The Idle Class: The Knowledge Issue - Summer 2022

THE KNOWLEDGE ISSUE The Knowledge Issue

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VISIT 2

opera.org F O R

The Knowledge Issue

T I C K E T S & S C H E D U L E I N F O R M AT I O N

16311 Highway 62 West / Eureka Springs, AR / (479) 253-8595

@Artist Jason Jones

Sammy the Shrimp

by Asia Ward

Interplay: Bugs and Bulbs

by Jason Jones

The Incredible Electric Technicolored Mockingbird by Amanda Willshire

Launched in 2017, the Maker in Residence program continues to engage the public in the work of local, regional and national Makers and Artists.

Learn more at amazeum.org | 1009 Museum Way | Bentonville, AR 72712 | 479.696.9280 | Follow us @amazeum

Rainbow Springs

by Eugene Sargent

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THE 2022 BLACK APPLE AWARDS / 8-10 Black Apple made a comeback after two years away. Take a peek at the fun we had ato 214 in March.

A LIFE IN PIXELS / 16-19 Printgurl makes paintings and digital art that lies somewhere between Lisa Frank and Penthouse.

But now she’s facing her greatest challenge yet.

MULTI-DAMENTIONAL / 11 Damen Tolbert is a musician of many talents. We catch up with the jazz man before his new album drops.

EMPATHY MACHINE / 25 Filmmakers Ayana Baraka and Spade Robinson discuss how they brought the Tulsa Race Massacre to life through VR.

A FACE IN THE CROWD / 14-15 Little Rock native Ashlie Atkinson is a character actor with a growing list of film & TV credits.

FAREWELL TRANSMISSIONS / 29-30 Folklore is one of the oldest ways to transmit knowledge, but what does it have to offer?

Publisher + Editor-in-Chief Kody Ford

Designer Casey Bourke

Associate Editor Jenny Vos

Cover Artist printgurl

Assistant Editor Jack Barr

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Contributors Dwain Hebda Chermilla Henthorne Cassidy Kendall Phillip Rex Huddleston

Meredith Mashburn Cassidy McCants Sophia Ordaz Summer El-Shahawy

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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o, I’m back in the editor’s chair after a lengthy absence. It’s more fun than I remembered. I guess sometimes you’ve got to step away for a while to appreciate things.

I’d like to thank Julia Trupp, who spent the last three years absolutely killing it as our editor-in-chief. I learned a lot from watching Julia and she never failed to impress. Since her tenure began in 2019, our issues have been the best we have ever done. She put in a lot of hard work and it showed. Also, a shout out to our previous designer, Dana Holroyd. The two of them were quite the pair and I couldn’t be prouder of them. While they have stepped down, we will carry on—here’s hoping my sea legs kick in soon.

Part of the reason why I am so excited is because the Knowledge Issue is a completely new theme for us. We’ve done fashion, food, architecture and so on, but we’ve never quite looked at things this way. (I owe a debt to Katie Wyatt, my original right-hand Photo by Gabe Gentry at The Idle Class, for inspiring this idea last year when we discussed her work with the GIS Department at the University of Arkansas.) This issue is all about the creative ways information is gathered and shared.

Whether traditional methods such as folklore or cutting edge platforms like VR filmmaking, individuals and organizations are constantly looking for ways to share culture and knowledge in ways that captivate audiences. We only scratched the surface with this issue, but we hope you enjoy it.

Also, we have a lot of other great stories such as an interview with Little Rock native and actor Ashlie Atkinson, musician Damen Tolbert, writer Amber Perrodin and artists Sabine Schmidt and Don House. Also, be sure to check out our interview with our cover artist printgurl (Casey Bourke), who also designed this issue. We are grateful for all Casey has done for us and inspired by both her work and her fight against melanoma.

And finally, thank you to everyone who made this year’s Black Apple Awards a success. We’ve been absent since 2019 because of COVID-19, but it felt like we never missed a beat when the doors opened at 214 in Springdale back in late March. So many talented artists and performers, along with generous sponsors and volunteers, who helped make this the best one ever. We have more later in this issue.

Not gonna lie–it feels good to be back. Thanks for reading.

Kody Ford Publisher + Editor-in-chief editorial@idleclassmag.com

It’s A Mystery BookStore On the Berryville square Located in Berryville, AR

Your gently-used bookstore featuring vintage, modern and classic reads!

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Events

Opera Ozarks in the

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pera in the Ozarks, the summer music festival and prominent opera training program based in Eureka Springs, kicks off its 2022 Summer Season with dozens of exciting opera productions and special musical events across the region. The 2022 Season, “Love on the Rocks,” runs June 24–July 22 at Opera in the Ozarks’ mountainside venue, Inspiration Point, located on Hwy. 62, five miles west of Eureka Springs.

The new season will feature a talented cast of singers along with professional musicians from across the country. “We have assembled a company of 37 wonderful singers who will convene on our mountain this summer, and the always wonderful orchestra will be at full strength of 25, ready to thrill you with their beautiful music making,” says Nancy Preis, Opera in the Ozarks General Director. “Together they will perform 22 fully staged and costumed opera productions, including three Sunday matinees.”

Now in its 71st season, this year’s repertoire includes three exceptional operas: Mozart’s Così fan tutte, a farce about fidelity; La rondine, a love story often described as Puccini’s answer to La traviata; and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, the American master’s musings on the nature of love.

“Smooth-sailing love relationships rarely make for great dramas, movies or operas,” notes Artistic Director Thomas Cockrell. “And this season’s ‘Love on the Rocks’ theme pulls us into the lives of characters where ‘happily ever after’ is never a guarantee.”

In addition to the 22 mainstage opera performances in Eureka Springs, audiences will also enjoy not one, but two Broadway Cabarets. One cabaret will be in Fayetteville on July 14 at Mount Sequoyah and will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, and the other will be in Eureka Springs on July 19 at the Crescent Hotel and will include dinner (both cabaret venues will have cash bars).

Tickets for the 2022 season are on sale now and are moving quickly. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling the box office at (479) 253-8595. For more information, including a complete list of performance dates and other details, visit opera.org.

ARTS & SCIENCE CENTER OF SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS The Arts & Science Center of Southeast Arkansas is kicking out some tunes this summer. Their Live@5 series takes place the first Friday of every month from 5-7 p.m. at 701 South Main Street in Pine Bluff. Their line-up includes Plantinum Hitz (July), The Vibe (August) and David Ashley (September).

