Arkansas Times | March 2025

of sound mind

BEFORE FAME AND FRIDA, THERE WAS PARIS

ON VIEW FROM FEBRUARY 7 TO MAY 18, 2025

Plan your visit. Admission is always free.

Diego Rivera, Dos Mujeres (Two Women) (detail), 1914, oil on canvas, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Abby Rockefeller Mauzé. 1955.010.

FEATURES

31 HIS OWN HORN

38 A MUSICAL MIND For Silas Carpenter, 18, songwriting is like alchemy. By

44 SWEET DREAMS

This Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake brings back memories. By

9 THE FRONT

Aw, Snap: Protesters at the state Capitol rally against Trump’s treatment of immigrants and transgender people.

Q&A: With country singer Mae Estes. Inconsequential News Quiz: The Ski Lift Edition.

Big Pic: Lining up for a 2026 gubernatorial smackdown.

17 THE TO-DO LIST

Valley of the Vapors in Hot Springs, Cyrille Aimée at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Dom Flemons at the White Water Tavern, Randy Brecker at The Joint and more.

25 NEWS & POLITICS

The life and times of Jim Guy Tucker. By

Ernest Dumas

Museum honors inventive life of speaker maven Paul W. Klipsch. By Dan Marsh

Daniel Grear

Crescent Dragonwagon

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PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt

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ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

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ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each month 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 150, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $60 for one year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is $5, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $5.00 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all 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. ©2025 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

VOTEFORYOUR FAVORITE

EARLY BIRD TICKETS $30

Prices go up to $40 two weeks before the event.

$45 cash at the door

General Admission includes Milagro Margarita samples from your favorite local restaurants and bartenders!

VIP TICKETS $ 100

Includes Private Seating & Bartender, Catered Buffet, Early Entry!

‘DIE IN A BAR’

ARKANSAS NATIVE MAE ESTES CHASES COUNTRY FAME IN MUSIC CITY.

Country artist and full-time Music City resident Mae Estes might not yet have the instant name recognition of Miranda Lambert. But given her output so far and social media presence (she has nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok alone) over the past few years, it’s clear that’s the kind of career in music she’s aiming for. The singersongwriter from Hope (Hempstead County) has honed her craft by performing at venues across the United States and Europe, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. She began releasing music in 2019 and signed her first publishing deal with Plaid Flag Music in 2020. Tracks such as “Die in a Bar,” “I Quit Smokin’” and “What I Shoulda Done” celebrate the rowdy side of country music, while quieter songs such as “High and Lonesome” and “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Cheatin’” present a more personal side.

Did anything in your background inspire you to go into music?

FAVORITE ALBUMS? “Same Trailer Different Park,” Kacey Musgraves; “L.A. to Miami,” Keith Whitley; “There’s More Where That Came From,” Lee Ann Womack.

HOBBIES? Cross-stitching.

WHAT DO YOU WATCH OR LISTEN TO WHEN TRAVELING? The “Ten Year Town” podcast and “New Girl,” but mostly I cross-stitch.

My mom has always had a deep passion for music, though she doesn’t play any instruments and never wanted the public performance part of it. I credit her with my classic country musical taste. My parents and family have always been super supportive of my dreams, from buying me my first guitar, to driving me to an AM radio show in Glenwood [Pike County] every Tuesday night in middle school, to making the trip to Nashville every time they can when I’m performing at the Grand Ole Opry.

When did you make your public singing debut?

I sang the national anthem at one of my Hope 4-H Rowdy Young Riders Play Days in the Hope Coliseum when I was 7. I gave a 10-minute rendition in a few keys and caught the entertainment bug at that moment. I wasn’t nervous and never really am when I’m performing. It’s the only peace I’ve ever found and always feel like I’m doing exactly what I was created to do when I’m singing.

When did you start writing songs? Did it come naturally to you?

Writing songs did not come easy when I was young. I was convinced I was only meant to be the singer for a while. I started

with diary entries that turned to poetry and then eventually fullblown songs. I wrote by myself until I moved to Nashville in 2015 and then joined the co-writing community in Music City and truly started to understand what songwriting entails.

What is your writing process?

I’ve been a professional songwriter in Nashville since 2020, when I signed my first publishing deal. I’ve written songs for Priscilla Block, Julie Roberts and a few other artists. The process changes daily as it’s now my job to write songs and I do it often. I typically have sessions during the week on Music Row in Nashville. They begin around 11 a.m. and end around 4 p.m. They usually consist of me and two other songwriters in a room. Ideally, we all bring in an idea or melody we’re inspired by and then let some divine intervention take us from there.

How would you describe your music? Any particular sound or quality that you’re chasing?

The only thing I’m chasing with my music is honesty. I’ve spent 10 years in Nashville surrounded by the absolute best musicians, songwriters and performers and have certainly compared myself and my sound to others over the years. But I’m proud of who I am and the perspective I bring to my music and only know how to do it all one way — authentically.

What was it like to perform at the Grand Ole Opry?

I’ve performed 10 times at the Opry over the last two years. I made my debut in March 2023. I used to work in the Opry gift shop when I first moved to town and made friends with some of the staff. About seven years later, I was invited to come in and play for the booking staff and they surprised me with an ask to play their company Christmas party. At the end of my performance at their party, they had my dear friend and fellow Arkansan Josh Matheny surprise me with the ask of playing the Opry. It was at the top of my bucket list when I moved to Nashville and is still my favorite stage.

—Dan Marsh

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Find the full version at arktimes.com/rock-candy.

MAD AS HELL

Some Arkansans made their anger toward the new Trump administration loud and clear at a protest at the state Capitol in Little Rock on Feb. 12. The protest was part of a national grassroots movement on social media calling for 50 protests in 50 states on the same day. Protestors chanted “Fuck Donald Trump,” “Deport Elon Musk,” “We don’t like Nazis” and other messages in opposition to Trump’s treatment of immigrants and transgender people and his pledge to take over Gaza. Cars periodically drove by, with drivers honking their horns to pump up the crowd. Some protestors shared their concerns over encroaching authoritarianism but also expressed fear over what Trump’s second term could mean for minorities, disabled people and immigrants. Photography by Brian Chilson

SHS VS. WHO?

IS THERE AN ARKANSAN

OUT THERE FAMOUS ENOUGH AND WILY ENOUGH TO WREST THE GOVERNOR’S MANSION FROM THE HUCKABEE FAMILY POLITICAL DYNASTY? WE THINK SO!

Sarah Huckabee Sanders made easy work of her 2022 election, but maybe that’s because the opposition played the game all wrong. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Jones came to play with a physics degree from MIT, a minister’s collar and wholesome, earnest do-gooderism. Bringing Jimmy Carter energy to the Donald Trump era went about as well as you’d expect.

JOHN DALY

Sanders brought cowboy boots emblazoned with the state seal on both shins and floated through her campaign on a monster fatberg of MAGA cash, easily kicking the shit out of the libs.

Anyone who wants in on the 2026 race for the Arkansas governor’s office will need the tacky and belligerent showmanship that elicits whoops and boos in a professional wrestling arena. Overdone tans, criminal convictions, a whiff of C-list fame: That’s the recipe if you want to claim the belt in the 2026 smackdown.

Are you ready to rumble?

If Arkansas golf legend John Daly entered the 2026 gubernatorial chat, he would shatter records and soundly defeat the incumbent. Like Sanders, he's a MAGA Republican who's partied with Kid Rock. Unlike our governor, he's a beloved state figure, a PGA champion celebrated as the kind of Arkansan who drinks in excess and loves the Hogs. And like our president, whom he calls Daddy Trump, Daly can knock back some Diet Cokes and might need a refill button on his desk.

NE-YO

If you’re worried that the slick stylings of Camden-born R&B star Shaffer Chimere Smith — better known as Ne-Yo — might be a tough sell for Republicans, consider this troubling rant about the trans community he delivered during a 2023 interview: “You could identify as a goldfish if you feel like, I don’t care. That ain’t my business. It becomes my business when you try to make me play the game with you. I’m not gonna call you a goldfish.”

The doyenne of Little Rock politics, Adcock was rightwinging before Sanders was even born. Adcock boldly went on record years ago against renaming Confederate Boulevard — a diversity, equity and inclusion effort if we’ve ever seen one. Forget, hell! While Adcock’s age qualifies her for the U.S. presidency, perhaps she’ll stick around Arkansas to make the 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary interesting.

JOAN ADCOCK

DAMIEN ECHOLS

Talk about star power! The wizard-adjacent Echols has been a cause célèbre in Arkansas and beyond for decades. Johnny Depp isn’t besties with just anybody, you know. Whether you think his charisma enticed fellow teenagers to commit the West Memphis Three murders or convinced the public he was railroaded in a wave of satanic panic, you have to admit, Echols has

BILLY BOB THORNTON

Little-known fact about Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton: At 7 months old, the acclaimed actor and filmmaker weighed 30 freaking pounds, a fact that resulted in the newspaper heralding him as the fattest baby in Clark County. Imagine how that would play in a campaign ad! Plus, anyone with the persuasive power to convince Angelina Jolie that wearing lockets of each other’s blood is sexy probably has a real shot at the governorship.

PREMIERES

MARCH 20 AT 7 P.M. Only on Arkansas PBS

“Unveiled” celebrates two Arkansas icons whose legacies reshaped history. Immortalized in the National Statuary Hall, discover how Daisy Bates’s fearless fight for civil rights and Johnny Cash’s groundbreaking musical journey continue to inspire change.

MYARPBS.ORG/UNVEILED

FREE SCREENING

Major funding for “Unveiled: Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash” was provided by the Foundation for Arkansas Heritage and History. Additional funding was provided by the Moving Image Trust Fund. A free, advance screening will be held Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. at Robinson Center in Little Rock. Register now at myarpbs.org/events.

QUIZ

THE SKI LIFT EDITION

PLAY ALONG WHILE YOU BIKE ACROSS ARKANSAS.

1. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences recently announced that it’s been designated as “the state’s only Center of Excellence” for an exciting outpatient procedure. What is it?

A. Tooth-in-eye surgery

B. Brazilian butt lift

C. Bee venom injections

D. Installation of the AMS 700 Inflatable Penile Prosthesis

2. What recreational infrastructure is being proposed for Bella Vista and Mena, with encouragement from the Sanders family and Walmart heirs Tom and Steuart Walton?

A. Community gardening beds

B. Artificial snorkeling habitat

C. Fortnite simulation pods

D. Ski lifts, but for mountain bikers

3. A bill proposing that Arkansas public school fifth-graders be shown a controversial video depicting fertilization and stages of in-utero development of a CGI fetus was debated at the Capitol in February. What’s the name of the video?

A. “Promising Young Woman”

B. “Inside Out”

C. “A Star Is Born”

D. “Meet Baby Olivia”

4. At Cate’s, a Little Rock pharmacy that opened in early January on Rodney Parham Road, you can pick up medications and what else?

A. Beer and wine

B. Roasted chickpeas

C. Biodegradable soap

D. Fresh donuts, ice cream and coffee

5. In the first six weeks of 2025, the Arkansas Supreme Court did not issue a single ruling on any civil or criminal cases. Chief Justice Karen Baker blamed the slow pace on what?

A. High cost of minting pennies

B. Season two of “Severance”

C. Switched to decaf in the mornings

D. Associate Justice Nicholas Bronni’s numerous recusals

6. Under Act 122, all public school districts in Arkansas are required to restrict students’ phones and other electronic devices. What’s the rationale for the ban?

A. Plot to bring back floppy disks

B. Cut down on cheating

C. Kids arguing with Siri

D. Tackling a mental health crisis among teenagers

7. In June 2024, a quote attributed to a former cult leader was engraved on a basalt column as part of a public art project at Riverfront Park. Who is the cult leader in question?

A. Donald Trump

B. L. Ron Hubbard

C. Dumbledore

D. Andrew Cohen

8. The president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship said he will not discipline Bryce Mitchell, aka “Thug Nasty,” for praising Adolf Hitler on his “ArkanSanity” podcast. Why not?

A. Mitchell is directly related to Hitler.

B. The podcast was a deepfake created by Steve Bannon to flood the zone.

C. Mitchell has since been grievously injured in a gokart accident.

D. “You can’t fix dumb people.”

Saturday, March 29 Simply

LET THE FEAST BEGIN!

VALLEY OF THE VAPORS

FRIDAY 3/14-SUNDAY 3/16. WHITTINGTON PLACE, HOT SPRINGS. $50 WEEKEND PASS, $20 PER DAY.

After a few years of sometimes picturesque, sometimes frigid programming at Cedar Glades Park (including a one-off mega collaboration with the travel gurus over at Atlas Obscura in honor of April’s total solar eclipse), Valley of the Vapors is returning indoors in 2025. The new location is Whittington Place, a sort of DIY cathedral in downtown Hot Springs that might just be the best possible venue for what some people consider to be the raddest and most genre-fluid independent music festival in Arkansas. Convincing a diversity of international talent to convene in Central Arkansas isn’t an easy task, but Low Key Arts has spent two decades doing so, expertly diverting traffic from the annual South by Southwest exodus and winning bands over with first-rate hospitality. This year’s lineup includes Baths (Los Angeles), Dusted (Toronto, Canada), Nemegata (Austin, Texas, pictured above), TVOD (Brooklyn, New York), Monsoon (Athens, Georgia), Fashion Club (Los Angeles), MX LONELY (Brooklyn, New York), Annie-Claude Deschênes (Montreal, Canada), His His (Toronto, Canada), Catcher (Brooklyn, New York), Agat (Tel Aviv, Israel), o’summer vacation (Kobe, Japan), Peach Blush (Little Rock) and more. Get tickets at valleyofthevapors.com. DG

BY DANIEL GREAR, STEPHANIE SMITTLE, OMAYA JONES AND DAN MARSH

Timothy Duffy

DOM FLEMONS

THURSDAY 3/13. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M. $40.

Dom Flemons has explored a wide range of American musical history, covering 100 years of roots music — including but not limited to country, folk, bluegrass and the blues — in his solo career and time with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the first Black string band to score a Grammy. A songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, scholar and record collector (among other pursuits), he goes by “The American Songster” in honor of those musicians whose works have inspired him. His 2023 album, “Traveling Wildfire,” contains spooky places inhabited by banjos and guitars, evoking painful memories and, in the case of the title track, apocalyptic spectacles. (“There’s a traveling wildfire / Blazing into the valley tonight” could well describe the recent L.A. fires; the song has the hollowedout vibe of the Wild West.) His spare version of “Home on the Range” on the album “Black Cowboys” (2018) mourns the passing of a world that might never have existed. The audience will be seated during Flemons’ March 13 performance at the White Water Tavern, so tickets are limited; get them (if you can) at whitewatertavern.com. DM

CYRILLE AIMÉE

THURSDAY 3/27. ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. 7 P.M. $57.

The direct path between 10 consecutive performances at Birdland and Little Rock is not a well-traveled one, but it’s exactly the one French jazz singer Cyrille Aimée will take in March when she performs at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. Undoubtedly the name that lifted the spirits and eyebrows of jazz fans here in town when the museum’s concert schedule rolled out last spring, Aimée is one of the nimblest and most explosive jazz singers alive, fearless when she’s improvising and fastidious when she’s interpreting a well-worn standard. Take, for one, her living room session with the Emmet Cohen trio, in which a barefoot Aimée and conspirators turn Édith Piaf’s signature “La Vie en rose” into a nine-and-a-half-minute romp worthy of the tune’s lovedrunk missive, signaling tempo shifts and solo trades with body language and vocal outbursts and foot stomps and mid-measure laughter. Her 2024 album, “à Fleur de Peau,” is possibly her most personal yet, not least the song “Inside and Out,” in which she sings about a pregnancy she decided to terminate: “We’ll meet again … I just need a little time / I will build a house so steady for you to come back to.” Get tickets at events.arkmfa.org. SS

RANDY BRECKER

THURSDAY 3/13. THE JOINT. 7:30 P.M. $30.

Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and composer Randy Brecker has lent his breath to a few of the most iconic artists of the past 50 years. That’s his horn on such Bruce Springsteen classics as “Tenth Avenue FreezeOut” and “Meeting Across the River” (where his wry, lonesome solo plays throughout) and, with his brother Michael, on Frank Sinatra’s 1984 version of “Mack the Knife.” He’s also given his familiar-sounding brass to albums like James Taylor’s “That’s Why I’m Here” and Steely Dan’s “Gaucho” (home to the radio staple “Hey Nineteen”). His is a defining sound that brightens and enlivens any track, whether jazz, rock or R&B. Brecker brings his signature style to Jazz at The Joint on March 13, where he’s sure to win a few converts to a genre that could use a little more love in Central Arkansas. Get tickets at jazzatthejoint.org. DM

‘KAWS: FAMILY’

SATURDAY 3/14 THROUGH MONDAY 7/28. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, BENTONVILLE. $15.

