. Blake is ranked No. 1 among 552 students, is president of his school’s choir and chess club, an All-Region and

All-State choral singer and an Eagle Scout. Still, Blake says he lives by the maxim often attributed to Mark Twain: Never let schooling interfere with your education. Lately, he’s been working hard on his chess game, practicing the King’s Gambit and reading books on the game. He’s also trying to learn to play guitar, ukulele and banjo. And Spanish. The latter will be especially important since, in July, he will go on a two-year Mormon mission to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Then to Harvard, where he plans to take a premed course of study en route to becoming a pediatric endocrinologist.

After that, he’d like to be a senator. “I just feel like there are so many ways the world could improve if we had legislators who really listened to people,” he says. When asked why he pushes himself to excel when he could probably coast and still succeed, Blake offers a possible preview of a stump speech: “Most of my drive is based on something I figured out when I was young: Hard work leads to success. Education is literally the key to breaking poverty and getting out of tough situations.

It will help you transcend almost any situation.”

Educating The Leaders Of Tomorrow 1500 W. 4th St. Little Rock 501.375.4611 aeaonline.org

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

27

2016 Academic All-Stars

ACADEMIC ALL-STAR FINALISTS These 10 students made the final round of judging for the 2016 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team.

Savannah Johnann Carter Cody Stephens,’13 FINA NCIA L A NA LYST

Siloam Springs High School Siloam Springs

Christopher Davis Maumelle High School Maumelle

Kaylee Gould Hot Springs High School Hot Springs

Alexandria Hunter Arkadelphia High School Arkadelphia

Nicholas Langston

Go here.

Go anywhere.

Subiaco Academy Fort Smith

Claire Lavoie El Dorado High School El Dorado

Joshua Morton Lakeside High School Hot Springs

The University of Central Arkansas offers the full college experience – academic excellence, vibrant campus life and a student-friendly community – with advantages that extend far beyond graduation.

You know those big dreams for the future? This is where they happen.

Adrianne Owings Episcopal Collegiate School Little Rock

Caleb Webb Benton High School Benton

Named one of the ‘Best Regional Universities in the South’ by U.S. News & World Report

28

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

GoUCA.com

Noah C. West Har-Ber High School Springdale

CONGRATULATIONS 2016 Academic All-Stars

: n o i t a c Edu

A

N E M T S E V N I N

!

D N I H E B D T W E S TA N

TO THE 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES

Academic All Stars As longtime supporters of education in our home states Crews & Associates is proud of these high school seniors who have demonstrated success in the classroom and their communities.

WILLIAM CHARLSON BAKER

ROY MCKENZIE

GRACE TEDDER

Episcopal Collegiate School

Prairie Grove

CONGRATULATIONS SARAH HANDLOSER

AKHIL MADDUKURI

Jonesboro High School

ACADEMIC ALL-STARS

Sheridan High School

Sheridan High School Pulaski Academy TO THE 2014 ARKANSAS TIMES

COLTON HUNTER

ANASTASIA MILES

Beebe High School

Benton High School

TARYN IMAMURA

ABIGAIL PICKHARDT

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts

Fayetteville High School

CHARLOTTE Y. JEONG Valley View High School

AMRIT KANNAN

CARA SHIPLEY

DAVID XIANG Little Rock Central High School

ANGELA WANG

Southside High School

Little Rock Central High School

DA’VIONA SIMS

WILLIAM YANG

Southside High School

North Little Rock High School

COOPER LAIR

SYDNEY SPILLANE

Little Rock Christian Academy

DYLAN THOMPSON

Cabot High School

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts

BLAKE YOUNG Fayetteville High School

FROM THE FIRST SECURITY FAMILY OF FIRST SECURITY BANK • BEARDSLEY PUBLIC FINANCE • CREWS & ASSOCIATES www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

29

2016 Academic All-Stars

ALL-STAR NOMINEES Here are the students nominated to be Academic All-Stars. They are listed by their hometowns, as indicated by mailing addresses.

ARKADELPHIA BROCK A. HUERKAMP

Arkadelphia High School

ALEXANDRIA HUNTER

Arkadelphia High School

BAUXITE JONATHAN PARSONS Bauxite High School

BEEBE RYAN HARNESS

Harding Academy

COLTON HUNTER Beebe High School

VICTORIA TARKINGTON Beebe High School

BENTON ADRIENNE LASAGE Bauxite High School

ENROLL TODAY AND CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE

BETTER.

ANASTASIA MILLS Benton High School

CALEB WEBB

Benton High School

BERGMAN ASHLEY ROBINSON

Bergman High School

30

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

2016 Academic All-Stars

BROOKLAND

Haas Hall Academy

NATHAN BAGGETT

Greenland High School

Brookland High School

MASON J. MILLER

ABIGAIL PICKHARDT

Fayetteville High School

CABOT SYDNEY SPILLANE

BLAKE YOUNG

Fayetteville High School

Cabot High School

JORDAN MCNAIR

JONESBORO LAYTH AL-HINDI

Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School

Jonesboro High School

JODIE MILLER

Ridgefield Christian School

Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School

SAVANNAH COOPER

HANNAH G. HUTSON

Crowley’s Ridge Academy

Cabot High School

ADAM STIVERS

JACKSONVILLE

FORT SMITH

CHARLOTTE Y. JEONG

RACHEL JAMES

Union Christian Academy

CAMDEN ALEXANDER MITCHELL

Camden Harmony Grove High School

STEPHANIE MCCAN

Camden Harmony Grove High School

CONWAY TARYN IMAMURA

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts

AMRIT KANNAN

Southside High School

NICHOLAS LANGSTON Subiaco Academy

YOUR WATER.

To know it is to love it.

CARA SHIPLEY

Southside High School

GREENWOOD JAXON BURGESS

Greenwood High School

MADALYN STEWARD

Greenwood High School

EL DORADO WESLEY DRAKE TYSON El Dorado High School

CLAIRE LAVOIE

HENSLEY DYLAN THOMPSON

Sheridan High School

El Dorado High School

HOT SPRINGS ENGLAND AMBER MARTIN

England High School

KAYLEE GOULD

Hot Springs High School

LAUREN LOVELADY

Lakeside High School

EUREKA SPRINGS WYATT JAMES PAVELSEK Eureka Springs High School

JOSHUA MORTON

Lakeside High School

DAVID ROTH

Central Arkansas Christian

PHI TANG

FAYETTEVILLE

Hot Springs High School

We treat water better.

Celebrating National DRINKING WATER WEEK Visit our website to learn more about your H2O.

May 1– 7, 2016

PAULINA JENG www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

31

2016 Academic All-Stars Valley View High School

LOGAN CARLILE JOHNSON Crowley’s Ridge Academy

JAMES MARK LEWIS

Ridgefield Christian School

GRACE TEDDER

Jonesboro High School

ZACHARY DALE WHITE Valley View High School

LEAD HILL BAILEY RIGGS

Bergman High School

ASHLYN UNDERWOOD

Little Rock Christian Academy

ANGELA WANG

Little Rock Central High

DAVID XIANG

Little Rock Central High

WILLIAM YANG

JOHN THOMAS WOLZ

Pottsville High School

Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School

Paragould High School

JAMISON E. HALE JOSIAH PROCK

Pottsville High School

LOWELL Rogers New Technology High School

PRAIRIE GROVE DARIEN CHEATHAM

SEARCY

ROY MCKENZIE

Harding Academy

BLAYKE ALLISON ROGERS

Searcy High School

JORDAN STITES

Searcy High School

Lincoln High School

Prairie Grove High School

JORDAN JACKSON

eStem Public Charter High School

Farmington High School

ALLY DAVIS

JACK FREELAND

LEXIE HARALSON

Lincoln High School

BREEANN KAYLEE BOWMAN

TJ HAMMONDS

Paragould High School

KEVIN YUEN

BRIDGET BETTS

Hall High School

CLAIRE ALYCE BROWN

ALYSSA TURNER

Arkansas Arts Academy

RUSSELLVILLE

MABELVALE

ERICA A. BRASWELL

PARAGOULD ALLIE MARTIN

Episcopal Collegiate School

Joe T. Robinson High School

KATHRYN ANNE POWELL

Rogers Heritage High School

Brookland High School

WILLIAM CHARLSON BAKER Mount St. Mary Academy

Rogers Heritage High School

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts

JOSHUA JORDAN VAN SICKLER

LITTLE ROCK

DA’VIONA SIMS

North Little Rock High School

MANILA JESSICA WEISS

Gosnell High School

RAVENDEN SPRINGS SHAWNA ROSS

SHERIDAN SARAH HANDLOSER Sheridan High School

Maynard High School

Joe T. Robinson High School

ERICA PATRICE KELLY

Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School

KELVIN JACKSON

J.A. Fair High School

COOPER LAIR

Little Rock Christian Academy

MONROE MCKAY

Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys

AKHIL MADDUKURI Pulaski Academy

ADRIANNE OWINGS

MAUMELLE LYNLEY CHILDRESS

Central Arkansas Christian

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS Maumelle High School

SLATON WOOD

Maumelle Charter High School

MT. PLEASANT Melbourne High School

NORTH LITTLE ROCK

DEJAH TAYLOR

North Little Rock High School

32

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

DANIEL ADAMS

SHERRILL ZACHARY MONTGOMERY England High School

Rison High School

SETH AARON CROUSE Rison High School

CALIE MADISON MORRISON AUSTIN SLATER

Woodlawn High School

MARY ELIZABETH JOHNSON

ELIZABETH GRACE SCOTT J.A. Fair High School

MAKAYA D. BANKS

Woodlawn High School

Episcopal Collegiate School

Pulaski Academy

RISON

SHERWOOD ASHLIE LEONARD

Sylvan Hills High School

NATALIE SONTAG

eStem Public Charter High School

TEMUULEN ZOLBAYAR

ROGERS

Sylvan Hills High School

ANGELES AGUILERA

SILOAM SPRINGS

BENJAMIN OLIVIER AITOUMEZIANE

SAVANNAH JOHNANN CARTER

Rogers New Technology High School

Siloam Springs High School

2016 Academic All-Stars

Congratulations to the the Congratulations to Congratulations to the Catholic High School Catholic High School Catholic High School Class of 2016 Class of 2016 Class of 2016 Graduating Class) (Our 8866th th Graduating Class) (Our (Our 86th Graduating Class)

“Remember the the Lord Lord in all that you do, “Remember in all that you do, “Remember the Lord in all that you do, andHe Hewill will show show you you the right way.” and the right way.” and He will show you the right way.”

P rov e r b s 3 : 6 PPrroovv ee rr bb ss 33::66

 

CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FOR BOYS CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FORBOYS BOYS CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL FOR 6300 Father Tribou St., Little Rock, Arkansas 72205

6300 St., Rock, Arkansas Arkansas72205 72205 6300Father FatherTribou Tribou St., Little Rock, (501) 664-3939 (501) 664-3939 (501) 664-3939 www.lrchs.org www.lrchs.org www.lrchs.org

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

33

2016 Academic All-Stars

JOHNATHAN HEINRICHS

Siloam Springs High School

SPRINGDALE MARY CAROLINE HORNOR Har-Ber High School

NOAH C. WEST

Surprise Yourself.

Dig Deeper.

Har-Ber High School

VILONIA COLTON HUNTER Beebe High School

WALNUT RIDGE MADISON GRACE COX

Walnut Ridge High School

AUSTIN JARED

Walnut Ridge High School

WINSLOW KENLEY BRAMALL

Greenland High School

A diamond emerges. Formed by unimaginable pressures. Tougher than tough. Unbreakable. Shaped, polished. Its brilliant inner light released.

Discover the diamond that is you at Pulaski Tech.

Apply today!

Summer I and Summer Extended classes start June 1 Summer II classes start July 5 Fall classes start Aug. 22

www.pulaskitech.edu

LET US DO THE DRIVING Book our charter bus for your family reunion, company trip, wedding and more!

You name it. CALL TODAY!

ARROW COACH LINES

Ideal for school trips, camps, corporate retreats, family reunions and more.

Family-owned and operated since 1944.

34

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

CALL US FOR A QUOTE! 501.663.6002 800.632.3679 arrowcoachlines.com

2016 Academic All-Stars

There’s never been a

better time

to go to college or an easier

way

to apply for financial aid

%JE ZPV LOPX UIF "SLBOTBT %FQBSUNFOU PG )JHIFS &EVDBUJPO BXBSET BQQSPYJNBUFMZ NJMMJPO JO HSBOUT BOE TDIPMBSTIJQT UP TUVEFOUT BU "SLBOTBT DPMMFHFT BOE VOJWFSTJUJFT FOSPMMFE JO QSPHSBNT GPS GVUVSF XFMEFST DPNQVUFS QSPHSBNNFST BDDPVOUBOUT OVSTFT BOE IVOESFET PG PUIFS GJFMET 5IFSF NBZ CF GJOBODJBM BJE GPS ZPV CVU ZPV XPOhU LOPX JG ZPV EPOhU BQQMZ 5BLF UIF GJSTU TUFQ BOE WJTJU TDIPMBSTIJQT BEIF FEV GPS JOGPSNBUJPO BCPVU PVS QSPHSBNT PS UP DPNQMFUF UIF :06OJWFSTBM BQQMJDBUJPO 5IF FMJHJCJMJUZ SFRVJSFNFOUT BOE SVMFT HPWFSOJOH QSPHSBNT BENJOJTUFSFE CZ "%)& BSF TVCKFDU UP MFHJTMBUJWF BOE SFHVMBUPSZ BNFOENFOUT :PV NBZ F NBJM UIF 'JOBODJBM "JE %JWJTJPO BU GJOBJE!BEIF FEV GPS BEEJUJPOBM JOGPSNBUJPO

• Application period is from January 1 to June 1 for 2016-2017 academic year • Application period is from October 1 to June 1 for 2017-2018 academic year

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES www.arktimes.com APRIL 28, 2016 35

ARKANSAS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP T he Arkansas Academic Challenge Prog ram provides educational assistance to Arkansas residents in pursuit of a higher education.

Additional funding made possible by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has allowed the expansion of the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship to provide higher education opportunities to previously underserved Arkansans (traditional, currently enrolled & nontraditional college students).