Be sure to check out Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella in the theater from July 22July 31. Shows start at 7:30 p.m. each night. In the galleries, check out works by Rashawn Penister (through June 30), Tammy Harringon (through July 30) and the 35th annual Small Works on Paper exhibition (July 1-Aug. 31). Small Works is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council. More information can be found at acs701.org.

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GET READY FOR A SUMMER OF ART AND PERFORMANCE AROUND ARKANSAS CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART + THE MOMENTARY Lots to be excited about this summer in Bentonville. The Momentary has a fantastic line-up with big names for the summer Live on the Green Concert Series. They’ve got Kraftwerk (June 26), Run the Jewels and Big Boi (July 16) and The War on Drugs (Sept. 22), which is part of the kick-off night for the FORMAT Festival. On July 10, courtyard sessions begin.

From June 2-12, The Momentary hosts The Live in America Festival, a free, two-week-long festival of live performance and cultural practice featuring more than 300 artists from a diverse array of communities across the US, its territories, and Mexico. The festival gathers artists and thinkers from across America’s distinctive cultural landscape to share and celebrate the power of communities in performance.

They have two art exhibits open currently — Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Let Earth Breathe and A Divided Landscape, both of which run through Sept. 25. In his solo exhibition Let Earth Breathe, Esteban Cabeza de Baca interrogates the American landscape tradition by deconstructing its linear, colonial narratives with original works of painting, sculpture, and outdoor, site-specific installations conceived as collaborations with nature. At Crystal Bridges, the Forest Concert Series runs until July 30. Look for acts like Adam Faucett, Kalyn Fay, Dale Watson, Bonnie Montgomery, Luna Luna and more. Shows take place each Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m.

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, examines the aesthetic and musical traditions of southern Black culture in the past century, influences now common throughout the American South and contemporary American art and culture. This exhibit will culminate in a weekend of celebration on July 15-17 with artist talks from luminaries like Nick Cave; dance, hip-hop and spoken word performances hosted by Big Piph; a conversation on SLAB car culture and more. More information can be found at crystalbridges.org and themomentary.org.

BRIGHTWATER Brightwater Culinary School in Bentonville will host “Tools of the Kitchen,” a food-centric art Photo by Douglas Mason show that engages local artists. Curators David and Angie Gomez seek to create inspiration in the kitchen, and in the studio through the show, the third that have hosted at the school. Food and art are the common denominators for this three-month exhibition. An opening reception takes place on June 17 with a reception from 6-8 p.m.

AMERICAN SHAMAN KAVA BAR American Shaman Kava Bar, located at 509 W Spring St Suite 225 in Fayetteville, is staying busy this summer. See work by Little Rock artist x3Mex on display throughout the month. Catch improv by Rodeo Book Club on Friday, June 10 from 8-10 p.m. The laughs continue during the Komedy Showcase hosted by Important Jordan on Thursday, June 23 from 8-10 p.m. If you have a talent you’re looking to hone, come to the Open Mic hosted by LaLa Lamm on Saturday June 25 from 8-10 p.m.

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WORDS KODY FORD | PHOTOS CHERMILLA HENTHORNE

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he 2022 Black Apple Awards were a smashing success. We packed the house at 214 in Springdale for our return after a two and a half year absence due to COVID-19. It felt good to be back and fill a space we’ve been a fan of since the days it was inhabited by the Arts Center of the Ozarks. The downstairs gallery was filled with paintings and sculptures while the blackbox gallery upstairs featured installations, sculptures, neon art and experimental videos.

Exhibiting artists were: Shelby Fleming, Eddie Love, Eric Andre’, Angela Teeter, Jeffry Cantu, Joey Pressman, Cameron Fairbanks, Natalia Franco, Sara Turner, Chris Rumwolf, Justine Beech, Ashley Nielsen, Suzannah Schrechise, David Gomez, Angie Gomez, Michael LeBlanc, Fred Goss, Emily Smith, Sigrid Lorfing, printgurl, Shelley Mouber, Shabana Kauser, Aaron Bleidt, Roxy Erickson, Kellie Lehr, Cheri Bohn, Ziba Rajabi, Brioche, Eugene Sargent, Samuel Gray, Tiko, Matthew Castellano, Altered Alley, Graham Edwards, Kendall Schulz, and Robin Pedrero.

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Ringo Jones and Lane Kendall brought to life works by Love, Teeter, Goss and printgurl using augmented reality, a truly remarkable sight to see. We had incredible performances by Abby Howard, Amos Cochran, Christian Serrano-Torres, Damentional, Cheesman and <Figure A>.

This magical evening wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors: CACHE, The Art Collective Gallery, Ozark Natural Foods, Edible Culture, Mount Sequoyah Retreat Center, ROARK, Sleet City Art and Supplies, American Shaman Kava Bar, Pink House Alchemy, KUAF 91.3 FM and Arkansas Soul. Awards were designed by Chad Maupin of Big Bot Design.

AND WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU, YOUR 2022 BLACK APPLE AWARDS WINNERS ARE… FAVORITE MAKER: Gina Rose Gallina FAVORITE 2D ARTIST: printgurl FAVORITE 3D ARTIST: Eugene Sargent JEWELRY DESIGNER: Keely Wake (Flora & Fauna) FASHION DESIGNER: Rosie Rose FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHER: Meredith Mashburn FAVORITE ARTS EVENT: Fayetteville Roots Fest FAVORITE PUBLIC ARTIST: Olivia Trimble FAVORITE COMEDIAN: Raj Suresh FAVORITE PERFORMANCE GROUP: NWA Ballet Theatre FAVORITE SHOW: The Wendy Love Edge Show FAVORITE SOLO MUSICIAN: Patti Steel FAVORITE BAND: Arkansauce FAVORITE DJ OR ELECTRONIC ARTIST: DJ Girlfriend FAVORITE INDIE VENUE: George’s Majestic lounge FAVORITE FOOD TRUCK: Yeyo’s FAVORITE SWEETS: Little Bread Company FAVORITE CHEF: Amanda Ivy FAVORITE COCKTAIL BAR OR LOUNGE: Maxine’s Taproom FAVORITE NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE: Arsaga’s Coffee FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE: Black Apple Hard Cider

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Thank you to everyone who voted and attended this year’s event and congratulations to all our winners!

Music MUSICIAN DAMEN TOLBERT CAN DO A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING. NOW HE’S RAISING THE STAKES ON HIS UPCOMING ALBUM, GROOVE ABSOLUTE. WORDS SOPHIA ORDAZ | PHOTO CHERMILLA HENTHORNE

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amen Tolbert is enamored by multiplicity. A musician, composer, producer, poet, and educator, the South Side Chicago native has never been one to relegate himself to a single mode of artistic expression, though the infinite possibilities of music especially captivate him.