Brian Donnelly — or KAWS, as he’s known professionally — is a controversial artist. His pieces aren’t gutterally shocking or alienatingly political, though. In fact, the primary reason KAWS is the subject of critical derision is his popularity. Despite extensively borrowing from — or arguably appropriating — the iconography of pop culture, KAWS’ cartoonish sculptures and paintings have captured the attention of the general public as well as art collectors, with one, “The KAWS Album,” selling for nearly $15 million in 2019. A riff on “The Simpsons” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” it’s dubiously indebted to Bill Morrison’s original pairing of the two for a Simpsons soundtrack called “The Yellow Album.” Is KAWS’ enterprise just a ruse — an elaborate prank on the credulity of consumers — or does something profound linger below the surface of his work? Decide for yourself. Get tickets at crystalbridges.org. DG

BRIGHT EYES

TUESDAY 3/18. THE HALL. 8 P.M. $36.50.

When singer-songwriter Conor Oberst came to Little Rock alongside his band, Bright Eyes, in 2023, he seemed a bit troubled. Or maybe he was just drunk. “Tucker Carlson, haven’t I — as a fucking American — earned the right to drink baby’s fucking blood?” he queried to the crowd. Depending on your familiarity with Oberst, whose voice — magic to some, grating to others — has a perpetually wounded quality, this may not have come as much of a surprise to you. Antics aside, he gave a rousing show on a musical level, dipping generously into his deep well of material and finding the bandwidth to play six out of the 10 songs from his most popular and widely acclaimed album, “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning,” a modern classic which happens to turn 20 this year. Here’s hoping he can keep his shit together long enough to pull it off again when he returns to The Hall alongside folk rock band Hurray for the Riff Raff, whose 2024 record, “The Past Is Still Alive,” earned a flurry of critical attention and easily outperformed the latest Bright Eyes release. Get tickets at littlerockhall.com. DG

JOSH JOHNSON

FRIDAY 3/28. ROBINSON CENTER. 7 P.M. $35.

Though his list of propers as a comedy writer is unquestionably big-screen stuff — an Emmy nomination, an NAACP Award, a gig on “The Daily Show” — a sizable chunk of Josh Johnson fans probably encountered him on their phone screens, courtesy of the TikTok algorithm. It’s little wonder his star rose on such a platform; Johnson’s cool-asa-cucumber cadence and lithe physicality make it easy to linger rather than swiping up to the next video, and his hot takes threaten to revive the hot take just when we were ready to declare it dead, even when he’s riffing in grooves as well-worn as dating and Diddy. Johnson on Spotify Wrapped: “The closest things apps have to doing an intervention.” Johnson on the covertly educational tendencies of the TikTok-toRedNote pipeline: “You know what no one has ever treated like crack? School.” Johnson on podcasts: “I think we made too many microphones.” Get tickets for the Little Rock stop on Johnson’s “The Flowers Tour” at ticketmaster.com. SS

ARKANSAS

TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘GIRLFRIENDS’

TUESDAY 3/18. RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA. 7 P.M. $12$14.

In Claudia Weill’s 1978 film “Girlfriends,” Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron) is a freelance photographer working bar mitzvahs, shooting baby portraits and sharing an apartment with her best friend, Anne Munroe (Anita Skinner), who wants to be a writer. Then, Anne suddenly announces that she’s moving out and getting married, throwing Susan’s life into lonely chaos and forcing her to come to terms with the changing nature of her relationship with Anne. Taking seriously the friendship of two women living in New York and navigating young adulthood at a time when such a thing wasn’t necessarily considered worthy of depiction, it’s easy to see the influence of “Girlfriends” on movies and TV shows like “Walking and Talking,” “Frances Ha,” “Girls” and “Sex and the City.” Stanley Kubrick praised the film for making “no compromise in the inner truth of the story, you know, the theme and everything else.” OJ

RWAKE

SATURDAY 3/15. REV ROOM. 7:30 P.M. $15.

“In the late ’90s, the sludge metal monsters known as Rwake came stomping out of Little Rock, Arkansas, with a sound that could swallow universes.” That’s how Stereogum began a recent post announcing “The Return of Magik,” the band’s first album in over 13 years, which drops the day before this release show at the Rev Room. Possessing not one but two equally gnarly lead vocalists and a pair of guitar players who aren’t afraid to solo in epic harmony, Rwake is the kind of metal band that stands out even to someone who, like me, is pretty decidedly disinterested in heavy music. Catch me slowly bobbing my head to the record’s 12-minute-long title track as Christopher “C.T.” Terry speak-growls nearly intelligible incantations: “To all the wizards sent to hell / For causing riots, and casting spells / There is a spirit that walks the line / And it possesses your mind.” Three other Arkansas groups — Morbid Visionz, Seahag and Little Rock Massacre, fronted by North Little Rock High senior Jett Johnston — are set to open. Get tickets at revroom.com. DG

JOHN CAFARO

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must be 21 & over.

$40 general admission vip $100 Includes special beers,  5:30 entry, private seating, catered menu

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PUBLIC SERVICE: Jim Guy Tucker’s 30-year career in Arkansas politics included terms as a prosecuting attorney, attorney general, congressman and the state’s 43rd governor. His political life ended in ruin following the Whitewater scandal of the 1990s.

A CHARISMATIC LAWYER

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. JIM GUY TUCKER DIES AT AGE 81.

BY ERNEST DUMAS

Jim Guy Tucker, whose tumultuous 30year career in politics included terms as a prosecuting attorney, attorney general, congressman and Arkansas’s 43rd governor, died Feb. 13 in Little Rock. He was 81. Plagued almost from birth by chronic health conditions that frequently interrupted and complicated his career, he entered hospice care in late January.

Tucker was part of a cadre of charismatic, handsome and liberal politicians — along with Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, Bill Clinton and Sheffield Nelson — who dominated Arkansas public affairs and elections from the 1970s through the 1990s. All Democrats (although Nelson later became a Republican), they were sometimes friends and allies but also frequent adversaries. Tucker would lose to Pryor in a race for the U.S. Senate in 1978 and to Clinton in a race for governor in 1982 but defeat Nelson in both men’s last races for governor, in 1994.

It was Tucker’s alternating friendship and rivalry with Clinton and Nelson that ended his career in disgrace, and nearly ended his life. Indictments and convictions during the Whitewater investigation by the Republican special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr sought

to undermine Clinton’s presidency by pressuring the president’s and first lady’s friends, partners and adversaries to provide evidence of Clinton misdeeds. Tucker had no evidence to give Starr when confronted with the threat of prosecution for his transactions as a businessman in the 1980s. In pain from the last stages of liver disease when Starr prosecuted him in federal district court, Tucker finally was convicted, along with two associates, on two counts of fraud connected with loans from a small-business lending company. And then, after a life-saving liver transplant, Tucker pleaded guilty to a bizarre charge of tax fraud to avoid going to prison. He resigned as governor after the convictions on the business loans and soon went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for the transplant of a liver from a young man who had died.

The transplant saved his life, but not his career or his happiness. The Justice Department and the IRS eventually acknowledged that Starr had charged Tucker with violating a section of the federal bankruptcy code that did not even exist at the time of the transaction in question. The tax fraud of which Tucker was accused allegedly occurred in the purchase

and resale of a cable TV system in Plantation, Florida. The IRS had twice audited and approved the transaction, but Starr pursued the criminal charges anyway. The government eventually concluded that it might owe Tucker money but could not discern how much. It sent him and his wife a check for $1.44, which he framed and put on his wall.

An appellate judge held that no matter if the government had tricked him into pleading guilty to a crime that he had not committed, once he had confessed to it he was guilty forever. As for the other charges, that as a businessman in the 1980s Tucker had obtained a small-business loan for which he might not have been eligible, the charge and conviction depended upon the unsupported claims of a lawyer who was convicted of multiple frauds in operating the lending agency.

His political and legal careers over because of the convictions, Tucker brooded about the episode and the loss of dignity and reputation and sought pardons. Clinton purportedly regretted not pardoning his old political enemy when he left office, since he himself had been the real object of the investigations and trials. Tucker filed a petition for a presidential par-

A WHIFF OF UNION COUNTY DAREDEVIL STAYED WITH JIM GUY TUCKER THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER.

don in the summer of 2024, but President Joe Biden did not grant it before he left office in January.

Tucker’s application said a pardon normally is intended to be “a sign of forgiveness, not vindication,” but he was asking for a pardon for the latter purpose. He said the charges related to his business career in the 1980s when he had given up a political career, not to his public performance as a prosecutor, attorney general, congressman or governor. He insisted that he had committed no crime and did not deserve the opprobrium that followed his conviction and removal from the governor’s office in the middle of his term in 1996.

DAREDEVIL LEGACY

James Guy Tucker was born June 13, 1943, in Oklahoma City, where his father operated the Social Security office. His mother was the former Willie Maude White. The family soon moved to Little Rock, where they had family connections.

Jim Guy Tucker’s roots, as he would always acknowledge, were in Union County. His swashbuckling grandfather was the El Dorado city marshal, from whom Jim Guy seemed to have inherited a certain audaciousness and bravado that he would exhibit all his life. His grandfather’s fame spread from the Tucker-Parnell feud, a colorful account of which can be found in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Tucker and Parnell clans, leaders in El Dorado and the community of Champagnolle on the Ouachita River, often clashed around the turn of the century in

the streets of El Dorado and at the courthouse, usually with guns involved. There were multiple killings and maimings. Marshal Guy Tucker, grandfather of the future governor, was charged with first-degree murder for shooting John Parnell, but was acquitted. Marshal Guy Tucker was once shot six times in a courthouse brawl. One arm was amputated, but he survived. He eventually moved his family to Little Rock to escape more street fights, shootings and plots.

In 1993, that feuding marshal’s grandson visited El Dorado as the governor of Arkansas, and had a cordial meeting with a Parnell daughter who was among the few Parnells and Tuckers who had stayed in the county.

A whiff of Union County daredevil stayed with Jim Guy Tucker throughout his career, and there were always incidents that found their way into the news. As Arkansas’s attorney general, he trained to fly airplanes, got his pilot’s license and sometimes flew his single-engine plane to political events, carrying a terrified newsman or aide onto sandy, wind-whipped mountain airstrips. In October 1973, the young attorney general led a bevy of young Democratic officials from several states on a canoe adventure down the Rio Grande separating the U.S. from Mexico. He rented a Beechcraft Bonanza from Central Flying Service and flew five buddies, including the assistant mayor of Boston, to south Texas to join others on the river adventure. Landing on a crude dirt strip, the plane bounced into the air, hit a ditch across the sod runway and flipped. Everyone climbed out of the plane. Tucker had a big gash and bruises on his face. He speculated to a reporter who got word of the crash that the plane had only minor damage, but Central Flying Service said it was totaled.

A COLORFUL CAREER

Jim Guy Tucker attended public schools in Little Rock, graduating from Hall High School in 1961. He was a boxer and a football player although he was continually plagued by medical conditions that often interfered with his exploits. He graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in government, but he also was in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), expecting at least some real military service and warfare — not just the honor of wearing a commissioned Marine’s uniform for a while. America’s role in Vietnam was growing in 1965 and 1966 but Tucker twice failed the Marine Corps medical exam, owing to chronic ulcers. When he failed to reverse his discharge from the Marine Corps after two appeals, he went to Vietnam as a civilian correspondent, where he decked out with fighting fatigues and a weapon and sought out soldiers from Arkansas. He told their stories in a book, “Arkansas Men at War,” published in 1968. After his time in Vietnam, he enrolled at the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fay-

etteville and determined that he would have a political career.

As a young lawyer at what is now the Rose Law Firm in 1968, when corruption and brutality in the Arkansas prisons were an international scandal, Tucker was approached by a law partner and friend, John Haley (appointed by Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller to the prison board), to go down to a prison unit to investigate conditions from inside. Tucker arranged to have himself committed to the prison for a nonexistent crime so he could observe the brutality and bribery up close. He was assigned to cutting up poultry in the prison kitchen. Haley told Rockefeller about it and the governor erupted. “Get that kid out of there immediately,” Rockefeller reportedly said, worried fellow inmates would catch on and that Jim Guy Tucker’s life would be in danger. The incident made the news and Haley sort of apologized for sneaking the young man into prison, although the stunt revealed some illegal activity by prison officials and trusties.

In 1970, Tucker ran for prosecuting attorney in the 6th Judicial District and won. Weeks into the job, he joined the police in capturing a hiding fugitive. When the police approached the locked door, Tucker brushed the cops aside, kicked the door down and stuck his revolver in the con’s face. It was what his grandfather Guy would have done, but late in life he regretted it as the excessive bravado of youth.

He ran for attorney general in 1974, when Ray Thornton, who had been elected in 1970, was elected congressman from the 4th District. Tucker’s two terms were notable for his opposition to the licensing of giant coal and nuclear power plants planned by Arkansas Power and Light Company that he thought would cause excessive environmental damage. In 1975, he married Betty Allen Alworth of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Little Rock, who had two children by a previous marriage. They had two more children.

In 1976, after U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills retired owing to a scandal involving a Washington, D.C., stripper nicknamed Fanne Fox, Tucker ran for his seat and won, first in a large field of hopeful Democratic stars, and then against unknown Republican James J. Kelly. He was assigned to the powerful Ways and Means Committee, chaired for many years by Mills, and helped produce legislation modernizing Medicare. He became a close friend of President Jimmy Carter, who in 1978 appointed the young congressman chairman of the White House Conference on Families.

The appointment proved highly controversial. Conservative protesters accused Carter of appointing only liberals who would do nothing to stop abortions. Tucker, who introduced the conference, talked about several ways that government policies harmed families, including forcing poor families to break up before qualifying for welfare assistance, the marriage

penalty in income-tax laws, and the loss of Social Security benefits for many women who were divorced.

“If we can do so much for the snail darter,” Tucker said, referring to the halted construction of a dam because it would kill schools of the tiny fish, “we can do a bit for the family, too.”

The 1978 edition of the Almanac of Ameri-

dominated the news the last week of the election, but Pryor won the runoff with 54.9% of the votes. Tucker later said that it was clear that few voters would believe that David Pryor would ever do anything even slightly unethical. (Pryor and his son, former U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, as well as former U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, wrote letters early in 2024 to the U.S. pardon attorney in Washington recommending a pardon for Tucker.)

After his defeat, Tucker returned to law practice in 1979. But after Gov. Clinton’s defeat in 1980 at the hands of Frank White, he decided to run for governor in 1982. So did former Attorney General Joe Purcell, a low-key but popular politician. (Arkansas Gazette report er Doug Smith wrote that people had been known to fall asleep shaking Purcell’s hand.) When Clinton decided to revive his career and run for governor again, financial support for both Tucker and Purcell collapsed, but they stayed in the race. The primary campaign cen tered on daily charges back and forth between Tucker and Clinton. Gazette political cartoon ist George Fisher depicted Tucker in military fatigues carrying a rifle and Clinton in penitent robes whipping himself with a strap to illustrate his perpetual apologies for mistakes he had made in his first term. Purcell edged

out Tucker for second place behind Clinton in the preferential primary but lost to Clinton in the runoff. Clinton then defeated Gov. Frank White, who had unseated him two years earlier.

Tucker returned to his law practice again, but he and his wife started a company to extend cable television to suburban and rural communities, first in Central Arkansas but eventually to unserved areas in Texas and Florida — and years later to Southeast Asia. It would be their entanglement with a cable operator in Texas that led to his ruin when Sheffield Nelson brought it to the attention of Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater special counsel.

THE CLINTON RIVALRY

Meanwhile, Tucker and Clinton had resumed their rivalry. Tucker first decided to run for governor in 1990 because it seemed that Clinton would not run again and would instead prepare for a race for president in 1992. But Clinton did run again, so Tucker backed out of the race and ran for lieutenant governor. Both men won their races, but they were not a team in office. Lt. Gov. Tucker presided over the Senate, the lieutenant governor’s only constitutional duty except to be governor for a day or two when the governor was out of state. There was friction even there.