Eligibility requirements for the Academic Challenge Scholarship are based on two student categories: Traditional (Current year high school graduates) and Nontraditional Students.

HOW TO APPLY Take advantage of the online universal application. It’s your one-stop shop for state and lottery funded financial aid.

With the online application you can: • Search and apply for scholarships and grants • Create your account • Check your status • Receive alerts and notices through email • Manage your account 24/7

AWARD AMOUNTS: The Arkansas General Assembly sets award amounts annually. Once determined, the amounts will be posted on the ADHE website - scholarships.adhe.edu

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES APRIL 28, 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES

36

BASIC ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: An applicant must: • Be an Arkansas resident and U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident • Be accepted for admission at an approved Arkansas institution of higher education in a program of study that leads to a baccalaureate degree, associate degree, qualified certificate or a nursing school diploma • Not have earned a baccalaureate degree • Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) (although there will be no income cap)

DEADLINE DATES

RESOURCES

Must apply no later than JUNE 1 immediately following graduation as a traditional student. All other students must also apply by June 1.

Arkansas Department of Higher Education: scholarships.adhe.edu Free Application for Federal Student Aid: www.fafsa.ed.gov Arkansas Student Loan Authority: www.fundmyfuture.info Come Back: www.ComeBack2GoForward.com

scholarships.adhe.edu For complete program details please visit or contact the Arkansas Department of Higher Education’s Financial Aid department at the following: Email: finaid@adhe.edu

ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR THE TRADITIONAL STUDENT: • Enroll in fall semester immediately after high school • Enroll full-time each semester • Graduate from high school in current school year • Achieve a 19 on ACT or the equivalent score on an ACT comparable test.

• High School Equivalency Diploma

Financial Aid Division 423 Main St., STE 400, Little Rock, AR 72201 (Entrance on Capitol Avenue) Email: finaid@adhe.edu facebook.com/ArkDeptHigherEd twitter.com/ArkDeptHigherEd

ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR THE NONTRADITIONAL STUDENT: • Enroll full-time or part-time each semester • Meet one of the following criteria: 1. Graduated from an Arkansas public high school and achieved a 2.5 high school GPA or had a 19 on the ACT or the equivalent score on an ACT equivalent test ; or 2. Has earned at least 12 hours towards a degree with a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5.

RENEWAL REQUIREMENTS: Traditional students must enroll in at least 12 hours the first fall semester following high school graduation and at least 15 hours each semester thereafter to receive funding. Traditional students must complete at least 27 hours first year and at least 30 hours each year thereafter with a 2.5 cumulative GPA. Nontraditional students may enroll in as few as 6 hours and receive a pro-rated scholarship amount. Nontraditional students must maintain a 2.5 cumulative GPA with continuing eligibility based on enrollment.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES www.arktimes.com APRIL 28, 2016 37

$UNDQVDV $FDGHPLF &KDOOHQJH

6&+2/$56+,3

LIVING YOUR DREAM THROUGH EDUCATION!

I chose UALR to e opportunities I st I live on campus b been able to hos and have a close faculty, my family

Check us out

With funding made possible by the

ARKANSAS SCHOLARSHIP LOTTERY, the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship provides opportunities for higher education to Arkansans.

If you’re planning to attend college in the fall, complete the YOUniversal financial aid application by June 1 at TDIPMBSTIJQT BEIF FEV or download the free YOUniversal app for your smart phone.

ADHE | Financial Aid Division | 423 Main St STE 400 Little Rock, AR 72201 Email: finaid@adhe.edu | scholarships.adhe.edu 38

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

THANK YOU

Trevor Collin s – Maumelle E-Commerce Sophomore Digital Strate gy Intern Likes Making Videos

The Arkansas Times would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of the Academic All-star Team and its scholarship fund.

LR to expand on the educational

ties I started at eStem High School. mpus but am still close to home. I’ve to host a TV show, do public speaking, a close connection to students and y family away from home.

“

s out • ualr.at/allstar • #UALR

University of ArkAnsAs At LittLe rock

ARISTOTLE, INC. BENTON HIGH SCHOOL CABOT HIGH SCHOOL CONGER WEALTH MANAGEMENT FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PULASKI ACADEMY SHERIDAN HIGH SCHOOL SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOL VALLEY VIEW HIGH SCHOOL

www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

39

Arts Entertainment AND

KEITH SYKES: Has collaborated with Buffett, Prine and other great singer/songwriters.

Songwriter among songwriters Keith Sykes plays South on Main.

BY JOE MEAZLE

T

he phrase “songwriter’s songwriter” is usually just code for a songwriter who has remained obscure in spite of producing quality work. That definition falls well short of

describing Memphis singer/songwriter Keith Sykes. A songwriter whose songs other highly regarded writer/musicians have been eager to record and with whom other songwriters have want-

ed to associate and collaborate: That would come much closer to describing Sykes. This is not to say that Sykes’ 40-plus years of work can’t stand on its own; it certainly can, and the list of admirers, associates, collaborators and those who have recorded his songs is lengthy and impressive. Just to name a few: Kris Kristofferson, Alex Chilton, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Rosanne Cash, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Steve Goodman and John Prine. Folks, that is as weighty as you can get when it comes to songwriters.

Several of these associations and collaborations are longtime. Jimmy Buffet recorded Sykes’ “The Coast of Marseilles” and “The Last Line” on the monster hit record album “Son of a Son of a Sailor” released in 1978. Sykes and Buffett went on to co-write the title track for Buffett’s “Volcano” album, released the following year. “Keith Sykes writes songs that not only make you think, they make you sing along as well” Buffett has said.

The great songsmith John Prine has collaborated with Sykes several times, including on “Love, Love, Love,” “You Got Gold” and “Long Monday.” I was able to talk to Sykes on the phone recently somewhere between Tennessee and Texas on his way to Larry Joe Taylor’s Texas Music Festival. He told me that a new collaboration called “No Ordinary Blue” is slated to be on Prine’s next record. Prine has said he and Sykes have “written some really good songs together, and it’s all I can do to keep up with him.” This is a relationship that goes well beyond songwriting and the music business. They are longtime friends and spend time together offstage and outside the studio. Prine and Sykes have gone trout fishing on the White River here in Arkansas.

It’s not just established songwriting legends who have benefited from Sykes’ time and attention. He can be credited for discovering and signing Todd Snider to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Records in 1993. There is also a group of Memphis-based songwriters that he’s made great efforts to promote, including Pine Bluff native son Mark Edgar Stuart.

Stuart got to recently repay the favor, introducing Sykes when he was honored with a Brass Note on Beale Street.

Local radio personality (on “Under the Influence” on KABF-FM, 88.3), poet and harmonica player R.J. Looney has booked Sykes as the grand finale to his month of curating sessions at South on Main at 10 p.m. Friday, April 29.

Looney chose Sykes, he said, because “Keith’s music has been a part of the soundtrack of my life for 35 years.

He is one of my favorite songwriters and I will always identify his voice as Memphis when I hear it. [He’s] just a really great guy that has always stayed true to the craft and career of being a songwriter. You have to admire that.”

This show will no doubt turn into a party. Given Sykes’ association with fun, tropic-themed music, I would not be one bit surprised if South on Main’s accomplished bartender, David Burnette, came up with a special cocktail to mark the occasion, perhaps even something with flames.

This performance will come exactly one week after the release of Sykes’ new EP, “Songs From A Little Beach Town.”

There’s already been a great deal of buzz about the release. The satellite radio station Radio Margaritaville started playing songs from the EP in February, and Sykes told me he has been overwhelmed with how many folks have sent him pictures of their dashboards when his name came up on their display. He laughed as he said, “It makes me feel good, but I sure hope they kept at least one eye on the road.”

The new EP will be available at the show.

PRESENTED BY

Advance tickets on sale now at RiverfestArkansas.com!

40

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Arkansas

Folk

ozark

Funk LOUISIANA

R&B

RIVER VALLEY BLUES Stage at

Kings Live Music FRIDAY, APRIL 29 & SATURDAY, APRIL 30 Tyler Kinchen and the Right Pieces with Tate Smith The Whole Famn Damily The Akeem Kemp Band • Groovement

VISIT TOADSUCK.ORG FOR SCHEDULE AND TIMES www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

41

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY HEATHER STEADHAM, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, AND LINDSEY MILLAR

FRIDAY 4/29

FRIDAY 4/29

‘INCOGNITO’

‘DOROTHEA LANGE: GRAB A HUNK OF LIGHTNING’

6 p.m. James H. Clark Auditorium, Conway. Free.

When he was 34, Michael Fosberg found out he was an African-American.

He hadn’t known anything about his biological father until then, and with fair skin, he always thought of himself as white. Meeting his father and learning of his heritage inspired his autobiographical one-man play, “Incognito,” in which Fosberg inhabits more than a dozen characters to tell a story of race and identity. Last summer at Arkansas Governor’s School, Nicole Penn was so moved by Fosberg’s performance of “Incognito” that she decided to do everything she could to bring Fosberg back to Conway for a free public performance.

So she made and sold friendship bracelets, solicited donations from community groups and launched a GoFundMe campaign. Penn, an Asian adoptee, said on her GoFundMe page, “Having personally faced many of the elements of confusion, doubt, and insecurity about my heritage that are captured throughout the play, I was impacted so much so that I made it my mission to share Mr. Fosberg’s message of tolerance and self acceptance” with my hometown. LM

Noon. Arkansas Arts Center. Free.

Dorothea Lange was nothing short of a complete and total badass. Born in Hoboken, N.J., Lange weathered childhood polio that left her with a withered foot, an unhappy marriage that she boldly abandoned (shocking in the early 20th century), and five decades of social and political upheaval to become one of the

most renowned photographers in all of American history. Most famous for her Depression-era photograph “Migrant Mother,” a black-and-white still featuring an impoverished woman with furrowed brow staring in the distance while her two children cling to her shoulders, Lange was the first female to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship (in 1941). (The photograph is on exhibit at the Arts Center.) Perhaps Lange described her per-

SATURDAY 4/30

PAUL MCCARTNEY ‘ONE ON ONE’

8 p.m. Verizon Arena. $42.50$280.

FRIDAY 4/29-SUNDAY 5/8

ARTS AND THE PARK 2016

Hot Springs venues. Launch party $25 ($35 at door); check schedule for other ticket prices.

Hot Springs celebrates all the arts with 10 days of activities across town, starting Friday with music and crafts in Adair Park downtown and an evening launch party at the Mid-America Science Museum, where artist Thomas Everett Green will premiere a video installation. The following days will be filled with open artist studios and demonstrations; performances by theater groups and the Arkansas Symphony Youth and Academy Orchestras; an “Artists Who Teach Pop Up Gallery”; poetry readings, the Spa City Blues Jam; jazz; a film workshop; more music, more art and a Mother’s Day brunch. You’ll need a program: Go to hotspringsarts. org and click on Arts & The Park for a schedule and more information. LNP 42

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

sonal mission best when she discussed her early years as a portrait photographer: “The discrepancy between what I was working on in my portrait frames and what was going on in the street was more than I could assimilate. I set myself a big problem. I would go down there … to see if I could grab a hunk of lightning.”

This 110-minute film, directed and narrated by Lange’s granddaughter, seeks to chronicle how she did just that. HS

SIR PAUL: Coming to Verizon for his first Arkansas performance.

The only way you might not have known that the Walrus will be in Little Rock this week is if you’ve been in your Yellow Submarine frolicking around the Octopus’ Garden Eight Days a Week.

“Get Back!” you say. “I haven’t just been Twist and Shout-ing Any Time at All. I’ve been working. I want Money (That’s What I Want), and it’s been A Hard Day’s Night.”

“But you have heard about Sir Paul’s impending appearance, right?” I ask. “You know he’s headed here with his Band on the Run?” “I’m not some Fool on the Hill,” you say. “Who couldn’t notice he’s traveling Across the Universe to sing his Silly Love Songs?”

“I don’t think they’re so silly,” I say. “I think maybe you should just Let It Be.” “Say Say Say!” you say. “I Got to Get You Into My Life.”

“As a matter of fact,” I say, “I’m Free As a Bird.”

“The Girl Is Mine!” you shout jubilantly. “Hey Jude, you can Drive My Car.” “But my name is Heather.”

“Yeah, but that’s not a McCartney song.”

“Actually, it is.” “. . . I’m Amazed.” HS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

SUNDAY 5/1

SUNDAY COURT SQUARE MUSIC CONCERT

2 p.m. Mountain View Court Square. Free.

A LOOK BACK: Patti Lupone in Fort Smith.

TUESDAY 5/3

SATURDAY 4/30

PATTI LUPONE ‘COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA …

PLAYED THAT PART’

7:30 p.m. Fort Smith Convention Center. $42-$45.

Last July, then-66-year-old Patti LuPone did from the stage what many a theatergoer has always wanted to do but never dared: Grabbed a glowing cellphone right out of the hand of a texting audience member during Lupone’s and Michael Urie’s “Shows for Days” at New York’s Lincoln Center. “It was so easy because it was right there,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “So I just touched her on the arm, we smiled at each other, then with my other hand I just palmed the phone, and I couldn’t believe I had it.” The daughter of two school administrators, LuPone grew up

in the Long Island town of Northport, and swears she knew at the age of 4 she was destined to be on stage. She was a graduate of the first class of the Drama Division of New York’s Juilliard School and received her first Tony Award — for best actress in a musical — at 31 for her portrayal of Eva Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “Evita.” She entered Generation X’s collective consciousness, however, with her portrayal of Libby Thatcher, the matriarch in the ABC series “Life Goes On,” the first network series to feature a major character with Down syndrome. According to the New York Times, “ ‘Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda … Played That Part’ is an amusing, honest, passionate autobiography in which Ms. LuPone looks back at her career.” HS

SATURDAY 4/30

TURKISH FOOD FESTIVAL

11 a.m.-7 p.m. Raindrop Turkish House.