“Music was the one profession that I could think of and had available to me that involved an infinite equation, where there is never an answer that is 100 percent right but there’s an endless amount of right answers,” Tolbert says. “When I was 16, I knew I was either going to be a musician or be an astronaut. For an astronaut, the answer to those equations is either a one or a zero. But with music, you can go your whole life and never figure it all out.”

When Tolbert picked up a saxophone as a sophomore in high school, he had no idea that his future would become intertwined with the instrument. In 2009, he enrolled at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff to study music technology on scholarship. After graduating, he returned to Chicago to earn his master’s in music education from VanderCook College of Music, before becoming a music instructor at UAPB, where he has been teaching since 2016. Tolbert remains as awestruck by the communicative power of music as he was as a ten-year-old listening to John Coltrane in barbershops with his father.

“If there’s a space for music, my brain, my subconscious mind, automatically thinks of ways to fill it up using my instrument,” he says.

“Music, as a form of communication without words, is another language. It doesn’t matter where you come from. An octave sounds like an octave. A major third sounds like a major third, wherever you’re from. The only difference is cultural context.”

With three albums and an EP under his belt, Tolbert is preparing for the release of his fourth album, Groove Absolute, this summer and continuing to polish his most representative and ambitious project thus far: To, For, and From. This summer you will find him sharing his talents at local music venues, including the Brandon House Cultural and Performing Arts Center in Little Rock. For Tolbert, music is braided into his way of making a living, his daily life, and his raison d’etre.

“Samurai follow a code called bushido in which they use the techniques that they’re learning with the sword and philosophy to perfect themselves. My saxophone is my bushido. My saxophone is my soul,” Tolbert says. “The problems you encounter with teaching and playing music reflect the problems we encounter in real life.

So if you’re impatient with your instrument, you’re impatient in real life. As I perfect my saxophone, I perfect myself.”

IG / @damentional

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Writing

Remote Access SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN ARKANSAS BY SABINE SCHMIDT & DON HOUSE

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University of Arkansas Press, 2022

ibraries have long served as cultural hubs for rural America.

the backdrop for Don’s portraits, talking to the librarian, asking patrons

They provide a way for kids from the backwoods to visit new

to fill out model releases, trying to convince unwilling sitters of the

worlds through sci-fi and fantasy. A chance for parents to

importance of their participation in our project, taking photos inside

mingle during summer programming. A place to log on to the

the library, then leaving to walk or drive around town for exterior shots,

Internet when access is limited. Although rural libraries might

tearing down the backdrop, loading the equipment in the truck, find­

feel cramped, they still offered a doorway to a larger world. This magic

ing some food, and finally sitting down at the campsite or in a room.

stays with people who grew up in such tiny, book-filled buildings

Writing sometimes helps, as does staring into a fire or the night sky.

across Arkansas. If you spent your time in one of these places, there’s a good chance you can close your eyes and still smell those old tomes lining the shelves.

We completed our last scheduled library visit on March 3, 2020. It was a day trip to Charleston in the Arkansas River Valley, about two hours away. I ran out of time and decided to come back in a few days. It

Photographers Sabine Schmidt and Don House visited 21 libraries

wasn’t the only town I needed to revisit for a photo or two I had missed

in all regions of the state for their book Remote Access: Small Public

because the light had been wrong or the weather not right, or maybe

Libraries in Arkansas. “Our purpose was to honor small community

because I didn’t think of that one image until later. I hoped to go on

libraries and librarians, and to highlight the important and changing

a wrap-up trip around the state in April or May, before it got too hot

role they play,” said House. “While Sabine focused her camera on

in the southern parts of Arkansas. Like so many people’s plans, mine

the community—the architecture, the landscape, the history of the

was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of visiting with li-

place—I set up a backdrop in the library and photographed every

brarians and wandering around small towns with camera and tripod, I

person who walked into the building on that day. The images from

looked through the impassive

those two approaches tell a story of the community, the people who

eyes of Google Street View to

live there, the people who depend on the library and its services.”

verify details for the essays

Excerpt from “The Guidance of Strangers,” by Sabine Schmidt,

in this book or just to spend

prologue to Remote Access: When the light is fading and librarians are getting ready to lock up, I find it hard to stop looking for photos. Maybe there is one more, maybe around that corner. Or perhaps I should go back and reshoot from a different angle. Sometimes I feel like an overtired child who

a bit more time in Hamburg, Stamps, Parkin, Menifee, or Wrightsville. And, of course, to plan the next scouting trip. We still have much to discover.

doesn’t want to leave the playground or the library, because going home means the day is over. And like an overtired child, I am too full of sights and sounds, and what I really need is sleep. There is a particular fatigue at the end of a day spent unloading equipment and setting up

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Portrait of Chase Ford and Shannon and Frank E. Hopkins: by Don House.

According to House, “The Hopkins family was kind enough to take time to sit on the canvas, when they discovered that it might help their library, might let people know how much they appreciated Trudy Smith, their librarian, for all she does.”

100 THINGS TO DO IN HOT SPRINGS BEFORE YOU DIE by Cassidy Kendall What do you do in Hot Springs? Lots of things actually. And if you’re stumped on what those might be, there’s a book for you. Idle Class contributor and Hot Springs Post editor Cassidy Kendall recently released a book called 100 Things to Do in Hot Springs Before You Die. This guide covers entertainment, food, recreation, culture and shopping.

According to the synopsis, “Hot Springs’ rich and broad history in thermal water, illegal gambling, infamous gangster visits, horse racing, art, baseball and so much more is celebrated with outlandish attractions and annual festivals. It’s intriguing, it’s quirky and it draws tens to hundreds of thousands of curious visitors every year. Not to mention, it keeps the locals thoroughly entertained on a daily basis.”

Kendall is a Hot Springs-based freelance journalist.

She was first introduced to Hot Springs as a child when her grandparents took her and her two older sisters to vacation there during the summers.

Since receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in print journalism from the University of Central Arkansas, she has spent her time getting acquainted and falling in love with the community of her new home through her journalism career.