When Clinton launched his bid for the presidency and expected to spend most of his time out of state, he had to find a way to stymie Tucker, who he was sure would go to the Capitol every day and act like he was the real governor. Clinton appointed William H. Bowen, a legendary attorney and banker whose name

now adorns the law school at Little Rock, as an executive assistant to the governor. Bowen was a strong man who would resist Tucker’s initiatives. But Tucker became the effective governor, disregarding tension with Bowen and Clinton’s office staff. He fired one of them, and when Clinton said he was going to rehire the person when he got back to Little Rock, Tucker told him he’d fire her again when Clinton left the state again. Tucker wanted to impose a sales tax on soft drinks, when the national recession left the state short of state matching funds for Medicaid health services for the poor. When Clinton was elected president and resigned as governor to prepare for the presidency, Tucker called the Legislature into special session and enacted the soft drink tax.

As governor, Tucker pushed bold proposals that were sure to go beyond the political will of legislators and perhaps a conservative public: a big increase in motor-fuel taxes and a massive bond issue to fund four-lane highways and bridges across the state (rejected by the voters in a special election), and a reformed state constitution (also rejected by the voters). Those proposals and defeats came during Starr’s prosecutions of Tucker, which undoubtedly contributed to voters’ negativity.

Public school financing was the biggest issue of the decade, reaching the state Supreme Court numerous times. Tucker worked up a constitutional amendment (Amendment 74 of 1996) that enabled the state to share some of the property-tax receipts in rich school districts with property-poor districts to bring the state into compliance with a constitutional

mandate to provide a suitable and equal education to every child in the state. Voters narrowly ratified the amendment a few months after Tucker’s resignation.

Clinton survived the Whitewater ordeal and maintained high national popularity until he left office in January 2001. The real victims were Tucker and his friends and business partners Jim and Susan McDougal.

When Starr filed indictments against Tucker and the McDougals for misusing loan funds, they landed in the court of U.S. District Judge Henry Woods, who always maintained a speedy docket. He soon dismissed the charges because they were outside the jurisdiction of the special counsel. Starr’s only mission, he pointed out, was to investigate wrongdoing by the Clintons. A panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Woods and assigned the cases to another judge. At the trial in 1996, Jim McDougal insisted on testifying against the advice of his own attorney. A boasting and stumbling McDougal got caught in obvious untruths and when the case went to the jury, according to one juror’s explanation afterward, the jurors thought the three must have done something wrong. They convicted the three on a couple of counts and found them innocent on others.

The only thing wrong in the transactions was that the loan came from banker David Hale’s small-business lending company, which had obligations to give at least half its loans to companies where owners were disadvantaged in some way. But Hale never told any of his borrowers of this requirement, and few, if any, of them would have qualified. Many were loans to Hale’s Republican friends, including the state chairman, but none of them was indicted. Tucker’s company, which was set up to provide water and sewer services for a housing development between Little Rock and Sheridan, had repaid the loan. Tucker and the McDougals learned of Hale’s special requirement for borrowers at the trial. Jim and Susan McDougal went to prison, where Jim McDougal died in solitary confinement.

Tucker had wanted to testify but he was sick, in pain from liver cancer and other ailments and so incontinent that he could not get to the restroom. After the guilty verdict, Tucker announced his resignation to take effect on July 15, when Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee would be sworn in. But Tucker changed his mind that day and said he intended to stay in office while he appealed his convictions. A tumult followed and Huckabee denounced the move. Democratic leaders, including the state chairman of the Democratic Party, went to the Capitol and urged Tucker to surrender the office. He said Tucker would have little public support for reversing his resignation.

D.C. TALK: Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, left, chats with President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office of the White House. The two had an often contentious relationship when Tucker served as lieutenant governor to Clinton.

COURTESY OF

Tucker relented and Huckabee was sworn in.

In preparation for the 1997 legislative session, before his trial, Tucker had prepared a bill eliminating or reducing income taxes for the poor and elderly, including indexing tax rates to the consumer price index, doubling the child-care tax credit and the standard deduction — all carrying out his and President Carter’s program for families. Every Democrat in the Senate and House of Representatives and no Republican signed the bill as sponsors in January, and it passed unanimously. When he ran for president in 2008, Gov. Huckabee claimed it as his bill.

LATER YEARS

His public and governmental career obviously over — Tucker could never again even vote or practice law — Tucker turned again to business and several commercial and consulting ventures. He joined with James Lee Witt, President Clinton’s director of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, in a national consulting firm, Witt Global Partners; with his wife he started Broadband Systems LLC, a consulting firm; he was a part owner of Navigator Telecommunications Inc., a small telephone company; he and his wife were founders of Pacific Genetech Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company that developed and commercialized vaccine technologies; he was part owner of Collinear Networks Inc., which provided wireless high-speed data transmission for companies; and worked for Broadband Systems Inc., owned by his wife, which consulted with cable television companies in Indonesia.

From 2000 through 2005, the Tuckers spent much of their time in Hong Kong, where they were involved in several philanthropic programs, including work with the Heifer Project in Little Rock and Heifer Hong Kong, of which the Tuckers were among the founders, along with the Community Church of Hong Kong, of which they were members.

He was a performer until the end. At the funeral in 2021 of Frank Newell, who had been Tucker’s boyhood friend, Hall High football teammate and deputy attorney general, Tucker went to the lectern when someone mentioned that he and Newell had taken tap-dancing lessons as youngsters. A feeble Tucker tap-danced and told funny stories about his buddy.

Tucker is survived by his wife; a stepson, Lance Alworth Jr. of Washington, D.C.; three daughters, Anna Tucker Ashton and Sarah Allen Tucker, both of Little Rock, and Kelly Alworth Driscoll of San Diego; and a sister, Carol Tucker Foreman of Chevy Chase, Maryland, former executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. His oldest sister, Frances Kemp of Jonesboro, died in 2003.

SOUND DESIGNER: Paul W. Klipsch poses in his audio lab at the Klipsch & Associates factory.

BY DAN MARSH

PHOTOGRAPHY

IfPaul Wilbur Klipsch had a favorite word, it was surely “bullshit.” How do we know? We know because Klipsch — inventor of the Klipschorn, Heresy, Cornwall, La Scala and Belle loudspeakers that made music listening more pleasurable in the second half of the 20th century — had bright yellow T-shirts and plastic lapel buttons bearing the word in Old English script. He handed out “bullshit” buttons at national events like the Consumer Electronics Show.

At the Klipsch Museum of Audio History in Hope (Hempstead County), you can find one of those T-shirts and a photo (c. 1975) of several dozen Klipsch workers proudly wearing said shirts. Klipsch himself is on the front row, dapper in gray dress slacks and a yellow “bullshit” shirt. The museum, which is located in a former telephone exchange building in the tiny community of Oakhaven outside Hope, and its visitor center, located in a former residence on Division Street downtown, tell the story of the Klipsch & Associates speaker factory, which Klipsch, a native of Elkhart, Indiana, launched in Hope upon leaving the Army in 1946.

Entering the visitor center, I couldn’t help noticing a jumbosized version of the “bullshit” button. Smaller ones are sold in the gift shop, along with T-shirts and coffee mugs. If the bullshit’s getting a bit thick for your liking, you can follow Paul Klipsch’s example and flash your merchandise at the offending party. (It helps to be acknowledged as a madman or a genius if you do. Klipsch claimed both designations.)

300,000 pages of documents,” Hunter said of the Klipsch archives, which include everything from Paul’s handmade slide rules to the earliest K-horns and their many variants. Still, Hunter has barely scratched the surface of everything Klipsch collected. “We don’t really know what we’ve got,” he said. “There’s no room to spread it all out and go through it.”

Klipsch (or his associates) held onto everything he touched, documenting every horn cabinet that went out the door of his factory. The exhibit is rich enough, but even more fascinating is a back room where Hunter has boxes of documents, shelves full of periodicals and journals, and drawers full of vintage photographs he’s “5 percent” finished digitizing. “I started all that before I retired in 2015,” Hunter said of converting the photos to digital. “It took quite a long time. I knew I was going to retire and this stuff could easily have gone in the trash.”

The museum allows tourists, Klipsch fans and music lovers in general to ponder the life of a man whose name deserves mention in the same breath as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, whose ingenuity made woofers and tweeters sexy for generations of speaker nerds. Its curator, Jim Hunter, is an engineer/antiquarian/historian whose formidable task is to catalog, inventory and preserve thousands of documents, photographs, gadgets and gizmos — all of them revolutionary — built, designed or collected by Klipsch.

Hunter walked me through the visitor center, explaining the various listening rooms that demonstrate the famous Klipschorns and dropping the needle on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” I’ve heard the opening flourish of a cash register toting up dollar bills in the first few bars of “Money” a million times in my life, but never as crisply as I heard it on a ’70s-era K-horn.

THE COLLECTION

“We have 4,000 photos, 10,000 slides, and 200,000 or

A shelving unit contains dozens of logbooks containing the handwritten serial numbers of every early-model Klipsch speaker. Hunter took one down and opened it. There was an electricity in the air, as if he were cracking open some lost scroll. The writing on the crinkly yellow pages was in spiky pencil. “This was written by Paul’s first employee, Lloyd McClellan,” Hunter said. He read aloud: “‘Moved to the shop at PG May of 48, laid keel on No. 121,’ the first horn built in this building. And it goes on and on. Until the computer came along, it was all on paper and I’ve got it all.” He replaced the book with a wistful, almost frustrated sigh.

‘I HAVE BEEN TO THE CITY OF HOPE, AND MY EARS ARE WIDE OPEN’

Summarizing Klipsch’s life and work is about as easy as summarizing randomly selected books of the Bible. There are myriad chapters and verses, meanings and interpretations. Klipsch had careers in at least five fields. He was an electrical engineer and a geophysicist. A pilot and a marksman. A builder of elaborate, technically precise model trains. An oil speculator and entrepreneur. An inventor of aphorisms and a ballistics expert. A 33rd-degree Mason. I knew that Klipsch was odd, irascible and that he suffered no fools. I knew that his plant manufactured works of art that also happened to function as loudspeakers.

Absolutely nothing about Klipsch makes it easy to imagine him as a resident of Hope, the seat of a dry county where the annual watermelon festival is the social event of the year, big enough to be the birthplace of no fewer than three Arkansas governors — Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Huckabee Sanders — yet pastoral enough to serve as evidence of those politicians’ modest beginnings. Klipsch came to Hope via a lengthy route that began with a job in

Summarizing Klipsch's life and work is about as easy as summarizing randomly selected books of the Bible.

MADE IN HOPE: At top, a 1974 Rolling Stone story about Klipsch & Associates. At center right, the Klipsch manufacturing plant still operates outside Hope, and the Klipsch Museum of Audio History (pictured at bottom right) is across the street from it, in a former telephone exchange building. At bottom left, the first Klipschorn, built by Paul W. Klipsch with a handsaw out of donated plywood.

"He'd come up and say, 'I used to have a photographic memory, but it failed to develop.' He was really down to earth."

¯Ginny Sanders, director, Klipsch Museum Visitor Center

HORN HISTORY: Fred S. Klipsch, left, and Paul W. Klipsch with a Klipschorn in the Hope plant. Paul Klipsch sold the company to his second cousin Fred in 1989. Top right, the Paul W. Klipsch Municipal Auditorium in Hope City Hall; bottom right, Klipsch & Associates employee Tommy Peck loads a truck with speaker systems at the Klipsch factory in 1978.

A Timeline of Paul W.

March 9, 1904: Born in Elkhart, Indiana, to Minna Eddy and Oscar Klipsch

1922: graduated from El Paso (Texas) High School

1926: graduated from New Mexico Agriculture and Mechanical College, majoring in electrical engineering

1926: began designing radios for General Electric in Schenectady, New York

Klipsch

Schenectady, New York, testing radios for General Electric; wound its way to Chile, where he worked on electric locomotives and finally as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, to the Southwestern Proving Grounds in Hope during World War II. There, Klipsch conducted ballistics tests and came up with an idea for his post-war career that would define how music is experienced: building his own loudspeakers right in Hope.

Taking notes while talking to Hunter about the museum, I realized every other word out of my mouth for the past two hours had been “wow.” How else does one respond when one is told that the wooden cabinet in front of you once belonged to revered maestro Arthur Fiedler? Or that you are looking at the reproduction of a 1940s-era amplifier that, like the one in “This Is Spinal Tap,” goes all the way to 11? Or that Paul Klipsch once placed second for marksmanship in the state of Texas? (The whole state!) Or that you are looking at the first commercially available monophonic FM radio sold after World War II? Or that he built his early K-horns out of plywood donated by a wealthy American industrialist? Or that Rolling Stone magazine, in 1974, published a lengthy interview with Klipsch titled, “I Have Been to the City of Hope, and My Ears Are Wide Open”? Or that Klipsch conducted his first loudspeaker experiment 100 years ago using a set of earphones (now under protective museum glass) and a piece of cardboard? (It “sounded like hell,” he famously said.)

THE ART OF LEAVING IT ALONE

There’s a part of the Klipsch tour where the visitor gets to play a song, any song, via Bluetooth on La Scala speakers — “movie theater quality sound,” as Hunter put it. But what song to request?

A list ran through my mind. U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name”? “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses? “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana? All obvious candidates. Too obvious.

I said, “How about some Elvis?”

Ginny Sanders, director of the visitor center and a former Klipsch plant employee, dialed in “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” I was instantly transported to a concert hall in 1955. Elvis was onstage, crooning, and for all my ears

were telling me, it might as well have been live. This, Hunter explained, is the point.

“You can’t make it better than it was originally. All you want to do is reproduce, you don’t want to produce. Like a guitar speaker? It doesn’t have to have a flat frequency response, it’s gotta be whatever the musician wants it to sound like and the reproduction has to leave it alone.”

In the ’50s listening room, Hunter played a CD of Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis,” but the CD did what records are famous for doing — it skipped. “Forget it,” Hunter growled, putting on a different disc. “This was recorded in 1957 by Paul. We have over 400 of his personal recordings.” (Klipsch, a lover of classical music, brought musicians into his recording studio in the old telephone exchange and recorded them live on Klipschbrand audio tape.)

A pipe organ rang out. Standing in “the sweet spot” between two K-horns, I was riveted. It was the opening of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, recorded by Klipsch in a Presbyterian church in Kilgore, Texas. The performing artist was John Eargle, an Oscar- and Grammy-winning audio engineer and organist. Days later, on my non-Klipsch headphones, the music still sounded crisp and clear.

Sanders told me she had done a little bit of everything in her years at the plant, including working in the paint room and in international sales. She knew and admired Paul Klipsch. “He was just really funny,” she said. “He’d come up and say, ‘I used to have a photographic memory, but it failed to develop.’ He was really down to earth.”

The joke about having (or not having) a photographic memory was one of Klipsch’s many aphorisms, known among the faithful as “Klipschisms.” Hunter can reel them off like the names of Klipsch speaker brands. An admirer of brevity, Klipsch’s favorite was, “Say it in words of one cylinder.”

“Because that’s the way he wanted to tweak it,” Hunter said. “He put his stamp on everything.”

No Klipschism was more widely known, though, than “bullshit.” Hunter related the story of its conception for probably the 1,000th time in his life. “In the ’60s, Paul was reading an audio magazine. In it, one of his

1931, 1932: entered Stanford University for graduate studies

1934: received master’s in engineering from Stanford

1934-1941: worked in Texas as an oil company geophysicist

1928: transferred to Chile to maintain electric locomotives

1928: married Eva Belle Klipsch on a ship off the coast of Chile

competitors was making outrageous claims for their speakers. Paul threw the magazine in the air and screamed, ‘Bullshit!’ Bob Moers, company president, and Goodloe Stuck, the ad guy, were in the next room. They came to see what the hubbub was all about. Stuck says, ‘I think we can make something out of that.’”

WHY BULLSHIT?

“The world of audio is full of bullshit,” Hunter declared. “Snake oil salesmen! ‘Buy my speaker and I’ll give you 15 bullshit reasons rather than 15 engineering reasons.’ Paul was an electrical engineer with his graduate degree from Leland Stanford. He hung with the big boys. He graded papers from Bill Hewlett and David Packard. If you were some pimple-faced kid who tried to tell Paul something, he’d call bullshit.”