If you’ve ever wanted to know more about whirling dervishes or if you’re just hungry for shish kebabs and stuffed grape leaves and other delicious Turkish fare, head over to the Raindrop Turkish House at 1501 Market St. on

Mountain View has been called the folk music capital of the world, and for good reason. Garry Murray, who’s played fiddle, banjo and guitar with Darius Rucker, is from there, as is Lucas Pool, two-time winner of the National Old-Time Banjo Competition, who’s worked with uber-famous comedian and picker Steve Martin. This concert series, produced by Ozark Folk Center State Park, runs for an hour every first Sunday of the month from May through October under the shade of the oak tree on the east side of the courthouse. Afterward, the band hosts an open pickin’ session. This Sunday the Roger Fountain Band is scheduled to play some traditional fiddle tunes. HS

Saturday. Along with food, there will be traditional arts and crafts, henna tattooing, Kazhak music, folk dances, Jonathan Gomes on the oud, the Parkstone Band, a drum show and, of course, a gift shop.

You’ll learn about Turkish culture and leave full, danced out and decked out. Istanbul Mediterranean Restaurant is a sponsor. LNP

ST. LUKE’S FESTIVAL OF THE SENSES 7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Free.

ARMusica musicians Andrew Irvin (Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concertmaster), principal ASO harpist Alisa Coffee and St. Luke’s organist Jason Pennington will present ARMusica Pastorale, an evening of spring-inspired music. Hear Salzedo’s “Scintillation”; Dussek’s “The Lass of Richmond Hill”; Vaughn Williams’ “The Lark Ascending”; and Cesar Franck’s “6 Pieces d’Orgue” in the sanctuary of St. Luke’s at 4106 JFK Blvd.

There will be a reception for the musicians afterward in Wilder Hall. LNP

WEDNESDAY 5/4-SATURDAY 5/7

46th ANNUAL WORLD FAMOUS ARMADILLO FESTIVAL 8 a.m. Hamburg Town Square. Free.

Judging by the number of armadillos on the sides of Arkansas roads, I’d say the mammals (yes, they really are mammals) aren’t big runners, but you can celebrate the finer attributes of these cousins of sloths (yes, they really are sloth cousins) by participating in the Armadillo Festival 5K Run and 1-Mile Walk sponsored by Ashley County Cares, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for cancer research and programs ($25 and $15 entry fees, respectively). Or maybe you prefer a slower pace like our armored friends, which you can enjoy by watching the talent show or one of three magic shows, or try your luck at (new this year!) the cornhole tournament.

As for me, I’m just crossing my fingers that the Armadillo Derby and the Miss Armadillo Pageant of previous years haven’t been phased out. HS

Country superstar Carrie Underwood returns to Verizon Arena as part of her “The Storyteller Tour,” 7 p.m., $62-$93.50. Psychedelic blues rock jam act Strange Vine, of Fresno, Calif., kicks out the jams at the White Water Tavern with local funk-soul instrumental act The Funkanites sharing the bill, 9 p.m. Shoog Radio presents Conway folk rockers The Whole Famn Damily at The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. Local sevenstring virtuoso Ted Ludwig plays his regular gig at the Capital Bar & Grill with his trio, 8 p.m., free.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29 Dikki Du (real name Troy Carrier, brother of Chubby) & The Zydeco Krewe bring their polyrhythmic grooves to White Water, 9:30 p.m., $7. The Josh Abbott Band of Lubbock, Texas, plays Red Dirt country with Rich O’Toole sharing the bill at Revolution, 9 p.m., $17 adv., $20 d.o.s. The Foul Play Cabaret offers a burlesque show at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m., $12. Soul singer Devin Crutcher, grandson of legendary Stax songwriter Bettye Crutcher, performs at Afterthought, 9 p.m., $10. Sam Murphy, manager of Historic Trades at Mount Vernon in Virginia, offers a lecture, “First in Business: George Washington’s Farm at Mount Vernon,” at the Clinton School’s Sturgis Hall, noon, free (but reservations requested). The Main Thing’s original comedic production, “Rednecks in Spandex,” continues at The Joint, 8 p.m., $22.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30 The University of Arkansas’s concert committee hosts the second annual Springtime of Youth festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds with DJ/producer Diplo.

Kevin Gates, Borns, Moxie Raia, Brother Moses and Trey O’Dell sharing the bill, 3 p.m., $30. Singer/ songwriter Corey Smith returns to Revolution with Rob Baird sharing the stage, 9 p.m. Actor Gary Sinise, who doesn’t want you to forget that he was in “Forrest Gump,” comes to the Walmart AMP in Rogers with his Lt. Dan Band, 8 p.m., $5-$10. Former Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase winner Ghost Bones returns to White Water with Ginsu Wives, 9:30 p.m. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can ReLive Your Prom from 8 p.m. until midnight, $99 for two, at the Clinton Center. The ticket price includes one print photo (hopefully in front of a crushed velvet backdrop).

Little Rock funk-rock band The Big Dam Horns comes to Stickyz, 9:30 p.m., $7. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

43

AFTER DARK All events are in the Greater Little Rock area unless otherwise noted. To place an event in the Arkansas Times calendar, please email the listing and all pertinent information, including date, time, location, price and contact information, to calendar@arktimes.com.

7:30 p.m., $5. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. arkansascountrydance.org.

BENEFITS

Blue Tie Blue Jean Ball 2016. Event benefits Autism Speaks Arkansas. Noah’s Event Venue, 6:30 p.m., $45. 21 Rahling Circle.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29

MUSIC

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

MUSIC

Ace’s Wild (headliner), Trey Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Carrie Underwood. Verizon Arena, 7 p.m., $62$93.50. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

“Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m.

Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana St. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Open Jam. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

RockUsaurus. Casa Mexicana, 7:30 p.m. 7111 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876.

Shoog Radio Presents: The Whole Famn Damily. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Strange Vine, Funkanites. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

Triple Feature. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $8.

10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Malpaso Dance Company with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Octet. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $10. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

479-443-5600.

EVENTS

#ArkiePubTrivia. Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m. 402 E. 9th St. 501-244-9154.

Fauxberon Brew Challenge. A home brewer’s competition. River Market pavilions, 6 p.m., $1.

400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info.

All In Fridays. Envy. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road.

501-562-3317.

Arturo O’Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Octet. Walton Arts Center, 7 and 9 p.m., $15. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Charlotte Taylor (headliner), Some Guy Named Robb (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www. cajunswharf.com.

Crankbait, Auric, Construction of Light, Murkryth. Vino’s, 8 p.m., $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Devin Crutcher. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Dikki Du & The Zydeco Krewe. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m., $7. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-3758400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Foul Play Cabaret. Maxine’s, 9 p.m., $12. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub. com.

Josh Abbott Band, Rich O’Toole. Revolution, 9 p.m., $17 adv., $20 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new.

Keith Sykes. South on Main, 10 p.m., $20. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway.

Salsa Dancing. Clear Channel Metroplex, 9 p.m., $5-$10. 10800 Col. Glenn Road. 501-217-5113. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

Upscale Friday. IV Corners, 7 p.m. 824 W. Capitol Ave.

COMEDY

“Rednecks in Spandex.” An original production

by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Triple Feature. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Contra Dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church,

NOW TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS LITTLE ROCK • NORTH LITTLE ROCK

750ML 750ML 175ML 175ML 750ML

Every OBAN LITTLE BAY SINGLE MALT WHISKY TALISKER STORM SINGLE MALT SCOTCH JIM BEAM WHITE LABEL NEW AMSTERDAM VODKA ROCA PATRON SILVER TEQUILA

Day $64.99 $64.99 $25.99 $17.99 $67.99

SALE! $39.99 $39.99 $22.99 $15.99 $56.99

750ML 4PK 30PK 12PK

BERINGER CLASSICS ALL FLIP FLOP CAN WINE NATURAL LITE BUD LITE RITA ALL FLAVORS

Every Day $6.99 $9.99 $19.99 $14.99

SALE! $3.99 $5.99 $16.99 $11.99

• WE GLADLY MATCH ANY LOCAL ADS HURRY IN! THIS SALE EXPIRES MAY 4, 2016

WEDNESDAY IS WINE DAY 15% OFF • WINE CASE DISCOUNTS EVERY DAY

LITTLE ROCK: 10TH & MAIN • 501.374.0410 | NORTH LITTLE ROCK: 860 EAST BROADWAY • 501.374.2405 HOURS: LR • 8AM-10PM MON-THUR • 8AM-12PM FRI-SAT •NLR • MON-SAT 8AM-12PM 44

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

EVENTS

Fantastic Friday. Literary and music event, refreshments included. For reservations, call 479-968-2452 or email artscenter@centurytel. net. River Valley Arts Center, Every third Friday, 7 p.m., $10 suggested donation. 1001 E. B St., Russellville. 479-968-2452. www.arvartscenter.org.

“Incognito.” Michael Fosberg’s one-man play about race and identity. James H. Clark Auditorium. 2300 Prince St., Conway. 6 p.m.

Free.

LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 501-2449690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/ SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m.

800 Scott St. Steel Horse Rally. A motorcycle convention featuring vendors from around the country, food, live music by Jackyl and more. Fort Smith Convention Center. 55 S. 7th St., Fort Smith. fortsmithconventioncenter.org.

FILM

“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning.”

Arkansas Arts Center, noon 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

LECTURES

“First in Business: George Washington’s Farm at Mount Vernon.” A talk by Sam Murphy, manager of Historic Trades at Mount Vernon.

Sturgis Hall, noon 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

KIDS

“The Adventures of Peter Rabbit.” Arkansas Arts Center: 7 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30

MUSIC

The Big Dam Horns. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $7. 107 River Market Ave. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Corey Smith, Rob Baird. Revolution, 9 p.m. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. Walmart AMP, 8 p.m., $5-$10. 5079 W. Northgate Road, Rogers.

479-443-5600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Ghost Bones, Ginsu Wives. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com.

Jet 420 (headliner), Steve Boyster (happy hour).

Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana.

501-492-9802.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Mobley, Ryan Sauders, Upon the Devil’s Request. Maxine’s, 9 p.m. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Paul McCartney. Verizon Arena, 8 p.m., $42.50$280. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Paul Prater. The Joint, 5 p.m. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

Springtime of Youth Festival. Featuring Diplo, Kevin Gates and more. Washington County Fairgrounds, 3 p.m., $30. 2536 N McConnell Ave., Fayetteville.

Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $5-$50. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

“Rednecks in Spandex.” An original production

by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Triple Feature. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Bridge to the Future Festival. An event supporting early learning, health, and safety in young children. Clinton Presidential Center, 10 a.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www. clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell and Cedar Hill Roads.

Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of historic neighborhoods includes bike, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 9 a.m., $8-$28. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

Pork & Bourbon Tour. Bike tour includes bicycle, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 11:30 a.m., $35-$45. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

ReLive Your Prom 2016. William J. Clinton Presidential Library, 7:30 p.m., $99. 1200 Clinton Avenue. 501-374-4242. www.clintonlibrary.gov.

Steel Horse Rally. See April 29.

Turkish Food Festival. Raindrop Turkish House, 11 a.m., free. 1501 Market St. 501-223-2155. www. turkishhouse.org/littlerock.

JOIN THE HERD! LET US HELP YOU MAKE YOUR HOBBY MORE FUN! • Beer, wine, cider and mead making supplies • Cheese making supplies • Pickling supplies • Hydroponic, indoor, organic and aquaponic gardening supplies • New and used items 501-725-5296 • Fax: 501-725-5298 • www.thewaterbuf falo.com 106 S Rodney Parham Rd., Lit tle Rock, AR 72205

SHINE Wild Wines 2016. Little Rock Zoo, 6 p.m., $75 adv., $85 day of. 1 Jonesboro Dr. 501-666-2406. www.littlerockzoo.com.

SPORTS

Criminal Justice Club 5K Run/Walk. Arkansas State University at Mountain Home, 8 a.m., $20.

1600 S. College Ave., Mountain Home.

BENEFITS

Butterfly Swamp 5K. UALR, 9:30 a.m., $25. 2801 S. University Ave. 501-569-8977.

KIDS

“The Adventures of Peter Rabbit.” Arkansas Arts Center: 2 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 1

MUSIC

DakhaBrakha. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10.

495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road.

501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

EVENTS

Artists for Recovery. Located in the Wesley Room, a secular recovery group for people with addictions, open to the public. Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. 1601 S. Louisiana St. Bernice Garden Farmer’s Market. Bernice Garden, 10 a.m. 1401 S. Main St. www.thebernicegarden.org.

KIDS

“The Adventures of Peter Rabbit.” Arkansas Arts Center: 2 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

MONDAY, MAY 2

MUSIC

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Monday Night Jazz. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Open Mic. The Lobby Bar. Studio Theatre, 8 p.m. 320 W. 7th St. Purple, The Penny Mob, Superkiller. Maxine’s, 9 p.m. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www. maxinespub.com.

Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

EVENTS

Foster Care Donation Drive. Sturgis Hall, noon 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

TUESDAY, MAY 3

MUSIC

The Broken Hipsters. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., donations. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little

Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month.

120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jeff Ling. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Music Jam. Hosted by Elliott Griffen and Joseph Fuller. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

COMEDY

Stand-Up Tuesday. Hosted by Adam Hogg. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

EVENTS

Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market pavilions, 7 a.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info.

Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

LECTURES

Lunch ‘n Learn Series. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, noon. 501 W. 9th St. 501-683-3593. www. mosaictemplarscenter.com.

“Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America.” A talk by award-winning historian Douglas Brinkley. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School for Public Service, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

A LIGHT ON ‘Old Glory!’

The Anthem 20 ft.

Flagpole Kit includes: ● ● ●

Solar Light Aluminum Pole American Flag Flag made in USA!

Sale price: $24986 Regular price: $29395 Mention this ad in store to save or enter coupon code ANTHEM15 online.

FlagandBanner

.com

800 W. 9th St. ● Downtown Little Rock 1.800.445.0653 ● Hrs. 8-5:30 M-F 10-4 Sat.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Texas League Baseball. Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m. $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway, NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Darius Rucker & Friends. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., $34.50-$60.50. 5079 W. Northgate Road, Rogers.

479-443-5600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Dirty Fences, Attagirl. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Drageoke with Chi Chi Valdez. Sway. 412 Louisiana.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month.

120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jake Shimabukuro. Revolution, 9 p.m., $20-$30.