100 Things to Do in Hot Springs Before You Die can be purchased at thehotspringspost.com/shop.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SUN

Notes on a Renaissance Essay One must be a “lover of strange souls” to imagine the young Italian plucking some inexplicable tune from the strings of his newly-constructed harp, meaning woven from the looms into the tapestries that afforded him the luxury of buying birds only to set them free in a place identical to where he imagined the first man & woman situated on the virgin soil in which they planted the seed of discontent always the presence of some maternity the urge to illuminate the grotesque the corpse, the embryo all the small strange creatures that “other” Medusa seen for the first time as a rotting head the body unfit for worship until now the initial hesitation now a feverish intensity

by Jamie Cooper

the orphan child evolving

Finishing Line Press, 2022

into the alchemist of such

Way back when we first launched online, we published poetry by West Memphis native Jamie Cooper. Since then, Cooper has been putting pen to paper for a new chapbook, The Truth About the Sun (Finishing Line Press, 2022). This collection of poems draws on Greek, Roman and Babylonian mythologies, waking dreams and the lyric poetic tradition to excavate and understand his identity within an intimate family genealogy and a historical and social topology.

unimaginable scenes.

—Jamie Cooper

Genevieve Kaplan, poet and publisher of Toad Press, says “In alternately spiritual and feudal dreamlands, Cooper reveals ‘everything the novice needs to know / about light’ and invites us to follow as ‘I go with a birdcage strapped upon my shoulders.’”

Cooper’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals including Parthenon West Review, Colorado Review, TYPO, Bitterzoet Magazine and others. His poems “Earth Boy Leading Rain Cloud Horse,” “Notes on a Renaissance Essay” and “Family of Flags,” which are featured in the collection, were published on our website in 2012 and 2013.

Cooper is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship and earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He now lives in Portland.

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IF ASHLIE ATKINSON LOOKS FAMILIAR, THERE’S A REASON FOR IT. THE PROLIFIC CHARACTER ACTOR AND LITTLE ROCK NATIVE CHATS ABOUT HER CAREER TRAJECTORY FROM HENDRIX COLLEGE TO WORKING WITH SPIKE LEE. WORDS KODY FORD | ILLUSTRATION PHILLIP REX HUDDLESTON

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shlie Atkinson saw an opening. During her second year at New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, she received her headshot. And along the wall, next to portraits of alums like Jeff Goldblum and Mary Steenburgen, there was an opening. It was just above a bench, and some people might have disregarded it, seeing only a spot that would be partially obscured by anyone sitting on the bench.

Atkinson saw an opportunity, and she seized it.

“I threw [my headshot] into that little spot, like so cheeky, just absolutely as a joke,” she said. “They took that wall down while they were remodeling, but when they put it back up, they actually kept my headshot on it. And I always feel like there’s a little ticking clock on the back of it. It’s like if you don’t pull something off soon, we’re yanking the shot.”

But Atkinson has been pulling it off, one role at a time. While she might not be a household name like some of the others on that wall, she’s got a face you’ll know. You’ve seen her before. Maybe it was as the villainous Janice on Mr. Robot, Amanda in And Just Like That or Rochelle Applebaum in The Wolf of Wall Street. Since she moved to NYC 20 years ago, Atkinson has slowly but surely built a prolific career as a character actor. But her career as a character actor almost never happened.

After graduating from Pulaski Academy in the ’90s, Atkinson enrolled in Barnard College at Columbia University in NYC to study philosophy and political science. However, it wasn’t the dream scenario of chasing your dreams in the big city. She suffered from undiagnosed depression and ADHD, which left her teetering on burnout after a year and a half. At the urging of a provost at Columbia, she moved back to Arkansas and 14

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enrolled at Hendrix College where she continued her line of study in philosophy and poli sci. Although she acted in plays when she was younger, she didn’t immediately dive into the theatre scene at Hendrix. While she struggled with tests and papers, she became enamored with how passionate her theatre friends were about reading lines or building sets.

Nothing they did seemed like homework to her.

While Atkinson fretted over a future, late one night a friend told her, “I just think that a life in the service of art is a good life and that’s really enough for me.” That simple statement resonated with her and changed the trajectory of her life.

She switched her major to theatre. Her first play at Hendrix was Pride’s Crossing by Tina Howe. During her senior year, Atkinson applied to the Playhouse at the urging of her Pride’s Crossing co-star Todd McCullough, who was in his first year at the NYC-based program. She was accepted and returned to Manhattan in the fall of 2001. “[Studying at the Playhouse] was an incredible experience,” she said. “And that was really where I learned how to make things happen in terms of how to self-generate for the work, to not just wait for it to come to me, to hold myself to a standard of making things happen, but also trusting that whatever is there is enough if it’s truthful and rooted in the reality of doing that, even if it feels wrong or it feels weird.”

After finishing her time at the Playhouse, she secured a manager and booked small roles on Law & Order and Rescue Me, but got her big break in the play Fat Pig by Neil LaBute, starring alongside Jeremy Piven, Kerri Russell and Andrew McCarthy. Like many of LaBute’s plays, this one also touched upon controversial themes—in this case, anti-fat bias.

“I was a year out of acting school when I got [that role],” said Atkinson. “I just didn’t know what I was in for. And there was just so much press. The actors I got to perform with, the caliber of them with my little 26-year-old ass straight outta school. It just boggles the mind—the luck of it and the chance that people took on me.”

Since Fat Pig, Atkinson has gone on to star in many TV shows and films, includingSpike Lee’s Inside Man and BlacKkKlansman. She describes Lee as an incredibly loyal and kind director to work with. Lee called her in to audition for BlacKkKlansman, specifically for the role of Connie Kendrickson, a housewife who’d serve you up a plate of fresh-baked cookies with a side of unbridled bigotry. Given the nature of the character, the audition was quite frightening, she said—Lee Photo by Harry Richardson gave her a one-sentence prompt and asked her to improvise, to crank the racism up as much as possible.

“I trust Spike implicitly. And that was really important because what I don’t wanna do is apologize with my body for the horrific things my mouth is saying. . . . So, I have to take myself out and say, if I can be of service in this moment by being this person then I’m gonna. My feelings and my need to be one of the good white people—it becomes a performative problem if I’m trying to do this and actually be part of the process of helping tell Black American stories.”

Her portrayal of Kendrickson brought her praise. One reviewer on Mediaversity said, “It’s on the strength of Atkinson’s own understanding about white women’s complicity

more than Lee’s script that elevates Kendrickson. She could have been a preachy character. But Atkinson portrays her as a sad, believable portrayal of the undercover sleeper cell.

She represents the Permit Patties of the world who bake cookies for new neighbors and smiles in the faces of people of color, all the while clenching the mace in her purse.”

While Atkinson is a far cry from Kendrickson, the performance is a testament to her range as an actor. She has carved out a career for herself that provides steady work and the opportunity to collaborate with a wide range of creatives in the industry. Over the last few years, she has played roles from Clinton accuser Juanita Broaddrick in American Crime Story: Impeachment to New York high society maven Mamie Fish in The Gilded Age. And if you haven’t caught her in those, stay tuned—she’s bound to pop up in something new soon.