Hunter, 73, retired from Klipsch after serving in various leadership and design capacities. He and Paul Klipsch shared the patent on the Hope plant’s anechoic chamber, a room designed to eliminate echoes and other noises. He worked for Klipsch for 38 years, after Paul hired him away from his first employer, Rola, in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I designed woofers and tweeters,” Hunter said. “At that time, Paul wasn’t building woofers and tweeters. When he decided he wanted to start, he sent me a first-class ticket to interview in Hope. I started in October 1978.”

The company put him in charge of its corporate museum. “Paul asked me to take on historic preservation, and I said, ‘That’s like waving a bull in front of a red flag.’ (Another official Klipschism.)” Though he didn’t become curator until the museum’s formation in 2016, he’s been maintaining Klipsch’s history since 1979.

Hunter leads, on a volunteer basis, the Klipsch Heritage Museum Association, a nonprofit that, in 2019, purchased the residence on Division Street where the visitor center was established in 2021.

“We restored it over a couple of years,” Hunter said of the house, which shares the same block as the Clinton Birthplace Home, a national park. “COVID affected our funding, so we’re doing everything on a shoestring.

“We are not part of the Klipsch speaker

company,” he stressed. “When I retired, they didn’t know what to do with the corporate museum, so we started a nonprofit and they donated the telephone exchange building, the artifacts and archives. Now they pay the museum to tell them their own history.

“Like, they had a legal issue in Europe a couple of years ago, and the lawyers needed proof that Klipschorns were sold in Europe before a certain date,” Hunter said. “I sent them a 1953 letter from the president of Volkswagen thanking Paul for his Klipschorn. How’s that?”

‘A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL’

The museum features what’s surely an architectural anomaly, at least for a town like Hope: a 12-foot high basement beneath an 8-inch-thick concrete floor. Standing in one of the exhibit halls, Hunter played a disc on a 1917 Edison diamond phonograph. “Paul liked to demonstrate this and give a quiz after,” he joked. A bassoon played down the scale to its lowest note.

“What do you hear?” Hunter asked. I paused, knowing I’d get the answer wrong. “A low note?”

He shook his head. “You hear the harmonics of that low note. Musical instruments play a basic frequency and then all the multiples of the frequency. In this case, we are hearing the eighth multiple and higher, enough for the ear and the brain to extrapolate the sound of the bassoon. The ear and brain make a mountain out of a molehill that allows highfidelity to work.”

After an hour-long tour, Hunter locked up the museum and asked me to follow him across town to Rose Hill Cemetery, where Paul and his second wife, Valerie, are interred.

The Klipsch vault is engraved with the names of Paul and Valerie (who died in 2016). It also bears the company logo — a V-shaped corner horn speaker emitting waves of sound — and its progenitor’s logo: “The Legend.”

Like the bassoon demonstration, there was clearly something here Hunter intended for me to notice. I crouched low, studying the smooth marble surface. Then I noticed it — down in the lower left, another engraving. There, etched in stone, was Paul Klipsch’s favorite word.

1940: built the first experimental woofer and tweeter using horns

1941: entered active duty in the U.S. Army, stationed in Hope at Southwestern Proving Grounds

1945: patented the Klipschorn speaker design

1946: established Klipsch & Associates in Hope

1948: acquired his first factory which now houses the Klipsch Museum of Audio History

SOUNDS GOOD: Top left, Arkansas-born actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton poses with a Klipsch speaker in a 2004 ad campaign; opposite left, an advertisement for the Klipsch sound system; top, museum curator Jim Hunter poses in the 1970s-era listening room at the Klipsch Museum Visitor Center in Hope; above left, exhibits in the Klipsch Museum of Audio History; above right, the original Klipschorn built of plywood and a reproduction of a 1940s-era amplifier that, like the one in “This Is Spinal Tap,” turns up to 11.

HAVE A BLAST AT KLIPSCH’S BIRTHDAY BASH

Interested in celebrating the life of loudspeaker guru Paul W. Klipsch? Ever wanted to peek into the Klipsch factory lab? Want to hear some cool music played over world-famous audio equipment? Then head on down to Hope for the “birthday bash” at the Klipsch Museum of Audio History, March 7-8

The highlight will be a class led by Klipsch senior engineer Roy Delgado Jr. detailing the new Klipschorn.

Tickets are $100 each; nonmember tickets are $150 each. The class will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 8, at the Klipsch factory.

Other activities include:

Friday, March 7

2 p.m. Klipsch Museum of Audio History tour led by curator Jim Hunter (free)

5 p.m. Wreath laying at Klipsch’s grave

6 p.m. Free music and snacks at Klipsch Museum Visitor Center and at the Paul W. Klipsch Auditorium, second floor, Hope City Hall

Saturday, March 8

6 p.m. Free fajitas and live music at the visitor center

1957: introduced the Heresy, the first commercial center channel speaker

1958: demonstrated the Klipsch Heresy at the World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium

1963: designed the La Scala speaker for the performing arts

1983: inducted into the Audio Hall of Fame for his technological innovations

1989: sold Klipsch & Associates to second cousin Fred S. Klipsch

May 5, 2002: died in Hope at age 98, earning 23 patents in his lifetime

— Klipsch Museum of Audio History

MAKING

MUSIC WITH SILAS CARPENTER, THE SEARCY HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR WHO’S A SONGWRITING PRODIGY.

BY DANIEL GREAR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

FOR SLEEPING AND SINGING: The childhood bedroom of 18-year-old

Silas Carpenter doubles as a makeshift recording studio.

“I

Fornearly anyone else, it would have been a fool’s errand: Write, arrange, record and mix a song in the course of 24 hours, do the same thing for eight consecutive days, sequence the resulting tunes into a cohesive album, then share it with the world. For 18-year-old singer-songwriter Silas Carpenter, it was just another collection of creative sessions in his bedroom studio in Searcy, where he lives with his parents and three younger siblings.

Yes, his latest album, “My Mind,” came to be via the reckless approach I’ve described, but it’s also his fourth full-length record since April 2023. He’s spent pretty much every day of the last two years writing songs in a similar if less regimented manner. Carpenter, who has the casual yet sneakily intellectual charm of a Timothée Chalamet (and the enviably cavalier mop, for that matter), seems to create constantly. He works at a local coffee shop most mornings and goes to high school for two hours a day, but the bulk of his time is spent huddled over an instrument. The night before I drove to Searcy to speak with him, he spontaneously recorded a full-band recreation of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” from memory, just because he couldn’t sleep.

Most of Carpenter’s original tunes are about love. His way of writing about romance, however, carries an uncommon frankness, a comfort with confrontation that’s beyond his years. For instance, “No One Better,” the opening track on his second album, finds him shamelessly parading his selfishness over a bouncy

“I can’t tell if you’re being sincere,” I reply.

“I’m being so serious when I say that I’ve probably listened to this song 1,000 times trying to figure out if it’s the best song ever or not,” he says. “I wore sunglasses the entire time I made it and stayed up all night just partying in my room. Listen to that Egyptian-sounding guitar. It sounds like something out of a spy movie. It’s kind of a joke, but it’s also dead serious.”

When, about 30 minutes into our conversation, I ask Carpenter if he’d be willing to write and record a song in front of me, he’s totally unfazed and immediately game. Within moments, he’s searching through his phone for ideas and strumming on a crisp-sounding Yamaha acoustic that he’s grabbed from a literal pile of guitars and cases stuffed in one corner of his room.

After a few false starts, he begins riffing on the phrase “Perfect and Beautiful,” which happens to be the name of his already-completed-but-not-yet-released next album. Another album, I think to myself, baffled by his productivity.

“I’m taking my time and I’m making my life perfect and beautiful,” he sings, latching onto a melody that seems to come from nowhere. “There we go,” he says. “There’s the beginning of a song.” I try to figure out what's changed, why he’s suddenly certain that he’s stumbled upon something worth pursuing, but he doesn’t have much of an answer for me. He just likes it more.

He improvises his way into the song’s next line, turning “taking my time” into “breaking my mind” and

TRY TO NOT MAKE SONGS ABOUT PEOPLE; I TRY

TO MAKE THEM TO PEOPLE.” —SILAS CARPENTER

electric piano: “I don’t care / About your happiness or true love / If I’m not the one that you love / What’s the point in going on?” It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but we all know the feeling.

“I try to not make songs about people; I try to make them to people. Writing a song about someone feels like it’s behind their back. Every time I write a song about someone, I want them to hear it,” he tells me while I sit on his unmade bed, on striped sheets covered in cartoon bears. His songs — and the wisdom with which he describes them — make it easy to forget he's still just a teenager.

He doesn’t hide his youthfulness, though. Throughout our interview, he’s endearingly distractable, compelled at random to nerd out about musical gear and show me various songs by some of his favorite musicians — Andy Shauf, Wilco, Wednesday. He’s also eager to share an abundance of unreleased material. My favorite diversion is “Stay At My House,” a funky track with heavy synth bass that departs sharply from the gentle ’60s- and ’70s-inspired songs he usually writes.

“I’m scared to put it out because I’m scared I’m gonna become a famous pop singer,” he says. “I’m terrified of it.”

“making my life” into “one piece at a time.” Almost by accident, the song grows more complex. “I love repetition and weird rhyming,” he says, remarking on the oddly generative nature of wordplay. Perfection. Beauty. The concepts get stranger and more slippery the more he repeats them.

“I gotta think of a bridge to make it interesting,” he says, as if he’s following a series of steps. He can already see the finish line.

“When I saw you dying, I was inspired, to make everything perfect and beautiful to me,” he sings on his first attempt at a bridge, once again hitting the jackpot. Miraculously, that’s enough for him to deem the tune complete. The entire venture takes less than 10 minutes.

“I don’t know what it was that made me quit caring about how long songs are. It might have been some Paul McCartney stuff. It might have been Ween,” he says. “This is not my deepest song, but it might be kind of nice.”

As a songwriter who’s constantly immobilized by a tendency to overthink, I’m astonished by how little self-consciousness factors into Carpenter’s creative equation. He seems practically neurosis-free. Is he not

ONE-MAN BAND: In addition to vocals and guitar, Carpenter fleshes out his original recordings with drums, bass and piano.

“I WANT TO BE A ROCKSTAR LIKE IT WAS BEFORE THE DIGITAL AGE.”

—SILAS CARPENTER

MUCH MATERIAL: Since beginning to formally release music in April 2023, Carpenter has put out four full-length albums of self-recorded songs: “Roy Boy,” “In My Dreams,” “Bedtime Songs” and “My Mind.”

plagued by the fear that his songs aren’t good or unique enough?

“Did you hear that last song on my last album? It’s like a direct rip of ‘Congratulations’ by MGMT. I was just like, ‘I love this song. I love this melody,’” he says. “It’s called borrowing. The guitar lick from ‘Roy’ is straight from a Beatles song called ‘And Your Bird Can Sing.’”

“And that doesn’t bother you?” I ask.

“It doesn't bother me at all. I’m not copying the words. I’m not copying every little thing. I’m inspired,” he says. “Sometimes, I’ll be singing and I’m like, ‘Man, I like this.’ And then I’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s that song. But I don’t care. I've already started. I like what I’ve done. And I’ll change the chorus. You know how many melodies have been used over and over again?”

Next, he refines the chord progression. “I think I’ll start on a major seventh,” he says. “That’s always the move, huh?” It’s a cool choice, one that gives the tune a somber edge. “It kind of dissociates you from the doowopness of it,” he adds. He’s decidedly a songwriter rather than a composer, but moments like this make me wonder how much music theory underlies his decisionmaking. He mentions taking bass and drum lessons when he was younger but dismisses them as mostly unimportant.

Now it’s time to record.

Despite this being the space where Carpenter sleeps, hangs out and occasionally does homework, it’s crowded with equipment, intentionally laid out so that few logistics stand in the way of him getting down to business. A large microphone lingers next to the desk where he’s been writing, needing only minor adjustments to capture acoustic guitar or vocals. Three other mics hover around the drumset, already positioned to his liking. Three electric guitars hang on the back wall. A bass, organ and keyboard are standing by, ready to be plugged directly into his audio recording interface, which stays connected to his laptop at all times.

He sprints through the track’s foundation, laying down acoustic guitar and lead vocals in just a couple of takes. When he moves over to the kit, I notice he's jerry-rigged a drum throne by placing two cushions on top of a sturdy metal chair. It doesn’t look comfortable. The second thing I notice is that each of the drums is equipped with a handkerchief and a binder clip, so that he can tweak the exact amount of dampening that makes sense for whatever he’s recording. A lot of his music-making feels this way, halfway between laughably slapdash and intensely deliberate.

He then returns to vocals, doubling some of the parts for an Elliott Smith-like effect and adding falsetto harmonies. It strikes me how vulnerable this might be, especially because the rest of the recording lives in his headphones, leaving me to hear only his voice. He shows no signs of discomfort, but I ask if me being here makes him at all nervous.

“Every time Uncle Isaac and I try to record together,

I can’t sing,” he says. That’d be Isaac Alexander, a longtime staple of the Central Arkansas music scene with whom Silas has shared stages in recent years. “But it’s always somewhere else. Here, I’m in my environment. I’m so safe here. I can voicecrack as many times as I want and rewind it.”

As Carpenter rounds out the song with electric guitar (a part he eventually scraps because it doesn’t sit right), piano and bass, I ask him about his future. In the fall, he’s heading to Harding University, where his dad is an English professor. The discount is too good to pass up. He thinks he’ll study “something broad. Marketing. Communications. I’m cool with whatever. I think I’d be a good salesman. I don’t think I want to do that, but I think I could.”

His heart isn’t quite in it, but he’s not complaining. “People like to hate on Harding because it’s in Searcy, which does suck, but I’m usually happy wherever I am. I have a lot of friends there and it’s a cool community,” he says. Plus, he’ll still have access to the bedroom studio at his parents’ place, which is within walking distance from campus.

“There’s a part of me that wants to live somewhere where there’s musicians everywhere, but there’s also a part of me that’s like, ‘I hate Nashville,’” he says. “Maybe this is ironic, but it’s a bunch of people who have seen so much cool stuff that they can’t think anything’s cool. Everything has to be weird in Nashville.”

“So do you ultimately want a career in music?” I ask.

“Yes, I do. But I want it in kind of a unique way,” he says. “I don’t want to have to make TikToks all of the time.” For the record, he currently puts out at least a few TikTok videos per week.

“I do it because I’d made a couple and one of them got like, I don’t know, 7,000 views or something, which sometimes feels like striking gold,” he says. “Record labels saw it. Like Capital Records. But labels like Capital Records I’m not super interested in because they are getting so many small artists right now. What they do is sign you, but they’re like, ‘just keep making TikToks,’ and that’s kind of it.

“I want to be a rockstar like it was before the digital age,” he concludes, dreaming of finding a home at a label like Anti-, Dead Oceans or Saddle Creek.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask.

“I don’t want to be Katy Perry, but I’d like to be MJ Lenderman. I would like to find a niche audience. I’d like to tour and play medium-sized places every day,” he says. “I don’t want to not have fun. I love doing this. If it’s not fun, and I have to do a bunch of stuff I don’t want to do, then why am I doing it?”

To hear “Perfect and Beautiful,” the song Carpenter wrote and recorded during our interview, scan the QR code.

LET THEM EAT, WELL, YOU KNOW: This Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake is good enough to make you forget your troubles.

I FEED THIS GUINNESS STOUT CHOCOLATE CAKE TO MY FATHER ONLY IN DREAMS BY CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON

BRIAN CHILSON

The Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan

was telling us — me and my then-husband (now late husband) — about a dinner party she had hosted at which my father had been present, four days before his unexpected death.

“Well, you know how he was,” she said. “I served a chocolate cake, and he loved it. ‘Well, then, Maurice,’ I said to him, ‘why don’t you just take the rest of it with you, then?’ ‘Oh, Fionnula, no! I couldn’t!’ he said. ‘Really? The whole thing?’ ‘Of course the whole thing,’ I said. You’d think I’d given him diamonds.”

Ned and I exchanged looks. Across the surreality that follows a sudden death, at least one minor mystery was solved: that empty wooden cake box, the name of its high-end bakery painted in gold leaf atop it — what, we had wondered, was it doing sitting near the front door of my father’s Los Angeles apartment? Where had it come from?

him, precisely the Maurice we knew: the life of the party as always, at what turned out to be the last party of his life, the one at her home. So large were Maurice’s enthusiasms, so deep his engagement, so numberless his own stories and so vigorous his interest in other people’s, so bracing his laugh, so eccentric his theories (at least some of them) that he gave off a kind of crackle. His exuberance was, perhaps, just this side of crazy, but whether you were his friend, colleague, subject or daughter, you could not help but be charmed and intoxicated.