300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www. rumbarevolution.com/new.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

45

MOVIE REVIEW

MAY 13

MUSIC BY

THE LIBRAS AND

ISAAC ALEXANDER

Argenta Plaza 5th & Main, North Little Rock Friday, May 13, 2016 - 6 - 9 pm

RAIN OR SHINE Purchase tickets early: $35, at the door $40

30 Vessels (15 Firkins, 13 PINs & 2 Casks)

OVER 15,000 SAMPLES!

TICKETS: bit.ly/firkinfest16

BEER & FOOD 8 local restaurants will be serving including: Arkansas Ale House, Damgoode Pies, Old Chicago Pizza, Skinny J’s, @ the Corner, Cafe Bossa Nova, and Zaffino’s

JOIN US FOR THE FIRST FIRKIN FEST, a continuation of our Craft Beer Festival tradition but with a cool twist! One big night of fun, food, entertainment & tasting fine beer!

WHAT THE FIRK IS A FIRKIN?

Firkins are basically smaller kegs where beer which has not been cold-filtered, pasteurized and carbonated by outside equipment can continue to ferment and change. Many brewers get cre-

ative by adding flavors to it in the firkin, ranging from fruits, nuts, or berries to herbs, spices, and coffee.

It’s old school methodology meets new world creativity for often unpredictable results.

PARTICIPATING BREWERIES Abita

Marshall

Carson’s

Mother’s

Core

Paulaner

Damgoode Brews

Public House

Diamond Bear

Pulaski Tech Fermentation Science Dept

Founders Hacker-Pschorr Lazy Magnolia Lost Forty

SPONSORED BY

Rebel Kettle Tallgrass The Dudes

HEY, RESTAURANT OWNER!

Interested in serving your food at the beer festival? Contact phyllis@arktimes.com!

#firkinrad

46

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

We’d love to have you.

‘GREEN ROOM’: Patrick Stewart (right) stars in Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to “Blue Ruin.”

Hardcore ‘Green Room’ thrills.

BY SAM EIFLING

“G

reen Room,” Jeremy Saulnier’s latest small-budget, big-ambition picture, starts with a great pulpy premise. The “Blue Ruin” writer/director this time strands a four-person punk-metal band called the Ain’t Rights in Oregon, down to their last few bucks, syphoning gas to keep their van rolling and ready to head back home to Virginia. They get a tip about a shortnotice gig at a backwoods venue that’ll pay good money, with the catch that maybe there could be some skinhead tendencies in the crowd.

They bite that bullet and drive into the forest to a big corrugated-tin building on a gravel lot. They’re skeeved out by the locals but play their set (starting with a cover of the Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks, Fuck Off”) and are ready to fold their money and split. Then, one of their members ducks back into the green room and finds the next band on the bill standing around a woman on the floor, freshly dead, a knife jutting out of her skull.

What follows, then, is a tight, terrible standoff wherein all parties involved just want the day to end, and which you, an intelligent fan of taut, clever horror, will immediately want to watch a second time. The band — played by Alia Shawcat, Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole and Callum Turner — closes ranks in the green room, while outside, the gentleman-Nazi bar owner (Patrick Stewart) does the same. The band gets a bit of a wild card in Imogen Poots, a friend of the deceased and a clever enough vet of this particular music scene to be a major asset. And then you’re off on a game of escape-or-be-killed.

In its tone and pacing, which are spot-on, “Green Room” masks the technical brilliance quietly on display, as the camera holds you in a small room, in a cavernous bar, in the grand forest.

Claustrophobia hangs on every shot, the desperation of the cornered. Together they know they’re animals in a cage surrounded by a small battalion of bootsand-braces thugs toting machetes and knives and pistols and, as they learn in the worst possible way, trained pit bulls.

That last one is pivotal to creating a horror movie where in truth a truecrime movie could live, or a dramatic thriller. Saulnier’s choice to introduce dogs gives a nightmarish flavor to the otherwise rational actions of the band members and their tormentors. The great promise of a flick like “Green Room,” which moves its action with character and plotting rather than sadism and gratuitous gore, is that it can show the way to a genre-bending version of horror. Beyond the endless march of haunted house (or haunted doll, or haunted camera, or haunted hospital) movies, or the person-peeling exploits of Eli “Hostel” Roth, or even something where maniacs terrorize teens for maniac reasons, there’s a sort of everyday horror that’s easier to embrace, because it feels — well, if not likely, at least plausible, like an urban legend in motion. Such is the poisoned mousetrap that Saulnier has constructed in the Pacific Northwest.

Stick around through the credits to see some of the most motley “special thanks” credits in memory, ranging from government departments to specific hardcore bands. Here, Saulnier succeeds in cutting out a slice of a real subculture and building around it in a genuine way. The bandmates don’t conform to some Scooby-Dooesque hierarchy; it’s not clear who’s leading and who’s fated to survive. The deaths do come though, and maimings, and other highly unpleasant moments of visceral fear (and actual viscera).

AFTER DARK, CONT. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Mark Currey. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 5:30 p.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505.

COMEDY

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Tim Gaither. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $8. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Little Rock Bop Club. Beginning dance lessons for ages 10 and older. Singles welcome. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 7 p.m., $4 for members, $7 for guests. 12th and Cleveland streets. 501-350-4712. www.littlerockbopclub.

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show.

Kollective Coffee & Tea, 7 p.m., free. 110 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive. com/shows.html.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Texas League Baseball. Dickey-Stephens Park, 11 a.m., $6-$12.

400 W. Broadway, NLR. 501-664-1555. www. travs.com.

KIDS

Disney on Ice: “Frozen.” Verizon Arena, May 4-8, 7 p.m.; May 7, 11 a.m.; May 7-8, 3 p.m., $26-$76. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

NEW IN THE GALLERIES

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: Lecture by Dr. Stanton Thomas, “Bouguereau and the Hazards of Love,” 6 p.m. April 28, free to members, $10 nonmembers, in conjunction with “Admiration,” painting by William Adolph Bouguereau, on loan from San Antonio Museum of Art through May 15; screening of “Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning,” noon April 29, in conjunction with “Dorothea Lange’s America” and “Industrial Beauty: Charles Burchfield’s ‘Black Iron,’ ” through May 8; “Miranda Young: A Printed Menagerie,” museum school gallery, through May 29; “Life and Light: “Nathalia Edenmont: Force of Nature,” photographs, through May 1. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Paintings by Louis Beck: “Spring Flowers,” through April; “Backyard Birds,” month of May, free giclee drawing 7 p.m. May 19. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 660-4006.

THE ART GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Town Center: “The Bark Show,” auction of paintings, pottery, woodwork and other work to benefit Southern Paws Transport, 5:30-8 p.m. April 28.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, 2801 S. University Ave.: “B.F.A. Senior Exhibition,” Gallery I, April 28-May 12; “B.A. Senior Exhibition,” through May 4, Gallery II and III. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-3182.

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN

ART, One Museum Way: “The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip,” 100 images by 19 photographers of America from 1950 to today, through May 30; “The Open Road Film Series: Monte Hellman’s “Two Lane Black Top,” 6-8:30 p.m. April 28; American masterworks spanning four centuries in the permanent collection. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700.

EL DORADO SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St.: “Due South,” paintings by William Dunlap, through April, coffee and donuts with the artist 10 a.m. April 30, “Due South” dinner that evening with the artist 6:30 p.m., $50; “The Polaroid Show,” large format photographs by Lisa Burton Tarver, through April, lobby gallery; 5X5 Art Dash fundraiser, 55 works of art to be sold when bell rings, 50 tickets only, $50, see artists and art at sacc-arts.com. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 870-862-5474.

HOT SPRINGS 2ND ANNUAL ARTS AND THE PARK: 10 days of performing, visual and literary arts events in various venues in town, kicks off with light installation by Thomas Green on the evening of April 29 at the Mid-America Museum, events through May 8. For schedule, go to hotspringsarts.org.

501-321-2027.

BLUE ROCK STUDIO, 262 Hideaway Hills Drive: “Thinking Out Loud,” multimedia art exhibition

by Lana Taliaferro, Sofia Gonzales and Barbara Cade, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. through May; open studio 10 a.m.-5 p.m. April 30-May 1. 501-262-4065.

GARVAN GARDENS: Installation by W. Gary Smith of landscape art, “Enchanted Forest: Art in Wild Spaces,” April 25-29. $15 adults, $5 ages 5-12.

JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 A Central Ave.: “Natural Design,” paintings by Thomas Green and Tony Saladino, steel sculpture by Robert Fogel, April 30-May 31, talk by Green 6 p.m. April 30, talks by Fogel and Saladino 6 p.m. May 6, Hot Springs Gallery Walk. 501-321-2335.

MORRILTON RIALTO GALLERY, 213 E. Broadway St.: “Art for the Birds 2016,” April 29-June 19, reception 3-6 p.m. June 11 with music by violinist Bill Thurman. 501-288-9259.

NEW IN THE MUSEUMS

CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER: 2nd annual “Bridge to the Future” family festival, 10 a.m.-2

p.m. April 30; “American Champions: The Quest for Olympic Glory,” photographs, film and memorabilia from athletes, through Sept.

11; permanent exhibits on the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $10 adults; $8 college students, seniors, retired military; $3 ages 6-17. 370-8000.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

The 2nd annual Delta des Refuses, an exhibition of work not accepted into the Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center, is accepting entries through May 15. The exhibition will be held at the Thea Foundation, 401 Main St., North Little Rock. Entry forms are available at the Delta des Refuses Facebook page. Rachel Trusty is organizer.

The Arkansas Arts Council is taking applications from teaching performing, literary or visual artists who would like to join the Arts in Education Roster. Deadline to apply is July 8. Applications are available at arkansasarts.org. For more information, call the Arts Council at 501-324-9769 or email cynthia@arkansasheritage.org.

ONGOING GALLERY EXHIBITS

ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP., 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Complete Spaces,” sculpture

by Marianne Hennigar, jewelry of Christie Young. www.arcapital.com.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Culture Shock: Shine Your Rubies, Hide Your Diamonds,” work by women’s artist collective, including Melissa Cowper-Smith, Melissa Gill, Tammy Harrington, Dawn Holder, Jessie Hornbrook, Holly Laws, Sandra Luckett, Morgan Page and Rachel Trusty, through Aug. 22, Concordia Hall; “Twists and Strands: Exploring the Edges,” ceramics

by Barbara Satterfield and jewelry by Michele Fox; “Jeanfo: We Belong to Nature,” sculpture; “Painting 360: A Look at Contemporary Panoramic Painting,” Underground Gallery, through April 30. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Beyond the Photographs,” paintings by Daniel Coston, show through May 7. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: “Interconnections,” paintings and drawings by Maria and Jorge Villegas, through June 30. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-noon Fri. and Sun. 375-2342.

CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas art-

Frances Flower Shop The perfect gift for all the mothers in your life

PROUD TO HAVE BEEN SERVING YOU FOR OVER 62 YEARS! 1222 WEST CAPITOL • LITTLE ROCK • 501.372.2203 •FRANCESFLOWERSHOP.COM

ists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Sat. 664-0880.

CORE BREWING, 411 Main St., NLR: “Salud!

A Group Exhibition,” through May 20. corebeer.com.

COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: Arkansas League of Artists, through April 30. 918-3093.

DRAWL, 5208 Kavanaugh Blvd.: New work by Emily Galusha. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 240-7446.

GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Second and Center streets: “William McNamara,” watercolors, through May 21, “The Literary Muse,” group show. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211.

GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Edges,” photography by Rita Henry; also drawings and pastels by Dominique Simmons and David Warren, through May 14. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 664-8996.

GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Shrunken,” more than 150 small works by 30 artists, through May 15. 663-2222.

GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander. 801-0211.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “21st Anniversary Exhibition,” works by John Alexander, Walter Anderson, Gay Bechtelheimer, Carroll Cloar, William Dunlap, John Ellis, Charles Harrington, James Hendricks, Pinkney Herbert, Robyn Horn, Clementine Hunter, Richard Jolley, Dolores Justus, Henri Linton, John Harlan Norris, Sammy Peters, Joseph Piccillo, Edward Rice, Kendall Stallings, Rebecca Thompson, Glennray Tutor and Donald Roller Wilson. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sat. 664-2787.

HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Off the Page: Illustrations from Nikki Grimes’ ‘Danita Brown’ Series and Other Titles,” watercolors

by E.B. Lewis and mixed media by Floyd Cooper, through June 3. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM GALLERIES, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Hugo and Gayne Preller’s House of Light,” historic photographs, through October 31; “A Diamond in the Rough: 75 Years of the Historic Arkansas Museum,” works from the permanent collection; “Arkansas Contemporaries: Then, Now and Next,” through May 8.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

J.W. WIGGINS CONTEMPORARY NATIVE AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, UALR Sequoyah Center, University Plaza: “Return from Exile: Contemporary Southeastern Indian Art,” through May 6. 658-6360.

LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St., NLR: “Visual Anthropology: Welcome to Our Neighborhood,” 55 photographs by 11 members of the Blue Eyed Knocker Photo Club. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat. 687-1061.

M2 GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center: “Manscape,” paintings by Charles Henry James, through April 29. 225-6257.

MATT MCLEOD FINE ART GALLERY, 108 W. 6th St.: “New, Fresh, Vibrant,” paintings, sculpture and jewelry by David Clemons, Jude Harzer, Wayne Salge and Jeremy Couch. 725-8508.

MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “Networks,” paintings by Kasten Searles. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.Sat. 379-9101.

PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE, 3000 W. Scenic Drive: “Merging Form and Surface,” sculpture by Robyn Horn and Sandra Sell, Windgate Gallery, Center for the Humanities and Arts.

812-2324. www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

47

Dining

Information in our restaurant capsules reflects the opinions of the newspaper staff and its reviewers. The newspaper accepts no advertising or other considerations in exchange for reviews, which are conducted anonymously. We invite the opinions of readers who think we are in error.

B Breakfast L Lunch D Dinner $ Inexpensive (under $8/person) $$ Moderate ($8-$20/person) $$$ Expensive (over $20/person) CC Accepts credit cards

WHAT’S COOKIN’ EAT MY CATFISH, the Benton-based fried fish joint that has established a strong reputation — including a win in the “Best Seafood around the State” category of this year’s Arkansas Times Readers’ Choice Awards — based on the simple math of heaping plates of fresh-never-frozen fare plus solid, no nonsense sides, recently announced that it will open a Little Rock eatery.