When thinking back on those words she heard from her friend one night at Hendrix long ago, Atkinson said, “A life in the service of art is a good life. And it’s an incredible way to get to operate in the world and to pay my rent. It’s so awesome.”

IG / @ashlie_atkinson | TW / @ashlieatkinson

Art Reception:

PHOTO BY TIM HURSLEY

Tools of the Kitchen

VISIT

Curated by David & Angie Gomez

June 17, 2022

Our award-winning community arts + event space features: 

Windgate Community Gallery

6-8pm Sponsored by



(featuring artwork and gifts by Arkansas artists) 

Adam B. Robinson Jr. Black Box Theater 

Monthly Workshops and Classes 

Special Event Rentals

Tuesdays-Fridays: 12-5PM Saturdays: 10AM-4PM







asc701.org/artspace

623 & 627 S. MAIN STREET, PINE BLUFF  870.395.7009 Part of the Arts & Science Center’s ARTx3 campus

held at

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A Life in ARTIST CASEY BOURKE BUILT HER CAREER WITH GLITCHSTYLE PAINTINGS UNTIL A CANCER DIAGNOSIS NEARLY DERAILED HER. NOW SHE’S RE-BUILDING, ONE PIECE AT A TIME.

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WORDS SUMMER EL-SHAHAWY | PHOTOS MEREDITH MASHBURN

or Casey Bourke, also known as Printgurl, creating art is more than a hobby. She has been making art since the age of six, but started taking it seriously at 26.

“I was battling depression at the time and was at a crossroads with where I wanted to go in my life,” she said. “I thought—why not? Art definitely made me feel better and made me feel like I could survive in this world, and I thought, let’s take a chance.”

She put her website together, started pricing her pieces and getting art shows, and launched herself into the art world with a move to Los Angeles where she was introduced to glitch art. The 32-year-old painter and visual artist now specializes in glitch art and pixel painting.

“My art style is glitchtastic, sexy, and humorous,” she said. “I’m really into glitchy art and pixel art—sometimes I put glitches within my pixel paintings.” Glitch art is a style normally done on a digital medium, where the artist manipulates digital data to create a “glitch” or malfunction in the art piece. Though the style is usually digital, Bourke wanted to try something different.

“I thought it would be cool to do glitch art in oil painting,” she said. “What if I did a girl—and you’re not sure what it is, but maybe her legs are spread; what does that mean for censorship? Is it really what your mind thinks it is, or is it just a bunch of pixels on a canvas?”

While creating is fulfilling for Bourke, making art also helped her through difficult times.

In 2021, Bourke was diagnosed with stage four metastatic melanoma. The diagnosis came after she went to get a suspicious mole on her back checked.

The doctor said it didn’t need to be removed.

“Eight months later, I went back and they finally removed it,” she said. “Two days after that, I got a voicemail telling me I had cancer. The voicemail is so cheerful, and I’m not usually someone who gets angry at life situations, but I still find myself angry at those doctors.”

Bourke said she tries not to hold onto the anger and now has great surgeons and oncologists who are saving her life. Through her experience, she said she has gained a lot of respect for the medical field and hopes to one day be a nurse.

“Visiting MD Anderson, the nurses were so helpful and encouraging, even though I was coming in with stage four cancer at 31 years old,” she said. “If I can hold someone’s hand in the future and tell them it’ll be okay, my whole life will make sense.”

The most common way to treat melanoma is through immunotherapy, but with Bourke, the treatment caused hyperprogressive disease and the tumor tripled in size in a month.

“We had to stop immunotherapy and do four weeks of aggressive radiation,” she said.

“ MY ART STYLE IS GLITCHTASTIC, SEXY, AND HUMOROUS.”

“Usually, people don’t do four weeks and I had no idea how much pain I would be in and how damaging it would be to my body.” During the time she was going through radiation, Bourke said she was too weak to pick up a paintbrush or create anything on her ipad.

“One day, after surgery, I did a birds-eye-view of the IV and drain site and all the things in and on me,” she said. “I made a rough self-portrait and it really helped me get through that moment.”

Bourke had another moment that reinforced her dedication to art. “Winning [Favorite 2D Artist at] the Black Apple Awards was a nice surprise,” she said, “It made my heart feel really really good. It made me realize to never give up, no matter how crappy or hopeless you may feel.” At the beginning of her cancer journey, Bourke moved to Little Rock to be with her family. Both her parents survived stage four cancer.

“My dad survived stage 4 lymphoma when he was 40 and I watched him go through chemo, so if anyone can give me advice on how to overcome cancer, it’s him,” she said. “He is my hero.”

Right now, Bourke is on a pill version of chemo and said she is feeling hopeful because her 3-month PET-scan showed no new cancer growth. She is also a candidate for a new clinical trial where doctors inject a vaccine directly into the melanoma tumor. Bourke plans to apply for nursing school at Northwest Technology Institute in January where she plans to complete the licensed practical nurse program and later go on to become a registered nurse.

“I also want to remind people to get skin checks at the dermatologist,” she said.

“I didn’t realize the importance of it.”

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ENGAGEMENT INTERVIEWS KODY FORD, DWAIN HEBDA & CASSIDY KENDALL

ARTS + SCIENCE CENTER OF SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS (ASC) 701 S. Main St. Pine Bluff, AR, 71601 | ASC701.org | Est. 1968 In terms of curation, how do you push yourselves to grow as an institution and be more engaging with your audience?

We recently created an in-house, interactive STEAM exhibition, and based on the feedback, we can see that this is something our audience enjoys and would like to see us continue. To continue growing, we think ahead to possible collaboration opportunities where we can bring in other viewpoints and support other members of our field. For example, this June we are collaborating with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff to exhibit their John Howard collection and incorporate this exhibition into one of their fall courses as a learning opportunity. Our Arts in Education teaching artist residency program also uses our exhibitions to educate students in the region.

– Curator Jessica Lenehan Has your mission evolved since the arts center first opened? Since opening in 1968, our mission has always been to reach our community through the arts and sciences. The most recent version of our mission statement, implemented in 2010, now includes a segment highlighting ASC as a “cultural crossroads.”

This change reflects the breadth of programming offered at the museum, including theater, education, STEAM and art.