I could, and someday possibly will, write a fulllength memoir about Maurice (who, among other things, was Marilyn Monroe’s first biographer). But for the purposes of this story and recipe (my Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake), you need only know the following about my father:

Larger mysteries remained, as they always do for the living when they’re confronting a loved one’s unexpected departure from life. Ned and I tried to unravel them, though we’d not yet fully let in the basics — my 77-year-old father’s heart had abruptly stopped beating, his death upending normality and sending Ned and me flying in from the middle of the country, from Arkansas.

That week we arranged his memorial in Los Angeles and cleared out his West Hollywood apartment. And we somehow ended up (I have no memory of how) as houseguests of kind Fionnula, whom we’d never met before this turn of events.

Besides being my much-loved father, Maurice Zolotow was a show-business biographer. We recognized, in Fionnula’s description of

1. That he adored the Irish, especially Irish writers, especially James Joyce.

2. That, on no factual basis whatsoever, he considered the Irish one of the lost tribes of Israel.

3. That he loved eating and, until it got the better of him and he finally quit, drinking.

4. That after he quit drinking, he developed a ferocious sweet tooth and grew voraciously fond of chocolate.

And, for the purposes of this story, you need only know the following about me:

1. That I write in six different genres, one of them being culinary, and that I sometimes invent or develop recipes.

2. That from the early ’80s through the late ’90s, I co-owned and ran a country inn, Dairy Hollow House, which, for six years, included a restaurant in the Ozark resort community of

HAPPY TRIO: A young Crescent Dragonwagon, left, with her father Maurice Zolotow and brother Stephen, at the Algeo’s Pharmacy soda fountain, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, c. 1958.

Eureka Springs (Carroll County).

Overlay these two sets of facts and you can well imagine that my father loved visiting us in Arkansas, staying at the inn and eating at its restaurant.

His favorite dessert at the inn was a dense, chocolatey, voluptuous bread pudding dolloped with softly whipped, barely sweetened cream and a squiggle of raspberry sauce.

The night I first brought it out to him from the kitchen, he removed his glasses so he could examine it closely. Then he dove his spoon into it and sailed that spoon up into his mouth. His eyes closed in bliss as he rolled its velvety custard on his tongue. He swallowed. He opened his eyes, said, “Wow,” and took a second bite. After that, glasses still off, he gazed up at me from the banquette, his pale blue eyes large. “Cres,” he said sincerely, “On a scale of one to 10, I give this 5,000.”

When Ned and I got back from Los Angeles after my father’s memorial, we returned to our then-lives as innkeepers/restaurateurs. I renamed the dessert he had loved “Chocolate Bread Pudding Maurice.” The abstract squiggle of raspberry became an “MZ,” piped on quickly, valentine red on the white plate, the scoop of bread pudding, whipped cream, a few fresh berries and a sprig of mint across from the “MZ.” As the waiters would peel in and out of the kitchen, they’d call their dessert orders. “I need a Maurice!” “Three Maurices!”

Sometimes hearing his name in this new-old context made me cry, sometimes smile.

During this same period, I listened to 28 cassette tapes of various AA talks my father had given. He spoke about how drinking was associated in his early years with the mythology of writing; about Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and, inevitably, Joyce.

“On my first trip to Ireland, I couldn’t wait to have a Guinness. Because that was what James Joyce drank,” he said in one of the tapes.

The night he arrived in Dublin, he said, he’d left his hotel, gone to the nearest pub, and eagerly ordered one. “It was bitter,” he said on the tape, his voice still crackling with life and enthusiasm, though he himself had vanished from this world. “And warm. At room temperature. I said to the bartender, ‘It’s bit-

ter!’ and he said to me, ‘Sure, and it’s supposed to be.’”

My father died (20 years sober) in 1991.

In 1998, we closed the inn and restaurant.

In 2000, Ned, my husband, also died unexpectedly.

In 2019, I remarried.

I continued to live and love, cook and eat, with an ever-growing sense of appreciating the moment you had and the people you were with, even while you mourn the loss of those you loved, cooked and ate with. I do so to this day. As I do with this conundrum: I love the life I have, and I miss the life I had.

In 2009, I was working on an article for a now-defunct culinary magazine about St. Patrick’s Day. I wanted to think outside the corned-beef-and-cabbage, green-food-coloring box. Of course, this led to my thinking about Maurice and his love of both the Irish and chocolate. I began contemplating a chocolate cake in which the bitterness that is part of chocolate’s unique seduction was heightened by the use of Guinness in the batter. After several tries, and the addition of currants (a fruit much loved and used in Irish baking), I came up with this one, easily one of the best chocolate desserts I have ever developed or made, and over which everyone I’ve ever served it to has swooned. Dense yet delicate, moist, melting, rich, with layers and dimensions of flavor yet still very, very indubitably chocolate, I now make it every St. Patrick’s Day.

And sometimes more often. Occasionally, I get asked to make birthday cakes for friends, and I always ask them what kind they’d like. If those friends are chocolate cake aficionados, and if they happen to have tasted this particular cake at my table, inevitably it’s, “Could you make that Irish one? You know, that really outrageous one you serve on St. Patrick’s Day?”

But the one I really wish I could serve it to is Maurice. (For him, I would have boiled the Guinness first, to evaporate off the alcohol.) Even more so, I wish I could serve it to him and my present husband, Mark, knowing (achingly) the two of them would find each other fascinating.

But I can do so only in my dreams.

I began contemplating a chocolate cake in which the bitterness that is part of chocolate's unique seduction was heightened by the use of Guinness in the batter.

ALL SMILES: Ned Shank, left, Crescent Dragonwagon and her father, Maurice Zolotow, in an undated photo.

Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake

Makes 10-12 slices

INGREDIENTS

Drizzling Syrup:

1/3 cup Guinness Stout (measured after foam has subsided) 1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, non-dutched 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cake:

2/3 cup Guinness Stout (measured after foam has subsided) 2/3 cup dried currants

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, non-dutched 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces ¾ cup buttermilk

1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached white flour, sifted before measuring

Cooking spray

2/3 cup butter, softened

4 eggs

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup currant jelly, warmed

Bittersweet Icing:

1 ½ cups heavy cream

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

4 ½ tablespoons powdered sugar

4 ½ tablespoons cocoa

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

EQUIPMENT:

2 8- or 9- inch layer cake pans parchment paper circles to line cake pans

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To prepare drizzling syrup, combine all syrup ingredients in a small, heavy saucepan, whisking until smooth. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves and syrup is smooth. Set aside.

2. To prepare cake, pour stout over currants; cover and soak until plump.

3. Drain currants, reserving stout. Add stout to a small saucepan. Whisk in 1/3 cup cocoa and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; add semisweet chocolate, stirring until chocolate melts. Cool slightly. Stir in buttermilk.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

5. Prepare the cake pans. First, spray with cooking spray. Then place the fitted parchment paper into the sprayed pan, then respray. Then, combine 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons flour and dust the papered pan with cocoa mixture.

(Yes, I know this seems fussy. But I promise you, it’s worth it. The layers will reverse out easily, and you will be spared any anxiety on this front).

6. Beat butter with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in 1 3/4 cups sugar until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla.

7. Combine 2 cups flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. Do not overbeat. (Batter may look curdled.) Stir in soaked currants.

8. Divide batter between pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes; invert cakes onto racks.

9. Poke tops of cake layers with a skewer or toothpick. Spoon Drizzling Syrup over tops.

Place one layer on a platter. Spread warmed jelly over the cake layer on the platter. Chill 30 minutes.

10. To make the icing, bring cream to a boil. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl, pour boiling cream over it and whisk until chocolate melts and is thoroughly combined. Cover tightly and chill. Chill beaters from a handheld mixture at the same time.

11. Up to 3 hours before serving the cake, whip chocolate mixture with a hand-held mixer. When soft peaks form, sift in confectioners’ sugar and cocoa and add vanilla and salt. Continue whipping until combined.

12. Spread about a quarter of the Bittersweet Icing over the jelly-covered layer. Place second cake layer on top.

13. Ice top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing. Press toasted walnuts into sides of cake.

Celebrating Women’s History Month WOMEN IN CHARGE

March is Women’s History month, and we want to celebrate the trailblazing women shaping Arkansas’s history. From education to the arts, healthcare to hospitality, women are leading the charge toward a better future for Arkansans everywhere. Join us as we shine a light on the achievements of the women in charge, who make the wheels turn and the lights come on.

WOMEN IN TOURISM

KAREN TREVINO

President and

CEO

North Little Rock Tourism

Karen Trevino’s 45-year journey in tourism is a testament to passion and dedication, particularly for North Little Rock. Her path to leadership was anything but traditional. Balancing full-time work, raising children, and even undergoing breast cancer treatment, Karen earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Tourism. “I started working in the tourism industry as a teenager and quickly decided this was the path I wanted for a career,” she shared, her early passion clearly shining through.

For Karen, the most rewarding part has been the connections. “The relationships and friends I’ve made over the years have enriched my life so much,” she said. She also hopes her work with professional organizations has made a positive impact. Shaping Arkansas’ future, she believes, is about building a lasting legacy.

As a female leader, Karen champions growth and empowerment. “My leadership style has been to develop and encourage employees to grow both personally and professionally,” she explained. With a “softer touch,” she emphasizes the power of a “loving leader.” “People won’t remember what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel,” she noted, highlighting her focus on a supportive and positive work environment where everyone feels valued.

Karen’s vision for North Little Rock Tourism goes beyond the bottom line. She shared a powerful quote by Maura Gast: “If you build a place people want to visit, you build a place where people want to live…and work…and where business has to be…and where people will have to visit.” “I’m not ready to retire yet,” Karen declared. “My goal is to continue making a difference in every way I can as long as I can.

Women in Charge

WOMEN IN HOSPITALITY

CICELY BRAVE

BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT MANAGER

Cicely Brave embodies a unique blend of hospitality and expertise. Though she’s been immersed in the restaurant world her entire life, having grown up within its walls, her formal journey began 17 years ago. She initially pursued a career in special education, earning a degree and teaching license before obtaining a master’s in applied behavior analysis (ABA). For nearly four years, she’s practiced as a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA).

Despite her success as a BCBA, Cicely’s heart remains with Brave New. “It has been a part of my entire life and everyone there is like family to me, I couldn’t give that up,” she said. She now seamlessly balances her two careers, working with clients during the day and contributing to the restaurant’s success in the evenings. Her experience as a BCBA has honed her leadership skills, allowing her to prioritize tasks and remain calm under pressure, a crucial asset in the fast-paced restaurant environment.

Cicely finds immense joy in creating memorable experiences

for guests. “I genuinely love that I get to spend my time bringing others joy,” she said. She envisions shaping Arkansas’ future by merging small-town charm with Little Rock’s urban appeal, solidifying Brave New Restaurant as a household name synonymous with excellence. One of her most cherished memories is witnessing couples get engaged at the restaurant, a testament to the special moments Brave New helps create.

As a female leader, Cicely brings a unique perspective to the table. Her ability to think on her feet and remain calm in high-stress situations contributes significantly to the restaurant’s positive culture. Looking ahead, Brave New has ambitious goals, including expanding private events, introducing catering, and continuing its popular monthly brunch. With its increased management capacity, Brave New is also eager to engage more with the community, participating in events and competitions to broaden its reach.

BERRY SISTERS, ASHLEY AND ANGELA LEAD 7TH STREET TATTOO & PIERCING INTO A NEW CHAPTER

For years, 7th Street Tattoo has been a staple in Little Rock’s art scene. While their father is still at the helm, Ashley and Angela have slowly been stepping into the leadership role, ready to take over upon his retirement, if and when that happens. While the shop’s identity is always being redefined, they vow to preserve its legacy.

Since 1998, 7th Street Tattoo has always strived to be a welcoming space for all clients, especially women. “For a long time, we were the only females in the shop”, Ashley shared. And while the industry has long been dominated by men, they are proud to have a shop balanced by both men and women, with 5 female tattooers and 3 body piercers.

Ashley says their approach has always been rooted in authenticity. “Our focus is on creating a space where people feel safe and respected,” Angela explained. They aim to make everyone,

particularly newcomers, feel at ease - understanding the emotional significance that tattoos can hold.

While 7th Street is known for tattoos, they have spent the last several years focusing on growing their piercing business as well. We are as proud of our piercing business as we are the tattoo business. Whether we are piercing a little girl’s ears for the first time or have a repeat client, we take immense pride in each and every piercing.

As the years continue to go by, Ashley and Angela are eager to continue to grow the shop’s presence within the community. They emphasize the power of personal connection that comes with the territory of their industry. “It’s about more than just a tattoo or piercing. It’s about building and creating a memorable experience,” she said.

Photography by Brian Chilson

WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Women in Charge

WOMEN IN NONPROFIT

STEPHENIE A. COOKE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ALZHEIMER’S ARKANSAS

Stephenie A. Cooke, executive director of Alzheimer’s Arkansas, has dedicated 14 years to supporting caregivers across the state. Starting as a volunteer fundraiser, she later served on the board of directors before assuming her current role in December 2022. Cooke believes in the importance of the organization’s compassionate staff, board and volunteers when easing the burdens faced by caregivers. Despite facing the significant challenge of the pandemic, which disrupted in-person support and fundraising, Alzheimer’s Arkansas has persevered, celebrating 41 years of service.

Cooke believes shaping Arkansas’ future means caring for its aging population and caregivers with love and empathy. “As The Natural State, let us ‘naturally’ take care of those who unapologetically support loved ones at home who are living with chronic and debilitating conditions,” Cooke said. She strives to lift others, fostering a culture of passion, empathy and flexibility. Cooke aims to expand program reach, increase respite opportunities and financial assistance and explore new avenues of support. “As female leaders, we can be empathetic and emotional, all while demonstrating strength, encouragement and results.”

WOMEN IN HOSPITALITY

DIANA BRATTON

TACO MAMA OWNER

Diana Bratton, the vibrant force behind Taco Mama, has woven a 35year tapestry of culinary excellence and community spirit. Food— the centerpiece of her large family upbringing — blossomed into a passionate career after culinary school. She credits her parents for instilling her values of hard work and a competitive spirit, which propelled her to open Cafe 1217 at age 32. Navigating the then-male-dominated restaurant scene as a female chef in Hot Springs was a challenge, but she built a beloved establishment over nearly two decades. In 2009, she embraced her Mexican roots by opening Taco Mama.

Diana finds immense reward in the relationships she’s cultivated and the impact Taco Mama has had on her employees and their families. As a female leader, she balances resilience and creativity, fostering an inclusive environment where her team’s voices are heard. She aims to make Taco Mama a place where people love to work and eat. Looking ahead, she’ll continue mentoring and ensuring opportunities are accessible to all, reminding aspiring leaders that the industry is about “vision, resilience and community.”

WOMEN IN EDUCATION

PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT 25 FEMALE LEADERS IN EDUCATION

The Pulaski County Special School District is fortunate to have so many dedicated women shaping the future of our children. Their combined 640 years of experience speak volumes, but it’s their passion that truly makes a difference. These women have risen through the ranks, often beginning their careers as teachers before blossoming into instructional coaches, assistant principals, principals and district administrators. One elementary principal, reflecting on her nearly 30 years in education, shared her journey and offered inspiring advice: “Don’t be afraid and don’t wait for doors to open automatically. Seek out positions and groom yourself to get what you deserve!”

The rewards for these leaders are immeasurable. They see the long-term impact of their work when former students return as thriving adults, sharing cherished school memories. One principal spoke of the joy in “guiding both learners and staff,” creating effective learning environments, and helping struggling students discover their hidden potential. Another finds fulfillment in mentoring other educators and watching their careers take flight.

As female leaders, they bring unique strengths to the district. One emphasizes resilience and perseverance, working to dispel misconceptions about women in leadership. “Female leaders often encounter challenges that male leaders do not have to navigate,” she notes. She practices distributive leadership, modeling effective strategies while empowering others to develop their own leadership skills — a powerful way to build future leaders who already understand the district’s history, current reality and future aspirations. Another leader highlights the importance of collaboration, strategic thinking, and equity. Her marketing, finance and communications background brings a fresh perspective to resource management and relationship-building. Still another champions collaboration, empathy and high expectations, leading with a student-centered approach and cultivating a culture of belonging, accountability and excellence. These women are making a real difference in the lives of our children and the future of our community.