The newest Eat My Catfish will be located at 10301 N. Rodney Parham, in the former location of lingerie retailer Barbara Graves Intimate Fashions in the Breckinridge Village Shopping Center. The Little Rock store joins Eat My Catfish locations in Benton and Conway, plus two mobile trailers.

Owner Travis Hester started Eat My Catfish as a food truck in 2008, and opened the first brick and mortar location in Benton in 2012. The target opening date for the Little Rock location is June. In addition to its signature catfish, the Little Rock restaurant will reportedly offer live crawfish and fresh Gulf shrimp for purchase in bulk for those who prefer to do their own cooking.

For a menu or more information about Eat My Catfish, visit eatmycatfish.com.

OLD MILL BREAD AND FLOUR CO. is considering leasing a storefront in Ottenheimer Hall of the River Market, manager John Graham said Monday.

“We’re reviewing an option,” Graham said, and he’s met with the River Market Board of Directors, but “we haven’t pulled the trigger on it.” If Old Mill does decide to lease a space, it will still sell its bread at the Farmers’ Market in the pavilions of the River Market.

Old Mill, which has been in business since 1992, sells fresh baked breads (27 kinds total, not counting sweet breads), bagels and other breakfast breads, sandwiches, salads and soups.

Graham’s son Andrew, a captain in the U.S. Army, is owner; Tracy Fells is the longtime baker.

UPCOMING ON THE CALENDAR: From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, the Raindrop Foundation (1501 Market Street) is hosting a Turkish Food Fest, which will also include whirling dervishes and children’s activities. More info at turkishfoodfest. com. Wild Wines, the Little Rock Zoo’s annual fundraiser, will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 30, and will feature 200 high quality wines to sample and food from 50 restaurants.

It’s happening at War Memorial Stadium. Tickets are $75 to $200.

48

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

SUPER: Rosalinda’s steak burrito is a bargain.

Loving Rosalinda’s Honduran restaurant is cheap and delicious.

I

t’s hard to find anything not to love about Rosalinda’s, the Honduran restaurant in the heart of Levy.

There are about 80 items on the menu, and we adored the five we tried. The portions range from ample to huge, the prices range from dirt cheap to reasonable, the staff is friendly, the place is clean and bright, and it’s open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Arkies who frequent authentic Mexican restaurants will find many familiar dishes at Rosalinda’s — enchiladas, tamales, burritos, soups, carne asada, guacamole — but there’s also yucca, plantains and a variety of pupusas. More on those in a bit.

When we arrived at 6:45 p.m. on a Tuesday, there were four tables of diners, but more streamed in soon. We were

the only patrons for whom English was our first language, and in our experience that bodes well for the authenticity and quality of the fare. Our friendly waitress brought us a basket of tortilla chips and a dish of a thin salsa that was a little bit sweet and a little bit vinegary.

It was more like what many might call a “taco sauce.” And our Negra Modelo was icy cold.

Right behind the salsa and beer came our order of guacamole, one ripe avocado’s worth, creamy, clearly freshly made with tomato, onion and lime for squeezing. We detected no cilantro. It was fabulous, and it was only $3.50! Why doesn’t guacamole at fancy Mexican restaurants in midtown and out west cost just $3.50? Overhead, we guess.

Next we chose two of the pupusas:

4310 Landers Road • North Little Rock, AR 72117 (501) 687-1331 • www.krebsbrothers.com • M-F 8-5 Sat. 9-5

BELLY UP

Check out the Times’ food blog, Eat Arkansas arktimes.com

Rosalinda Restaurant Hondureno 900 W. 35th St. North Little Rock 771-5559

QUICK BITE Don’t forget Rosalinda for breakfast.

There are 10 choices (nine of them are $7.50) and generally include eggs, meat, beans and sour cream. Plaintains with beans and sour cream will set you back $6.

HOURS 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

OTHER INFO Beer only. Credit cards accepted.

one cheese and pork, the other cheese and beans. Two thick, clearly handmade tortillas encased gooey, mild white cheese in the first and a pasteconsistency combination of pork and beans with a bit less cheese in the second. They had been well-griddled. A pupusa is much like a quesadilla with better, thicker 6-inch (not tiny) tortillas. And each one costs $2. TWO DOLLARS! One could make a meal on this dish alone. They came with an interesting slaw dotted with oregano and a mild sauce. We plan to return, buy a halfdozen or so pupusas and freeze them.

They should resurrect beautifully.

For our entrees, we got the second most expensive item on the menu — the $11 Sopa de Camerones con Coco (shrimp soup with coconut) — and the

“super steak” burrito ($7).

The soup was rich, with a nice sheen on top and arrived in a bowl the size of a serving bowl at a family dinner. The coconut was discernable but not overwhelming. About eight shrimp swam below, and they still had their shells, though not their heads. We could think of no delicate way to eat them, so we took them out to cool and peeled by hand. The hot soup left the shrimp a little tough, and that’s really the only complaint we had with our Rosalinda’s experience.

The soup includes tomato, onion, peppers and avocado and is served with a small-grain rice that tasted like it had spent some time on the griddle and the same thick corn tortillas used in the pupusas.

The super steak burrito was stuffed fat. It included griddled fajita-style steak, rice, pinto beans, sour cream and onion, but it was still somewhat light despite its hefty size. Half made a meal, a $3.50 meal as it turned out.

The other half was lunch the next day.

Rosalinda’s is well appointed with classic cafe tables covered with plastic tablecloths with flowery borders.

On the walls are a few small pieces of art and a couple of pieces of notebook paper advertising mozzarella sticks ($5.99), of all things. Some of the shades on the lights feature cars, some feature airplanes and three feature SEC teams: Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The whole place — including the bathrooms — is clean and well kept.

We’ll definitely be back to Rosalinda’s — and soon. We’ve just barely dented the menu, and we look forward to exploring it in depth.

Life begins Outdoors.

Spring sale now in progress!

180

Huge selection of outdoor furniture on sale! • Ready for immediate delivery!

Come see our 10,000 Sq. Ft. Showroom 11220 N. Rodney Parham • Ste 14 • Little Rock • 501.663.1818 kenrashsoutdoorfurniture.com www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

49

Hey, do this!

OXFORD AMERICAN AND SOUTH ON MAIN present these excellent shows in April:

MAY

MAY 12, 2016 JAY FARRAR [AMERICANA SERIES] 8:00 PM—This is not only the fourth and final show of our Americana Sub-Series, but also the closing performance of our 2015 - 2016 Concert Series. Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time.

MAY 25, 2016 WHISKEY SHIVERS [SESSIONS] May Sessions, curated by Dave Hoffpauir, brings the Austin-based band Whiskey Shivers to the South on Main stage. Join us Wednesday, May 25 at 8:30, $10 cover. Call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table for this show.

MAY 26, 2016 DOM FLEMONS 8:00 PM—We welcome folk songster Dom Flemons to Little Rock and the South on Main stage on Thursday, May 26. Flemons will be playing in a duo configuration on this tour.

THROUGH MAY 4 AND MAY 12

MAY 12

The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff hosts an exhibition reception and book release for HERE. African American Art from the Permanent Collection of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. The event is from 5-7 p.m. and includes a discussion and gallery tour. Call 870-536-3375 for more info.

“SOMETHING BLUE,” performed by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, takes place at Christ Episcopal Church at 7 p.m. For tickets, visit www. arkansassymphony. org.

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Tickets are on sale for JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS at Choctaw Casino in Pocola, Okla. The show is on July 2 at 8 p.m. Purchase online at www. ticketmaster.com.

MAY 20-27

DITCH THE KEYS WEEK kicks off the Ozark Action Days, which helps protect air quality by encouraging people to use an alternate method of transportation to reduce pollution. Bike to Work Day is May 20 at the Old State House with free breakfast at the Capital Hotel. For a full list of events, visit www.ditchthekeys.com. Sign up for Ozone Action Days alerts at www. ozoneactiondays.org.

Little Rock’s SoMa district is now the place to be on Friday nights for FOURTH FRIDAYS. Local shops on South Main Street stay open late from 5-9 p.m.

One of Central Arkansas’s longest running festivals is TOAD SUCK DAZE in Conway. This free festival includes a carnival, live music, World Championship Toad Races, food, shopping, arts and crafts, as well as several beauty pageants, road races, a parade and kids activities. This year’s headliners include Danny Gokey and Josh Wilson. Visit www.toadsuck.org for a complete schedule of events.

The Rep’s BREWHAHA takes place at 6 p.m.

Enjoy pre-show pizza and beers provided by Ozark Brewing Co. and Public House Brewing Co. in the lobby. Hooking Up with The Second City starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 and available at www.therep. org. The comedy troupe performs from May 3-15. n ARTWORKSXXVII supporting the Rep takes place at 6:30 p.m. Ninety of Central Arkansas’s most notable artists donate a piece of their work to be sold at live auction. Tickets are $50 and include light bites, music by the Funkanites, live and silent auction. Call 501-378-0405 to purchase.

Hop on the free trolley, and see where the 2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT takes you. From 5-8 p.m., pop into participating galleries like the Historic Arkansas Museum, Cox Creative Center and Butler Center Galleries. n Spend a night at the Little Rock Zoo sleeping under the stars at ZOO SNOOZE. You’ll have a chance to hear the sounds of some of the animals that are real night owls. Bring a tent and sleeping bag. There are optional sleeping quarters inside. The event is from 6 p.m. Friday until 9 a.m. on Saturday and is $35 per person for nonmembers or $30 per person for members.

MAY 27

APRIL 29-MAY 1

MAY 5

MAY 13

Wildwood Park for the Arts hosts live music by TREY JOHNSON AND DAVE ALMOND at 7 p.m. in the pavilion. Suggested donation of $15.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Beer, wine and snacks will be available.

Riverdale 10 screens Prince’s 1984 film PURPLE RAIN as part of its classic movies series. Order beer or wine at the only theater in town that lets you do so, then get comfy in the electric VIP leather recliners. For a complete list of showings, visit www.riverdale10. com.

50

Verizon Arena presents DISNEY ON ICE’S FROZEN. It’s the first time this Academy Awardwinning tale about two royal sisters, Elsa and Anna, has been told live.

Tickets are $26-$76 and $16 for kids 2-12.

For tickets, visit www. ticketmaster.com.

MAY 19

MAY 24

APRIL 29

Wildwood Park for the Arts presents the opening night reception for JANE LOVETT HOLT: ARKANSAS SEEN & SCENES, an exhibit of colorful oil paintings. The event begins at 6 p.m. and is free. The Will Anderson Trio will play at 7:30 p.m. A $15 donation is suggested.

The exhibit will run through May 27 and may be viewed weekdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 p.m.

MAY 4-8

UALR SPRING SENIOR EXHIBITIONS are free and open to the public. Gallery II-III presents the senior B.A. exhibitions through May 4. The senior B.F.A. exhibitions will be up through May 12 in Gallery I. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and Sunday 2-5 p.m.

MAY 19

APRIL 28

MAY 7

BILL ENGVALL at Choctaw Casino Pocola is SOLD OUT. Check out other events on the CenterStage at www.choctawcasinos. com.

UT SOLD O

MAY 14

Take the first step towards better heart health at the CENTRAL ARKANSAS HEART WALK at North Shore Riverwalk Park in North Little Rock. The walk features one-, twoand four-mile options plus games, entertainment and heart-healthy food. The event is free and starts at 9 a.m.

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

FUN! APRIL 30

One of the biggest shows of the year takes place at Verizon Arena: PAUL MCCARTNEY ONE ON ONE. Tickets are still available through Ticketmaster online at www. ticketmaster.com. Floor seats are $280 for this once in a lifetime performance.

For more info, visit www. verizonarena.com.

MAY 7-8

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents THE MOVIE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS, one of Hollywood’s most famous composers, at the Connor Performing Arts Center at Pulaski Academy. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.

For tickets, visit www. arkansassymphony.org.

THROUGH MAY 14

DOUBLE WIDE TEXAS is currently running at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse. Get ready, y’all, for a fastpaced comedy that takes place at the smallest trailer park in Texas. Visit www.murrysdp.com for show times and dinner reservations.

THROUGH MAY 8

Two exhibitions: “INDUSTRIAL BEAUTY: CHARLES BURCHFIELD’S BLACK IRON” and “DOROTHEA LANGE’S AMERICA” are on display at the Arkansas Arts Center. For more info, visit arkarts.com.

MAY 11

It’s the stuff 80s dreams were made of: DEF LEPPARD, REO SPEEDWAGON and TESLA on one stage for one night only.

Verizon Arena makes this a classic rock reality at 7 p.m. Tickets are $53.50-$119 and available at www. ticketmaster.com.

MAY 18

O’Looney’s Wine & Liquor hosts a wine tasting with WINEMAKER JIM DYKE of Mira Winery from 5-7 p.m.

O’Looney’s is located on Rahling Circle in Little Rock. n DAVE MATTHEWS BAND returns to Verizon Arena. Celebrating 25 years on the road, Dave stops in North Little Rock as part of his 46-date North American tour. The band will take 2017 off, so don’t miss your chance to see them (again) and relive your college days when you were tripping billies under the table and dreaming.

Tickets are $45.50-$75 and available at www.ticketmaster.com.

MAY 23

Philander Smith’s 22ND ANNUAL ELIJAH PITTS MEMORIAL GOLF TOURNAMENT is a fourperson scramble at Little Rock’s Chenal Valley Country Club.

The cost is $1000 per team includes green fees, golf cart, breakfast, lunch and beverages.

For more, visit www.philander. edu/PittsTournament.aspx.

ARKANSAS TIMES PRESENTS...

MAY 13

OUR FIRST FIRKIN CRAFT BEER FEST. $35/$40 day of. Hundreds of beers to taste and food from Arkansas Ale House, Damgoode Pies, Old Chicago Pizza, Skinny J’s, @the Corner, Zaffino’s and Cafe Bossa Nova. The Libras & Isaac Alexander perform. http://bit.ly/firkinfest16

MAY 20

CELEBRATE THE GRAPE - $30/$40 day of.