— Communications & Dev. Coordinator Morgun Henson

ARTIST RENDERING OF ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ART Courtesy Of Studio Gang 22

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ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS 501 East 9th Street, Little Rock, AR, 72202 arkmfa.org | Est. 1937, as the Museum of Fine Arts In terms of curation, how do you push yourselves to grow as an institution and be more engaging with your audience? Museums—art, history, science, and other types— serve a special role in society as they are trusted entities in the content they deliver. Further, they are safe spaces, where they spark dialogue, and their guests can have often challenging conversations about their experiences. The content team at AMFA—whether its our curators, our Children’s Theatre and performing arts staff, or our Art School faculty—are constantly working to advance the arts and their importance in Central Arkansas and across the state.

In recent years, have you adapted the ways you share exhibits and knowledge to embrace technology more? If so, how?

As with many museums, during the past three years we created more digital content than ever before. Several of our popular and longest-running exhibitions—the Young Arkansas Artists and Delta Voices: Artist of the Mid-South — became “virtual” iterations to ensure their continuity. Additionally, we offered online classes in our Art School and performances by our Children’s Theatre. When we open our new building, we will continue to utilize the latest technologies to deepen our engagement and accessibility with our guests.

IN AN AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND INSTANT ACCESS, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES HAVE TO STAY ON TOP OF THEIR GAME. WE SPOKE WITH CURATORS AT FIVE INSTITUTIONS ABOUT THE THOUGHT THAT GOES INTO EACH EXHIBIT.

MID-AMERICA SCIENCE MUSEUM 500 Mid America Blvd., Hot Springs, AR Midamericamuseum.org | Est. 1979 What is MASM’s goal for the local community? In recent years we have turned our attention to how we can better serve the local community and developed the following goals: • To become a trusted resource for science education • To provide a place the local community feels welcome • To reflect the community and needs in our programs and exhibits • To provide a safe place for learning. — — Executive Director Diane LaFollette What are some lessons you’ve learned over the years in exhibit development and educating?

Don’t assume that you know what your audience needs or wants. We discern this through regular audience research. Learning is not onesize-fits-all. It is very personal, so visitors come to the museum with different expectations and capacities. We try to create experiences that reach each learner, and open-ended programs and exhibits meet this goal very well.

— Executive Director Diane LaFollette What are the best practices used in educating the public?

It is important to have professional educators on our Education Team who are passionate about what they do. When developing programs, they incorporate the NGSS standards used by the school districts, so they correlate with what the students are learning. The staff are also adept at teaching and coaching a wide range of ages. The exhibits are developed to do the same so that visitors of all ages will be engaged. As children grow older and their learning becomes more sophisticated, they will discover new things each time they come.

— Executive Director Diane LaFollette

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MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER 501 W. 9th Street, Little Rock, AR | MosaicTemplarsCenter.com Est 2008 In recent years, have you adapted the ways you share exhibits and knowledge to embrace technology more? If so, how?

Our brand-new, state-of-the-art Children’s Theater “Same. Different. Amazing.” and our 360-degree Theater are great examples of how we have evolved with the times. Our plans for new exhibits that will come through our renovation campaign will definitely have a more tech edge as well.

What is your emphasis as a museum? The mission of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is to preserve, interpret and celebrate African American history and culture in Arkansas. In April of 2020, after a multi-year process, MTCC became the third Black history institution in the South to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Has your mission evolved since the museum first opened?

The museum has enjoyed many positive changes through the years with engaging exhibits and programs to tell the story of the Black experience in Arkansas. Most recently, we have increased the emphasis on children’s programming with our new stateof-the-art Children’s Gallery and through world-class exhibits hosted with partners such as the Smithsonian Institution and the National Hip-Hop Museum in Washington, DC.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM 200 E. Third Street, Little Rock, AR 72201 | arkansasheritage.com/historic-arkansas-museum Est. 1941, as the Arkansas Territorial Restoration Commission How has your mission evolved since the museum first opened? Our founder, Louise Loughborough, started the then-Arkansas Territorial Restoration as a preservation project to save and restore the 19th century structures on original Block 32 of downtown Little Rock. We consider these houses the first objects in our collection and originally, HAM interpreted the historic block, the houses and the people who lived in them which included furniture and items related to everyday life of these individuals.

Over time, this collection of decorative arts expanded to historically significant fine art. In the late 1970s, curator Swannee Bennett and Bill Worthen, museum director, started a research initiative called Arkansas Made that sought to document and collect all Arkansas makers, artists and craftspeople who lived or worked in Arkansas spanning the 19th century to present day.

In the early 2000s, museum leadership had the vision to add the story of indigenous people to HAM’s interpretation of history with We Walk in Two Worlds. This gallery tells the story of the first Arkansans—the Caddo, Quapaw and Osage. Interpreting the original Arkansans allowed the museum to expand collecting and interpreting Arkansas history even further. Our earliest objects and stories now date to the 1600s.

In recent years, how have you adapted ways to share exhibits and knowledge to embrace technology? In the upcoming year, HAM is partnering with UA Little Rock’s Emerging Analytics Center to bring a 360-degree virtual tour of our Hinderliter Grog Shop. The building is in need of repairs and restoration and therefore is not open to the public. This is a way we can still show the public inside the building while not damaging the structure. We hope to do this for all of the historic homes on the grounds.

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THE EMPATHY MACHINE

HOW VIRTUAL REALITY ALLOWED FILMMAKERS AYANA

WORDS CASSIDY McCANTS

THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE

D

BARAKA AND SPADE ROBINSON TO TELL THE STORY OF

uring her time at the University of Southern California’s Mixed Reality Studio, Ayana Baraka learned that viewers experience virtual reality like a memory.

A longtime lover of storytelling and history, she found VR to be perfect for teaching—particularly for historical narrative.

Baraka was inspired by artists like Nonny de la Peña, “the godmother of VR,” and made several connections in the industry while at USC. She also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Olivia J. Hooker, who was, at that time, the last known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Baraka got to sit with her and hear her story just a few years ahead of the massacre’s centennial, and she couldn’t believe no one else was getting her story.

Immediately, Baraka wanted folks to meet Dr. Hooker, to experience what she was experiencing during her chats with this woman who, at 102 years old, was still passionate about sharing the history of the massacre in Tulsa. According to Baraka, she wanted to help “connect the dots for Black communities today. With the story of North Tulsa, the majority of people I talk to say it’s a microcosm of the greater US.” Naturally, Baraka was inspired to tell the story with VR. She teamed up with her writerdirector friend Spade Robinson, who she’d worked with at USC and the Sundance Film Festival. It took them three years to get funding, and much of this time was spent working to overcome the fact that not many people knew about either the massacre or VR. “I wanted people to be able to sit across from Dr. Hooker and look into her eyes,” Baraka said.

Unfortunately, Dr. Hooker passed away before the film could be made. But Baraka and Robinson persevered, and ultimately they created a scripted film funded by YouTube.

Spade Robinson + Ayana Baraka on set of Dr. Hooker’s retellings had touched Baraka and Robinson, especially because they Greenwood Avenue. came from the perspective of a young girl. Robinson said that they wanted to get people “in the mindset of how complex it had to be to be a child when it happened,” noting that the basic realities of childhood—being teased, falling in love, wearing the right clothes—were still present right alongside a very real struggle to survive. “This happened to young people.”

VR turned out to be a great medium for the film, which Baraka noted gives us back a “time and place that no longer exists.”

Greenwood Avenue: A Virtual Reality Experience closed the centennial commemoration of the massacre and opened Juneteenth in Tulsa in summer 2021.

Even in the height of the pandemic, the film was well received, with productive and insightful post-screening commentary from people from all walks of life. Baraka and Robinson particularly loved being able to share Oculus Go VR tech with the older generations. The kits were kits provided by RedFlight Innovation and free for viewers in attendance.

Greenwood Avenue has been screened at several festivals, and the pair has partnered with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls, among other organizations, to put the film in classrooms. It was also on YouTube for a year to make it accessible to all teachers.

“We see film as an empathy machine for people to position themselves to love each other and ourselves better,” Robinson said.

And you can expect both of these talents to keep spreading the love. Currently they’re working on a best-friend road-trip film set in Northwest Arkansas, and Baraka has some—still secret—documentary and series work coming up later this year. We can’t wait to see what they have in store.

AYANAYBARAKA.COM The Knowledge Issue 25

TIME

AMBER PERRODIN CAPTURES THE CULTURE OF A REGION AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF A PANDEMIC IN HER NEW BOOK, THE OZARK STORY PROJECT.

A

mber Perrodin has deep roots in Northwest Arkansas. Her family, the Winters, settled in the area five generations ago and her longstanding connection with the region has driven her to do all she can to celebrate and expand the culture of Springdale and surrounding communities.

Along with being an artist, trained printmaker and an Arkansas master naturalist, Perrodin was the founder of The Little Craft Show and played a part in launching Team Springdale in the mid-00s, a project which promoted the town’s unique culture including its incredible tacos and other cuisine. After working for several years for the Downtown Springdale Alliance, where she launched Ozark Octoberfest and the Big Street Dinner on Emma Avenue, she now manages 214, formerly the Arts Center of the Ozarks, for CACHE. While all of that might exhaust the average person, Perrodin can juggle quite a bit.

“I really like the challenge of shifting a narrative, especially around places,” said Perrodin. “Working in the community just does something for me—as far as creativity goes—making projects happen and helping people to see an area a little differently than they may have before. I 26

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view my work in the community as a form of art. It sort of scratches the same itch for me as making a piece of fine art.”

Perrodin’s most recent venture lies in a perfectly-bound paperback called The Ozark Story Project. The book is a collection of stories, photographs and recipes from across the Ozarks.

The origins for the project has its roots in a dinner party called Looking for America at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her friend Philippa Hughes started the Looking for America project in Washington DC. It involves bringing people from diverse political backgrounds and putting them at the same dinner table and cracking open hard conversations on what it means to be an American in your particular community.

Hughes asked Perrodin to curate an art show with work by NWA artists who were interested in addressing that question, and Perrodin toured the show with work by 13 artists to various communities in the region. During this time she began working with poet Noelia Cerna, who would bring her typewriter to events and write poems for people based on their response to the question, “what does it mean to be American for you?” As the exhibit evolved, Perrodin continued to collect stories and eventually enlisted composer and musician Amos Cochran to create a sound piece in which people called a phone number and left a message with their response to the exhibit’s core thesis. He edited these into a montage and patrons at the exhibit could then listen to the responses through a set of headphones After the exhibit ended, Perrodin and Hughes discussed what they were working on. During this time, Perrodin was

CAPSULE WORDS KODY FORD

reading a book about Ozark folklore by Vance Randolph, the legendary regional folklorist who traveled the area with a recorder throughout the ’40s and ’50s to document stories, superstitions and so on. During the conversation, Hughes pondered what it would be like to record the folklore of the immigrant community in NWA. Perrodin liked the idea and, with Hughes’s assistance, became an artist fellow with the New American Economy, an organization that supports immigrants coming to the United States. Their support allowed Perrodin to dig deeper and to look for the intersection of the stories and folklore of immigrants and residents.

“Ultimately I realized this is like an entire thesis project that I did not have the time and capacity to totally take on,” she said. “After talking to several people, like my friend, Brandon Weston, who has done incredible work around documenting Ozark folk stories, he told me once early in the Ozark Story Project that he’s been documenting stories for over a decade now and he maybe has two or three original folk stories that he’s been able to extract from people. So I knew that taking on the folk story angle was going to be nearly impossible, because when you ask someone what’s a traditional folk story, none of us really have a great answer. And so what wound up happening was just celebrating the stories that we do know, and you don’t have to necessarily call them folk stories.”

This abundance of stories became the crux of the Ozark Story Project and when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Perrodin kept plugging away it and gathering everything she could. She launched an online platform to showcase the information and invited the public to submit photos and reci-

pes and a corresponding story or memory. She chose local artists to illustrate the recipes.

The final result can be found in the pages of her recently published book, The Ozark Story Project. It features those stories, recipes, photographs, illustrations and poems. It’s a snapshot of a community in tumultuous, uncertain times, looking for calm and wondering what it really means to be an American.

“I think a lot of the stories that were submitted were just coming from a place of vulnerability and people really tapping into that nostalgia of the good and the beautiful. To me, if anyone’s a fan of the Ozarks or loves storytelling, this is just a fun look book. . . . You can open up to any page. You don’t have to read it in chronological order front to back.

You can just open up and there’s a poem. And then there’s a photograph of this story. It’s just a delightful snapshot of the Ozarks in a certain time. And I think it’s a wonderful gift to anybody who loves the Ozarks and calls the Ozarks home.”

OZARKSTORYPROJECT.COM

“ I VIEW MY WORK IN THE COMMUNITY AS A FORM OF ART. IT SORT OF SCRATCHES THE SAME ITCH FOR ME AS MAKING A PIECE OF FINE ART.” AMBER PERRODIN

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FAREWELL TRANSMISSIONS

FROM MUSIC TO MEDICINE TO MYTHS, FOLKLORE BRIDGES GENERATIONS AS LIVING, COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE

WORDS CASSIDY KENDALL

T

ake a moment to think of how you do mundane tasks like scramble eggs or fold socks. There is a very specific way you do both of these things, but how did you learn it? It wasn’t from a textbook, but from seeing someone in your folk group doing it. These traditions and methods, unique to each community, are passed down as folklore. It’s all around us, and the one thing it relies on to exist is transmission. If folklore is not shared, passed down to others, it disappears with the person wielding it.

the experts. The experts are the community members and tradition bearers themselves.

As Arkansans we have our own folklore. Break that down, and as people of the Ozark or Ouachita regions, we have our own folklore. Break it down even further and as members in our local communities we have our own folklore. As members of any workplace or organization, we have our own folklore.

And in our families we have our own folklore. Everyone is part of many folk groups, each made unique by their traditions, music, art, medical practices, legends, myths and more— their folklore. This living and collective knowledge bridges generations.

Siegel described folklore as “the stuff that makes life worth living.”

I spoke with four professional Arkansas folklorists to get their take, but as folklorist Virginia Siegel said, they aren’t

Cochran goes on to say the motives for studying folklore go beyond pure utility. At the very least it’s interesting, but it can

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“Every single person is impacted by folklore,” said Siegel.

“We all have traditions. And that could be as small as making cookies with our family around the winter holiday, or the tradition we share in a sorority. We all belong to folk groups.

It’s really cool when you start to look around and you think about all the things you do because you learned it from your grandma, or a friend.”

Folklorist Bob Cochran stresses that while folklore is presented as knowledge among folk groups, it would not be regarded as fact outside of that community of believers.

“When one person delivers a piece of lore to another person it’s usually presented as factual,” Cochran said. “But anyone who compares knowledge to lore with any kind of rigor, would say that a lot of what constitutes lore is in fact not knowledge at all.

It’s entirely based on era and has no basis in fact.”

also be beautiful, he said, “even if you don’t, in your own head, give it credence.”.

As an example, Cochran describes a piece of folklore common to rural Christian communities, that on Christmas Eve, cattle kneel to acknowledge the birth of Jesus.

“The abstract here is that even the animal kingdom recognizes the birth of Jesus Christ with reverence. And there are all sort of stories—and they’re beautiful, beautiful stories—about how, when Joseph and Mary were unable to find shelter at the time of Christ’s birth, while they were treated poorly by humans, they were treated reverently by animals who moved back and got out of the way and made room in the manger and all this.”

Cochran said that while he does not believe this folklore, and would be deeply surprised if it were true, he nonetheless loves the story.

“I think it’s deeply beautiful. And my reasons would be aesthetic. I think it’s a gorgeous story, and it sort of fits very nicely with a larger sense that animal communities can sometimes behave better than human ones. In other words, it’s an appealing story to me.”

But there are other reasons why studying folklore is important.

Rachel Reynolds works with communities to think about how folklore can be a lens for sustainable community development.

“The key component of folklore is all about transmission,” Reynolds said. “It’s all about relationships and it’s all about sharing from person to person within community groups. The key component of that is learning how to listen and to see those things that have endured not in the glass case, but have evolved and endured within communities over generations,

and because of that it’s a really great way to organize people together. It’s a great way to find commonality, especially during these times of different political persuasion.”

She points to fellow folklorist Brandon Weston, who specializes in healing and magical traditions in the Ozarks, as a prime example of contemporary usage of traditional materials.

“Specifically what interests me are medicinal traditions, magical traditions,” Weston said. “So not just looking at home remedies, but also looking at the role of the healer in the community, which has changed greatly since the turn of the twentieth century which is when folklorists were collecting a lot of their information. So today the situation’s a little bit different amongst local healers. The culture that they were writing about is for the most part gone. So part of my work has been updating the story. The work that I do is focused on how people in the Ozarks today can be inspired by traditional culture, but how it has evolved over the years.”

And as someone who spends so much time studying and updating this story, Weston emphasizes the importance of preservation.

“Make sure you collect things from your elders and your family and friends before it’s too late,” he said. “ I’ve had a lot of situations in my family where I wish I would have been able to collect from certain family members before they passed on, but I didn’t have that opportunity unfortunately. So I always tell people it doesn’t matter if it just seems mundane, or doesn’t seem important, just collect everything. Because it’s all important, it’s all a part of our story.”

The Knowledge Issue 29

LONG DISTANCE CONNECTIONS

B

ONLINE EDUCATION MARRIES ART, SCIENCE OF LEARNING WORDS DWAIN HEBDA

efore the extraordinary global events of 2020, distance learning was once considered a nice, but unnecessary, element of any educational institution. Today, distance learning is more important than ever and the institutions behind it are investing in new technology like never before. This has allowed creators to fashion the science of learning in more artistic and engaging ways.

“I have always believed that you can be experiential without being face-to-face with someone,” said Sajni Kumpuris, Arkansas PBS director of education. “It’s not just about getting in front of a camera and delivering a math lesson, though. The nonverbals we use in everyday life are so important to learning, so we think very carefully about facial expressions, tone of voice and the visual things that make our brain kind of light up, literally—colors, animation, music.”

Kumpuris said her team of 26 creates educational shows that look a lot different than they once did.

“We do a lot of music videos,” she said. “We do a lot of animation; kids have a lot of options on TV and animation is still one of those things they still very much connect to. We taught about the planet through a character named Robbie Rocket, it was all animated. We did one that was called ‘When I Was a Fifth Grader’ where we took the teachers of the year and we changed them into animated characters in fifth grade.”

Applying learning concepts graphically benefits students regardless of the level of study. The University of Arkansas Global Campus in Fayetteville is one of the educational creative studios with a full team of animators.

“We produce everything in-house, from hand-drawn animation to all kinds of graphics,” said Kris Katrosh, manager of media production at UA Global Campus. “We created a 3D ocean that we could tilt and change and show currents from a global perspective down to a hemispheric perspective down to a few meters. Another example, we took a field trip with a chemistry professor down to a south Arkansas chemical plant explaining how bromine is made and how it’s used. The way they extract it is a process that happens inside high pressure. You can’t see it happen. So, we built a portion of the plant and cut away in the animation so you could see the chemical reactions. We built it, basically, like a TV series.”

Kumpuris said the sky’s the limit for future programming, provided the infrastructure is there to support its delivery.

“We continue to learn new ways of reaching people,” she said. “Especially in Arkansas, we’re really mindful that there is a broadband issue. Just having Internet doesn’t solve everything. We’re looking at many possible solutions to help the individuals in our state access our programming. That’s what we always strive for.”

Photo courtesy of UA Global Campus

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