Back row, left to right: Laconya Issac (Sherwood Elementary), Staisey Hodge (Oak Grove Elementary), Zondria Campbell (Joe T. Robinson Middle), Dr. Kimberly Truslow (Oakbrooke Elementary), Neeley Claassen (Landmark Elementary), Anjelica Evans (College Station Elementary), Lisa Smith (Crystal Hill Elementary), Dr. Lisa Watson (Mills Middle), Stacy Bottoms (Cato Elementary), Britney Hickman (Sylvan Hills Elementary) Middle row, left to right: Janna Carr (Maumelle Middle), Tracy Bailey (Harris Elementary), Dr. Valencia Essel (Baker Elementary), Michele Pickett (Joe T. Robinson Elementary), Yolanda Thomas (Pine Forest Elementary), Michelle Camp (Joe T. Robinson High), Felecia Hamilton (William Jefferson Clinton Elementary) Front row, left to right: Masako Christian (Daisy Bates Elementary), Jessica Duff (Executive Director of Communications), Dr. Sonya Whitfield (Deputy Superintendent of Learning Services), Dr. Yolaundra Williams (Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources) Not Pictured: Yolanda Harris (Chenal Elementary), Dr. Janice Warren (Assistant Superintendent for Student Services), Jacqueline Rowlett (District Treasurer), Monica Bryant (Director of Accounting) Photography by Brian Chilson

Women in Charge

WOMEN IN WELLNESS

STACEY REYNOLDS

OWNER OF BLUE YOGA NYLA STUDIO YOGA THERAPIST IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

Stacey Reynolds, the heart and soul behind Blue Yoga Nyla, has dedicated 24 years to wellness, transforming her own healing into a powerful force for good. As her passion ignited, she discovered the profound ability of yoga to not only mend her body but to “love people through yoga,” creating a ripple effect of healing and connection. Blue Yoga Nyla isn’t just a studio. It’s a sanctuary. From the vibrant senior classes to the “pay what you can” philosophy that ensures accessibility, Stacey’s commitment to inclusivity shines. She sees yoga as more than a physical practice; it’s a doorway to mental, physical and spiritual connection, a vital resource in today’s stressful world. Her advice to women with a dream? Start small, learn from mistakes, build a strong support system, and be prepared to wear all the hats – from CEO to janitor. Find something meaningful that fills your cup so you can pour it into others. “Every single day can be a memorable moment,” Stacey says. A Blue Yoga Nyla, she’s creating them, one breath at a time.

CATHERINE FOTHERGILL

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR BALLET ARKANSAS

Catherine

Fothergill brings a wealth of experience and passion to the Little Rock arts scene. Hailing from Alabama, Catherine’s rigorous training included studies at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under Marcia Dale Weary before dancing as a principal ballerina with Alabama Ballet for over a decade. Her repertoire spans classical masterpieces and contemporary works by renowned choreographers.

Beyond performance, Catherine’s academic achievements, including summa cum laude degrees in sociology and international studies, showcase her dedication and intellect. Since joining Ballet Arkansas in 2017, she’s revitalized the company’s repertoire and spearheaded the creation of its School for Dance. Catherine’s leadership extends to staging classics, collaborating with choreographers and overseeing education programs.

Her contributions have helped Ballet Arkansas achieve national acclaim including being ranked among the top 75 ballet companies in America. Her expertise is sought nationally and internationally, where she serves as a guest instructor and repetiteur. She’s also shared her knowledge at prestigious institutions in Japan and the United States. Catherine’s multifaceted career, blending artistic excellence with educational leadership, makes her an inspiring figure in the arts.

Headshot Courtesy of Ballet Arkansas and Matthew Sewell Photography

WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Events Manager

BONNA SANATHONG

CJOANN (JOJO)

Server Extraordinaire General Manager

ourtney Wellborn is a beacon of leadership in Little Rock’s hospitality scene. With 17 years of experience under her belt, she understands that running a successful restaurant isn’t a solo act; it’s a symphony of teamwork. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter how dedicated one person is, it always takes a team,’ she says. At Cache, where she caters to a high-caliber clientele, teamwork is paramount. Courtney feels passionately about changing the perception of the restaurant industry. “It can be a career and something you can be proud of,” she said, challenging the stigma of it being just a ‘job.’ She’s also a champion for Little Rock’s culinary scene, highlighting the city’s and Cache’s talented chefs and unique dining experiences. “We have many wonderful talented chefs that use amazing ingredients and recipes here,” she said. One of her greatest achievements is the strong team she’s

Photography by Brian Chilson

COURTNEY WELLBORN

built, including events manager, Bonna Sanathong, and server extraordinaire, Joann “JoJo” Sims. “We’re now the ‘little Cache family,’ and I don’t know what I would do without them,” she shares, noting that 10 employees have been with Cache since the beginning. This loyalty speaks volumes about her and the owner’s leadership. Her leadership style is collaborative and hands-on. “Every job is everyone’s job,” she says, leading by example and tackling any task. “I take pride in doing and handling whatever needs to get done to keep things moving forward and running smoothly.” She aims to inspire others to see hospitality as a fulfilling career path. “I think the biggest thing is to make sure that people see this as a career, not just a stepping stone,” she says. As a young general manager, she’s demonstrating that women can excel in this dynamic industry through dedication and teamwork.

WOMEN IN HOSPITALITY

MIND, BODY & SOUL

When we think about improving our health, we often focus solely on the physical aspects of who we are, but there’s more to it than that. The mind, body and soul are a three-part harmony that makes us who we are. When one feels out of sync, the others work overtime to fill that space. In our Mind, Body & Soul section, we offer the resources and organizations that specialize in healing, improving and building our resilience for all three.

RECLAIMING YOUR INNER PEACE

HOW TO NURTURE WELL-BEING IN A BUSY WORLD

BY CALEB PATTON

In our increasingly hectic world, we're constantly bombarded with stimuli — notifications pinging on our phones, demands from work and family, and the ever-present hum of societal expectations. It’s no wonder we often feel overwhelmed, stressed and disconnected from ourselves. We talk about detoxing the physical but what about the need to detox the mental and emotional? Just like our bodies accumulate toxins, our minds and spirits can become clogged with negativity, worry and the residue of daily life. Taking the time to cleanse these inner landscapes is crucial for our overall well-being.

Think of your mind as a bustling city street. Constant traffic, flashing lights and the cacophony of sounds can leave you frazzled and exhausted. A mental detox is like finding a quiet park within that city, a place where you can escape the noise and find some peace. It's about consciously clearing out the mental clutter — the nagging anxieties, the repetitive negative thoughts, the endless to-do lists that swirl around in your head. This might involve taking a break from social media, which can be a major source of stress and comparison. It

could mean practicing mindfulness or meditation, learning to observe your thoughts without judgment and letting them pass like clouds in the sky. Perhaps it’s simply carving out time for activities that bring you joy and relaxation, whether it’s reading a book, listening to music or spending time in nature. The goal is to create space for clarity, focus and a sense of calm.

Our souls often get neglected in the hustle and bustle of modern life. We're so busy taking care of everyone else’s needs that we forget to nurture our inner selves. A soul detox is about reconnecting with your values, passions, and purpose. It’s about asking yourself what truly matters to you and aligning your actions with those values. This might involve spending time in nature, feeling the sun on your skin and the earth beneath your feet. It could mean engaging in creative pursuits that allow you to express yourself, whether it’s painting, writing, playing music or dancing. Perhaps it’s about spending time with loved ones, connecting on a deeper level and sharing meaningful experiences. It might even involve seeking guidance from a therapist or spiritual advisor, someone who can help you 

At Argenta Counseling, the mission is simple yet profound — to provide compassionate, personalized mental health care that empowers individuals to thrive. In the heart of North Little Rock, Argenta Counseling offers a safe and welcoming environment where clients can explore their challenges and discover paths to healing. The dedicated team of licensed therapists brings diverse expertise in areas like anxiety, depression, trauma, relationships and life transitions. Argenta Counseling believes that mental wellness is essential for overall well-being and is committed to growth through evidence-based therapies tailored to each client’s needs. Whether you're seeking individual therapy, couples counseling, or family support, Argenta Counseling will walk alongside you. With a deep commitment to inclusivity, respect and understanding, the professionals at Argenta Counseling strive to make mental health care accessible and stigma-free for everyone. At Argenta Counseling, your well-being is not just a priority — it's a promise.

argentacounseling.com, 513 Main St. North Little Rock, 501-777-5969.

Facing the challenges of dementia care? Alzheimer’s Arkansas offers free, compassionate support for family caregivers across the state. Since 1984, we've provided vital resources, from educational workshops and respite activities to financial assistance and support groups, both in-person and virtual.

We understand the emotional journey of caregiving and offer a safe, restorative community. Our programs, including our award-winning podcast and Dementia Friends training, are designed to empower and comfort. With over 25,000 caregiver touches in 2024 alone, we're dedicated to making a real difference.

Join us in creating an Arkansas where caregivers are valued and supported. Your contributions help us provide vital support. Watch caregiver stories and learn how you can help at our website.

alzark.org, 201 Markham Center Drive, 501-224-0021.

THE GOAL IS TO CREATE SPACE FOR CLARITY, FOCUS AND A SENSE OF CALM.

explore your inner landscape and navigate life's challenges. The key is to create space for introspection, self-discovery and genuine connection with yourself and the world around you.

Detoxing your mind, body and soul isn’t a quick fix or a one-time event. It's an ongoing process, a commitment to prioritize your well-being and cultivate a healthier, more balanced way of life. It's about recognizing the importance of selfcare and making it a non-negotiable part of your routine. By taking the time to cleanse and nourish your inner self, you'll not only feel lighter and more energized, you’ll also be better equipped to handle the stresses of life and experience a deeper sense of fulfillment. It’s an investment in yourself and the returns are immeasurable.

If you are struggling with mental health challenges or need mental and emotional assistance, find more information about our partners throughout this section who have the tools and expertise to help you today.

Discover a beacon of hope and healing at Haven Detox in Little Rock. As a trusted destination for detoxification services, Haven Detox provides compassionate care and support for individuals seeking to break free from the grip of substance abuse. The Little Rock facility offers a safe and nurturing environment where clients can confidently embark on their recovery journey.

Haven Detox employs an experienced team of professionals dedicated to providing personalized treatment plans tailored to meet the unique needs of each individual. The staff ensures a comfortable detoxification process through evidence-based therapies and medical supervision. The team uses a holistic approach that addresses the physical, emotional, and psychological aspects of addiction, empowering clients to achieve lasting sobriety.

With a focus on long-term wellness, Haven Detox equips clients with the tools and resources needed to maintain their recovery beyond their time in treatment.

arkansasrecovery.com, 5201 Stagecoach Rd, Little Rock

Youth Villages Inc. is dedicated to transforming the lives of children, young adults and families through proven, individualized mental and behavioral health services. With a mission to help children and families thrive, Youth Villages provides intensive in-home support, foster care services and specialized programs for those aging out of the foster system. Its team of compassionate professionals addresses trauma, emotional

and behavioral struggles and family instability — offering hope and lasting change. Focusing on evidence-based treatment and long-term success, Youth Villages empowers young people to build strong foundations for the future. Whether through intervention, mentorship or family restoration, its impact extends beyond crisis care, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to lead a healthy, fulfilling life.

youthvillages.org, 2024 Arkansas Valley Dr. Suite 402, 501-227-8466.

TOP FIVE RELAXATION TIPS FOR WHEN THINGS FEEL TOO HEAVY

1. PRACTICE MINDFUL BREATHING. Focus on breathing, inhaling and exhaling slowly. When negative thoughts arise, gently acknowledge them and return to your breath. Even a few minutes of this will calm mental chatter and reduce anxiety.

2. ENGAGE IN GENTLE STRETCHING OR YOGA. Simple stretches release muscle tension and improve circulation. Pay attention to your body's sensations, promoting physical awareness and reducing stress in the body.

3. SPEND TIME IN NATURE. Observe the natural world around you, whether it's a park or your backyard. Connecting with nature fosters a sense of peace and wonder, nurturing your inner self.

4. PRACTICE GRATITUDE JOURNALING. Write down three things you're grateful for each day. This shifts your focus to positive aspects of life, promoting optimism and reducing negative thought patterns.

5. LISTEN TO CALMING MUSIC OR SOUNDS. Instrumental music, nature sounds or even white noise can create a tranquil atmosphere, allowing your soul to find peace and quiet.

LOCAL RESOURCE

The Centers provides comprehensive care for Arkansans, addressing mind and body. Now offering behavioral health, primary medical care and pharmacy services, The Centers supports emotional, social and physical wellness for children, adolescents, adults and families.

Additional services include:

• Outpatient counseling for all ages

• Substance use counseling

• Child and adolescent residential treatment

• Adult disability residential programming

• Therapeutic foster care

• Day treatment

• Other high-quality, innovative programs and services

The Centers also serves as the region’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and is home to Arkansas’ only nationally-recognized human trafficking treatment program. The Centers has physical locations in Little Rock and Monticello, offers appointments via telehealth, and operates a 24/7/365 Crisis Hotline (888-868-0023).

thecentersar.com, 6601 W. 12th Street, 501-664-4308.

Treating Treating Body & Mind Body & Mind

Experience comprehensive healthcare tailored to your needs at The Centers. Our medical clinic offers quick and easy scheduling and accepts most insurance plans. Our team of skilled therapists provides specialized counseling services for children, adolescents and adults. Plus, our on-site pharmacy makes filling prescriptions simple and convenient.

Discover the difference in care at The Centers today!

Work for families and become part of one.

Work for families and become part of one.

“I love helping youth, and I love what I do. This isn’t work to me. This is a passion.”

“I love helping youth, and I love what I do. This isn’t work to me. This is a passion.”

– Thurmeisha

– Thurmeisha

White, Youth Villages employee

White, Youth Villages employee

It takes a family to find just where you belong.

It takes a family to find just where you belong.

Creative, adaptable, focused, resilient and determined. Is this you?

Creative, adaptable, focused, resilient and determined. Is this you?

The right path feels less like a job and more like a calling. Is this you?

The right path feels less like a job and more like a calling. Is this you?

Doesn’t shy away from hard work with a powerful payo . Is this you?

Doesn’t shy away from hard work with a powerful payo . Is this you?

A company with national reach that feels like a family. That’s Youth Villages.

A company with national reach that feels like a family. That’s Youth Villages.

youthvillages.org/careers

youthvillages.org/careers

IDLE HANDS

WAYS TO KEEP YOUR BODY AND MIND

BUSY

KNITTING

Knitting offers a soothing, repetitive motion that can be deeply meditative. The act of creating something tangible, whether a scarf or a sweater, provides a sense of accomplishment and focus, effectively diverting attention from negative thought patterns. The rhythmic click of the needles and the soft texture of the yarn can be incredibly calming, making it a perfect activity for stress relief.

BAKING

Baking engages multiple senses and offers a different kind of satisfaction. Measuring ingredients, mixing dough and watching a creation rise in the oven can be incredibly grounding. The aroma of spices and the taste of a freshly baked treat can be a powerful mood booster. Baking allows for creative expression, and sharing your creations with others can foster a sense of connection and joy.

PUZZLES

Puzzles, whether jigsaw or logic-based, provide a mental challenge that requires focus and concentration. The act of piecing together a puzzle can be a calming and absorbing activity, allowing you to escape from daily worries. The satisfaction of completing a challenging puzzle can be immense, boosting self-esteem and providing a sense of accomplishment. The problem-solving aspect of puzzles can also help to sharpen cognitive skills and improve mental clarity. 

From its humble beginnings 33 years ago to the present, Arkansas Hospice has built a strong, trusted reputation and is now the state’s largest nonprofit provider of hospice and palliative care. This legacy has grown into the Arkansas Hospice Family of Care which provides expert care for Arkansans, where they are – both in terms of where they live and their stage of life or illness.

This continuum of care includes:

First Choice Senior Care: In-home, non-medical personal care for clients in Central Arkansas.

Arkansas Advanced Care: Primary care for seniors, where they live.

Arkansas Palliative Care: Expert pain and symptom management for patients at any stage of serious illness receiving curative treatment.

Arkansas Hospice: Quality care during life’s final months, often in patients’ own homes or other places of residence.

To see how Arkansas Hospice’s Family of Care offers expert care, where you are, please visit ArkansasHospice.org. 501-748-3333.

Pinnacle Pointe Behavioral Healthcare provides a full continuum of behavioral health care services. We specialize in mental health treatment for children and adolescents ages 5-17 who are struggling with emotional or behavioral health issues. Our programs include acute inpatient care, sub-acute (long-term) inpatient care, school-based therapy services, and outpatient services. 11501 Financial Centre Parkway, Little Rock, AR 72211; 501-223-3322; Pinnaclepointehospital.com

DUBIOUS RECEPTION: Though his work was embraced by white people, many African Americans took offense at artist Dewitt Jordan’s renderings of the field lives they were working so hard to leave behind.

‘LAYERS OF PAINT, THAT BUILD AND BUILD AND BUILD’

REMEMBERING THE LIFE OF ARKANSAS ARTIST DEWITT JORDAN.

BY FREDERICK MCKINDRA PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

Killed at age 44 by a gunshot fired by his fiancee’s brother, Arkansas painter Dewitt Jordan left a complicated legacy. There’s something not quite cartoonish but also not quite real about the rounded eyes of the men and women he painted in the middle decades of the 20th century. Whether those doe eyes are an exercise in realism or a message to his audience about the subjects’ personalities is unclear. Perhaps he was suggesting that the roughness of the times in which they lived had failed to blunt their humanity, or perhaps it was a playful riff on the high art tradition of portraiture that inspired Jordan’s output. Either way, the viewer can’t escape the feeling that on some level, Jordan himself wasn’t chuckling.

Then again, Jordan’s paintings range far and wide in tone and format. Starkly less intimate than his portraits, but no less vibrant, were his tableaus of cotton fields and riverboats pulling into port — landscapes inspired by his work as a backdrop painter and sketch artist in the 1950s for Warner Bros. “He just painted what he saw,” said Victor Jordan, the artist’s son, who, as a teenager, lived with his father near Memphis.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on Dec. 14, 1932,

to Dewitt Sr. and Frank Ella Jordan, Dewitt Jordan moved as a child to Helena (in Phillips County, and now known as Helena-West Helena), where his mother took over operations of the family’s funeral home. His father worked on a 1,200-acre farm that, along with an additional funeral home and a fleet of automobiles, formed a successful family-owned, African-American business in Helena that lasted into the late 1960s. One of the family’s funeral homes, Jackson Highley Funeral Home of Helena-West Helena, still exists today.

“Dewitt Sr. was kind of a dandy, always dressed to the hilt,” remembered Henry Jordan (no relation, aside from being the family’s business insurer in Helena). “But Frank Ella made all the decisions.”

Henry Jordan recalled the burgeoning artist saying that he learned to paint humans realistically by working with the cadavers at the family’s funeral home. Some of his earliest work was sketches he made of corpses, alongside the images he studied in art books from the public library.

After graduating from the segregated Eliza Miller High School in Helena, Dewitt Jordan studied at Tennessee State University and Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio (now Central

State University). He moved to California and studied at the California School of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, San Francisco State University and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He married Elsbeth Foster and had two sons, Anthony and Eric.

Dewitt Jordan concluded his studies and moved back to Helena, but the time away from home had changed the settings on his artistic lens. “When I finished school and went back home to Arkansas,” he told the Memphis-based Commercial Appeal in 1968, “I saw my people in a different light.”

In a space above the family funeral home, Dewitt Jordan painted many of the musicians he encountered in the local blues joints, where he spent time drinking and listening to music.

He fathered three more children in Helena, Victor, Vince and Cynthia, and made inroads in the art scene. Notably, he met George Hunt, who became an early advocate of his work in the region.

“A dude who frequented my mother-in-law’s place, the Dreamland Cafe, kept telling me, ‘You ought to see Dewitt Jordan’s work,’” Hunt said. “He kept at me to see this guy’s art, so finally I went around the corner from the cafe to Jordan’s Funeral Home, which was run by Dewitt’s family, and as soon as I walked in the foyer I was blown away by a small painting depicting death as a winged angel coming to get a man. There was something Rembrandtish about it. Somebody said, ‘Dewitt did that when he was 15.’”

‘HELL, MAN, THAT’S THE SOUTH’

With Hunt’s encouragement, Dewitt Jordan moved to Memphis and found patrons there. “Sometime in 1963, Jordan read in the Memphis Press-Scimitar that a developer was looking for a large painting of a steamboat scene to hang in the main lobby of a 14-story combination hotel and apartment complex that was nearing completion,” wrote Arkansas historian Bobby Roberts.

“The building, known as the Rivermont, sat atop a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and for many years dominated the skyline along the river. Jordan got in touch with the developer, Harry Bloomfield, who came by Jordan’s house, liked [his] painting and purchased [a piece] for $3,500. It was a nice commission in the 1960s for a relatively unknown artist — equivalent to about $35,000 in 2024. More importantly, the patronage gave Jordan access to the white elites in Memphis.

“One, and perhaps two, of Jordan’s paintings hung in Memphis’s prestigious Top of the 100 Club, which sat atop the city’s tallest building at 100 N. Main St.,” Roberts wrote. “And, in 1974, two of his Mississippi River paintings were centerpieces of the newly constructed Holly Hills Country Club in Cordova, Tennessee. Both projects were developed by

UNCANNY PORTRAITS: There’s something not quite cartoonish but also not quite real about the rounded eyes of the men and women Dewitt Jordan painted in the middle decades of the 20th century. The three portraits above hang in the homes of Bobby L. Roberts in Little Rock and Vance St. Columbia in Helena-West Helena.

Jordan’s patron, Harry Bloomfield.”

“He and George Hunt were good friends,” Victor Jordan said, “and George was a success ful, accomplished artist as well, even though their themes were different … You could see the thought patterns that would coincide with each other’s method of thinking.”

Dewitt Jordan defended his work from crit icism he may have taken from the Black com munity. Arriving in Memphis at the height of the civil rights movement, many African Americans took offense at Dewitt Jordan’s renderings of the field lives they were working so hard to leave be hind.

“Whites see my work and accept me as an artist. They value my paintings if not me,” he told the Commercial Appeal in 1968. “But on the other side, my people don’t appreciate my art and tell me, ‘What’s with this art? You ain’t nothing but a n—. You ain’t no good.’ Negroes say I degrade them because I [paint] pictures of the old stereotype.”

But Dewitt Jordan insisted his portrayal of the American South was reality and worthy of depiction. “Hell, man, that’s the South,” he said. “The South is not some cabin on a grassy hill. It’s people, my people and the white bossman and it’s America because the South is in America.”

“He painted what he saw in the South,” Vic tor Jordan said of his father’s work. “I think people bought his work because of [his] tal ent, right? Yeah. I don’t necessarily think that they bought his work because they wanted the South to remain. He captured a place in time as far as I’m concerned. That should show us how far we have come.”

Given America’s sustained wrangling over the depiction and meaning of Black laboring bodies, it’s not surprising that Dewitt Jordan’s work drew such radically different responses from these oppositional contingents. But therein lies the enduring relevance of his artistic output, its dual gestures toward nostalgia and lived reality.

‘HE’S

A LITTLE KOOKY’

On the Memphis scene, Dewitt Jordan was regarded as an eccentric — one who occasionally ran afoul of the law. He drank Scotch, and painted nude while listening to classical music. Caught in such a state by some farmers who called the sheriff to complain about his behavior, the sheriff brushed it off, the artist recalled in the Commercial Appeal in 1977.

“The sheriff told the farmers, ‘That’s Dewitt. He’s an artist. He’s a little kooky.’”

“‘I don’t like your personality but I like your paintings,’ the sheriff said.” And then he bought three of Dewitt’s works.

“He wasn’t part of white society,” Henry Jordan said. “He was on the outside, ’cos Blacks were. But he could do something that they wanted, and he knew it. He was a hustler, I’m telling you.”

“I don’t know all the details, but somewhere

LANDSCAPE MASTER: Dewitt Jordan’s paintings range far and wide in tone and format. Starkly less intimate than his portraits, but no less vibrant, were his tableaus, inspired by his work as a backdrop painter and sketch artist in the 1950s for Warner Bros. At right, Victor Jordan poses in downtown Helena-West Helena.

“HE LEFT THE LEGACY BEHIND FOR PEOPLE TO BUILD ON.”

—VICTOR JORDAN, SON OF ARTIST DEWITT JORDAN

[his mother, Frank Ella] called me and knew I was from Memphis,” Henry Jordan said. “And said Dewitt was in jail. I can’t remember whether it was a DUI or what, but it could have been a lot of things, fighting. Anything. So she asked me if I could help. And, believe it or not, one of my dear friends was a judge up there? Now, he wouldn’t appreciate me now telling you that he used his influence to let him out. Anyway, it helped and got him released.

“And for that, she helped me get a painting. I assume she brought it to my office.”

Another friend of Henry Jordan’s, a doctor, had obtained some of Dewitt Jordan’s sketches, he recalled. “Dewitt convinced him to let him take them to [LeMoyne-Owen] College in Memphis for a display and he never saw them again. Dewitt was a scoundrel. Like I told you, he was very full of himself, and he could be overbearing and he took advantage of his art.”

‘THIS IS WHAT I SAW’

But Dewitt Jordan is also remembered fondly by Victor Jordan, who recalled his father allowing him to stay up for hours into the night watching him paint. “I was 14 at the time … and I would just stay up with him all night. He’d say he’s going to do a painting. I’d be like, ‘Well, can I stay up and watch?’ And he’d say, ‘Yeah, you want to watch?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I want to stay up and watch,’ and I would. Stay up with him all night long. On a Friday night or a Saturday night.”

Dewitt Jordan maintained a relationship with his first champion, George Hunt, too, visiting Hunt’s classroom at one of Memphis’s historically Black high schools. Dewitt Jordan relished the role of volunteer teacher. “[The] only thing that kept him from being in the schools as a teacher was that he didn’t have his union card,” Hunt said.

When it comes to his father's legacy, complex and storied as it may be, Victor Jordan recalled him as a documentarian of the lives of rural Black people, willing to paint the past even when it made some Black viewers uncomfortable. “He left the legacy behind for people to build on. It’s like, this is where we are at this time. But we’re not always going to be here, so look back at this. And remember this and think about the price that your foreparents paid for you to be where you are today. As you’re standing there critiquing my work. As you want to forget your past and where you came from. Think about your relatives and your ancestors. They paid this particular price for you now to be an attorney, for you now to be a doctor, for you now to be a lawyer. For you to be an educator, an inventor or whatever it is you chose or ended up being as you progressed with the talents and abilities you were blessed with. This is my talent. These are my abilities and this is what I saw.”

GROWING COMMUNITY

URBAN FARMING TAKES ROOT IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

BY PHILLIP POWELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

LOCAL FARMING:

Margie Raimondo instructs families on how to grow food as part of her nonprofit urban farm, Urbana Farmstead.

OOn a small plot in south Little Rock that was once a junkyard, chef Margie Raimondo leans on her Italian heritage to shape the mission of her nonprofit urban farm, Urbana Farmstead. There, just off of Arch Street Pike, Raimondo teaches cooking classes, instructing families on how to grow fruits and vegetables and use them in recipes that work for them.

“I think people need to learn to plant, grow, harvest and preserve their own food,” Raimondo said. “You do not have to have 12 acres of rolling hills to be a farmer. You just need a backyard, sunshine, soil and seeds.”

You can find proof of this across Little Rock, where a diverse movement of urban farmers aims to tackle food insecurity in a state long dominated by large, commercial agriculture but paradoxically plagued by hunger.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that between 2021 and 2023, an average of 570,000 households in Arkansas experienced food insecurity, meaning a lack of reliable access to food. At the same time, over 40% of the land in the state is farmland and the agriculture economy, driven by large corporations like Tyson Foods and massive farming operations in the Arkansas Delta, created over $20 billion in

WELLNESS

PLOT: Dena Patterson provides fresh produce through her urban farm, Serenity Urban Wellness, in South End, a historically Black community with a shortage of grocery stores.

“IT HURTS ME THAT FAMILIES I KNOW DON’T HAVE FOOD. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO FOOD.”

—MARGIE RAIMONDO

revenue for the state.

The disconnect here, as Raimondo emphasized to the Arkansas Times, is that many of the agricultural products grown across the state are destined for export and not necessarily to feed local communities.

“It hurts me that families I know don’t have food,” Raimondo said. “Food is the lowest common denominator. We all need food. Everyone should have the right to food.”

Raimondo grew up in a large ItalianAmerican family in Los Angeles, where growing and cooking with their own produce was central to their family identity.

She moved to Little Rock in 2018 and married her husband, Chris Beaver, who owns a farming supply company that operates at the same Arch Street Pike property. At first she intended to convert the former junkyard plot into a new restaurant; Raimondo previously ran a restaurant in Little Rock called Southern Table. But after the pandemic derailed those plans, she realized that many of her new neighbors were in need of fresh produce.

Raimondo’s neighborhood is in an area that the U.S. Census Bureau deems both low-income and low vehicle access, though the agency stops short of labeling it a “food desert,” an area where low-income people struggle to access food. Areas designated as food deserts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture can qualify for programs like the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which provides assistance to retailers operating in underserved areas. So, Raimondo’s farm and other urban farms are attempting to bridge the gap for areas that don’t qualify for larger federal assistance.

Now, when a person drives up to Urbana Farmstead, they’ll be greeted by a colorful sign and see a small, gated plot with a few scattershot buildings and a towering high tunnel garden along with a few chickens flitting around the land. But on a couple of acres, Raimondo is teaching classes and workshops to families and schools on how to cook farm-to-table meals, can and preserve food, and learn how each fruit and vegetable can be used in a recipe.

As a chef and gardener, Raimondo sees ways in which her skill set can chip away at barriers to that access.

While the nonprofit offers classes, workshops and other services to families and schools, Raimondo also has a business where she hosts and cooks for private events to help fund the social mission, and operates a farm stand where she sells produce and products she makes, along with imports from Italy like olive oil and pasta.

Other urban agriculture proponents across the city are trying different models. On another small urban plot, Dena Patterson and Gabe El-Bey partner to grow fresh produce in South End, a historically Black community

FRESH PRODUCE: James Campbell, a volunteer, plants lettuce at South End Community Garden.

with a shortage of grocery stores.

El-Bey has been farming for years, making a living off a few small plots in Little Rock and selling his produce out of a small farm stand. He calls his urban farm Turtle Island G.K.

“I come from a bloodline of sharecroppers,” El-Bey said. “As far as I can remember I was chopping cotton, harvesting peas, selling watermelons, whatever. It’s an agriculture town, a sharecropping town where I’m from.”

A descendant of sharecroppers from Elaine (Phillips County), El-Bey’s ancestors were murdered in the Elaine Massacre of 1919, when hundreds of Black people were killed by white vigilantes after sharecroppers gathered to organize for better wages, resulting in one of the deadliest racial conflicts in U.S. history. Nearly a century later, El-Bey continues his ancestors’ farming tradition despite the economic challenges of making small farming profitable.

While Arkansas at large suffers from food insecurity, the issue is pronounced in Little Rock and especially in Black communities like South End. Large grocery chains like Kroger are scarce in downtown neighborhoods, making access to fresh, nutritious produce even less accessible. El-Bey mostly farms greens like collard greens and spinach, and he views his efforts as trying to address the shortage of produce.

Patterson also descends from Black landowners in the Delta, but didn’t become interested in farming herself until she met El-Bey in Little Rock. Her nonprofit, Serenity Urban Wellness, partners with Turtle Island G.K. to add community wellness and educational programming to the farm, with yoga classes and education programs that teach youth how to grow and harvest food.

“Wellness is not only what you eat, it’s what you think and it’s how you live,” Patterson said. She emphasizes a holistic approach to wellness in her classes and engagement with the community.

Together, Patterson and El-Bey have used grant money to build a high tunnel, which protects plants and allows farmers to grow more months of the year. They’ve also been able to hire two people who are helping with growing and delivering fresh produce to elders, single moms and others.

But they are concerned about keeping the operation going once the grant runs out. Farming is a notoriously challenging business, and Patterson and El-Bey will need to expand farm stand sales to cover their overhead in order to remain financially stable.

Despite the challenges ahead, the Turtle Island G.K. and Serenity Urban Wellness team is optimistic about the future of the project, especially because of the young people on board.

“That’s why we get the youth involved,”

Patterson said. “If they haven’t been taught, haven’t been around it and don’t understand the importance of how to grow your own food, then how would they know? You do the fun stuff and throw the education on top of the fun stuff, and we can keep it sustainable.”

When it comes to infrastructure, high tunnels and farm stands are the glue holding the Little Rock urban agriculture community together. Farm stands allow small growers like Raimondo, El-Bey and Patterson to control the sale of their produce and connect with customers. And high tunnels allow smaller growers to grow more each season and protect their crops.

One of the largest farm stands is at the St. Joseph Center in North Little Rock, a former orphanage known since 2015 as a place where Central Arkansans can go to buy Arkansasgrown pantry staples and produce — and hang out with baby goats.

But behind the scenes of the retail farm stand, St. Joseph Center has taken a leading role in the urban growing movement with the Growing Urban Farmers program, in which groups of farmers gather weekly to share knowledge and work through problems.

Building community is an essential part

FARM SPACE: Monica Woods, the facilitator of St. Joseph Center’s Growing Urban Farmers program, left, assists volunteers at St. Joseph’s high tunnel in North Little Rock. Travis DeLongchamp, above, plants produce in the St. Joseph high tunnel, which protects plants and allows famers to grow more months of the year.

of what St. Joseph is trying to accomplish, Monica Woods, the program’s facilitator, said. And through a grant from the USDA, they provide space for four local farmers to grow produce in St. Joseph’s four high tunnels and connect consumers with local farmers through the farm stand.

Woods sees St. Joseph Center as central to the area’s urban farming movement.

“We are turning into a concierge service of local farmers and the local food network,” Woods said, helping farmers scale up their businesses. “Maybe they are a community gardener or maybe they have a backyard growing spot, but they want to start bringing in revenue. … There are a lot of people who want to get started but they don’t know how.”

She finds that since the pandemic, many of the people who have reached out for resources to start farming are concerned about food insecurity, along with health and environmental concerns with the global food system. Concerns vary from person to person, but Woods said common things she hears from aspiring urban farmers are their desire to live healthier lifestyles from the land by reducing their consumption of processed foods and to reduce their plastic waste and

carbon footprints.

Along with the weekly farmers’ meeting, Woods hosts field days and workshops on essential skills, like a blackberry pruning field day she held in late February to help farmers learn how to remove dead or diseased blackberry canes. She estimates the program assists around 20 farmers consistently, but she has helped over 50 farmers connect with farming assistance or federal resources.

St. Joseph will launch a once-a-week farmers market in April, creating another revenue stream for local farmers it supports.

The weekly farmers market will be an addition to the seasonal markets the center has already been hosting on the property. By making the farmers market an event with live music and entertainment, Woods hopes they can expand opportunities for both farmers and consumers.

“Trying to bring in as many growers as we can will be positive and beneficial,” Woods said. “We have a little bit of a bird’s-eye view of who is doing what and how we can connect them to our market. How can we support them? I’m trying to connect people and create more room for collaboration and access to local food.”

SUNNY SIDE UP

CATCH THE BREAK OF DAWN AT ROSIE’S POT & KETTLE CAFE.

BY RHETT BRINKLEY

If one were compiling a list of Little Rock dining experience goals for the new year, catching the sunrise over breakfast at Rosie’s Pot & Kettle Cafe should absolutely make the cut.

Situated east of Interstate 30 in Central Flying Service’s flight training facility at 2301 Crisp Drive at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Rosie’s eastfacing windows offer an expansive view of the skies, where you can simultaneously eat an impossibly fluffy scratch-made biscuit while catching the first light of dawn over the horizon. Rosie’s morning twilight entertainment also includes planes taking off or taxiing into the adjacent ramp, bottomless coffee, friendly service and playful banter between coowner Katie McDaniel and the diner’s regular morning breakfast club. Are Arkansas Times photographer Brian Chilson and I now a part of that breakfast club? Probably not, but at Rosie’s, it feels like we could be.

The diner opens at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday. We heard about the excellent picturesque views from McDaniel, who has become a Little Rock sunrise archivist since she and partners Alisha Black and Liz Maxey moved the restaurant from its original location, about a mile down the road on Bond Avenue, to the airport in January 2024. Fittingly, when I walked into the diner on a Tuesday morning in late January, McDaniel was

capturing the magic of daybreak with her phone pressed up against the glass, a trick she’s learned to reduce the reflection from the window.

“She’s up there against the glass every morning,” a regular told me, adding that McDaniel gets excited when a sunrise overperforms. “It’s not a bad view,” he said.

Chilson and I both ordered two egg platters with breakfast potatoes. I opted for scrambled eggs with crispy bacon; Chilson went with eggs over medium paired with sausage. We also split a double stack of pancakes for good measure.

The light morning cloud cover made for a vibrant sunrise, and the whole spectacular show lasted about as long as it takes to polish off the morning meal. It was perfect and fleeting and suddenly time to go to work.

Also of note: If, like me, you’ve been craving pie after revisiting the work of writer/director David Lynch following his death on Jan. 15, Rosie’s has excellent house-made options at lunch and “a damn fine cup of coffee” to go along with it that would make Special Agent Dale Cooper from Lynch’s unparalleled “Twin Peaks” proud.

I haven’t spotted cherry pie on the menu, but something tells me Rosie’s fresh strawberry pie could easily warm its way to Special Agent Dale Cooper’s tender heart.

MARCH

MARCH

1st - DeFrance 7th - TBA

8th - Mama Said String Band 14th - Pretend Friend

15th - St. Patrick’s Day Party w/ The Crumbs! 21st - Ed Bowman and the Rock City Players

BEYOND THE BUD

RYAN KENAGA, DRIVING CANNABIS EXCELLENCE AT RIVER VALLEY RELIEF. BY

TRICIA LARSON

When you meet Ryan Kenaga, president of River Valley Relief, you quickly realize he’s not just a cannabis entrepreneur — he’s on a mission. With a passion for cannabis and a knack for innovation, he’s carved out a unique place in Arkansas’s competitive medical cannabis market. His story is as twisty as the rivers he loves to fish, and his hands-on leadership has taken River Valley Relief from a Fort Smith-based company to a standout brand committed to quality, community and care.

and a

on innovation and community care

HEY, BUD: A commitment to quality

focus

inspire Ryan Kenaga, president of Fort Smith-based River Valley Relief.

But Kenaga didn’t always envision himself in the cannabis world. His first dream? Designing skateboards and wakeboards — anything that screamed “outdoor sports.” Life, however, had other plans. After starting in design school, Kenaga pivoted to petroleum engineering, a move that, while unexpected, would prove serendipitous in his later cannabis career.

“In 2002, after school, I moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado,” Kenaga said. “While living in Colorado, I met some great individuals who had been growing for years and were planning to bring in investors and get ready to apply for a Colorado marijuana license.”

The realization that he could work at a legal grow facility and make a career out of it was all Kenaga needed to hear. “Say no more,” Kenaga said. “I’m all in.”

Rapid regulatory changes, new technologies and groundbreaking product innovations marked Kenaga's time in Colorado. Using his petroleum engineering background, Kenaga became skilled in cannabis oil extraction, developing techniques to capture beneficial plant properties and create “beautiful terpene-rich cannabis extracts.”

This expertise led to a stint in the industry’s extraction equipment and manufacturing side, where he worked on a project creating the industry’s first fully automated hydrocarbon extraction system.

“I spent many days on the road and long hours at cannabis expos all over the country consulting, training, building labs and installing extraction equipment in cannabis facilities everywhere,” Kenaga said. It was during this time he began consulting with River Valley Relief.

Shortly after forming their partnership, the cultivator asked Kenaga to come on board full time, which Kenaga said was a blessing. “I got the opportunity to get off the road,” Kenaga said. “I get to do what I love every day and go home to my wife and kids every night. A true dream come true.”

These days, Kenaga’s travels have slowed, but his days remain packed. River Valley Relief has become a standout in Arkansas’s medical cannabis scene, and Kenaga’s hands-on approach is a big part of that.

River Valley Relief’s mission is simple yet profound: to empower people facing medical and mental health challenges through safe, high-quality cannabis products. They’re not the biggest player in Arkansas, but

“I GET TO DO WHAT I LOVE EVERY DAY AND GO HOME TO MY WIFE AND KIDS EVERY NIGHT.

A TRUE DREAM COME TRUE.”

— RYAN KENAGA, PRESIDENT, RIVER VALLEY RELIEF

Kenaga makes it clear they’re determined to produce the best flowers in the state. He says River Valley Relief has implemented rigorous production methods and developed its in-house compliance program to ensure that “nothing but the best is produced and received by patients.”

Kenaga said River Valley Relief’s authentic approach sets them apart and makes them a leader. “We create the way, not follow,” he said.

The company’s focus on driving the market is evidenced by its partnership with Wana Brands, the largest gummy brand in the cannabis industry. “We wanted to bring Arkansas patients the opportunity to have a world-class gummy company in The Natural State,” Kenaga said.

Kenaga’s approach to the ever-evolving cannabis industry is all about staying ahead of the curve. He notes that patients and consumers are becoming more educated about cannabis. In turn, they are demanding new delivery methods and products.

That patients in Arkansas are becoming more savvy about cannabis is not by chance. River Valley Relief actively supports community-based education efforts that pair patients, physicians and advocates with the

canna-curious public.

River Valley Relief's commitment to Arkansans extends beyond extolling the virtues of cannabis. Kenaga says the company’s equity holders prioritize community giving, donating to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the Fort Smith Symphony, Fort Smith schools and local animal shelters. Kenaga said the company even donated time and covered expenses to repair youth baseball fields. River Valley Relief also serves as a revenue generator for the community. “We have created many well-paying jobs in Fort Smith and the surrounding area. These are solid positions with solid futures,” Kenaga said.

Kenaga is committed to his employees and says surrounding himself with a strong, hand-selected team helps him handle the stress and pressure of running a business in such a competitive and highly regulated industry.

“I hire and train individuals who I feel can help me navigate the complexities of this ever-changing industry and those who can help share the workload,” Kenaga said. “Building a solid team I can trust and rely on is crucial in this industry.”

What really drives Kenaga, though, is his desire to help patients. One of his most defining career moments in the cannabis industry was helping a young cancer patient during chemotherapy.

“The young patient’s parents and family came to us feeling defeated and hopeless with the care that their loved one was receiving and how harsh the traditional chemotherapy was on the young patient’s body,” Kenaga recalled. “They had done their own research, found out who we were and searched us out to find a method of incorporating cannabinoids in with their daughter's treatment plan.”

Kenaga said they created a custom formulation to alleviate her pain and help her regain her appetite. “After eight months on the specific cannabis oil formulation, combined with her traditional treatment methods, she got to ring the bell and was cancer-free,” Kenaga said. “This experience solidified my beliefs in the power of cannabis plant medicine and reinforced my commitment to providing the highest quality alternative treatment options for those in need.”

This article was first published in Arkansas Cannabis Times. Read more at arcannabistimes.com.

NOTICE OF FILING APPLICATIONS FOR SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES FOR CONSUMPTION ON THE PREMISES Notice is hereby given that the undersigned has filed an application with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the State of Arkansas for a permit to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises described as: 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd, Little Rock, 72207, Pulaski County. Said application was filed on January 22, 2025. The undersigned states that he/ she is a resident of Arkansas, of good moral character; that he/ she has never been convicted of a felony or other crime involving moral turpitude; that no license to sell alcoholic beverages by the undersigned has been revoked within five (5) years last past; and, that the undersigned has never been convicted of violating the laws of this State, or any other State, relative to the sale of controlled beverages. Name of Applicant: Jose De Jesus Valadez. Name of Business: Mucho Loco Mexican Restaurant. Sworn to before me this 23th day of January, 2025. Nathan Clay, Notary Public. My commission Expires: April 29th, 2034.

FIND THE PERFECT BREW AT THE CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL!

CULTIVATE YOUR TASTE FOR THE BEST BREWS

Tap into a world of flavor at the upcoming 12th Annual Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival, a celebration of all things hoppy and delicious. Mark your calendars for an evening of frothy fun as we gather to explore the exciting landscape of craft brewing. This year’s festival, a benefit for the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock, will be held at Argenta Plaza, located at Sixth and Main in downtown North Little Rock on Friday, March 28, from 6 to 9 p.m. Major thanks to supporting sponsors Edwards Food Giant for helping make this festival possible.

Prepare your palate for a delightful journey through the extensive selection of meticulously crafted beers and seltzers. And it isn’t just a local affair; we’re bringing in the best brews from across Arkansas and beyond, offering a diverse tasting experience for every beer enthusiast. From crisp, refreshing lagers to bold, hoppy IPAs and rich, velvety stouts, there’s a perfect pour waiting for you.

Get ready to pull a mouthwatering cold one from breweries including Lost Forty, Flyway, Vino’s, Wiseacre, Brick & Forge Taproom, Urban South, New Province, Stone’s Throw, Bentonville Brewing Co., Dogfish Head Brewery, Boulevard Brewing, Shiner Beer, Goose Island, Shock Top, Lazy Magnolia, Founders, Golden Road, Kona, Soul & Spirits, Elysian, Montucky, Avery, Goat Lab, Garage Beer, Martin House, Oskar Blues, Black Apple Cider, Moody Brews and more!

Beyond the impressive lineup of beverages, the festival offers a complete sensory experience. Local food trucks will be on hand serving up delectable treats to complement your chosen brews. And, to keep the atmosphere lively, get ready to groove to the sounds of “And Then Came Humans.”

For those looking for an elevated experience, a limited number of VIP tickets are available for $100 each. These coveted passes grant early entry at 5:30 p.m., access to exclusive, rare beers, dedicated VIP seating and a spread of catered food. Early bird tickets are available online for $30 until March 14, while general admission tickets are $40 online and $45 cash at the door.

From the use of locally sourced ingredients to the passion of the brewers themselves, each beer tells a story. Join us to celebrate this artistry and discover new favorites while enjoying a fantastic evening of community, music and, of course, exceptional beer. Come thirsty and ready to explore the vast and exciting world of craft brewing! Watch for Arkansas Times Events (ATE) on “Arkansas Style Show” on KARK 4.

COLD TURKEY

TThe Observer is trying to become a vegetarian. Or at least a pescatarian.

We made it a grand total of about 10 days in January on a fish-and-veggie diet before things started to go south. During that week and a half, we felt a bit lighter. Maybe it was the dawn of a shift in our metabolism, or maybe we’d lifted the weight of carnivorous guilt on our shoulders. Either way, it didn’t last. It turns out it’s important to do your research before you make big changes in your life. Who knew?

Here’s how it all started: Twice in the last year, the Arkansas Times has published stories that made us feel sad for the animals that wind up on our plate.

First, there was the story of the Northwest Arkansas chicken farmers who were raising birds for a company that went out of business. The solution to the leftover birds was to euthanize them. Really? Was that the best plan? (Warning: The faint of heart should skip the next paragraph).

Evidently, to dispose of the birds, people from some state agency swoop in and spray a suffocating foam over all of the birds. The birds die, the farm owners clean up the mess, the world goes on.

Then, in January, the Times reported on a plan that has since been withdrawn by a local burger chain to convert a warehouse into a slaughterhouse in an industrial area of North Little Rock. The neighbors raised such a stink that the proposal was taken off the table in February. Apparently, no one wants to live close to the smells and sounds that emanate

from a slaughterhouse.

The discussion about the now-defunct slaughterhouse proposal on social media was hot and heavy. One Facebook commenter smugly asked, “Did ya’ll think the meat grew on trees?“ No, but honestly, we don’t think about where our meat comes from. The food is in the grocery store, then it’s on a plate, then it’s in our tummy, then we take a nap. That’s as much thought as we ever gave it.

During our 10 days as a pescatarian, we were able to avoid hunger pangs (eggs, nuts and cheese helped), but we did notice we were really tired. We slept an entire weekend away and our to-do list was just as long on Monday morning as it had been on Friday night. And we noticed we felt sad and depressed for long periods of time.

Could it all be related to our changing diet?

We consulted with some smart folks in our lives — a pharmacist, a vegetarian doctor and a trying-to-be vegan personal trainer. They all suspected yes. Our caloric intake was getting too low. Instead of doing this cold turkey (a funny name for going off meat, in this case, we thought), we should have taken it slow. The doctor said it’s best to add new things to your plate (new types of veggie and proteins) before taking things off (chicken, beef). Makes sense.

We’re back on our normal diet for now. But we hope to give the fish-and-veggie routine another try in a more sensible and researched way next time — probably the next time we read a story about where meat comes from.