Over 300 wines to taste, five tents serving wines from all over the world. Food catered by Whole Foods. Jazz by The Funkanites w/Joshua Asante of Amasa Hines & Velvet Kente. http://bit.ly/grape16.

BOTH EVENTS ARE 6 UNTIL 9 PM AT THE ARGENTA PLAZA AND BENEFITING THE ARGENTA ARTS DISTRICT

Dave Matthews Band

HOT SPRINGS HAPPENINGS MAY

Hot Tickets in Hot Springs For a complete calendar of events, visit hotsprings.org.

MAY 6 & 7

Live Music. HWY 124. Pop’s Lounge. 5-8 p.m.

Live Music. Pamela K Ward and the Last Call Orchestra Band. Silks Bar and Grill. Fri & Sat. 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

MAY 7

Crystal Falls Water Park at Magic Springs officially opens for the season. The theme park is open as well for a full day of fun.

Season passes are $64.99. For hours and additional information, visit www.magicsprings.com.

MAY 1-5

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Week-O de Mayo with e-drawings starting at 6 p.m.

Sunday through Wednesday and the Cinco de Mayo fiesta kicking off at 5 p.m. on Thursday with live music, margaritas and draft beer specials and a taco buffet.

MAY 8 MAY 27

The “Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight kicks off Oaklawn’s Summer Concert Series at the Finish Line Theater at 7 p.m. This seven-time Grammy winner is not to be missed. Tickets go on sale May 10.

MAY 8

The Arlington Hotel serves a beautiful Mother’s Day brunch in the Venetian Dining Room from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. $36 for adults, $18 for children 12 and under. For reservations, call 800-609-2575.

MAY 1-10

Arts & the Park is a 10-day celebration of the arts community in Hot Springs National Park with free activities daily, including concerts, workshops, poetry readings, gallery walks, studio tours, yoga and more at various venues in town. Some events do require a small fee. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.hotspringsarts.org.

MAY 5

Garvan Woodland Gardens hosts a Cinco de Mayo FUNdraiser with Mexican food, margaritas, cold beer and festive music.

Guests are welcome to take an after-dinner stroll through the gardens. Tickets are $30 for members and $45 for nonmembers.

Reservations required. Call 800-366-4664.

Live Music. Jacob Flores, Singer, Songwriter.

Silks Bar and Grill. 6-10 p.m.

The talented handbell choir from Ouachita Hills Academy will perform at the Anthony Chapel at Garvan Woodland Gardens on Mother’s Day at 3 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.

719 CENTRAL AVENUE.• HOT SPRINGS 501.624.7474 BELLEARTIHOTSPRINGS.COM

CATERING AVAILABLE FOR ALL OCCASIONS. UNIQUE PRIVATE DINING SPACE FOR WEDDING RECEPTIONS, REHEARSAL DINNERS, BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS.

MAY 13

Live Music. David Ball, Classic Rock, Southern Rock. Pop’s Lounge. 5-8 p.m.

MAY 13 & 14

Live Music. Sensory 2. Silks Bar and Grill. 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

MAY 14

The Hot Springs Cruisers 21st Annual Car Show takes place at the Hot Springs Municipal Airport.

707 CENTRAL AVE. • HOT SPRINGS 501.321.8282 THEPORTERHOUSEHOTSPRINGS.COM

MAY 20

Arkansas Jazz Experience takes place at Whittington Place from 6-8 p.m. with ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com APRIL 28, 2016 51 www.arktimes.com APRIL 28, 2016 51

performances by Gary Meggs on sax, Ron Hall and Clyde Pound on keys, Paul Stivitts on drums, Richard Jorgensen on trumpet, David Higgonbotham on bass with vocals by Shirley Chauvin. Tickets are $15 or $10 for Jazz Society Members. New members signing up that evening will receive free admission. For more info, Live Music. Mayday by Midnight. Silks Bar and Grill. call 501-627-2425 or visit 10 p.m.-2 a.m. www.hsjazzsociety.org.

5B5K. Run a K, have a beer. Run a K, have a beer. Run a….well, you get the point. Join us at 6 p.m. for the The 3rd Annual Hot Springs Craft Beer inaugural FIVE BEER FIVE K fun run. RunFestival takes place at the Hot Springs ners will gather at The Farmer’s Market and Convention Center from 6-9 p.m. Benefitproceed north on Central Avenue. Stops at ting the Hot Springs Blues Society, come the Copper Penny, Vina Morita and Fat Jacks. sample craft beers and local food. Must be Live Music. Underground Famous. Pop’s 21 to enter. Tickets are $30 in advance and Lounge. 5-8 p.m. $35 at the door. For more info, visit www. hscraftbeerfest.com.

Live Music. Tara Thompson & Brent Frazier. Pop’s Lounge. 5-8 p.m.

MAY 20 & 21

MAY 21

MAY 27

GIVE THE GIFT

OF AN

Arlington Getaway

ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR GIFTS FOR MOM Whether it’s a day of pampering and relaxation at our famous Thermal Bathing Spa - a day of golf at The Arlington Course at Hot Springs Country Club, or our famous Sunday Brunch, the choices are many and appreciated. We’ll even customize a package for you to give her.

Call today to order your special gift.

Famous

MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH May 8 11am - 2:30pm Adults: $36 Children (6-12): $18 5 and Under: Free

Reservations Recommended

DRIVERS PLEASE BE AWARE, IT’S ARKANSAS STATE LAW:

52 52

APRIL 28, 2016 APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES ARKANSAS TIMES

MAY 27, 28 & 29 MAY 14

Live Music. Christine Demeo & Cassie Ford.

Pop’s Lounge. 5-8 p.m.

USE OF BICYCLES OR ANIMALS

Every person riding a bicycle or an animal, or driving any animal drawing a vehicle upon a highway, shall have all the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle, except those provisions of this act which by their nature can have no applicability.

OVERTAKING A BICYCLE

The driver of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle proceeding in the same direction on a roadway shall exercise due care and pass to the left at a safe distance of not less than three feet (3’) and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken bicycle.

AND CYCLISTS, PLEASE REMEMBER:

www.ArlingtonHotel.com For Reservations: (800) 643-1502 239 Central Ave. | Hot Springs, AR 71901

Food Truck Friday takes place at the Hot Springs Farmers Market from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. with Penguin Tacos, Whitworth’s BBQ, Rick’s Cajun and more.

You’re vehicles on the road, just like cars and motorcycles and must obey all traffic laws—signal, ride on the right side of the road and yield to traffic normally. Make eye contact with motorists.

Be visible. Be predictable. Heads up, think ahead.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

MAY 29

Live Music. Susan Erwin. Singer, Songwriter. Pop’s Lounge.

5-9 p.m.

Live Music. John Calvin Brewer Band. Silks Bar and Grill. 10 p.m.- 2 a.m.

Summer is fast approaching and Oaklawn wants the grass always greener on your side. Mower Mania means 20 winners will take home a brand new John Deere tractor. Earn up to 30 entries a week for your chance to win.

MAY M AY LLINEUP INEUP

GLADYS�KNIGHT�|�MAY��� DETAILS�AT�OAKLAWN�COM

POP’S LOUNGE POP’S�LOUNGE Friday & Saturday | � p.m. - � p.m.

6 7 13 14 20 21

Live music every weekend

27 28 29

HWY ��� HWY ��� David Ball Christine Demeo & Cassie Ford Underground Famous Brent & Tara Susan Erwin’s Pink Piano Show Susan Erwin’s Pink Piano Show Susan Erwin’s Pink Piano Show

SILKS�BAR�&�GRILL Friday & Saturday | �� p.m. - � a.m.

5 6 7 13 14 20 21 27 28 29

Jacob Flores (6-10 p.m.)

Pamela Ward Pamela Ward Sensory 2 Sensory 2 Mayday by Midnight Mayday by Midnight John Calvin Brewer Band John Calvin Brewer Band John Calvin Brewer Band

AND JOIN US FOR KARAOKE AND 1/2 PRICE DRINKS 7-11 P.M. EVERY WEDNESDAY IN POP’S LOUNGE!

ARKANSAS’�FAVORITE�

PLACE�TO�PLAY Gambling problem? Call �-���-���-����.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com MARCH 31, 2016 53 A www.arktimes.com APRIL 28, 2016 53

Hot Springs

That’s the kind of history made in Hot Springs every day.

S

HSV Basecamp

eeking outdoor adventure within a welcoming community? Interested in finding new ways to get your heart pumping?

The Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas might have their“Fayettechill,”but down in the wild Ouachitas, Hot Springs Village Basecamp has you covered.

HSV Basecamp is an adventure sports and outdoor concept that connects residents and visitors to a thrilling community of outdoor fun. With events for all skill levels and ages, the program in its second full year has continued to attract participants. The lush ecology of the Ouachita High Country Region provides ample opportunities to seek out the wild wonders of this enchanting and largely untouched terrain and its many waterways, deep forest trails and soaring vistas.

Basecamper, Marcus Everett, who has lived in the Village for almost 19 years, discovered the richness and excitement of the natural world around him through his involvement in this community. Until two years ago, Everett was an avid runner but stopped because of health issues. Looking for new ways to stay active, he found Basecamp.

Now, instead of running, he gets his heart

racing kayaking and biking. Everette also mentors others at events like the kayaking clinic- a fundamentals/refresher program and great way to dip a toe -or in this case -paddle into the community.

“The program is wide open to any level.

At the kayak clinic there were several people there who had never been in a kayak before.

The enthusiasm I saw from them -- they were just so excited to go and get started!” says Everett.

Everett points out that Basecamp is about

“You can still have the lifestyle you want and enjoy the outdoors.”

HotSprings.org • 1-888-SPA-CITY

54

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

much more than the events themselves. It’s a community. When he isn’t paddling or biking, Everett breaks out the grill to make turkey burgers for happy and hungry hikers coming down off one of the many of scenic trails in the Village and the region.

“My involvement was originally to help with my rehabilitation. I recognized very quickly that for someone my age, the activities will

The Hotel Hot Springs & Spa

HOTEL HOT SPRINGS HOTEL HOTEL HOT HOT SPRINGS SPRINGS

p is Adventure! keep me moving and keep me connected,” says Everett. Not only does he“keep moving” but Everett completed a 17.5 mile biking event with other Basecampers earlier this month. He says he will pedal even harder next time because he was “smoked” by an 86-year-old woman.

Basecamp came about via the vision of David Twiggs, the Village’s Chief Operating Officer. Twiggs looked around at the twentysix thousand acres in Hot Springs Village with direct access to the Ouachita National Forest and thought -- what better way to connect residents with opportunities for adventure around them than by building a community focused on the natural wonderland literally laying in their backyards?

“He [Twiggs] said ‘we can’t be just golf.

Let’s broaden our reach. We have lakes and beautiful trails...’’says Stephanie Heffer, Director of Lifestyle and Community Development for the Village, of Twiggs’ vision for Basecamp.

In recent years The Village has become home to a wider variety of households with families moving in search of a quiet haven in the woods with backdoor access to the thrills of The Natural State’s adventure sports and leisure. Twiggs had no problem finding an enthusiastic community just ready and waiting to be plugged-in. About a year later

after conception, Basecamp was a reality.

Though geared primarily toward residents, Basecamp encourages participants from all over. “Reaching the people that currently live here was our big thing,” says Stephanie Heffer,“but another goal was to get the word out to the surrounding region.”Heffer points out the program’s proximity to cities like Hot Springs and Little Rock affords residents and non-residents the best of both worlds.

“You can still have the lifestyle you want and enjoy the outdoors.”

Whether an adrenaline junky or a nature lover, Basecamp events are varied and plentiful, and the community will welcome you readily. Want to watch a late-night meteor shower by paddling to the middle one of the many nearby lakes?

Or maybe get your heart racing as you and your friends careen down hillside trails on mountain bikes during an overnight Hike and Bike trip to a nearby State Park. There is no shortage of ways to engage with this thriving and lively community.

For those interested in participating in upcoming activities, the best way to get involved is to check the HSV Basecamp Facebook page or take a look at the calendar on their websitehttp://www. basecampar.com

www.hotelhotsprings.org

try the best mexican food in arkansas!

(501) 525-8203

3836 central ave • hot springs, ar ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016 55

Taste of Art: A Visual Feast VARIOUS RESTAURANTS AROUND TOWN, INCLUDING:

DEVITO’S OF EUREKA SPRINGS, 5 Center St., (479) 253-6807, Artist: Teresa Pelliccio – New Spring Collection EMPORIUM AT FARM-TO-TABLE FRESH & DEJA VU, 179 N Main St., (479) 253-9300 Artist: Todd Paden GRAND TAVERNE, 37 N Main St., (479) 253-6756, Artist: Larry Mansker GROTTO, 10 Center St., (479) 363-6431, Artist: Jim Nelson

ESPAFEST

SUNDAY MAY 22 – THURSDAY MAY 26. ESPAfest - Eureka Springs Plein Air Festival, Hosted by Eureka Springs School of the Arts (ESSA) and Plein Air Painters of Eureka Springs (PAPES) (479) 253-5384 http://essa-art.org/events/ plein-air-festival Sponsored by Best Western INN OF THE OZARKS.

MUSIC IN THE PARK

Enjoy the sounds of Eureka Springs in our beautiful park settings on Saturdays.

GALLERY STROLLS

T

each month, are scheduled for every Saturday evening in May. In addition to free refreshments at participating galleries, each gallery stroll will also include special artists’ receptions and shows.

Enjoy a day of artistry of every form in lovely Basin Spring Park on Saturday, May 14th for Art in the Park. Artists offering textiles, jewelry, painting, sculpting, and fine wood designs will be available all day to discuss their process and medium. Enjoy art as it is being created as you watch members of the Weavers Guild, the Potters Guild, and the Plein Air Painters as they work in the beautiful park setting. Wonderful music is being provided for your listening enjoyment all afternoon in Basin Park including two free performances by saxophonist/flutist Bryan Savage. A day of enjoyment in every sense of the word.

White Street Walk is one of the month’s most festive and well-attended events, which takes place from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

As a child, I was constantly saying, “let’s pretend on Friday, May 20th. Historic White Street . . .’” or “let’s make . . .” The desire to create has is the working address of a large number always resided deep inside my soul but it wasn’t until after my three daughters were grown that, of local artists who welcome the public as an adult, again, I began to pay attention to into their homes and studios to tour, view the urges. their latest works and purchase directly from the artist.

Interior decorating, architecture, color, shape, texture and textiles have always captivated A new event for the 2016 festival is The me. Since moving to the artist mecca that is Art of Crochet. On Saturday, May 24th from Eureka Springs, I have delved deeper into my 1pm to 7pm in Basin Spring Park. The event creative urges. By experimenting with allegoric features all day community yarn bombing, processes, I develop forms based on personal activities for all ages, a Melonlight Dance associations and merge elements of spirituality, Studio performance, and live music by intuition and rebellion with femininity, whimsy Brian Martin and Sad Daddy. Both culinary and impulse. and fine arts will be on display this month Some of my paintings are unplanned and come during “A Taste of Art.” from following my intuition, letting my heart Eureka Springs’ restaurants will host and hands guide me. Others are inspired by local artists and their works while tempting 9E ŌE5:3 0>1-9? 9E 8;B1 ;2 2-?45;: 5:@1>5;>? the public with their cuisine. architecture and nature.

For more information about the Eureka I have created a dozen new paintings as well Springs May Festival of the Arts and a VERY as 30+ minis (tiny paintings on wood) for May full calendar of events, visit http://www.

Fine Arts. – Teresa Pelliccio eurekaspringsfestivalofthearts.com

he entire month of May is devoted to the arts in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The 29th Annual May Festival of the Arts celebrates the visual, performing, and even edible arts and showcases more than 350 working artists that live in the community. Because of the length of the festival and the many venues available, every artist in the city has an opportunity to show. Each day of the entire month has something happening.

The vibrant ArtRageous Parade is the traditional kick-off for the festival. It will roll down Spring Street beginning at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 7th. Grand Marshal John Rankine will lead the stream of floats, art cars, walkers, dancers, musicians, jugglers and more.

Gallery strolls, usually only held the second Saturday evening of

56 56

APRIL 28, 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES APRIL 28, 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

SATURDAY MAY 7, 14, AND 21, 6 – 9 P.M. THE JEWEL BOX, 40 Spring St. EUREKA FINE ART GALLERY, 2 Pine (Pine & Spring Street) IRIS AT THE BASIN PARK, 8 Spring St. JA NELSON GALLERY, 37 Spring St. THE EMPORIUM BY DÉJÀ VU, 179 N Main St. QUICKSILVER, 73 Spring St. STUDIO 62, 335 W Van Buren.

ZARKS, 67 Spring St. FLEECE & FLAX, 51 Spring St. ART BAZAAR AT THE BIRDCAGE, The Birdcage Art Gallery parking lot BREWS, 2 Pine St. Paradise Pottery, 320 CR 210.

GALLERY/STUDIO HIGHLIGHTS

STUDIO 62, 335 W. Van Buren.

PARADISE POTTERY BIG POT USA, 320 CR 210 IRIS AT THE BASIN PARK, 8 Spring St. WILSON & WILSON FOLK ART, 23 Spring St. KEELS CREEK WINERY AND ART GALLERY, 3185 E Van Buren BREWS, 2 Pine St. FUSION SQUARED, 84 Spring St. MAIN STAGE, 67 N Main St. SHOPPES AT FLEECE ‘N FLAX, 51 Spring St. ART BAZAAR AT THE BIRDCAGE, The Birdcage Art Gallery parking lot, 1 Basin Spring Ave. THE JEWEL BOX, 40 Spring St. EUREKA FINE ART GALLERY, #2 Pine St. THE SPRING STREET GALLERY, 85 Spring St. QUICKSILVER ART & FINE CRAFT GALLERY, 73 Spring St.

2016 Highlighted Events EUREKASPRINGSFESTIVALOFTHEARTS.COM FOR A FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FRIDAY - SUNDAY MAY 6 – 8

The First Annual Nuit Rose’ Various restaurants, wineries and bars in Eureka Springs will be offering Rose’ tastings, flights, and pairings to serve with special menu items during this Rose’ wine festival. Locations include Cottage Inn, DeVito’s of Eureka Springs, Grand Taverne Restaurant & Lounge, The Stone House, Le Stick, GROTTO, Sparky’s, Eureka Grill, FRESH Farm to Table, KJ’s Caribe, Keels Creek Winery and Railway Winery.

SATURDAY MAY 7

Unveiling in Interactive Music Park on North Main Street, Noon. The Eureka Springs High School Art Club designed and created a rhythm installation to the Eureka Springs Interactive Music Park on North Main. The installation is the final phase to the interactive sound sculpture park. All instruments in the park have been designed, created and built by local artists. The music park is a project of the Eureka Springs Arts Council and the city, made possible through grants from the Arkansas Arts Council and local donations.

For more information about the project, contact Sandy Martin, artscouncileureka@ gmail.com ArtRageous Parade, 5 p.m., Downtown Eureka Springs. Colorful, quirky, energetic and sometimes surprising, the ArtRageous Parade is the traditional kick-off of the May Festival of the Arts. Floats, art cars, walkers, dancers, musicians, jugglers and the super popular, Africa in the Ozarks drum and dance group.

Drumming in the Park, Immediately following the parade, Basin Spring Park, 4

Spring St. Enjoy the art of rhythm as Afrique Aya entertains us! Bring your drum or noise maker and celebrate the energy and beauty of the Ozarks.

“Scene at the Band Shell,” the opening of “On My Morning Walk” by John Rankine, Dark, Basin Spring Park, 4 Spring St. Every morning for the past year, artist/photographer John Rankine has been walking his rural Ozark road with his 3 dogs, an iPhone 6, and social media followers who each day shared in a moment in nature. The photos reflect the changing seasons on both macro and micro levels. The collection of photos are featured as part of the Eureka Springs May Festival of the Arts. A slideshow of the collection will be projected onto the band shell Thursday thru Saturday evenings through the month. An exhibit of the most “Liked” photos runs the month of May at Brews, 2 Pine Street.

SATURDAY MAY 14

2nd Saturday Music in the Park BLOCK STREET HOT CLUB 11 A.M. – 1 p.m.; Bryan Savage, 2:30 – 4 p.m. and 6 – 7:30 p.m., Basin Spring Park, 4 Spring St. Free concert in the park! Enjoy the gypsy jazz of Fayetteville’s Block Street Hot Club and don’t miss internationally recognized Saxophonist/Flutist Bryan Savage. Bryan has recorded and toured all over the world with such hit artists as Al Stewart, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, and

One of the most enchanting, romantic places in Eureka Springs.

Choose from several breathtaking sites.

To reserve your special date call or email.

479-253-9244 • bluespringheritage.com

SATURDAY MAY 14

Art in the Park 11 A.M. – 6 P.M., BASIN SPRING PARK, 4 SPRING ST. Come enjoy a day of artistry of every form in lovely Basin Spring Park in downtown Eureka Springs. Artists offering textiles, jewelry, painting, sculpting, and fine wood designs will be available all day to discuss their process and medium. Enjoy art as it is being created as you watch members of the Weavers Guild, the Potters Guild, and the Plein Air Painters as they work in the beautiful park setting. Wonderful music is being provided for your listening enjoyment all afternoon in Basin Park. A day of enjoyment in every sense of the word, come experience Eureka Springs!! www.arktimes.com ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT ARKANSAS TIMES www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016 57 APRIL 28, 2016 57

has shared the billing with John Denver, Natalie Cole, Bonnie Raitt, Mick Fleetwood, Gary Burton, Rick Braun, Peter White, Chuck Mangione and many others. Additional credits include a gold record for his sax work on the number one-selling Steve Martin hit single King Tut. More recently, Bryan has recorded 7 CD releases under his own name, signing with major label Virgin Record’s Higher Octave Music as a solo artist, and has gone on to enjoy his greatest success to date with the release of his U.S. hits Catfood and Soul Temptation--charting #1 and #5 respectively on Smooth Jazz Radio in the U.S., while also receiving extensive international airplay.

SUNDAY MAY 15

Annual Books in Bloom Literary Festival NOON – 5 P.M., CRESCENT HOTEL, 75 PROSPECT AVE. Books in Bloom, the Ozark’s own homegrown literary festival, has earned a reputation for presenting a bouquet of renown authors, speaking, reading from their work and signing books in the Gardens and Conservatory of The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs.

This free event, now in its 11th year, is a gift to

all who love books! Meet Thomas Perry, Laura Lippman, Amy Stewart, Brooks Blevins and many other celebrated authors. Books in Bloom Literary Festival is made possible by the Carroll and Madison Public Library Foundation and is funded by a host of generous sponsors. (870) 423-5300 www.booksinbloom.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 20

26th Annual White Street Studio Walk 4 – 10 P.M. One of the month’s most festive

and well-attended events is the annual White Street Studio Walk. Historic White Street is the working address of a large number of local artists who welcome the public into their homes and studios to tour, view their latest works, and purchase directly from the artist.

They will be joined by more than forty guest artists from the Eureka Springs area, who will show weaving, watercolors, jewelry, oils, pottery, stained glass, and much more. Among those displaying will be 26-year show veterans: weaver Eleanor Lux; watercolorist Zeek Taylor; and painter/sculptor Mary Springer. The three are the walk’s organizers and all by coincidence ended up living on White Street after attending the Memphis College of Art. The event draws visitors to White Street who delight in experiencing a “hidden” Eureka Springs where they can visit with artists in their private spaces. Visitors get a sense of neighborhood in an area of town that is primarily residential.

One of Eureka Springs’ May Festival of the Arts most popular events, the White Street Studio Walk is attended by those seeking art while enjoying the street fair atmosphere combined with refreshments and music. White Street is on the upper historic loop. The event is free to the public. Info at zeek.taylor@cox.net

Mud Street Café Mud Street Café sits in historic “Underground Eureka”. Our building was built in 1888. Back then, because the streets were made of dirt, and a spring runs underneath - the street kept flooding. Thus the name “Mud Street Café”.

In the 1800’s, the Café would have been street level, and your entrance would have been in the front dining room. From the sidewalk outside, one could peer through the windows and door where the three beautiful stained glass pieces are now situated on the wall.

A favorite for Eureka dining since 1995, we serve breakfast from 8 am until 11 am and lunch from 11 am until 3 pm. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. We also offer Brunch each Sunday from 11 am until 1 pm.

The Street that kept flooding has now been built up a level, putting Mud Street Café down a flight of stairs. Today the only thing that floods this space is the aroma of our award-winning coffee, desserts and delectable food.

There is a charm and warmth that envelops you every time you visit and we hope you enjoy your taste of magic that is Mud Street Café.

Blue Spring Heritage Center Visit the historic bluff shelter, now on the National Register of Historic places. Connect with the natural beauty of our many native gardens. See the power and wonder of Blue Spring, pouring 38 million gallons of cold, clear water each day into its trout-filled lagoon. Stroll walkways and inviting garden paths that wind through 33 acres. See the historic mill site dating from the 1840’s and walk along the path of the Trail of Tears. Blue Spring Heritage is a quiet getaway and a perfect place for group outings, weddings or any special occasion.

58 58

APRIL 28, 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES APRIL 28, 2016 ARKANSAS TIMES

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Announcing Books in Bloom 2016 Authors Wow! This year’s line up of Books in Bloom authors is so brim-full of talented folks that it’s hard to know where to begin, and impossible to adequately describe the variety of subjects, both non-fiction and fiction, that will be featured at this year’s free literary festival, taking place on Sunday afternoon, May 15, from 12 Noon to 5 pm at the Crescent Hotel and gardens in Eureka Springs.

Amy Stewart, known for her highly entertaining books that explore little-known aspects of the natural world including The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants, will talk about her newest book, Girl Waits With Gun, a novel based on actual events.

What a coup to have her come to the Ozarks.

Thomas Perry, whose thrillers have been described as‘intelligent, transfixing and precise’, has produced a long list of best-selling novels.

In a crowded genre, he displays an ability to avoid the predictable and to enthrall even the savviest of readers.

Laura Lippman worked at a journalist for two decades, then used her writing skills and experience as a reporter to create her reoccurring protagonist, Tess Monaghan, a feisty, three-dimensional character who draws you into her gritty world on the streets of Baltimore. Lippman’s dozens of novels have won her millions of devoted readers and just

about every mystery prize out there.

Fans of Thomas Hart Benton will find a new and exciting way to appreciate his talents as Leo Mazow presents a multi-media program that combines the music of Benton’s era with his paintings, including live musicians and a slide show in what he terms “an illustrated lecture.”

Children, parents, and grandparents will enjoy hearing Brian Biggs talk about writing and illustrating children’s books. His colorful picture book series, Everybody Goes, will soon be followed by a series of books called Tinyville Town, and he’s provided the artwork for some of the most popular writers of books for kids.

And that’s not all! E.A. Allen writes mysteries set in the Edwardian era of Sherlock Holmes. Debut novelist, Talya Tate Boerner has a large following for her blog, Grace, Grits and Gardening, and also for her contributions to Front Porch magazine. Brooks Blevins tells tales of the Ozarks, the people, history, and sometimes the dark side that has lead to stereotypes of our region.

There simply isn’t room to fit in all the authors and their topics, but a complete listing is online at BooksinBloom.org. Books in Bloom provides a literary facet to the May Festival of the Arts and is produced by the Carroll and Madison Public Library Foundation. Off-site parking and shuttle is available.

ART’nt

you glad

We support the wonderful artists of our community.

we celebrate the ART’s in

Eureka Springs?

A favorite for Eureka Springs dining, our food is always fresh and our service is always friendly.

We are here to serve you breakfast from 8am - 11am and lunch from 11am until 3pm. Sorry, closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Join Us for Sunday Brunch ~ Every Sunday Until 1:00pm 22 S. Main St. Eureka Springs, AR 479.253.6732 mudstreetcafe.com

America’s P remier Big Cat Refuge Northwest Arkansas’ Greatest Attraction Rated “Top Ten Best Attraction” in Arkansas

FUNdraising There’s big support for the BIG CATS AND BEAR AT TURPENTINE CREEK WILDLIFE REFUGE, located just 7 miles south of Eureka Springs on Highway 23.

Online fundraising movements like GivingTuesday and ArkansasGives Day, and fun annual events like their “Art with an Altitude” Kite Festival; their dual sport motorcycle adventure known as the Arkansas 500; and their royal Cats at the Castle soiree, have helped the nonprofit organization meet goals, keep promises and build a much anticipated onsite veterinary hospital.

Once operational (pun intended), the hospital will serve as a health maintenance facility, but also as a state-of-the-art platform for the Refuge to promote its educational initiatives. Ike Wever, the organization’s Promotions and Education Coordinator mentions, “Beyond being an animal wellness facility, the vet hospital will be an educational resource and real-world learning tool for future veterinarians and others interested in protecting these amazing animal ambassadors.”

If you’d like to attend one of TCWR’s annual FUNdraising events or otherwise support their mission, call (479) 253-5841 or visit www.turpentinecreek.org to learn more.

479.253.5841 • TurpentineCreek.org

239 Turpentine Creek Lane, Eureka Springs, AR 72632

7 Miles South of Eureka Springs on Hwy 23

www.arktimes.com ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT ARKANSAS TIMES www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016 59 APRIL 28, 2016 59

M

Gifts for Mom

other’s Day is May 8. Make a plan to celebrate the day, and show your gratitude for all the mothers in your life with a thoughtful gift like these finds from local retailers.

Chic Mama If your mom is a trendsetter at heart, you can’t go wrong with this Saffiano fauxleather clutch with a dropchain strap. As an added surprise, tuck a Maddox gift card inside the clutch—it’s the perfect way to guarantee mom gets exactly what she wants.

From The Community. For The Community.

DELIVERY AVAILABLE COMPETITIVE PRICES GOOD NEIGHBOR PHARMACY MOST INSURANCE ACCEPTED GIFTS • GREETING CARDS VITAMINS & HERBAL PRODUCTS VACCINATIONS AVAILABLE

DRUG STORE

(501) 664-4444 6815 Cantrell Rd. Located Next to Stein Mart

TanglewoodDrug.com

Vintage Charm Whether you’re shopping for mom or grandmom, she is sure to appreciate these vintage- inspired Pyrex® serving bowls. In celebration of their 100th anniversary, the team at Pyrex is reintroducing some throwback designs that will bring back memories, even while you make new memories. Each set includes three nesting bowls with lids—great for preparation or serving. Each inspired by the Popular Patterns of Pyrex® Opal Glass revival collections. Where to find? Krebs Kitchen Store.

Cheers to Mom Toast your mother with these beautiful, acrylic wine glasses and tumblers that are perfect for any outdoor occasion.

With a rainbow design and the weight and style of real glass, they’re both playful and elegant. Check out Ken Rash’s of Arkansas’s showroom, which is full of functional yet attractive serving pieces and tableware—as well as a wide selection of outdoor furniture, grills, and accessories—everything you need to enjoy an al fresco meal with mom and the rest of the family.

Handmade Love

CLOTHIER FOR WOMEN Sizes Small - 3XL. Affordable | Stylish | Great Customer Service.

MADDOX 419 Main Street, Argenta | (501) 313-4242 www.ShopMaddoxOnline.com

Color your way into spring!

Rhea

Drug Store

A Traditional Pharmacy

with eclectic Gifts.

Since 1922

2801 Kavanaugh Little Rock 501.663.4131 60

APRIL 28, 2016

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

Spoil your mom with a one-of-akind design from Bella Vita Jewelry, like this necklace created from a vintage brooch and multicolored, semi-precious stones. Need a special gift for your mother-in-law, too?

Bella Vita Jewelry carries an array of jewelry, accessories, handmade cards and other goodies from gifted artisans, so you are sure to find everything you need.

Full Bloom There’s one gift that’s a sure fit for every mom on your list: flowers! And when it comes to flowers, you really should trust the pros. Frances Flower Shop will create and deliver a lovely floral arrangement that will make your mother feel loved and appreciated on this special day.

Pretty in Polka Dots The Southern Fox is known for hip and vintage clothing and this dress is the perfect gift for a funky, fun mom.

Not only is this polkadot cutie a throwback to groovier times, it’s just as on-trend today.

And because it’s a shift, it looks great on all shapes, sizes and ages, so you really can’t go wrong!

Family Treasures The “Joy of Family” statue from fair-trade organization Ten Thousand Villages is a kisii soapstone sculpture that portrays a family embrace (also available in a one-child configuration). Crafted in Kenya by expert artisans, this gift will remind mom of your love and appreciation for her each time she sees it.

Buy it

Indulge Your Mom A Claire Burke potpourri and fragrance diffuser from Tanglewood Drug will delight your mom this Mother’s Day. Choose from a variety of scents, and pair it with Camille Beckman Silky Body Cream to make her feel truly pampered.

ARKANSAS FLAG AND BANNER 800 W. Ninth St. 375.7633 flagandbanner.com

MADDOX 419 Main St., NLR 313.4242 shopmaddoxonline.com

BELLA VITA JEWELRY Inside the Lafayette Building 523 S. Louisiana St., Ste. 175 479.200.1824 bellavitajewelry.net

RHEA DRUG STORE 2801 Kavanaugh Blvd.

663.4131

FRANCES FLOWER SHOP 1222 W. Capitol Ave. 372.2203 francesflowershop.com KEN RASH’S ARKANSAS 11220 N. Rodney Parham, Ste. 14 663.1818 kenrashoutdoorfurniture.com KREBS BROTHERS RESTAURANT STORE 4310 Landers Rd., NLR 687.1331 krebsbrothers.com

THE SOUTHERN FOX Argenta 304 Main St., NLR 375.DESK (3375) TANGLEWOOD DRUG STORE 6815 Cantrell Rd. 664.4444 tanglewooddrug.com TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES 305 President Clinton Ave. 374.2776 tenthousandvillages.com

ENGRAVED SCRIPTURE BRACELETS AVAILABLE 304 MAIN ST. • ARGENTA ART DISTRICT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THESOUTHERNFOXNLR

BUY ONE GET ONE

50% OFF Bright Idea This gauzy, blue and green ikat scarf from Rhea Drug is a versatile springtime accessory that’s perfect for mom. She can wear it with a white v-neck tee for a bright casual look, or coordinate it with a day dress and go to the office in style.

SALE

Friday, April 29–Sunday, May 8

Spellbound Necklace INDIA

Give gorgeous. Feel good.

Handcrafted beauty from makers around the world.

Hobby Mommy No matter what your mom loves to do most, you’ll find the perfect gift for her at Arkansas Flag and Banner. Does she have a green thumb? Bring cheer to her garden with a colorful new banner and stand. Does she love to call those Hogs? Give her this vibrant, lightweight Razorback scarf! Does she have the heart of a patriot?

She will love an American flag watch, in one of these four colors.

301 President Clinton Ave, Suite A

Little Rock

Artisans have been paid in full. Discount applied to item of equal or lesser value. Not valid with other offers or discounts.

Use this logo for reductions only, do not print magenta. Do not reduce this logo more than 35%. Magenta indicates the clear area, nothing should print in this space.

ADVERTISING You may reduce the logo to 30% without SUPPLEMENT the tag and strap lines.TO ARKANSAS TIMES Color of Wood Block Motif critical match to Pantone 1805.

Letters print Pantone Process Black.

APRIL 28, 2016

61

DO YOU KNOW WHAT SEASON IT IS? Puppy and Kitten Season!

Next to owning a dog or cat, there is nothing more enjoyable or rewarding than fostering an animal.

This is the time of year our kennels are filled with puppies and kittens looking for a home. Some will need special attention until old enough to be adopted. By fostering you provide it with a socialization experience that prepares it for a well-adjusted life in a new home. To be a foster, contact us at the Little Rock Animal Village, 4500 Kramer St. Little Rock, AR 72204 or e-mail at LRAV@littlerock.org.

arkcatfish.com t-shirts, back issues and more

Lettuce Dine Dinner & Art Show

Humane Society of Pulaski County’s 70th Anniversary Celebration & 70’s Style

Thursday, May 5th

FUR BALL

TO BENEFIT

St. Joseph Center of Arkansas 6800 CAMP ROBINSON ROAD, NLR 6:00 PM COCKTAILS • 7:00 PM DINNER

Friday April 29th, 2016 7 PM-11 PM Next Level Events in the Historic Union Station

Spring Festival SPrepared T . J ObySChefs EPH C Root E N TCafe ER of The

Artists include: Kevin Kresse, V.L. Cox, Sherrie Shepherd, Matthews Studios & More COST: $125.00 PER PERSON (TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION PAYABLE TO: SJCA) 6800 Camp Robinson Road, North Little Rock For more information (501) 993-4560 www.eventbrite.com “Lettuce Grow” Stjosephcenter@gmail.com • www.stjosephcenter.org

Saturday, May 7, 2016 – C3 Ep.m.

S T.11 J Oa.m.

SEPH NTER HSPC Cat “Blythe”     

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE SPECIALIST and a PAYROLL/ACCOUNTS PAYABLE SPECIALIST

Spring Festival

$5/person (max $20/family) 6800 Camp Robinson Road, North Little Rock

HSPC Dog “Curly Sue”

May 7, 2016 Art Show –Saturday, Lettuce Stroll/Walk – Food Trucks 11 a.m.Activities – 3 p.m.– Craft Beer Music – Children’s (max Shelter $20/family) Games –$5/person NLR Animal – Hayrides

Magician Show at 12:30–p.m.

Art Show – Lettuce Stroll/Walk Food Trucks

A disco inFURno with 70’s decorations and themed food Come dance to the classic 70’s sounds of rock & disco Live band (popular local band “Just Sayin”) and a DJ Silent auction of dog & cat bowls & treat jars created by professional artists Guests are encouraged to dress “Old School” 1970’s or in whatever makes you feel “Groovy!”

Music – Children’s Activities – Craft Beer

Games – NLR Animal Shelter – Hayrides St. Joseph Farm Stand will be open!

Magician Show at 12:30 p.m.

Heifer International, a forward thinking, dynamic, non-profit organization with a compelling mission to alleviate world hunger & poverty is in search of an Accounts Payable Specialist and a Payroll/Accounts Payable Specialist to ensure the appropriate, accurate use of Heifer International’s resources to fulfill monetary obligations to vendors, employees, and other Heifer associates. Closing date is May 2, 2016.

For more information about our organization, a detailed job description and to apply online

St. Joseph Farm Stand will be open!

www.stjosephcenter.org

Individual tickets: $46 in advance, $53 at the door Sponsorships available: From $270-$7000 Purchase tickets and sponsorships at: www.warmhearts.org

www.stjosephcenter.org

HEIFER.ORG/CAREERS. HEIFER INTERNATIONAL IS AN EOE/AA.

St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, Inc.

Lettuce Grow

70 Years of Saving Lives is Something to Celebrate!

62

APRIL 28, 2016

Lettuce Grow

All proceeds help save this historic property!

All proceeds help save this historic property!

ARKANSAS TIMES

SPONSORS CITY OF NLR Karen Briscoe

Hogg’s Meat Market

Hal & Vicki Matthews

U.S. PIZZA CO. New Opportunities, Don Streit

Stanley Hardware

Union Pacific

Can ihelp you?

Learn to get the most from your Apple products at home or your office.

• Show how to build and maintain your own websites and social media.

• Guide you to the perfect Mac or device for your needs and budget.

• Everything Apple: Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV and Apple Watch

• Data Recovery & troubleshooting • Hardware & software installations • Computer upgrades • Organize and backup all your documents, photos, music, movies and email on all your devices with iCloud.

Follow @MovingtoMac on Twitter and Like Moving to Mac Facebook for news and deals.

Call Cindy Greene Satisfaction Always Guaranteed

MOVING TO MAC

www.movingtomac.com

cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

ARKANSAS TIMES

MARKETPLACE LIVESTOCK TECHNICAL ASSISTANT

Heifer International, a dynamic, forward thinking non-profit organization with a mission to alleviate world hunger & poverty is in search of a Livestock Technical Assistant. The ideal candidate will be responsible for supporting farmer engagement and sustainable, grass-based livestock production and training initiatives of Heifer USA and Heifer’s Project Holders. The Livestock Technical Assistant is needed to provide technical assistance, logistical management, and collaborative leadership to farmer participants engaged in sustainable, pasturebased livestock production.

For more information about our organization, a detailed job description, & to apply online, visit

HEIFER.ORG/CAREERS. Click “View All Jobs.”

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL IS AN EOE/AA.

Arkansas Wild Arkansas Wild magazine is published nine times a year including Bike Arkansas, Paddle Arkansas, Fish Arkansas & Run Arkansas special editions and we have a position open for an Account Executive. Do you love the outdoors? Like to kayak, fish, hunt, camp or ride? We have fun, but we work hard. Fast paced and self-motivated individuals are encouraged to apply. If you have a dynamic energetic personality, we’d like to talk to you.

Please send your resume and cover letter to Elizabeth at: elizabethhaman@arktimes.com

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

Board Vacancy Board of Commissioners Central Arkansas Water The Board of Commissioners, Central Arkansas Water (CAW), is seeking letters of interest and resumés from Little Rock residents interested in serving on the Board. CAW is the largest public water supplier in the state of Arkansas and serves the Greater Little Rock-North Little Rock area. The water commissioners have full and complete authority to manage, operate, improve, extend and maintain the water works and distribution system and have full and complete charge of the water plan. The governing board consists of seven members who serve seven-year terms. The Board appointee for the existing vacancy will fulfill a term beginning July 1, 2016 and ending June 30, 2022. In accordance with Ark. Code Ann. § 25-20-301, the Board must consist of four residents of Little Rock and three residents of North Little Rock. The current vacancy is for a Little Rock representative. CAW is committed to diversity and inclusiveness in all areas of our operations and on the CAW Board of Commissioners.

All interested Little Rock residents are encouraged to apply and should submit a letter of interest and resumé by 12:00 p.m. (noon) Friday, May 6, 2016. Resumés will be accepted until filled. Submit to: Board of Commissioners Central Arkansas Water C/O Becky Linker, Chief Administrative Officer P. O. Box 1789 Little Rock, AR 72203 Telephone: 501-377-1357 Fax: 501-377-7051 humanresources@carkw.com www.arktimes.com

APRIL 28, 2016

63

64

APRIL 28, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES