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VOLUME 41, NUMBER 51 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $74 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

COMMENT

Defunding Planned Parenthood hurts Arkansans Planned Parenthood provides critical and preventative health care to a lot of lowand moderate-income women and men. Contrary to popular belief, abortion is not the only, or the most important, service provided by Planned Parenthood, and federal dollars are not used to provide abortions. In fact, abortion services make up only 3 percent of what Planned Parenthood does. And using federal funds to provide abortions has been banned by law in almost all cases since 1976. Instead, Planned Parenthood provides affordable birth control and sex education. It provides more than 800,000 cancer-screening tests for men and women each year. It also provides more than 4.5 million sexually transmitted disease tests for both women and men each year. These services are particularly important in a state with the third highest teen birth rate and a high rate of teen STDs (Arkansas ranked 21st in 2008). Teen pregnancy and childbearing and the spread of STDs affect the economic well-being of the individuals, but also the state. For example, having a child in adolescence makes it more difficult for young people to achieve their educational career, and other life goals and affects the future prospects of their children — at considerable cost to taxpayers. Therefore, it is critical that Gov. Asa Hutchison not defund Planned Parenthood. In 2013, among high school students in Arkansas, 49.4 percent had engaged in sexual intercourse and 48.9 percent of those students who were currently sexually active did not use a condom during the last instance of sexual intercourse (Center sfor Disease Control State Profiles). In 2012, more than 4,300 girls ages 15 through 19 gave birth. That is approximately 12 per day. Not only does Planned Parenthood provide access to contraception, it also provides basic sex education that is fundamental for the future of Arkansas’s young people. STDs are extremely widespread in Arkansas. In 2013, there were 2,132 cases of chlamydia, 532 cases of gonorrhea, 56 cases of syphilis, 13 cases of AIDS and 26 cases of HIV diagnosed in Southeast Arkansas (Arkansas Department of Health). Arkansas ranks seventh in the nation in the rate of Chlamydia infections, seventh for gonorrhea, ninth for syphilis, and 32nd for the number of HIV diagnoses (Centers for Disease Control State Profiles). STDs add an estimated $14.7 billion to the nation’s health care costs each year (Arkansas Department of Health). This makes Planned Parenthood extremely important if you consider that 42 percent of its budget each year is dedicated to STD diagnosis and treatment. There are many myths about Planned 4

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Parenthood. It does not use federal money to fund abortions. Instead, the organization uses money from other sources — private donors and foundations as well as fees — to fund its abortion services. All Arkansans should have the opportunity to make choices that lead to health and wellness. Teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and cancer are uncomfortable topics to discuss. But they don’t go away if we ignore them or stop funding clinics. Access to affordable health care and contraception is key for a healthy Arkansas. Tell Gov. Hutchinson that you want better for the young people in this state and you

do not support the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Jodi A. Barnes Monticello

Wrong direction on prisons I awakened today to learn of the governor of Arkansas’s proposal to build 200 more prison beds for $7.4 million near Pine Bluff. Taking a deep, deep breath, I wonder what we gain from this decision to build more prisons. Hmm, the sheriffs will no longer have the backlog of state prisoners, a good thing, and the public will gain a 200-persons-behind-bars’ improved sense of public

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safety by punishing more of our criminals, most of whom are nonviolent. Again, the upfront value is $7.4 million. But if we knew some of the hidden costs, would we reconsider and think of innovative alternatives? I have to wonder, and hope. These are some of the hidden costs that matter to me, using simple arithmetic, and are unconsidered in our outreach for public safety, if that is what we choose to call it. Of the 200 prisoners we will send to this new prison space, an estimated 75 percent are parents of minor children, meaning 378 minor-aged children will lose a parent to incarceration, fall more deeply into poverty with its associated risks, and will gain more risk factors, as this group of children has the greatest volume of risk factors among all at-risk children. And, along the way, many of these children will suffer the emotional harms of stigma and shame so pervasive among children of incarcerated parents. In the long-term, many of these children will pay the cost with poor health outcomes, both physical and mental, and with such a volume of risk factors, the CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) study tells us their lives are likely to be shortened. A reliably estimated 20 percent of the children of the planned 200 prisoners will enter foster care at an annual rate of $25,000 per child, equaling an additional $1.9 million in foster care expenditures by the state, with no dollar amount to claim the trauma and harm of separation from their parents. Furthermore, the children who do not enter foster care (80 percent) when their parent is incarcerated will likely remain with a custodial parent whose economic well-being is known to slide further into deeper poverty when the other parent is incarcerated. Alternatively, the child will reside with a grandparent or relative. If that individual even knows of the TEA-child only public assistance offered in our state for relative caregivers — and most caregivers do not know of its availability — the grandparent or relative will receive cash assistance for one child of $2.70 per day, an amount that has not seen a COLA increase since 1996, when Welfare-to-Work went into effect. We, the public, will chronically complain about such assistance. However, the average number of children per incarcerated parent is three, and the relative caregiver will receive public assistance from opening a TEA-child only case that amounts to $1.83 per day per child, as the rate diminishes with the second and third child. We certainly do an excellent job of punishing the poor, and we certainly know how to spread the pain of parental incarceration to our children and seniors, along with struggling custodial parents. Dee Ann Newell Little Rock

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AUGUST 27, 2015

EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.” — Josh Duggar, in a public apology, after his name turned up in data obtained by hackers targeting ashleymadison.com, a website for people looking to have extramarital affairs. (He later attempted to revise his statement, removing the reference to pornography.) Duggar, a former anti-same-sex marriage activist for the Family Research Council, is one of some 32 million would-be-cheaters outed by the hack, including hundreds of other Arkansans.

Holcomb you didn’t leave sooner then? Mike Holcomb, a second-term state representative from Pine Bluff, announced last week that he was switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. He cited the Democratic Party’s stance on abortion and same-sex marriage as reasons behind his decision to jump ship. The Democratic Party of Arkansas said the news came as no surprise, since Holcomb generally caucused and voted with Republicans anyway. DPA Chair Vince Insalaco said in a statement: “We intend to give voters in House District 10 the opportunity to vote for a real Democrat in 2016.”

Yahweh, 1 – Lord Hanuman, 0 The secretary of state’s office last week denied a request from the Universal Society of Hinduism to erect a privately funded statue of the Hindu god Hanuman on the state Capitol grounds. The group’s leader, 6

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

JON NICHOLS

Quote of the Week:

CLOSE UP: A “portrait of a very cooperative dragonfly,” taken by Jon Nichols and submitted to the Arkansas Times Eye On Arkansas Flickr group.

Rajan Zed, said the statue would “raise awareness of Arkansans about Hinduism” and would be an appropriate counterpart to the Ten Commandments monument that recent legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway), approved for placement at the Capitol. Zed said he next might take his request directly to Gov. Asa Hutchinson — who, after all, signed Rapert’s bill into law. The Arkansas legislature has claimed all along that the Ten Commandments monument isn’t about religion, but about “history.” Lord Hanuman, we’re sure, has a rich history, too — and something tells us Zed will be pleased to educate the governor about its details.

Lost and found, LRPD edition Last week, officers with the Little Rock Police Department recovered a missing Glock pistol belonging to LRPD Chief Kenton Buckner while searching a suspicious vehicle on South Shackleford Road. On June 8, Buckner reported the handgun had disappeared and reimbursed the city for its cost. At the time, the chief said he’d noticed his backup sidearm had gone missing after he moved to a new house on Memorial Day weekend. In an email to the Times last week, Buckner wrote, “I was glad to see the weapon recovered. … Rarely are you lucky enough to recover your [stolen] property. I have no connection to the men arrested for possession of the weapon. They were not part of any of the workers that I witnessed in my home during my move. I highly doubt we will ever know how they gained possession of the weapon.”

Milligan shenanigans Arkansas Treasurer Dennis Milligan has had a reputation

for less-than-savory dealings since he was Saline County Circuit Clerk. Now, bulldog blogger Matt Campbell has assembled an ethics complaint against Milligan detailing 14 separate allegations of impropriety during and after his run for state office last year. There’s rampant nepotism. Deceitful campaign finance reports. Using the Saline County fax machine “for his personal horse racing business.” Read all 113 pages of assembled evidence online.

Man of steel John Correnti, the businessman behind Osceola’s Big River Steel plant, died last week while on a business trip to Chicago at age 68. Details on his death remain scant. Construction of the Big River Steel plant will continue on schedule, investors said; the “superproject” has been funded in part by over $100 million in public loans, grants and incentives, plus a $125 million direct investment from the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.

OPINION

South toward home

two-week cruise from Vancouver to Alaska was nicely timed for the August heat wave. It dipped into the 40s during my visit to the Hubbard Glacier, loudly “calving” with mighty booms of cracking ice. A brief politically tinged travelogue: If you stop in Ketchikan, get out of town fast. Five cruise ships dumped maybe 10,000 passengers on the tiny downtown when we stopped. A comparatively small number of cruisers seemed interested in the Tongass National Forest visitor center (whose attractions included a fine documentary on bush pilots). They preferred the T-shirt and fudge shops. We got on a boat to a small fishing lodge with a walkway through a moss-layered rain forest with a champion cedar tree. There, we also ate from a heap of fresh Dungeness crab, mussels, clams and prawns dumped on newspaper-covered picnic tables. Earlier, we happened to meet the son

of a former female friend of the late Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, who said he’d rehomed to Canada after MAX George Bush was BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com given the presidency by the U.S. Supreme Court. You could do worse than Vancouver or Victoria for political asylum. The weather is temperate, in Victoria particularly. The spending on public infrastructure — from transit to, in Victoria, baskets of flowers dangling from every streetlight — is obvious. Except on freeways. Our guide said Vancouver leaders thought freeways destroyed the fabric of a city, besides being costly. So you ride on city streets to the Vancouver airport and to get out of town. One result: a dense and vibrant core city that commands high real estate prices. The neighborhoods are friendly, with sidewalks

Trying to please

ike Beebe is celebrated for legislature holds the finesse with which he the key to his governed Arkansas with a keeping the ship legislature that for two years was effec- of state upright. tively controlled by the other party and The surrender, for his last two years with Republican if you asked, was ERNEST numerical control as well. ordering the state DUMAS So what will they say about Asa Medicaid staff not Hutchinson, who must govern with to pay for gynecological medical services his party owning lopsided majorities in like cancer screenings for poor women if both legislative houses? We may know they are treated at a Planned Parenthood the answer by year’s end, but all we can clinic, a policy that his Medicaid people say now is that Hutchinson is finding it surely told him would be illegal. That harder to govern with his party in control actually may work out for him. When a than Beebe did with the enemy running court orders the state to obey federal law the lawmaking branch. and not favor some medical providers If he pulls it off, he also should get over others, he can tell the hotspurs in more credit than Beebe did, but right the legislature who demanded that he now it does not look promising. punish Planned Parenthood that at least From a solid beginning, when he he tried. Tea party Republicans, who want to announced he would continue for a year the medical services program for some end health insurance for the quarter260,000 low-income Arkansans that was million Arkansans at the bottom of the economic ladder, say that the so-called the essential feature of Obamacare, he has lurched left and right, clumsily at times, “private option” — the rebranding coined to co-opt, to bypass, to accommodate in 2013 for the unpopular “Obamacare” — or to surrender to the far right of his is not essential for Hutchinson’s success. party, which though a minority in the But Hutchinson knows that it is, although

even. Remember sidewalks? You don’t see them often in Little Rock’s growth areas. But you will find ever-widening freeways to faraway places along with a decaying core city. Alaska? It’s Arkansas with mountains and glaciers. We saw a mobile home waving a Confederate flag. You’d have to ask Sarah Palin to explain the tie to local culture and heritage. We’d have asked a black person, but we didn’t see any. We did see T-shirts and bumper stickers and overheard conversations that suggest some Alaskans despise the black U.S. president even more than the average Arkansan. And speaking of presidential candidates: “That bitch” doesn’t rate too highly either, judging by a shopkeeper who loudly shared his opinion just in time for me to stick a moose Nativity scene back on his shelf and exit. I vowed to come home with something positive to say about Arkansas politicians — though Sen. Tom Cotton’s warmongering and Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s First Amendment offense in ordering a halt to freedom of physician choice for women (ending state payments for gynecological services provided by Planned Parenthood) made it hard. I found an opening in Victoria. The local newspaper lamented the tac-

tics of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He gave two hours’ notice of events in British Columbia that occurred hundreds of kilometers from those receiving the late notice. If you happened to get to the scheduled events, you needed credentials to get in. Harper sometimes meets regular people at stores and malls, but the newspaper observed: “Of course, you would have no way of knowing in advance that he’s going to be in your local shopping centre, until he suddenly leans over to kiss your baby.” And there I had it: an occasion to say something nice about Gov. Hutchinson. Not Mike Huckabee, who exempts critics such as the Arkansas Times from notice of his events and bars our admittance. Not Tom Cotton, who also freezes out media detractors and otherwise tightly controls access. Not the rest of the Arkansas congressional delegation, who routinely ignore simple questions from the Times. The governor, alone among high Arkansas Republicans, invites us to his public events. He gives us weekly copies of his public schedule. His press staff answers questions, even critical ones on occasion. Now if he would just heed some of our sound advice.

he seems to be preparing for the chance that he cannot tinker with it enough that more Republicans can claim that it’s not really Obamacare. Ending the Medicaid part of Obamacare, whether it is the private option or traditional fee-for-service Medicaid, would cost the government and the Arkansas economy billions in federal dollars, drive up the state’s costs for old Medicaid services, end tens of millions in insurance tax receipts that the governor uses to pay for prison expansion and other services, create a fiscal crisis at state medical institutions, and, presumably, lay off several thousand workers who have gotten jobs in the health sector since Obamacare kicked in three years ago. Hutchinson’s dilemma is the same as Beebe’s was. He must not seem to be giving any quarter to the black president or his signature achievements, even while feasting upon them. Beebe did it for six years; Hutchinson has to walk the tightrope for only two. You will remember Beebe’s deft handling of the big Obama stimulus program enacted in 2009 and then the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. Like other Arkansas Democratic officeholders, he never offered a good

word about either program, at least in any way that associated them with Obama, whose name was toxic. For three years, the stimulus financed a big highway program, including the giant interchange in West Little Rock, that created jobs during the Great Recession, and it pumped $825 million into the state Medicaid program, which enabled the state and Beebe to weather the recession without cutting services and also to cut grocery taxes while still producing a budget surplus every year. Most other states floundered and their governors’ popularity plummeted. National journals took note of the rare success and popularity of the Arkansas governor. Obamacare and Arkansas’s special but expensive way of implementing its Medicaid expansion accounted for a sizable part of Beebe’s record. Arkansas reduced the number of its citizens who were uninsured from 22 to 9 percent, a mark no other state achieved. While nearly all the Southern states and many others repudiated help for their poorest, Washington flushed another couple billion dollars into the state treasury and the health care system in Beebe’s final two years, which enabled him to complete his grocery tax phase-out. It also allowed the Republican legislature, CONTINUED ON PAGE 70 www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

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The good vs. the perfect

few weeks back, a fundraising invitation arrived from “For Fayetteville,” the ballot group supporting an anti-discrimination ordinance to be considered by the city’s voters on Sept. 8. After several days of pondering, I ultimately decided to drop by the back room of Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock with a small check. The reason for the hesitation: The ordinance has real flaws in terms of the breadth of its religious exemptions. In the end, however, the substantive and symbolic gains for LGBT rights in the state that would come from a victory by the measure outweigh the ordinance’s problems. Last December, a broad LGBT antidiscrimination ordinance passed by Fayetteville’s city council was overturned in a low turnout special election by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent. In the campaign leading to that outcome, key leaders in the city’s Chamber of Commerce raised concerns that the legislation criminalized the actions of business owners based on imprecisely defined provisions. Taking a different tack, religious advocates like Michelle Duggar beat the drum that the legislation made it probable that trans men would invade girls’ bathrooms. (Duggar’s fear-mongering robocall closed: “Parents, who do you want undressing next to your daughter at the public swimming pool’s private changing area?”). Not only did advocates of equality lose that Fayetteville vote, the original ordinance sparked the introduction of SB 202 by Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs). It became Act 137 when Gov. Asa Hutchinson (noting his concern about its intrusion into local governments’ policymaking) allowed the legislation to become law without his signature. Act 137 bars localities from enacting anti-discrimination provisions covering categories not already protected in state law aside from those regarding their own employees. Despite the warning from Hester and other legislators that their provisions violate the state legislation, five cities and counties have passed measures in recent months ranging from laws covering city contractors to Eureka Springs’ more far-reaching ordinance. (Two others — North Little Rock and

Conway — have passed policies covering only city employees.) In an attempt to make FayetteJAY ville the eighth BARTH Arkansas city or county with an anti-discrimination ordinance of some sort covering LGBT individuals, local advocates returned to craft an ordinance that would meet many objections of the business community that had been key to the original Fayetteville ordinance’s defeat. In addition to linking to categories somewhere else in state law, the compromise “Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance” is more precise in its key definitions, develops a city commission to hear complaints, and creates a multistage process for resolving a conflict before a violation becomes a criminal prosecution. Learning a lesson from Eureka Springs’ success in passing an ordinance, the sponsors of the ordinance also sent it directly to a vote of the people before it becomes law. Problematically, however, the ordinance also includes a broad carve-out for religious entities stating that “[c] hurches, religious schools and daycare facilities, and religious organizations of any kind shall be exempt” from the ordinance. While churches and other places of worship are clearly exempt from such ordinances under the First Amendment, the exception becomes more problematic as one moves to pre-K facilities that receive state funding and, especially, to the catch-all phrase “religious organizations of any kind.” While the original ordinance was criticized for its imprecise language by business entities, this broad phrase gives some civil libertarians similar pause, particularly in the aftermath of last year’s Hobby Lobby decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In some ways, the new Fayetteville ordinance is similar to a recent Utah compromise that creates a statewide LGBT anti-discrimination law but creates a broad religious exception palatable to Mormon leaders with outsized power in the state. Commentators have simultaneously celebrated the Utah Compromise as a stroke of genius in terms of making progress in a religiously CONTINUED ON PAGE 57

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

New York Times fails again

t the expense of pedantry, here’s how a serious newspaper covers an important story: “Tom Brady hearing transcript details judge’s comments to NFL, NFLPA,” reads the Boston Globe headline. Datelined New York, the Aug. 21 article states that Judge Richard M. Berman “put immense pressure on the NFL.” It quotes him telling the league its punishment of the Patriots quarterback in “Deflategate” constitutes a “quantum leap” from the evidence. The byline establishes that Globe reporters were there in the courtroom. Indeed, the online version contains a link to the full hearing transcript. (As an aside, this column’s readers can’t say nobody warned them about the shaky evidence and shoddy reasoning behind this overblown affair.) Now then: Let’s move to the apparently far less significant question of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s fabled email account. I say that because a recent New York Times account of a different federal judge’s statement supposedly about that account bears few indicators of real journalism. Indeed, if one were of a low and suspicious nature regarding the Times’ historically inept Washington Bureau, one might suspect yet another example of the “Clinton Rules” — that is, a shaky allegation unsupported by facts. Like a recent wildly inaccurate Times article on the same topic, the story carried Michael Schmidt’s byline. The headline of Schmidt’s original July 23 piece was “Criminal Inquiry Sought In Clinton’s Use of Email.” Except, oops, there was no criminal investigation, nor was Hillary Clinton directly involved in what amounted to an argument between the CIA and State Department over retroactively classifying information. To wit, how many Clinton emails the State Department planned to release needed to be withheld from public scrutiny under today’s circumstances. After being forced to retract virtually the entire article in a piecemeal process its own public editor, Margaret Sullivan, characterized as “to put it mildly, a mess,” Times editors pinned the blame on anonymous sources they wouldn’t identify. They vowed to be

more cautious. “Losing the story to another news outlet would have been a far, far better GENE outcome,” SulliLYONS van wrote “than publishing an unfair story and damaging The Times’s reputation for accuracy.” Soon afterward, the public editor said she agreed with a reader who argued that the newspaper needed to make “a promise to readers going forward that Hillary is not going to be treated unfairly as she so often is by the media.” Fast forward to another Schmidt opus that moved on the wire at 3:36 a.m. on the night of Aug. 21. I read it in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette under the headline: “Judge: Clinton didn’t heed email policies.” Datelined “Washington,” the story claimed that District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan of U.S. District Court, “said of Hillary Clinton’s email use that ‘we wouldn’t be here today if the employee had followed government policy,’ according to two people who attended the hearing.” Two anonymous sources, that is. The article quoted Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a rightwing group suing the State Department for access to Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s private emails, chastising Hillary. It didn’t stipulate how the former secretary, not a party to the lawsuit, came to be mentioned. Schmidt added that Judge Sullivan was appointed by President Bill Clinton — although a glance at Wikipedia shows that he was initially a Reagan protege later promoted by George H.W. Bush. It’s not supposed to matter. But a funny thing happened on the way to the hard copy New York Times later that morning. Schmidt’s story underwent significant editorial changes. Two anonymous sources were replaced by no sources. “A federal judge on Thursday said ... ” the story began. The Judicial Watch guy disappeared. Judge Sullivan was no longer a Clinton appointee. More significantly, the “Washington” dateline was replaced by no dateline.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

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AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

wo-thirds of the Hog schedule now behind us in our three-part, ritualistic, sometimes-self-immolating season preview, we turn to the final month of action. In both of Bret Bielema’s two seasons here, this has been a pretty good month, or at least as good as a 2-6 record in those months can be. The Razorbacks were a downtrodden, rudderless squad in 2013, but Brandon Allen’s health improved and the team definitely benefited. Arkansas nearly knocked off Mississippi State and LSU to end the 0-8 SEC slate and was exceptionally competitive against Ole Miss and Auburn late in the year as well. Last fall, the Hogs fought off weeks of narrow margins to blow out LSU and Ole Miss at home in the cold November rain, and bookended the month with close losses at Starkville, Miss., and Columbia, Mo. This time, it’s a month that can and should determine just how deeply into the playoff season Arkansas can go. Sporting a 7-1 record by our projections after the September-October gauntlet, the Hogs enter the final quartet of games with big aspirations, but it’s not the same kind of schedule this year, at least as far as difficulty goes: Nov. 7 at Ole Miss — The buzz that continues to linger around Oxford as Hugh Freeze recruits in a manner that seems to defy odds, convention and possibly ethics (just kidding, I think) is deafening again. The Rebels are still well equipped to win the division, and undoubtedly stinging after Arkansas won 30-0 last year. Bo Wallace is finally departed, which despite his three years of copious production may yield more consistency. The Hogs will score some in this one, but the Rebels shock the defense by running straight through it. And it’s that power game that befuddles Robb Smith’s crew, so much so that the Hogs end up giving up a season-worst rushing total and give away hopes of a division crown. A bright spot for the good guys: Hunter Henry crosses 1,000 yards receiving for the season in only the ninth game with a 185-yard effort. Rebels 33, Hogs 23. Nov. 14 at LSU — Reeling from the physical torture that Ole Miss meted out, the Hogs struggle from the start in Baton Rouge. Leonard Fournette scores twice

in the first quarter to ensure that the Tigers will not suffer the ignominy of consecutive shutBEAU WILCOX outs at the hands of the Hogs. Arkansas never reclaims the lead, tying it twice in the second half on Brandon Allen scoring throws, first to Kody Walker and next to Jeremy Sprinkle. But the Tigers show resiliency and finish the win late thanks to Brandon Harris relieving Anthony Jennings and firing a couple of big throws to Travin Dural late. Two straight losses big down the feel-good for a tick as the Razorbacks plummet in the rankings. Tigers 27, Hogs 20. Nov. 21 vs. Mississippi State — The Bulldogs are well beyond bruised at this point. Heisman hopeful Dak Prescott has to sit this one out due to lingering ankle issues, and the Hogs benefit from that, as well as the return to Fayetteville and the hospitable circumstances there. Without the rugged and mobile Prescott to deal with, an angry Razorback defensive line tees off on anyone and everyone populating the Bulldog backfield. A rousing first half in which Arkansas outgains Mississippi State more than 300 yards to 50 ends with the Hogs up 24-3. It gets worse thereafter as two backup quarterbacks, Austin Allen and Rafe Peavey, get extended looks and each throws a scoring pass in a decisive rout. Hogs 44, Bulldogs 13. Nov. 27 vs. Missouri — Oddly, the rivalry game that never felt like a rivalry takes on a decidedly spicy tone because of a pregame skirmish and the controversial officiating that bottlenecked a potential Razorback rout last year. Gary Pinkel does not bring in a stacked team this time, and in fact, Mizzou is barely bowl eligible and scraping for better placement in December, a role reversal of last year’s game. The Hogs are chippy and fiery for the finale. Motivated by all these factors, Allen closes out his senior season in high style. Throwing on the run and having a blast doing it, the normally stoic passer hits 400 yards for the first time as Dan Enos loosens the leash. Keon Hatcher also joins Henry with a 1,000yard receiving campaign and the Hogs wrap up a 9-3, 5-3 regular season.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Snake stories

he Observer’s boss, Uncle Alan, is something of a gentleman farmer on his spread up in Cabot, growing heirloom tomatoes and watermelons and crops of chiggers on property that looks like the perfect farmstead Lenny and George often fantasized about in “Of Mice and Men.” Alan doesn’t have rabbits (not tame ones, anyway) but he does have chickens. The other day, he sent around a photo of what he found in one of the nests after heading out in the dusk with a basket to collect eggs: a large, black-blue snake, elegantly coiled there in the straw. After over two decades off the farm, the sight of that critter was enough to make The Observer recall some of our own snake lore. The Observer’s father was an accidental naturalist, having learned to love and preserve the land in the oldest of old-fashioned ways: by being forced to survive there from time to time. Let’s just say Pa didn’t have a picturesque childhood and leave it at that. He grew into a man more at home with turtles and trees and streams than he ever was with people. The Observer remembers, us about 6 or 7, Pa having rescued a beautiful and very pissed off speckled king snake from the brush pile he was about to burn, subduing it with a gentle toe and then a thumb and finger behind its head. The beast coiled about his arm, tail flicking, glistening skin like a damp night full of stars. When we asked if he’d kill it, he said, “No, this kills the poisonous ones.” He later let it go in the scrap iron pile behind his shed, where it would periodically scare the hell out of The Boy Observer until we saw that speckled hide and thought: friend. The next one requires us to fast forward to 15. We’d just bought our first car, at a yard sale: a 1963 Chevy II two-door post, maybe the worst engineered car GM ever made. Paid $200 for it. The story went that the car had belonged since new to the grandmother of the owner of Bale Chevrolet. The guy running the yard sale had bought it for his teenage daughter, who, it turned out, didn’t want to be seen in an automobile that was once powder blue but had since caught a nasty case of psoriasis. So it became ours, and The Observer loved

that car until its dying day, barrel-rolled into a stand of oak trees. Our brother drove it home, babying along the slipping clutch. Once we got there, The Observer discovered the hood hinges were frozen up, allowing the hood to only open up six or seven inches. So we shimmied in through the gap with a boxend wrench, intent on removing the four bolts holding on the hood. It was only after we got the first bolt out that we noticed, there in the claustrophobic gloom, that a hose, not six inches from our arm, had scales on it. Closer inspection found that it was softly breathing. Did we actually wet our pants a bit in the 10 scrambling seconds that followed? We’ll never tell. But we do know that eventually, our $200 car birthed a live, 6-foot chicken snake that had made the incredible journey home astride the straight six in our new ride. Now, the last: The Observer was in college but still living at home. Ma and Pa’s big farmhouse out in the boonies of Saline County was un-air conditioned, the natural world kept out between May and September by screens and screen doors. We were alone there one summer day when, heading up the narrow wooden staircase, we encountered a visitor on his way down: a fat and lovely copperhead, draped from stair to stair. We actually continued on up a few more steps, close enough that it rared back to strike, before our brain finally sent a message to our feet, apparently by Pony Express, that said: Yes, this is actually happening. We don’t know how we got down the stairs, but it probably involved a ninja roll. That night, the snake dispatched and flung into the ditch, we laid awake and thought of the what-ifs: a hand, dangling from the bed in our sleep; feet jutting over the edge of the mattress; the blankets about us, so dark and inviting. How we ever slept again in that house without the benefit of a chain mail suit and human-sized hamster ball, we’ll never know. In retrospect, it’s a good thing we had all these experiences as Young Us. We honestly don’t know if the ticker inside of Old Us could take the strain.

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www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S ID ER

The Arkansas Times asked Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office this week for an explanation about why, two and a half months after a legislative request, the office hasn’t issued an opinion on whether open carry of firearms is legal without exception in Arkansas. The response from spokesman Judd Deere: “No specific timetable to offer. We do our best to turn opinion requests around within 30 days but sometimes they take longer depending upon what else was already in the queue and bound by statute to issue within a certain timeframe.” Reps. Nate Bell (Ind.-Mena) and Tim Lemons (R-Cabot) and Sen. Jon Woods (R-Springdale) asked for the opinion June 10. They had a reasonable expectation that Rutledge would say “lock and load,” or the legal equivalent of her approval of open carry. This followed a published remark by Rutledge that she believed open carry was the law, despite an opinion to the contrary by her predecessor, Dustin McDaniel. This arises from either legislative malfeasance or subterfuge — your pick — in 2013. A bill to allow open carry was decisively defeated. But another bill, represented as a “clean up” of the law that allows people to take weapons on “journeys,” was written in such a way that gun advocates argue it legalized open carry (and perhaps did other damage to gun restriction laws). McDaniel said, officially, that the technical correction bill did NOT legalize open carry. Rutledge has said personally that it did. In an interview with KFSM-TV, Ch. 5, she said: “I interpret it to mean an individual may carry so long as he or she does so without the intent to unlawfully employ it against another person. But anytime law enforcement and citizens disagree on a law, we need to ensure there is clarity to protect our citizens. I am com12

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Hutchinson’s insurance tweaks Republicanizing the Medicaid expansion. BY DAVID RAMSEY AND BENJAMIN HARDY

s much as Republicans may dislike President Obama’s health care reform, it seems that Gov. Asa Hutchinson is still a pragmatist at heart when it comes to the private option — the state’s expanded Medicaid program, made possible by the Affordable Care Act. Last week, the Republican governor told a legislative task force that Arkansas should keep the private option so as to preserve the flow of federal dollars it entails. “We can say no to Medicaid expansion,” Hutchinson acknowledged. “We have that option. Again, the result is $1.4 to $1.7 billion drained out of our Arkansas economy.” More importantly, he said, “220,000 would have their health care coverage ended. … We know now that those covered ... are our friends, our neighbors, our families. We care about them.” With the support of a popular Republican governor, Arkansas, one of only two Southern states to have adopted the Medicaid expansion, appears likely to keep the private option. But Hutchinson also reaffirmed his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Perhaps because Republicans must continue to insist they oppose “Obamacare,” the governor proposed seven tweaks to the program that represent an attempt to make the private option somewhat more conservative and somewhat less generous for beneficiaries. Hutchinson said he believed private option enrollment — currently around 250,000 individuals — will decline by 30,000 people after the state Department of Human Services’ current income eligibility verification process is complete, although he was unclear about where he’s getting that estimate. The income verification process has thus far been a disaster, tossing some 50,000 people off insurance despite the fact that many remain eligible. The legislature must approve any changes to the private option, and the

BRIAN CHILSON

Silence from Rutledge on open carry

HUTCHINSON: Putting Republican imprint on Affordable Care Act extension of health insurance to low-income people.

first two modifications proposed by the governor would require a waiver from the federal government. Here’s a quick look at the seven points Hutchinson presented: 1. Implement mandatory employersponsored insurance premium assistance. Arkansans who make less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level (that’s around $16,000 for an individual or $33,000 for a family of four) are eligible for the private option, which means they are insured under private plans paid for with Medicaid dollars. Right now, that means a business like Walmart can tell its low-income employees to go to the private option for zero-premium health insurance rather than getting coverage through work. Hutchinson wants to encourage lowincome people to get employer-based insurance when it’s available. He proposed that workers whose employers offer an ACA-compliant insurance plan

would no longer be eligible for the private option. In return, he said, Medicaid could partially subsidize the employer-based plan with some “premium assistance” to make it equivalent in value to a private option plan. This would amount to a shifting of cost from Medicaid to Arkansas businesses. However, because most lowincome people don’t have an insurance option through their employer, its impact might be modest. 2. Implement premiums for individuals with incomes more than 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Hutchinson said individuals who make between 100 percent and 138 percent of the poverty line should pay an insurance premium. He’s floating the idea of setting premiums at 2 percent of income, as some other red states are doing. But this runs contrary to the whole idea of getting everyone insured: Requiring even small premiums for low-income people to maintain their coverage can end up pushing people off insurance (or stop them from signing up in the first place). That can lead to gaps in coverage that threaten needed access to care. And while the premiums might seem large to the working poor, they would be infinitesimal compared with the overall Medicaid budget, accomplishing little savings. It would also entail another bureaucratic burden on DHS. 3. Work training referrals required for the unemployed or underemployed. Work training is not a bad thing, but should it be tied to insurance? This is yet another area where the effort to stuff Republican talking points into the box of Medicaid rules could end up making the program more complicated and bureaucratic, and even more expensive. However, there is some promise in this idea if the state is actually willing to invest in outreach and training. In many cases, lowincome Arkansans aren’t aware of existing state resources for workforce training. 4. Eliminate non-emergency medical transportation coverage. The traditional Medicaid program guarantees nonemergency medical transport as a benefit: If a beneficiary can prove that he or she doesn’t have a way to get to needed doctor’s appointments, Medicaid will provide them with a ride. This can be particularly important in rural areas, where providers might be some distance away. A study by the Georgetown Health Policy Institute CONTINUED ON PAGE 70

THE

BIG PICTURE

Inconsequential news quiz: Duggar dalliances edition Instant karma’s gonna git ya!

1) Recently, an officer with the Lowell Police Department resigned his position and was charged with a crime after being accused of a fairly significant lapse in judgment in June. According to his department, what did the officer do? A) Lost the single bullet entrusted to him by Sheriff Andy Taylor. B) Began his interaction with an African-American driver during a traffic stop by saying, “Sir, do you know how black you were going?” C) Crashed a marked Lowell PD cruiser into another car while driving intoxicated. D) Snuck his K-9 dog into a local kennel so his four-legged partner could get some strange from a sassy Pomeranian. 2) In Harrison last month, a woman found a surprise in her mailbox. What was it? A) A very intimate Ku Klux Klan rally. B) A postal money order mailed to her from Des Moines, Iowa, in May 1998. C) A smaller mailbox, containing another smaller mailbox. That mailbox, in turn, contained yet another smaller mailbox. She has so far been unwilling to open the fourth-level mailbox. D) A primitive, handwritten analogue version of an email. 3) A West Little Rock apartment complex recently launched a new tactic in the war on a common resident complaint. What is it? A) All those who can’t keep it down during sex have been moved to a single building so they can only disgust each other. B) Free ear removal for any resident whose neighbor owns a Taylor Swift CD. C) Swabbing the mouths of every dog in the complex for DNA, so piles of poop left on the lawn can be genetically traced back to the depositor. D) To prevent the hassle of plumbing problems, all toilets have been replaced by chamber pots and an open pit filled with live hogs. 4) A white supremacist group based near Harrison recently sent a letter to the City of Memphis, making a request that is highly unlikely to be granted. What was the request? A) The Grand Exalted Pompadour of the Unflagging Knightly Defenders of Chaste White Southern Maidenhood lost his wallet while passed out on Beale Street and was hoping somebody had turned it in to lost and found. B) To hold a sleepover in the Jungle Room at Graceland, complete with pillow fights in white cotton granny panties. C) To be allowed to pay to move the graves of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife, Mary, from a Memphis city park to property it owns in Boone County. D) To get “varmint” and “roadmeat” added to the list of acceptable items that can be barbecued at the annual Memphis in May cookoff. 5) After a dump of data hacked from the affair-enabling website ashleymadison.com revealed that Josh Duggar had an account there, Duggar — who spun his family’s reality show fame into employment as a well-paid morality scold and lobbyist for the far-right Family Research Council before revelations that he’d molested several girls, including some of his sisters, as a teenager laid him low — issued a statement of apology that began in a surprisingly honest way. How did the statement begin? A) “I am the biggest hypocrite ever.” B) “It’s a good thing my religion requires unquestioning forgiveness once I repent so I can be back to fleecing you suckers again in a few months.” C) “Seeking a skilled psychotherapist willing to live full time with a large family for a new TV reality show called ‘19 Kids Need Cymbalta.’ Candidate must provide own rape whistle.” D) “This could have done real damage to my reputation if I wasn’t already a disgraced pariah.”

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INSIDER, CONT. mitted to working with the General Assembly to clarify any confusion surrounding Act 746 and its intent.” She made no such attempt in the 2015 legislative session, unfortunately, nor did anyone else. You get the idea that the gun crowd would like to force this interpretation into law without forcing legislators to vote on it. Some people in law enforcement prefer the McDaniel interpretation, as do many businesses. Open pistol and rifle packing tends to leave many others less safe, rather than more. Just last week, a pistol packer was arrested in Bald Knob for toting a gun into a McDonald’s. That case was in district court on Tuesday, when the Times went to press. Earlier this year, a man open-carrying a firearm in a Walmart in Searcy had his concealed carry license confiscated. But none of this explains the lack of an opinion from Rutledge. It has led to speculation that the delay signals a difference of opinion within the office on turning away from the office’s past guidance. Time will tell.

Naramore inquiry still underway

Scott Ellington, named special prosecutor in the suspected heat-related death of a child in Hot Springs a month ago, says he’s still awaiting final lab reports before making a decision in the case. Thomas Naramore, the 18-month-old son of Circuit Judge Wade Naramore, was found dead by emergency workers responding to a call to his father’s car in the family’s neighborhood. A preliminary finding by the state medical examiner was that the death was heat-related. Naramore’s cases in juvenile court have been handled by other judges since the death was reported. A complaint has been filed against the judge with the state’s judicial ethics agency, but it has said it would await completion of the criminal investigation before moving forward on its review. Ellington responded briefly to the Times’ question by Internet message Monday morning. He didn’t specify lab work. But investigative work could extend beyond medical reports to examination of cell phone records, for example.

ANSWERS: C, B, C, C, A www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Robert McAfee and Chris McNamara They’ve got a better plan to reduce CO2 emissions. The economic modeling firm REMI (Regional Economic Models Inc.) has studied CCL’s plan and found that it

LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

KAT WILSON

f you want to quickly understand the carbon fee and dividend plan that the Citizens Climate Lobby has devised to slow global warming, go to YouTube and watch Fayetteville CCL members and the duo Still on the Hill sing the plan to you. “Let a fee be placed on carbon fuels at their source, might be on a well or a coal mine or on imports at a port … ” and so forth. Or you can ask Robert McAfee, 65, the longtime environmental activist, and Chris McNamara, 30, co-chair of the Fayetteville CCL, to tell you how the plan will reduce pollution and put money in the pockets of people. Here’s what they told a reporter: In year one, under the Citizens Climate Lobby plan, industries would be charged a fee — say $10 or $15 — on every ton of carbon dioxide they release. Then the fee revenue — every penny — would be returned to people in the form of a monthly dividend check. The fee would be both an incentive for industry to cut down on carbon emissions and a way to help folks, for example, pay their utility bills. McAfee, who cut his environmental teeth in Australia, where he did a study of the history of that continent’s climate for his Ph.D., and who served on Gov. Mike Beebe’s commission on global warming, said to consider this Arkansas example: Entergy’s coal-fired White Bluff Power Plant near Redfield, which ranks 42nd in the nation in the production of CO2, released 10 million metric tons of the greenhouse gas in 2011. At $15 a ton, Entergy would pay a carbon fee of $150 million. In year two and subsequent years, the fee would rise every year, so costs to industry that aren’t reducing their CO2 release would go up. Would companies just pick up and move to a country that doesn’t charge such a fee? CCL has figured that out, too: They’d be charged an import fee for their products sold here.

the effects of drought as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Sahel in Mali. With his degree from Arkansas Tech in history as background, he decided to specialize in climatology (climate history) while pursuing a master’s degree in geology from the University of Wisconsin. A professor suggested he write his doctoral dissertation on Australian climate history while he was teaching in Sidney. Back home in 1991, he started the

MEN WITH A PLAN: Chris McNamara (top) and Robert McAfee want to battle climate change by imposing a carbon fee on industries.

would reduce CO2 emissions 50 percent below 1990 levels over 20 years and that the dividend turnback would create a huge economic stimulus. Cleaner air, more money in folks’ pockets. Something to sing about. McAfee, who lives in Hackett (south of Fort Smith, population 812), first saw

Arkansas Environmental Education Association. In 2006, he traveled to Nashville to train with Al Gore on a slide presentation based on Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” that he would give to groups across the nation. In 2008, he was appointed to Beebe’s Governor’s Commission on

Global Warming. “It was wonderful,” he said of the commission, a bipartisan group that produced a 450-page report that listed 54 reasons to reduce CO2. Published only digitally (though he printed out a copy), it went into the cyber equivalent of the round file. But McAfee is excited in what he sees as real action today to address climate change. “I’ve been around 40 years and this year is the first time that people … are getting things done” in a way that reaches beyond talk. “Al Gore said change policy, not lightbulbs,” McAfee said. McNamara is one of those young people who are doing more than talk. He traveled to Washington, D.C., in June to meet with Arkansas’s congressional delegation, meeting personally with Sen. Tom Cotton. Once the Arkansas Citizens Climate Lobby completes a study it’s commissioned of the carbon fee impact in Arkansas, McNamara wants to take it to Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who no one would consider an environmentalist. The CCL sell is that its plan is pragmatic, more effective and better for the economy. On Aug. 3, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. McNamara believes the carbon fee and dividend plan is a better strategy, because while both plans will cost consumers more on the front end as companies pass along the cost of refitting plants or closing them, the fee and dividend plan will return some of that extra cost to consumers. The fee and dividend plan will also be cheaper to industry, McNamara said, since companies can choose to pay the fee rather than close plants that can’t continue to operate under the Clean Power Plan. Lastly, the carbon fee plan is estimated to bring about greater reductions in carbon emissions. McNamara said McAfee and his connections in the field of climatology have given his generation a head start, taking it “light years ahead” of where they would be without their work. “I wouldn’t know where to start,” without the foundation laid by McAfee, McNamara said. “He’s made a huge difference.” LNP www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

BRIAN CHILSON

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

USING ART TO GET HER MESSAGE ACROSS: Her latest series is “pouring” out of her, Cox says.

V.L. Cox

Artist fights bigotry with ‘End Hate’ series.

.L. Cox — the L is for Lynette, which she is known by to friends — had just completed a U.S. flag made up of 606 teabags that she made herself using pages from the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, when a reporter dropped by her North Little Rock studio. Coffee-colored stains drip down the surface of the teabag flag, a project Cox has named “Stain” and which she created to portray the stain she believes the tea party has left on the country. “Stain” is part of the 53-year-old artist’s “End Hate” project, which started with an installation about segregation in all its forms, doors labeled “Whites Only,” “Colored Only,” “LGBT Only,” “Immigrant Only,” “Homeless Only” and “Human Being.” Cox took the “End Hate” doors to the National Mall, where she spent a day talking to the people from all over the world visiting Washington, D.C., about what prompted the project. It was House Bill 1228, the state leg16

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

islature’s “Conscience Protection Act” to allow people and businesses to discriminate against homosexuals. After hundreds of people protested at the state Capitol, the bill was pulled, replaced with one based on the federal religious freedom bill. “I was sitting in Cracker Barrel [a pause here to laugh] having coffee with a friend when I got a text that HB 1228 was going to pass. I would never have dreamed it would pass,” Cox said. She thought about it a while and announced, “I’m going to Washington. … If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a bully.” “End Hate” has expanded, with “Stain” and other pieces, built from other objects Cox has collected from flea markets and antique stores: There’s the bullet-riddled Coca-Cola sign that has a Bible embedded in it (“Ready, Aim, Fire and Brimstone”) because people are excusing their prejudices with Bible verse, “throwing the Bible around as casually as they shoot at signs” in the

country, she said. “Eleventh Hour” is a birdhouse turned church, half painted black, half painted white, referring to what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said was the most segregated hour in the week. No matter how we prefer to worship, Cox said, “I see no reason why we shouldn’t be breaking bread together” once in a while. There’s “Blessed Assurance (or maybe Ashurance),” which Cox constructed with a window from an 1896 church and wood from a pew that she burned with a torch. The vertical piece of a cross built into the window was made with a fire extinguisher from the 1940s. Another piece combines a pair of scuffed men’s shoes in a church dormer window, also backed with an old church pew, one in which eye holes were cut out to resemble a wooden Klansman’s robe. Cox said her grandparents told her they could identify disguised Klan members by their Sunday church shoes. Cox is working on a piece incorporating the most remarkable artifact she’s obtained: A real Klan robe she bought from an antique shop. Stains on the back are blood, Cox has been told; the name of the wearer — Wallis — is embroidered in the collar. She wonders if it was worn

during the Red Summer of 1919, when whites attacked blacks in dozens of cities across America, including Elaine. “This series has been pouring out of me,” Cox said. “For once I’m trying not to control my work,” which has included her “Images of the American South” mixed-media series of people seen through screen doors, abstractions and other work. She believes art can get a message across that mere words can’t. Her constructions, she hopes, will make viewers stop and think — for themselves. “I’m redirecting my energy into myself and my passion and not other people’s business, and I’m so happy,” she said. Cox, who grew up in Arkadelphia, the daughter and great-granddaughter of artists, said she believes people have been neglecting the issues of race for too long. “One thing these crazy people [racists] have done is poked a hornet’s nest,” where folks are no longer hiding their bigotry, Cox said. “I don’t want to hear the N word and faggot and queer. … It made me realize it was time to grow up” and return the sting. LNP

BRIAN CHILSON

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

SAVING HORSES FROM SLAUGHTER: Excy Johnston’s Wing Spur Wild Horses Inc.

Excy Johnston

Former rodeo rider turns wild horse sanctuary into advocacy.

ohn Houston Eccleston “Excy” Johnston had been a successful architect for decades when he received a phone call one night at his ranch in Bigelow telling him that a group of wild horses was about to be slaughtered unless he did something to rescue them. “The slaughter-buyer had already picked them up,” he remembered recently. “Nobody could get the money together to save them. I got with a friend and we just — we went and got

’em. We paid the guy off and brought them back. And we’ve just been slugging away at it ever since.” Johnston, who was born in Baltimore and lived in Austin, Texas, for many years before moving to Arkansas to be closer to his wife’s family, came by his love of horses honestly, having grown up on ranches and riding in rodeos. “The whole atmosphere is really quite incredible,” he said of his time riding broncs in

rodeos around the country. “I did well enough to get myself from point A to point B, but never enough to make any sort of living. I used to just pick places I’d never been before and go.” Johnston’s initial act of mercy has spawned a nonprofit organization, Wing Spur Wild Horses Inc., dedicated to serving as both a sanctuary for wild horses and an educational outreach opportunity. More recently, he has signed up an old acquaintance from his Austin years, the country singer and Texas personality Kinky Friedman, as a celebrity board member. Friedman plays fundraisers

for Wing Spur and has committed to make future appearances in support of the project and to do whatever else is needed. Johnston plans to host a camp-out on his ranch in coming weeks, and is interested in hosting benefit events at the White Water Tavern. “Horses are intelligent, feeling creatures that, in general, deserve better than going to slaughter,” Johnston said. “They have a role. There’s a pretty good argument for, as much as possible, leaving wild horses wild. We’ve got our 15. If we could save some more that would be great.” WS www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

IT'S THE PARTY TO THE PARTY! Ride the Arkansas Times BLUES BUS to the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena

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AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

SOLORZANO: Hopes Springdale will be a model for inclusiveness.

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Margarita Solorzano

Advocate helps Latinos engage in Northwest Arkansas communities.

BRIAN CHILSON

THE UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOODS OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home. Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

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“One of the things that shocked me when I came to the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is celebrated [here] more than it is in Mexico,” Solorzano said. “So we adopted the festival to celebrate community and [raise funds for] education.” The festival — eight hours of music, food, performances and games — is held every year at the Jones Center in Springdale with the help of volunteers. All proceeds go to the scholarship fund. Since 2000, HWOA has awarded 314 scholarships, ranging from $500 to $5,000, to deserving Latino students, many of whom are first-generation college students. HWOA also created a mentoring program for young and older adults that provides personal development workshops, parenting classes and computer skill classes. The classes are taught in Spanish and include resume writing and job interview preparation. More than a thousand people have been served by the program. “We want them to be a part of the community, be integrated into the community — not just taxpayers, but citizens who care about what’s going on and actively getting involved and getting things changed,” Solorzano said. Since the HWOA’s founding in 1999, Springdale’s population has become increasingly diverse, with the addition of other ethnic minorities from the Marshall Islands, India, Laos and Vietnam. The HWOA works with several state and local organizations to create a more inclusive community for all of the area’s residents. “[Without] integration, we have small pockets of people, living in the same place, probably having the same needs but never communicating or associating with the other group. If we work together, the community conditions [will] change, [and] they benefit everybody.” Solorzano believes that Northwest Arkansas can be a model for other places in the state and country aiming to create more inclusive communities with diverse populations. KH

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argarita Solorzano grew up in the Mexican state of Guanajuato and moved to the United States in 1990 to join her five sisters living in Southern California. Searching for a small and affordable community, she moved to the mostly white Springdale in 1996 to raise her two daughters. Solorzano got a job at a grocery store, where she could see the difficulties that Latinos had communicating and getting information, the looks that they received in line trying to pay for their groceries and the challenges that they faced in hiring other services such as doctors and lawyers. So Solorzano got involved in the community, meeting with a group of mostly Hispanic women at local churches and public libraries, all of whom were looking for a support system in their new community. That group later became the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas (HWOA). In an effort to tear down barriers to services, the HWOA published a Bilingual Newcomers Guide providing information about community resources. The HWOA also works to improve children’s educational success and provide scholarships as an incentive to pursue higher education. Many of the Latino families that move to Springdale come for factory jobs. Their children are educated as ESL students; as such, Solorzano said, educators may not expect much from them or motivate them to continue their education.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Ryan Harris

Former finance man helps fill a niche in Little Rock’s music scene.

BRIAN CHILSON

MIUSIC PROMOTER: Ryan Harris, at South on Main.

mong the casualties of the 2008 market collapse, you can include Ryan Harris’ burgeoning career in financial services. A St. Louis native, Harris had played music for most of his life, but only as a hobby. At Washington University, he’d studied business, and after graduating took a position with a money management firm for a couple of years until the recession hit. The truth was, he welcomed the change — this wasn’t the career he wanted. “It ended up being kind of a moral conflict for me,” he remembered recently. “It was a sales job, and I realized I didn’t believe in what I was selling.” After a soul-searching stint in Europe,

Harris made the decision to focus on what he actually enjoyed. In college, his most meaningful experiences had been musicrelated. His professor Rich O’Donnell — the pioneering and eccentric composer, percussionist and instrument-builder — had been a profound influence in this respect, introducing Harris to the notion that it’s “OK to pursue something you love doing even if it isn’t practical.” He began booking shows with O’Donnell and eventually became a staple in the city’s art music community, “clawing” his way up at the Sheldon Arts Foundation (sometimes called the “Carnegie Hall of St. Louis”) from an internship to a receptionist gig to, finally, a job as program director. In early 2013, as the Oxford American was preparing to open its new restaurant and performance venue South on Main, Harris moved to Little Rock with his then-girlfriend (now wife), and was appointed the venue’s first program director. He saw an opportunity from the beginning to fill a different niche in the city’s music scene, and to provide a new, regular outlet for local artists. “There are a surprising number of great musicians in Central Arkansas,” he said. “Unfortunately, very few of them can make a fulltime living playing music, simply because it’s a smaller economy that can’t support enough live music.” And rather than go “head-to-head with the existing, thriving rock clubs,” Harris decided to focus on concerts that better suited the restau-

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rant’s size and atmosphere. Local Live, the free weekly concert series Harris curates, has quickly become an essential part of Little Rock’s cultural landscape, a casual, sonically diverse, upscale but affordable experience that features different artists at 7:30 p.m. each Wednesday. It’s the premier option for, in Harris’ words, “people who have to be at work in the mornings and can’t start their nights at rock club times; people who love music but maybe have kids; people who want an experience where they can socialize, get a fantastic meal and great drinks and hear somebody who’s trying to create their own artistic identity.” Harris also programs ticketed shows at South on Main, bringing jazz musicians and songwriters who may never have played in Little Rock before “because there hasn’t been a proper place for them to play or because nobody wanted to promote their kind of music.” Over the next few months, the venue will host Americana nostalgist Pokey LaFarge, Israeli jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen, brooding singersongwriter Lera Lynn (featured prominently in the new season of “True Detective”) and an evening of “Georgia music in the round” featuring The Indigo Girls and Patterson Hood, which will serve as a kickoff for the Oxford American’s forthcoming Georgia Music Issue. Asked whether there’s any sort of cognitive dissonance to programming mostly quieter, acoustic music when his own musical background leans toward progmetal and experimental electronic music, Harris emphatically denied it. “I pull out the metal albums every once in a while, but I’m too old to go out to those concerts,” he said. “I’ve mellowed.” WS

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ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Bill Solleder

Rocker adopts Hot Springs and develops its music scene. became part of the bloodstream of Hot Springs,” Solleder said, though he concedes that Valley of the Vapors still operates a little under the radar. To “embrace the whole town,” in 2011 Solleder started the Hot Water Hills Music & Arts Festival, which will continue this October. Solleder’s new project, one that’s been in the works for nearly three

BRIAN CHILSON

n a past life, Bill Solleder was better known as Billy Spunke, front man for the Chicago glam-punk outfit The Blue Meanies (est. 1989), named for the wild-tongued villains from “Yellow Submarine.” Because they had a horn section, they were roped into the Third Wave of Ska, and by 1999 were signed to a dream deal with MCA. “The industry was still banking on the whole post-Nirvana alternative rock era,” Solleder remembered recently. “We were one of the last acts signed under that model.” Before long they were touring with Celtic punk band Flogging Molly, and not long after that — “we didn’t see it coming at all, everything was going really well” — they got a phone call telling them they’d been dropped. Solleder, who was born and raised in Chicago and who studied at Southern Illinois University, decided it was time for a change. He’d fallen in love with a woman “through the mail” — a pen pal named Shea Childs — and in 2003 they relocated to her hometown, Hot Springs, where he took a job as a project manager with a construction company. He fell for Hot Springs right away, though he missed the vibrant music scenes he’d known in other larger cities. An old friend on her way to a set at the South by Southwest music festival in Texas asked if Solleder could find a place for her to play in Hot Springs, so he wandered into Maxine’s one night — “it was pretty shady in there at the time” — and asked if he could book a show. “Within two weeks I had booked five days of consecutive shows,” he said, “and before I knew it, we had an event going.” Valley of the Vapors, the annual underground music festival Solleder founded in 2005, has only grown larger, more raucous and more prestigious in the years since. He and Childs founded a nonprofit organization, Low Key Arts, to support the event, and their efforts have continued to extend into other cultural arenas, becoming a kind of all-purpose engine for creative possibility in Hot Springs. Arkansas Shorts, a festival of short films by local and international filmmakers, was next, which in turn led to the Projection Digital Filmmaking Program, a handson movie-making course for young aspiring directors. “Over time we

campaign, and has already recruited a number of all-volunteer DJs and staff. There are shows dedicated to classical music, jazz, punk, metal, zydeco and EDM. Local theater group Red Door Studios has produced an exclusive radio play for the new station. Solleder himself currently hosts two weekly shows — one on classic rock deep cuts and another on the history of New Wave. “The goal is to be somewhere between NPR and college radio,” he said, citing Little Rock’s KABF FM, 88.3, as a primary influence.

years now, promises to raise the stakes for Low Key Arts and for the whole Central Arkansas arts community: Hot Springs’ first solar-powered community radio station, KUHS 97.9 FM. A longtime dream of station manager Zac Smith and engineer Bob Nagy, the station is the result of a massive local fundraising effort, including a successful Kickstarter

Solleder, who also sings in the bands Holy Shakes and All the Way Korean!, said his hyperactive productivity could at first be attributed to general restlessness — “trying to cure the boredom,” as he puts it — but at this point he recognizes he has a significant role to play in Hot Springs’ cultural life. “I’d like to make a lasting impression,” he said. WS

SETTING THE SPA TO MUSIC: Valley of the Vapors founder Bill Solleder.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Stephanie Harris

Attorney works to develop more women leaders.

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

or Little Rock attorney Stephanie Harris, the decision to start the group Women Lead Arkansas was at least partially sparked by a question she posed to herself back in 2013: Why, over a decade into the 21st century, are we still making a political issue out of whether women should have access to birth control? “I couldn’t fucking believe it. You can quote me on that,” she said. “I thought that if we had more women in office, maybe we wouldn’t be having that conversation.” Women Lead Arkansas (womenleadarkansas.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group with the root goal of getting more women and girls interested in running for public office, volunteering for campaigns, and putting their names in the hat for leadership roles on appointed boards and commissions. Getting more women into those positions, Harris believes, will help solve lingering issues like gender-based pay inequality, girls being steered away from education in science, tech, engineering and math, and more. “We still have very few women on our boards of trustees at institutions of higher education,” Harris said. “Women are more than half the people who go to college. Why is that? At last count, [women comprised] only about 26 percent of our state boards and commissions who were appointed by the governor.” Since starting the group, Harris has had the opportunity to talk to women from all over the state. While she said younger women are less likely to accept the term “feminist,” most still believe in the basic tenets of feminism, such as equal pay for equal work.

FIGHTING FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Harris wants to see more women in leadership roles.

Harris believes women leaders bring unique attitudes to the table, including diplomacy and more community-oriented decision-making. “I don’t like to think of us as trying to be more like men,” she said. “I think we have really complementary attributes. We think about things differently. Women tend to think about the impact of our policies more broadly. We tend to be the primary caregivers of our families, so we’re not just thinking about ourselves or our immediate family. We’re thinking about how things affect the community.” Though it seems like the state has taken a few steps backward on women’s rights

in the past few years, Harris is clearly playing the long game. While she said she doesn’t see either the Republican or Democratic Party doing much to “build their pipeline with women,” incremental steps by groups like Women Lead Arkansas will get us to a leadership landscape that more closely resembles society. “It needs to be a long-term effort. Not just 2016,” she said. “We need to be building women up right now. ... To me, it’s all about the numbers. We’ve got to get more women in office so it’s normal to have women in those positions. Until it’s normal, we’re going to keep having to have this conversation.” DK

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES first double-blind clinical trials, Ferrando said. “Don’s the visionary,” Ferrando said. “He had the cajones to say let’s give it a shot.” Department Chair Dr. Jeanne Wei doesn’t mind dogs running around the seventh floor and supports the research, he said. Stack has been selfless in providing tissue, Bodenner added. There’s a cell biologist and a chemist on faculty studying the compounds to determine just what it is the dogs smell. And there are the dogs. They’re not in it for the science, but for the fun of it. It’s a wonderful team, Ferrando said. LNP

BRIAN CHILSON

Waggoner and she throws them their reward, their beloved balls. Bella and Zooey were trained to detect the cancer compound first in human tissue supplied by surgeon Dr. Brendan Stack. Waggoner — a Marine who worked with bomb-sniffing dogs in Iraq — is working with Bella, Zooey and six other dogs to identify the substance in progressively smaller portions. Bella and Zooey are the successors to Frankie, a shepherd mix who made the news last year when Ferrando and Bodenner published the results of their study at a conference on endocrinology. For that study, Frankie FOLLOWING THEIR NOSES: Bodenner (left) and Ferrando use Bella and Zooey to sniff out thyroid cancer. was presented with 34 urine samples provided by patients scheduled for surgical biopsies, with some known cancer-positive samples added in so Frankie wouldn’t work without a reward at some point. Frankie could detect that a sample was not cancerous nine times out of 10; he Doctor and researcher turn to experts in smell for cancer correctly identified 87 percent of the research. cancer samples as such. Now, Bodenner and Ferrando say, their reliability studies with Frankie’s successors have a 92 percent accuracy rate. rny Ferrando, a Ph.D. researchand cremated remains. Bodenner and Ferrando say they’re er in metabolism, and Dr. Don Bodenner has the technology to “moonlighting” when they work on the Bodenner, an endocrinologist, detect nodes on the thyroid (half of us over the age of 50 have them), but has a don’t know if they’re visionaries or scent project; Bodenner has a clinical harder time finding out if they are can“crazy,” Ferrando said. Certainly, some practice and does other research, and folks could consider their research harecerous. There are a couple of reasons for Ferrando studies muscle loss in the brained. But they would be wrong on that. Between 10 and 20 percent of the elderly. But they are passionate about two counts: The research is getting good time the nodules “won’t give up the cells” the work and would like to see the dogs eventually become an adjunct to cliniresults and it doesn’t involve hares. It to a needle biopsy, Bodenner said. Then, involves dogs, and their amazing sense 20 to 30 percent of all biopsies can’t tell cal care — not just for thyroid cancer, of smell. the pathologist whether the cells are but deadlier cancers like ovarian canThe dogs that hang out on the sevcancerous or not. cer. Bodenner does not intend to turn Only 4 to 5 percent of nodules turn diagnoses over to the dogs, but he will enth floor of the University of Arkansas at some point offer their evidence to a for Medical Science’s Reynolds Institute out to be cancerous, but that percentage on Aging can tell if a patient has thyroid is high enough, Bodenner said, that many patient. He thinks the patients will trust cancer. No, Ferrando and Bodenner are patients want surgery. “So I’m going to them. To get to that point will take time not taking the dogs to the patients. That send someone to surgery for a [condition] and money (the National Institutes of wouldn’t work anyway. What their dogs that’s 95 percent benign,” Bodenner said. Health won’t grant money until it’s sure do detect is the compound that a thyroid Enter Bella, a boxer lab stray picked the project is not “looney tunes,” as Ferup at a gas station, and Zooey, a golden cancer cell emits into the bloodstream rando put it.) Helping with research is and urine. retriever owned by ICU nurse Rachel the Auburn University College of VeteriWhy, you ask, use a dog to diagnose Rosenbaum. They work for tennis balls. nary Medicine, which has a division that thyroid cancer? The idea came up over Trainer Stephani Waggoner works with breeds dogs for good noses and reward values. Auburn is now training its dogs lunch, when Ferrando, who had been the dogs, putting out several vials of using samples provided by UAMS. working with search and rescue dogs, urine on a multi-armed contraption that was describing to Bodenner the amazthe dogs can walk around. When the While there have been several studies ing ability of the dogs to sniff out missing dogs find a sample that has the cancer of dogs and their ability to smell cancer, compound in it, they sit, look eagerly at people, lost kids, even Civil War graves UAMS and Auburn are conducting the

Arny Ferrando and Don Bodenner

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ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Evan Young

An advocate for transgender vets.

T “Within five weeks, my voice had bottomed out and my short haircut didn’t help at all. I came under investigation. It was essentially a race against time for them to find something on me.” HELPING SOLDIERS: Transgender American Veterans Association head Evan Young.

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

he old saying goes, if you enjoy your freedoms, thank a veteran. For veterans and active duty soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who happen to be transgender, however, serving this country probably feels a bit thankless at times. While gays and lesbians have been able to serve openly since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010, transgender service members still live under the threat of being kicked out of the military simply for being who they are. Pope County resident Evan Young, the current president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, or TAVA, is working to change that. Young knows firsthand the threat under which transgender service members live. Young, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1989, served in the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), as a recruiter at the University of Michigan and with the Hawaii National Guard before retiring from the military in 2013. Toward the end of his military career, believing he would soon be allowed to medically retire because of bad knees, Young began taking testosterone to transition from biologically female to male. He didn’t realize how quickly the hormone would work. “Within five weeks,” he said, “my voice had bottomed out and my short haircut didn’t help at all. I came under investigation. It was essentially a race against time for them to find something on me.” Luckily, Young said, he was able to get out before that happened. After retiring from the military in January 2013, Young joined TAVA, a

group founded in 2003. He was soon asked to join the board of directors, and eventually served as secretary and vice president before taking the reins as president in December 2014. TAVA has a 10-person board and a Facebook group with over 3,000 members (a drop in the bucket of what Young said is an estimated 135,000 transgender veterans in the U.S.). Day to day, the group — online at tavausa.org — helps trans soldiers and vets as they navigate life in and out of the military, including fielding calls for assistance from trans vets who run into problems while seeking medical care or gender changes in their VA records. “We have direct lines to people who can get it done,” Young said. “We’ve helped so many veterans who are just in tears because they can’t get something they need.” Young said the group is also working on a program to help low-income or homeless trans vets with sometimes complicated and expensive legal issues like gender changes on birth certificates or driver’s licenses. While Young believes the wind is blowing in the direction of transgender service members being allowed to openly serve — he says a recent directive from the Department of Defense leaves the decision on whether to discharge a trans soldier up to the top brass at the DoD, which is a good sign — he says there is still work to be done, and probably always will be. “I think that everybody deserves a fair chance,” Young said. “As long as there’s a fight to fight, then I’ll be in there fighting for our rights.” DK

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Bernadette Devone

ernadette Devone probably knows more about South Arkansas than any Arkansan. The Virginia native, lured to Arkansas by ACORN and now organizing director for the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, puts about 1,000 miles on her car every week traveling to 10 communities, from Marvell in the Delta to Huttig in the Felsenthal. She’s been doing that for 13 years, working to help low-income residents of those communities to help themselves, and “we are actually making headway,” Devone said. It’s hard work. Racism, Devone said, “is embedded in rural Arkansas in a way that you have to see it to believe it.” For example, when Huttig elected its first black mayor, Tony Cole, in 2010, KKK signs were painted all over town, dogs were poisoned, the white chief of police — fired by Cole — sued the mayor (and lost). The city of Marvell still has no public swimming pool. The city of Prescott’s efforts to construct a Confederate memorial has gone down the wrong way. These days, Confederate flags “are out and about. I see more and more of them every day,” Devone said. And yet, Devone’s team has been able to work with communities to come together and work toward a future they want to see in towns wracked by blight, poor schools, unemployment and families dealing with a high number of incarcerated African-American men. Devone came to Arkansas with a different perspective on religion. “I’m a religious person, I believe in the Bible and Jesus,” she said. But, as she traveled to churches to register people to vote in the 2000 elec-

tion, she began to see that people here sometimes perhaps put more faith in prayer than action. Devone discovered that “a lot of the time people didn’t really understand why it was important to go to the polls and vote.” So, working with the Public Policy Panel, she and her team started holding political forums throughout South Arkansas. The team emphasized that people needed to learn what the candidates stood for, and to vote for them based on issues rather than friendships or family ties. As Devone discovered, division is not just a product of racism. In Gould, which is 85 percent black, a group of activists formed there with the help of Devone’s team decided to call the city council’s hand on several of its actions (or inaction) — the town’s bankruptcy, its sewer system and more — and the city council passed an unconstitutional ordinance that sought to outlaw the group. The mayor, Earnest Nash, was assaulted, as a result of the division between the old powers and the new. Creating consensus “was not as easy as they thought,” Devone said. “There’s a whole lot more politics … in small town America,” she discovered. But, she said, for better or for worse, the town is more engaged politically. “Everyone likes accolades, and I’m no different,” Devone said. “But it’s more important to me that we expose what’s happening in these communities.” Meanwhile, her group continues to seek out leaders, connect people in communities with similar goals and “help low-income, marginalized people to understand that they have power, they have a voice and can make a difference.”LNP

BRIAN CHILSON

Nonprofit leader gets South Arkansas organized.

SHEDDING LIGHT: Devone works to expose problems in small South Arkansas towns.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Taylor Wilson

Nuclear physics prodigy keeps pushing.

PRODIGIOUS: From nuclear fusion to reactor development, Wilson has been working it out since childhood.

AUGUST 27, 2015

hat were you doing when you were 14? Whatever your answer to that question is, you probably didn’t just say, “I became the youngest person in the world to achieve nuclear fusion.” That is, however, a claim that can be made by Texarkana native Taylor Wilson. In 2008, at an age when most people are still trying to master algebra and pass the test for their learner’s permit, Wilson built a working fusion reactor, successfully fusing atoms at a temperature 40 times hotter than the sun. Since then, Wilson has twice been a speaker at the prestigious TED Talks series (giving one talk on achieving fusion and another on powering the world with small nuclear reactors); won the $50,000 top prize in a science fair sponsored by the White House for his invention of a device that can detect nuclear material in shipping containers at ports, and received a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship to continue his research. An article published in Popular Science in 2012 by reporter Tom Clynes was expanded and published in July as a biography called, “The Boy Who Played With Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting and How to Make a Star.” A film project based on the book is rumored. Now living in Nevada, Wilson, 21, said that he has long been fascinated with nuclear energy and the thousands of ways it can help society. He was around 10, he said, when he first became interested in the field. “I don’t know what inspired me,” he said. “I think I realized that that was just about the most powerful thing I could do, right? Unlocking the fundamental structural and energetic element of nature. It’s really powerful, and it’s got the power to do a lot of things, whether it’s to solve our energy crisis or cure disease. It’s an incredibly powerful tool to me. That’s what’s drew me to it. I guess I’ve been doing it more than half my life now.” These days, Wilson said, his main research focus is in reactor development, designing compact, modular systems that could someday power a small city. “That’s my major focus,” he said, “but I’ve got all kinds of projects, especially in basic science, to investigate a variety of things in medicine and basic physics. I’m maybe a little bit schizophrenic in my focus sometimes.” While Wilson has called Reno home for several years, his parents live in Arkansas. ARKANSAS TIMES

He hints that he may be returning to his birth state at some point. “The state of Arkansas has tried really

hard to get me back there,” he said, “so there’s some things in the works. Hopefully that’ll all work out.” DK

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

f you want to who visit immiaddress the grant households special health will often be told needs of Pacific that the number Islanders, public of residents is the health researcher number the lease Nia Aitaota says, allows, rather than Northwest Arkanthe real number, which could be sas is a good place to do it. Arkansas much higher.) One has the highest and of the jobs of the the fastest growing center is to collect population of Marbetter data on how shallese — natives large the community is. of the Marshall Islands, just north of The Marshallese have a numthe equator in the AITAOTA: Says UAMS is “forwardber of significant Micronesia island thinking” in creating clinic. health problems, group in the Pacific Ocean — in the most importantly continental U.S., drawn to the Ozarks type 2 diabetes. A quarter of the for jobs in the poultry industry and Marshallese has this diet-and-lifecheaper living costs. The Marshallese style-related diabetes, which is an may travel freely in the U.S. as part of extremely high percentage compared an agreement meant to compensate with 9 percent in the general populathem for the deadly radiation to which tion. It likely has something to do with they were exposed during American a generation of poor food: Even before nuclear bomb tests. They also live in the U.S. used Marshallese atolls for Western states, but are concentrated bomb tests, Navy ships bombed the here. Japanese-held islands during World Aitaota, a public health researcher War II, damaging the vegetation of who is herself Samoan, co-directs the the Pacific Islands. Radiation from Center for Pacific Islander Health, a the later bomb tests poisoned the fish position that allows her to split her and what remaining vegetation there time between Fayetteville, where was, and the islanders had to live on the center is part of the University canned food. Before the war, accordof Arkansas for Medical Sciences, ing to a government study, there was and California. She most recently did no diabetes and little hypertension research at the University of Iowa’s among the residents of the Marshall Island chain, Aitaota said. College of Public Health, but worked in the Pacific for 17 years as a generalThe islanders also suffer disproist in Pacific Islander Health. portionate rates of tuberculosis, Han“All the other ethnic groups — sen’s disease (leprosy), Hepatitis B Hispanic, African American — have and cancer. Their cancer is believed different centers at different univerto be caused by radiation, whether sities. There are centers for native through inherited modified genes or Hawaiians. But UAMS’ center will be the environment. (A lot of the research the first to focus on Pacific Islander into why that should be is classified, health, and will serve the country. … Aitaota said.) We follow our community where they Because the islanders have what move to,” Aitaota said. Aitaota calls a “highly collective culture,” doctors who treat diabeUsing information from school districts and birth certificates as well as tes among the Marshallese have to U.S. census data, Aitaota puts Arkaninvolve more than the patient. “In sas’s population of Pacific Islanders at the Pacific, it’s not yourself … it’s your between 10,000 and 14,000. (Census family that will determine whether data is lower: “It’s common knowlyou are successful” in managing illedge that we don’t do very well with ness. The islanders have “a unique surveys,” Aitaota said; census takers way of seeing things”; communica-

Pearl McElfish, director of UAMS’ Office of Community Health and Research, is co-director of the center. The center was created with a grant of $250,000 from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which has also awarded UAMS $2.1 million to study diabetes education in the Marshallese community. The CDC has also made a grant to UAMS of $2.99 million to address health disparities among Pacific Islanders and Hispanics. LNP

Michael Stewart Allen (Macbeth) in Macbeth. Photo by John David Pittman.

Nia Aitaota

Public health researcher follows the Marshallese to Arkansas.

tion with them is “contextual,” Aitaota said. They may be speaking English, but to fully communicate, one must “read between the lines.” The center’s research will play a part in finding ways to tailor health care to the culture, by outreach funded by the Centers for Disease Control and by recruiting doctors and public health workers from the Marshallese community in the U.S. “To me, it is very forward-thinking to have [the center] here,” Aitaota said.

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BRIAN CHILSON

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Rep’s director of education gives young, aspiring actors a challenge. It works.

his year marks Nicole Capri’s 10th anniversary as director of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive program, which she’s taking as an opportunity for reflection. I don’t want to become stagnant,” she said recently. “I think every few years you should take a step back and reimagine things.” Capri, who grew up in Little Rock and graduated from Central High, initially returned to Little Rock over a decade ago to take a role in The Rep’s production of “Cinderella.” She signed on for a temporary stint in development and stuck around “for the health insurance,” before finding her passion in The Rep’s then-underutilized summer program. “When they first asked me to do the education program, we were doing residencies in the schools and they had a small camp,” she said. “I saw there was so much interest in musical theater especially, it was a niche that wasn’t being filled around here. So I proposed a program that would basically treat kids like adults, where over the course of a week and a half they would put on a show.”

The result was the SMTI program. It’s become so widely known that it now draws participants and staff members from all over the country. Over 600 students auditioned to take part in this summer’s program, which consisted of four sections (divided by age group) and 16 performances. “It caught on because kids loved the challenge,” Capri said. “They needed the challenge.” Notable alumni of the highly competitive program include Chad Burris (currently starring in the national tour of “The Book of Mormon”), Charity Vance (singer-songwriter and finalist on “American Idol” season 9) and Cole Ewing (actor, most recently of the Disney Channel show “Lab Rats”). “They come out sweating,” Capri said of her students. “I’m sure some days they hate me. But in the end every single one says, ‘Thank you for pushing me.’ ” Looking ahead, Capri plans to one day add a dance company and a vocal company, and to produce more “straight plays.” Her immediate goal, however, is simply growth. “I’ve been practically a department of one,” she said. “It’s time to expand. I can’t do this by myself.” WS

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

BRIAN CHILSON

AN APP FOR ASTHMA: Perry and her ACH team are working on one.

Tamara Perry

Childhood asthma in rural Arkansas inspires doctor to pursue advances in telemedicine.

rowing up in Helena-West Helena, Tamara Perry always knew that she wanted to help others get and stay healthy. During her medical training she chose to focus on allergy and immunology because she suffered from asthma as a child. Perry also knew from personal experience the difficulties of getting asthma treated in a rural location. Now, as director of telemedicine at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Perry is working to help patients and health care providers stay connected when they can’t meet face to face. As part of her work, she’s developed a mobile app for

asthma patients. Of Arkansas’s 75 counties, 70 percent are considered rural and the majority is medically underserved, without enough health care providers for the number of people in the county. Forty-six counties are served by a single hospital and 21 counties — almost 30 percent of all counties in the state — do not have ready access to a hospital. “In traditional medicine the doctor is in one location and the patient has to come to that location, oftentimes waiting days, weeks and months before seeing the provider,” Perry said. Telemedicine makes it possible for medical

information to be exchanged via twoway video, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of technology. “Telemedicine is changing the way we practice medicine,” Perry said. Asthma is the most common childhood disease, affecting over 7 million children in the United States every year. It causes inflammation in the lungs, narrowing of the airways and excess production of mucus, making it difficult to breathe. This triggers coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath, which often requires medical treatment and presents challenges to leading an active lifestyle. Traditionally, an asthma action plan is given to patients by a specialist like Perry on a sheet of paper giving detailed instructions on what to do when they are having symptoms, how to take their rescue medications and when they need to seek medical attention. Perry designed the innovative mobile telemedicine application for asthma patients with a research team at Children’s. It’s still in the trial phase and is being evaluated for its effectiveness in treatment and patient health outcomes. The app not only gives the same instructions as a traditional asthma action plan, but also allows for patients to input data that can be tracked by their physician, including symptoms, daily medications and use of rescue medications. The data will assist physicians in determining and identifying patterns in the patient’s symptoms and identifying the best methods of treatment. “It is much easier and much more feasible to expect a patient to keep up with an app on their phone as opposed to a piece of paper. It’s in line with what we as a society are utilizing every day in terms of technology.” Perry hopes to expand existing technologies and implement new telemedicine services in the next six to 12 months. “At Children’s Hospital we treat a lot of diseases that are life-changing and have a great opportunity to significantly impact and improve our patients’ life outcomes. We are working hard to make sure that what we are doing is right for our patients, providing what they need and want, and filling gaps that we haven’t been able to fill before.” KH

Faith seeks understanding, so we promise to lead with... Energy Intelligence Imagination LOVE Presbyterians in Arkansas welcome you to walk with us in active faith, loving others and working toward the reconciliation God intends. Robert Lowry is one of us.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

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Morgan Holladay

Nonprofit leader tries to bring compassion to the prison system.

here is a growing consensus across much of the political spectrum that nonviolent offenders need to be diverted from prison, or at least serve shorter sentences. Significantly fewer politicians and activists are agitating on behalf of the thousands of others who are serving time for violent offenses. That’s a problem, Morgan Holladay says. “We need to change discourse. We need to work on rehabilitating and empowering all people in prison.” As executive director of Compassion Works for All, she is confronting that disparity with healing, hope and compassion as her tools. CWFA has roots stretching back more than two decades, when Little Rock Buddhist and psychotherapist Anna Cox heeded a call from the Dalai Lama challenging his Western students to do more outreach in U.S. prisons. After Cox began mentoring prisoners, she decided to start Dharma Friends, a monthly newslet30

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ter filled with Buddhist teachings. Ultimately that led to the formation of Compassion Works for All as a nonprofit to more broadly help prisoners find spiritual healing. Holladay, a Buddhist who interned with CWFA while she was obtaining her master’s degree in social work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is following the path Cox has set. She mentors prisoners one on one, teaches a compassionate communication class based on the teachings of Marshall Rosenberg at the Tucker Unit and does re-entry counseling. “We talk through their [postrelease] plans. We talk through the emotional aspects of going home. Sometimes we role-play things like how to talk to your kids about where you’ve been. We talk about resources and what’s available. A lot of them don’t know about the Affordable Care Act, or where the nearest community health clinic is.” Meanwhile, Holladay is also work-

ing to expand CWFA’s reach by turning it into something of a training institute. One program she hopes to soon train others in is called Letters from the Inside. It’s a 20-session group workbook for at-risk kids filled with letters from adult inmates. “Kids go around the room and read the letters. Then we talk about some of the core themes. Some things that might come up: ‘This guy is using drugs because he was beaten as a child by his father. So he starts using drugs. Starts hanging out with a lot of people who’re using drugs. Then he starts stealing so he can buy drugs, and then he ends up in prison.’ Then we ask, ‘What are some other ways that he could have coped with this abuse?’ And we come up with strategies.” What often comes out in discussions is that the kids have experienced similar abuse, Holladay said. Also on her wish list: working with the Arkansas Department of Correction and the Arkansas Community Correction on sensitivity training. “If someone who is working directly with inmates thinks they’re subhuman, then nothing is going to change.” LM

MENTOR TO PRISONERS: Buddhist Morgan Holladay encourages compassion.

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Pilot recognizes market for drones.

tasks that helicopters had once performed. “We pretty much had a lock on [the local helicopter] market,” he said, “but when drones came along, they started taking a big chunk of our market. So it was, if we can’t lick ’em, join ’em.” The SUAVs operated by Airborne Information Systems aren’t like anything you can purchase at the local hobby shop. About 3 feet across, with six electric motors, they are mostly used for inspecting places that might be dangerous for a human to get to, such as the tops of tall electricity transmission towers. Anderson said the drones have about a 20-minute battery life and are subject to a multitude of regulations from the FAA. They can’t, for instance, be operated at altitudes over 200 feet, can’t leave the range of the unaided “line of sight” of the pilot (about 1,000 feet, Anderson said) and must weigh under 55 pounds. Though Anderson said getting the FAA license to commercially operate

FIRST IN DRONE FLIGHT: Anderson got first FAA approval for commercial drone flight in state after he completed paperwork explaining why he should have an exemption for seatbelts.

BRIAN CHILSON

hough Jetsons-style flying cars don’t seem to be forthcoming anytime soon, you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool here in the future. Take drones: the small, unmanned aerial vehicles, usually equipped with a camera to beam an image of what the drone is “seeing” back to the pilot in real time. With unmatched stability and maneuverability thanks to the multiple propellers keeping them aloft, drones have already been invaluable in fields from filmmaking to search and rescue. In Arkansas, one of those in the vanguard of the technology is Zane Anderson. From a base at the North Little Rock Airport, Anderson runs Airborne Information Systems, the first company in the state to win an exemption from FAA regulations that allows it to commercially operate what the FAA calls a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or SUAV. Anderson started the helicopter service Aerial Patrol Inc. in 1983. In recent years, he saw drones doing some of the

their SUAVs was a “long, drawn out process” — one that included writing safety and operations manuals and filling out a detailed explanation of why the craft should be exempt from the requirement that it be equipped with seatbelts — he understands why the red tape is necessary. “I think the FAA doesn’t know exactly where they’re going with it. That’s why it seems slow. It isn’t really slow, it’s just that their attitude about it is changing every day. … The ones that we operate, the battery on them is about like a motorcycle battery. It would be as if a plane hit a brick. It would go right through the windshield or take a motor out for sure.” With the safety and regulation concerns slowly being worked out by the FAA, Anderson believes the technology will come into its own in the next few years. He said there is already the potential to go much further than is currently allowed. “It’s been pretty amazing to see what they can do,” he said. “You can program them to do things autonomously. They’ll do whatever you tell them to go do. But the FAA doesn’t like that.” DK

BRIAN CHILSON

Zane Anderson

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COMMUNITY COUNTS: Derlikowski supports wraparaound services to help low-income kids achieve in school.

Jerri Derlikowski

After a career in state government, education policy wonk takes expertise to the local level.

BRIAN CHILSON

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

erri Derlikowski is doing it all backwards. After a decade and a half of working in state education policy — first as an analyst and administrator at the Bureau of Legislative Research, then for the past three years in the nonprofit world at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families — she’s now headed to the trenches. Derlikowski left AACF this summer to launch her own one-woman shop for schools in need of turnaround, with a focus on small, rural districts. “I’ve kind of evolved,” she told the Arkansas Times. While on staff at the legislature, she said, “I had to be very neutral, very cautious not to express my opinions. Then I moved to the nonprofit world where I was freer to advocate for policy I thought was needed to close the achievement gap. … My next big step is to get out and put some things in practice that I think I’ve learned through [my] policy study.” What Derlikowski has learned is this: To reach low-income kids, schools need to provide wraparound services, a label that includes everything from pre-K to after-school tutoring to providing family health services, child care and job training for parents. “It’s employment opportunities and support. It’s literacy training. In areas where there are a lot of non-English speaking parents, [it’s] English classes. … It’s anything that gets the community and the family more involved in the school.” “The Arkansas Department of Education is really focusing on what’s happening academically, [and] we have a lot

of support for schools that are struggling inside the classroom,” she said. “But all the research keeps showing that for lowincome children in particular, one of the reasons they’re not as successful as they could be is [because of] stress and dysfunction around them in their homes and communities.” Wraparound services can alleviate some of that, she says. Derlikowski points to the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City as an example of what an ambitious schoolneighborhood partnership can accomplish in boosting outcomes for kids. Closer to home, she cites the academic gains of high-poverty, majority-minority schools in Springdale. But after years of studying the nuts and bolts of education funding, she holds no illusions that such a vision can be accomplished without ample amounts of money and human capacity. “The difference is that [Springdale’s] Jones Elementary is a very poor school population, but it’s in a wealthier district. Springdale spent a fortune hiring someone to get a [federal] Race to the Top grant. It was a godsend — $27 million for one district. And from what I hear, it’s been put to good use.” Derlikowski plans to use her years of grant-writing experience and deep knowledge of the various players in Arkansas education to offer small schools the same opportunities enjoyed by their larger counterparts. “The bigger schools usually have capacity internally to apply for grants,” she said, but in rural areas “their staff is at maximum capacity for taking care of school business. … They need more support, but they also have the least resources.” Right now, she’s talking to anyone and everyone who might be able to help, from the Arkansas Education Association to Forward Arkansas, the education partnership affiliated with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. She’s betting that one person with the right know-how can make all the difference in the life of a school and its students. BH

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Tufara Waller Muhammad Cultural organizer pushes for change.

KATINA PARKER

ufara Waller Muhammad, an artist, activist and community organizer, recently returned to Little Rock after serving 11 years as the Director of Cultural Programs at the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee from 2004 to 2015. Muhammad has worked in and out of the state for the last few years as a Centers for Disease Control-certified HIV/AIDS counselor and with the Arkansas Equality Network and its Safe Schools Campaign, the Black Lives Matter movement, and most recently as a leader for the Alternate ROOTS Facilitation Pilot Training Learning Exchange workshop in Little Rock. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Muhammad moved to Arkansas as a child, attended Little Rock public schools and went to Philander Smith College on a music scholarship. She toured the country as a musician and poet, and continues to use her artistic skills as a part of the Datule’ Artist Collective, founded in 2011. Muhammad doesn’t necessarily see herself as an activist, but simply as a woman who is continuing the work of her people. “I can go back five generations in my family’s history in Arkansas and find organizing women who were artists, midwives, medicine makers, community educators, strategic planners, advocates, musicians and cultural workers. So, honestly [my doing] anything else would be me being [something] other than what I was born to be.” Community organizers must honor the cultures, traditions and realities of people they work with, Muhammad said. They can use art to foster conversation and build relationships for progressive policy changes. “[Organizing] is not always an exact science because communities are as different as the people who live in them,” Muhammad said. You’ve got to “figure out the right people to invite into the room.” Over time Muhammad has learned that certain types of personalities are needed, most importantly people who are willing to listen and are committed to working with others. That includes teachers, respected

faith leaders and artists who will help members of the community remember where they come from and visualize where they can go. Muhammad stresses the importance of engaging people of all ages in the process. “We exist in an intergenerational society. The dominant culture tells us to fear our youth and that our elders are fragile, judgmental and disposable. None of this is true. Elders hold the history, culture, memories and experiences [of a people] while our youth force us to stretch our imaginations [as] to where we can go. ... We all need each other [in order to make a change.]” Muhammad’s ultimate goal is to encourage people to remember that everyone is human and divine all at the same time. “When we know this, we cannot treat each other unjustly or deny that all people count.” KH

KEEPING A FAMILY TRADITION OF ORGANIZING ALIVE: Tufara Muhammad, who uses art to create change.

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Robert Lowry

CALLED ‘RELIGIOUS FREEDOM’ BILL AN ‘ABOMINATION’: Rev. Robert Lowry says LGBT students appreciate the church’s stance.

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

n late March, when Rev. Robert Lowry rose to address an emergency meeting in Little Rock to discuss HB 1228, the so-called “religious freedom” bill then before the state legislature, he wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to say. So, he just spoke his mind. “This bill is what I called it this morning from my pulpit: It is blasphemy. It is an abomination, and it is an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Lowry said of HB 1228, which aimed to legally sanction a religious right to discriminate against LGBT people. The reverend also included a plug for his congregation, First Presbyterian of Clarksville, which at the time he called the only church “in the Arkansas River Valley to publicly declare that all of God’s children, just as God made them, are welcome to come and be in God’s house.” Lowry was born and raised in Little Rock but moved away after he graduated from high school in 1988. He wandered for 20 years — Nashville, Austin, Detroit, Chicago — before coming back to the state in 2007. “I couldn’t wait to get out of Arkansas after I graduated from high school, and I couldn’t wait to get back to Arkansas once I turned 40,” he told the Times. “I’d done large, urban ministry for a while and I was ready for a break.” His focus is on helping congregations transition through crises, and he came to First Presbyterian three and a half years ago after the church lost its pastor to an illness and was facing financial trouble. It’s become an open-ended assignment.

BRIAN CHILSON

Preacher does missionary work in the River Valley. “I’ll stay as long as they’ll keep me,” he said with a laugh. And has his advocacy work shortened his lifespan as a pastor in a conservative Arkansas town of 9,300 people? Not so far, he said. “In my own congregation, there were people who were very uneasy about the changes happening in our denomination, who in some cases were supportive of what happened this last legislative session. But they’ve seen the world hasn’t exploded. The church hasn’t been turned on its head. All that’s happened is that we’ve taken our vocabulary of generosity to a new place, and I think that’s how you convince people. Just by demonstrating that there’s nothing dangerous about generosity of spirit, about kindness and openness, about treating people equitably and fairly with the assumption of everybody’s value.” Meanwhile, in the larger community, “no one outside of a handful of clergy has had anything negative to say. Most people’s response has been, ‘I don’t agree with you,’ but they appreciate my willingness to stand up and say what I believe. I think to a large degree there’s an ethic of standing up for your ideas that’s respected, even if we disagree. For the most part, it’s been neutral to good.” The most satisfying reaction, he says, has been from LGBT people in Clarksville. “Some are quiet, some are open, but they appreciate it ... especially students on the [University of the Ozarks] campus, who felt they could be a little more secure in being themselves, a little more secure in living their lives.” Still, Lowry acknowledged, it’s an uphill climb. “Progressive, mainline Protestantism is not exactly thriving in small-town America,” he said. “In the mainline traditions, what we are trying so hard to do is communicate a theology of generosity, gentleness and inclusion. Our political culture says [that] is squishy and spineless — but the political culture doesn’t get a vote in the theology of the church. We’ve allowed ourselves to be defined for too long by the outside. We need to define ourselves from the inside.” If the fight for inclusion is how Lowry is defined, so be it. “I can’t think of anything more worth doing. … it’s a matter of fundamental justice and fundamental fairness,” he said. “One of the best moments of my year was standing on the state Capitol with 20 of my colleagues. There are only 86 churches in the Presbytery of Arkansas. There were 20 pastors out there that day who are Presbyterians. “One person at a time, one issue at a time, is the only way we’ll shift the narrative of the church.” BH

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Omavi Shukur

Decorated native son returns to fight mass incarceration.

f ter g raduating from law school, Little Rock native Omav i Shukur moved to New Orleans as part of the Public Defender Corps, a highly selective three-year fellowship that provides intensive training to new attorneys in public defense. But no matter

how successful he was as a public defender, Shukur found that he was usually only able to win temporary relief for the people he represented. “ Ther e wer e t wo t h i n g s I couldn’t address in the courtroom: the poor opport unit y struct ure CONTINUED ON PAGE 36 www.arktimes.com

Arkansas Times 08-27-15.indd 1

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ARKANSAS TIMES

that led my clients to the defense table, and the draconian laws my clients were being faced with.” When politicia ns ta lk about retaining human capital, or battling brain drain, they’re talking about creating policy to encourage people like Shukur to work in their home state. Policy was a motivating factor for Shukur, a graduate of Parkview Magnet High School, Columbia University and Harvard Law, to return to his home state, but it wasn’t aimed at him. Instead, it was everything that had led to Arkansas’s mass incarceration crisis. Shukur first became interested in the inequities of the criminal justice system at Columbia a nd delved deeper into the subject at Harvard, where he studied under a veritable who’s who of civil rights law yers, including Lani Guinier, Randall Kennedy and Charles Ogletree. In one summer during law school, he clerked for the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., perhaps the leading nonprofit confronting issues of race, poverty and mass incarceration. Shukur brought t hat resume to Little Rock earlier this year to found Seeds of Liberation, a nonprof it whose mission is to work “alongside Arkansas’s marginalized communities to create a just, equitable and empowering criminal justice system.” So far, he’s hosted “Know Your Rights” training sessions for the Little Rock EmPowerment Center, Our House and the Veterans Justice Outreach Prog ram. He’s held listening sessions, asking mar-

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

address in the courtroom: the poor clients to the defense table, and the eing faced with.” — Omavi Shukur ginalized g roups questions such as, “What problems do you see in criminal justice policy and administration as it exists? What does your ideal criminal justice system look like? How do you think we can get there?” A rka nsas passed comprehensive crimina l justice reform in 2011 with Act 570. It didn’t stick — in addition to the punitive parole policies implemented by the state Board of Corrections after a serial parole absconder murdered a white teenager in 2013 — because the reform was top down, Shukur said. “There was no informed constituency to hold policymakers accountable. We want to develop bottomup change.” To that end, Shukur wants to con nec t w it h “people di rec t ly impacted by inca rceration who want to take an active role in the criminal justice policy discourse.” Despite Arkansas’s sizable recent prison growth — in 2013, Arkansas’s prison population g rew at seven times the rate of any other state — Shukur believes “it’s not a matter of if incarceration is going to go down, it’s when and what role we play in that.” Seeds of Liberation is based in the law offices of Rep. John Walker (D-Little Rock), the legendary civil rights law yer. Next year, Shukur says he will start practicing law in Arkansas, either as part of Seeds of Liberation or in private practice. Regardless, look for him, he says, “to use litigation as a tool to combat the mass incarceration crisis in Arkansas.” LM

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“Free speech doesn’t mean anonymous free speech, and that’s what’s happening now,” Della Rosa said. “If you’re going to put that much money into politics, the public has a right to know.”

DELLA ROSA: Will try again to pass a bill requiring online campaign finance statements and the reporting of donors.

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Rep. Jana Della Rosa Republican rep fights for transparency.

BRIAN CHILSON

ep. Jana Della Rosa of Rogers isn’t exactly a Rockefeller Republican. A first-term representative from one of Arkansas’s reddest corners, she first entered politics a few years ago by volunteering with a grassroots group called Conservative Arkansas. But on one issue at least, Della Rosa is among the General Assembly’s leading voices of sanity: transparency in elections. In the 2015 session, Della Rosa sponsored HB 1233, a bill that would have required candidates for statewide and legislative elected office to electronically file their campaign contributions and carryover funds, rather than filling out a paper report. Arkansas is one of only 10 states that have not yet moved to electronic filing. As Della Rosa told the Arkansas Times, that means anyone who wants to know which individuals are bankrolling Arkansas elections has to sift through some 3,500 separate PDFs on the website of the secretary of state to assemble an accurate picture. “You get into the secretary of state’s system and you discover that it’s essentially a useless database,” she said. “If you want to know who gave money to me [as a candidate], you can easily see that. You have to look through a dozen or so [monthly reports], but that’s not too bad. “What is completely hidden is the donors. Who’s giving the money, who’s influencing [whom]. That’s what that bill would have uncovered. If everybody’s reporting into the same database, then you can look across all candidates and see who the donors are, and that’s really what I was trying to make transparent in Arkansas.” Della Rosa feels accountability and transparency aren’t partisan issues. “You don’t want puppet masters,” she said. “I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on. I’m sure the Democrats have theirs as well — I don’t know who they are on their side, but I know who they are on my side, and it’s not good. You don’t want any single person wielding undue influence over a group of legislators. That’s just bad news.”

Della Rosa also supported the other major campaign finance reform bill of the last session, authored by Rep. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock), which targeted so-called “electioneering” advertising. Wealthy individuals can spend unlimited amounts of money on radio or TV ads to support or attack a candidate, as long as the spending is nominally independent of the candidate’s campaign — and what’s worse, under current Arkansas law, such spending goes entirely unreported. Tucker’s HB 1425 would have required reporting of electioneering ads, which have expanded in Arkansas in recent cycles. “Free speech doesn’t mean anonymous free speech, and that’s what’s happening now,” Della Rosa said. “If you’re going to put that much money into politics, the public has a right to know. … There are people who are buying legislators, either directly or indirectly. I don’t want to imply legislators are selling out, but you feel a certain obligation if someone has put that [money] much into it.” Unfortunately, both pieces of transparency legislation failed to pass the General Assembly this year. Della Rosa’s HB 1233 died on the House floor, 48-33, with most of the opposition coming from her fellow Republicans (although a number of Democrats also voted against it). Several legislators said publicly they were voting “No” because they weren’t sure they were technologically skilled enough to file on the Internet. Though she says she was “surprised and disappointed” at the bill’s defeat, Della Rosa takes her colleagues at their word. Right now, she’s working with the secretary of state’s office to improve the state’s online filing system in hopes of addressing concerns about ease of use. She plans to seek money to that end during the upcoming 2016 fiscal session, and then bring her transparency bill up for another vote in 2017. “There are always going to be those who want to operate in the shadows, but you just have to keep shining the light,” she said. BH

ArtsFest is a week long celebration of the arts that takes place at various locations around Conway from September 26th through October 3rd

Wondering what to do with your unusable CDs and DVDs? LET US HELP!

Conway EcoFest and Conway ArtsFest, in partnership with Metro Square, are proud to bring Alice Guffey Miller, celebration artist, to Conway. She will provide days of art and education while sharing in a community sculpture-building event. We invite you to share in this city-wide effort by donating your unused CD/DVD’s at one of 8 drop- off locations, from August 10, 2015 thru September 26, 2015. Look for collection bins in the following locations: 1. Centerstone Apartment Homes Clubhouse, 835 S. Donaghey Ave 2. Crye-Leike Realtors, 1065 Skyline Dr. 3. Faulkner County Library, 1900 Tyler St. 4. Log Cabin Democrat, 1111 Main St. 5. Sanitation Department; REUSE Building, 4550 Old Morrilton Highway (Hwy. 64 west)

6. Simon Park, 1201 Oak Street (next to City Hall) 7. Torreyson Library, 201 Donaghey Avenue, UCA 8. Hastings Books, Music & Videos, 1360 Hwy. 64 west

www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

South on Main’s free Local Live Series takes place each Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. and showcases some of the best Arkansas talent. This month, don’t miss: SEPT. 2 – HEATHER SMITH BAND SEPT. 9 – STEVE SUTER AND FRIENDS SEPT. 16 – STEVE HESTR AND DEJAVOODOO TRIO SEPT. 23 – JEFF COLEMAN & THE FEEDERS

Hey, do this!

SEPTEMBER AUG 30

SEPT. 30 – OFF THE CUFF

South on Main hosts “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” to benefit the Arkansas Festival Ballet. On a sultry summer evening, sip refreshing sangria and sample signature hors d’oeuvres during the magical live performance. Tickets are $35. For more information, visit arkansasdance. org or southonmain.com.

The South on Main stage also hosts the Oxford American’s Concert Series featuring troubadours like Pokey LaFarge, who performs in a sold out show Aug. 27; jazz singer Anat Cohen on Sept. 3 and singer songwriter Lera Lynn as part of the Americana series on Sept. 24. Shows start at 8 p.m. Call 501-244-9660 for reserved seating or general admission tickets.

SEPT 3

Verizon Arena brings America’s favorite Idol, KELLY CLARKSON, to the stage. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $42.50, $85.50 and $118.50 and available through Ticketmaster at ticketmaster. com. For a complete list of upcoming events, visit verizonarena.com.

SEPT 11-SEPT 27

MACBETH opens at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre on Friday, Sept. 11. Murder, madness and magic haunt every shadowy corner in the most powerful of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. For tickets and a list of special events, including Beer Night with the Arkansas l and Goose Island (Sept. a in g he ori Times rds.” Cavisit f o House 24), therep.org. tor Hupp, Direc

SEPT 18-20

The 14th annual OFF THE BEATEN PATH TOUR takes place in and around Mountain View with private tours of more than 40 artists. Visit offthebeatenpathstudiotour. com for details.

– Bob

Michael Stewart Allen (Macbeth) in Macbeth. Photo by John David Pittman.

Don’t miss ART IN THE PARK “DEVELOPED AND LESS FINISHED: MAINTAINING LIFE WITH ARTIST L. K. SUKANY” on display now at Wildwood Park for the Arts. For hours, visit wildwoodpark.org. MACBETH

SEPT 26-OCT 3

The annual CONWAY ARTSFEST is a weeklong celebration of local arts and artists ected by bob Hupp | produced byall W.W. and Anne featuring events across town.Jones This Charitable year’s trust festival will take begin on Sept. 26 and reach its apex on Oct. 3 at Simon Park with Art in the Park followed by Light Up the Night with free events for kids and families. Visit artsinconway.org for more info.

As part of Riverdale 10’s Classic Movie Series, the theater will screen the family classic THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) on Sept. 8 and the horror film CHILD’S PLAY (1988) on Sept. 10. 2600 Cantrell Rd. The Classic Movies begin at 7 p.m. Admission is only $5.

SEPT 18 & SEPT 28

UCA Public Appearances welcomes WYNONNA & THE BIG NOISE fronted by country music legend Wynonna Judd on Sept. 18 and later in the month presents Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Sept. 28. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. at Reynolds Performance Hall on the UCA campus in Conway. For tickets and a complete list of upcoming events, visit uca.edu/publicappearances.

September 11-27, 2015 (501) 378-0405 | therep.org 40

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS

AUG 31

The Studio Theatre on West 7th Street in downtown Little Rock hosts an open mic night every Monday at 8 p.m. Call 501374-2615 for more info

SEPT 1-OCT 3

Enjoy dinner and a show at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse. Opening on Tuesday is A BEACH IN THE SUN, which centers around two longtime friends Harold and Burt, who live in a beachfront retirement home and spend their days bickering in the garden. When a once-famous actress moves in, it gives them something new to argue over. For tickets and showtimes, visit murrysdp.com.

Ride the Arkansas Times Art Bus on a trip to CRYSTAL BRIDGES for three current exhibits: Jamie Wyeth, Andy Warhol and Frank Lloyd Wright. Tickets are $119 and include round-trip transportation, light pastries and hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine on board, tickets to special exhibits and dinner at Eleven, the museum’s elegant restaurant. Reserve your seat by phone at 501-375-2985 or by email at kellylyles@arktimes.com. For art in town, Gallery 221 and Cantrell Gallery both have opening night receptions. Cantrell Gallery at 8206 Cantrell Road presents the annual juried exhibition of the ARKANSAS LEAGUE OF ARTISTS. Gallery 221 will be open during downtown Little Rock’s 2nd Friday Art Night from 5-8 p.m. Located at the corner of 2nd and Center streets, the gallery will feature TYLER ARNOLD and include wine and hors d’oeuvres. Walk or hop on the trolley to your next 2nd Friday Art Night destination

SEPT 19

BACON FEST, need we say more? The Arkansas State Fairgrounds hosts this event featuring America’s most beloved meat. There will be live music, vendors, cooking and bacon eating contests, a 5K fun run with bacon stations and more. Tickets are $5 in advance, $10 at the gate. Hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Visit arkansasstatefair.com for a complete schedule of events. THE SIX BRIDGES REGATTA returns to the Arkansas River and is a national head race (5K) and all day event for juniors, collegiate and masters-level racers. To register your team or learn more, visit arboathouse.org.

SEPT 25

A sippin’ safari at the Little Rock Zoo, Zoo Brew takes place on Sept. 25 from 6-9 p.m. Enjoy a sample of the city’s best craft beer with live music by Kevin Kerby and Jeff Coleman & the Feeders. Food trucks will be on hand as well. Tickets are $25 and available at littlerockzoo.com. Last year’s event was sold out, so get your tickets today.

Located at 5909 R Street, SIMPLY DIXIE is having a big summer sidewalk sale. The Southern contemporary boutique is filled with cute dresses that can easily transition to fall with booties and tights. Open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, pop in before or after brunch or lunch in the Heights.

FUN!

SEPT 11

SEPT 8 & 11

THE SIX BRIDGES REGATTA

THROUGH SEPT 21

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

MIRANA MIDDLE EASTERN DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS

ARABIAN NIGHT SPECTACULAR Saturday, Aug. 29, 7 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.) UALR Stelle Boyle Fine Art Center $10 donation accepted at the door 501-455-1229 or 501-837-9305

CELEBRITY ATTRACTIONS

invites you to fall in “love” with the 2015-2016 Broadway season at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center. Be enchanted as four national Broadway tours take the stage including a production that celebrates the King himself in ELVIS LIVES, the world’s best-loved orphan, ANNIE, deck the halls with Broadway Christmas tunes in NEIL BERG’S BROADWAY HOLIDAY and travel back in time with 13-time Tony® Award nominated musical, RAGTIME. To guarantee great seats for all four nationally touring Broadway productions at the Maumelle Performing Arts Center, become a Celebrity Attractions’ season subscriber. Season subscriber benefits include many advantages: the best seats at the lowest prices, the same great seats for every show, the ability to buy additional tickets to individual shows before the public and the option to exchange show tickets to another performance before the public on-sale dates. To become a season subscriber, call Celebrity Attractions at 244-8800 or for more information visit celebrityattractions.com.

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

Daisy Dyer Duerr

Educator employs technology in St. Paul turnaround. It was the second piece, though, that got people’s attention: technology. When she arrived in 2011, Duerr said, the school had almost no modern technology and no money, but the new principal promised teachers and students alike that she’d find a way to change that if everyone put in the necessary work. She followed through, writing grants that allowed the school to obtain an array of tablets, netbooks and other devices. “In June of 2012, after my first year, we sent every teacher home with an iPad and told them to keep it all summer. We preloaded it with stuff, gave them one day of training and told them, ‘Just play with it.’ And they were so empowered by that, because an administrator had told them, ‘Hey, you’re a professional and I trust you.’ That was the best start to a year I ever had.” Similarly, she trusted her students with a “bring your own device” agreement, allowing them to use their phones in school for academic purposes. “We’re 80 percent free and reduced lunch, and people say that if you have a poorer student population, then that’s not something that will work” because the students wouldn’t have phones. That was not the case. “We kept taking phones away from kids who had their phone out, and I thought, ‘We’re sure punishing a lot of kids for them to be too poor to have phones.’ ” Perhaps more powerful than the technology itself was its motivational effect — the idea that teachers and kids alike deserve to have access to quality tools. In any case, St. Paul High School now ranks in the top 10 percent of Arkansas schools,

THE FIXER: Former principal Daisy Duerr, who turned around a school’s declining enrollment.

BRIAN CHILSON

our years ago, Daisy Duerr got a call from her old superintendent to come back home to Madison County to fix the school in St. Paul (pop. 163). At the time, Duerr was still settling into her role as a new high school principal in Paris (Logan County), but she rose to the challenge. St. Paul needed her more. “As educators, it’s important to not stay with the status quo. If things are going great where we are, it’s our job to go somewhere else and make things great,” she said. “So, I accepted that position and when I got there I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. What have I done?’ ” Duerr herself graduated from Huntsville High School, 30 minutes to the north, and earned her degree from Lyon College on a basketball scholarship. She grew up familiar with the hardships of the Ozarks. But she was still struck by how badly St. Paul was struggling since its consolidation with the Huntsville district nine years ago. “They’d had five or six principals in a row, and they hadn’t had any success. They were in the second year of school improvement for literacy and math. … Immediately, I saw that people’s expectations were extremely low,” she said. The first thing she did was to call each staff person at the school before the year started — individually, all the way down to the custodians. Then she began introducing herself to every parent she could meet, and pulled together a leadership team of parents, teachers and students. Together they developed two focus points for change. The first, she said, was building relationships, student by student. “In a rural, isolated school, you’d think everybody’s going to be close with somebody. But they weren’t — it was like, ‘Oh, I know their cousin,’ but they weren’t building real relationships with staff.” Duerr set up an advisory program and ensured every student had two advisers, which she says was decisive in stemming the decline of the school’s enrollment. When she arrived, St. Paul had bottomed out at 199 students after shrinking nine straight years; by the time she left this year, enrollment had risen to 235.

based on student achievement, growth and graduation rate, and its accomplishments have earned the school — and its principal —national recognition in education circles, including an award this spring at Digital Learning Day, an annual event in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education. Duerr left St. Paul this spring and is now living in Ozark, where she’s working on a book and planning her next challenge. BH

www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

A ! X T R E EXTRA!

ION S I V A H L WIT O O H C S A

Philander Smith College opens year with initiatives addressing workforce, education and health care By Dwain Hebda

LITTLE ROCK’S PHILANDER more nurses, more practitioners, SMITH COLLEGE kicked off the and more young folks trained to 2015-2016 academic year with be the next Joycelyn Elders of three bold new initiatives, aimed at tomorrow.” three of the most pervasive issues The faculty approved the facing the community and the state. creation of the school Aug. 21, First-year president Dr. Roderick 2015, sending the measure to Smothers said the new initiatives a vote of the College’s Board of – addressing health care, educaTrustees Aug. 27. Following that tion and workforce development vote, the school will secure various -- were in step both with the times accreditations necessary to launch and with the College’s mission. the new curriculum in Fall 2016. “Philander Smith College has a The College’s fundraising arm is nationally-recognized social justice also in high gear to solicit endowed institute, but we view social justice professorships and student scholthrough more than just the lens arship monies. Smothers said the of racial justice,” he said. “There College’s long term goals include Joycelyn Elders are justice tentacles in almost a nursing program in partnership every aspect of human endeavor. with local health systems and as And so, these three initiatives are the division expands, building another way to bring alive the social justice strand that exists in additional facilities to support its programs. our mission statement.” “Our long-term vision is to seek funding to go after some of the Among the initiatives is the launch of the Joycelyn Elders Divimost top-notch faculty members in this field, bringing them into sion of Allied and Public Health, which will seek to help address the Philander Smith College as endowed professors and really growing deficit of health care workers, particularly minorities, in relation this allied health division,” he said. “In essence, we’re building it to the rapidly-aging population. The division is named for Dr. into one of our schools of distinction.” Joycelyn Elders, the first African-American U.S. Surgeon General The College’s second initiative also seeks to address workforce and a 1952 graduate of the College. deficiencies across all industries and throughout the state. The “Philander Smith College has a legacy and a reputation for Workforce Innovation and Strategic Economy Public Private producing students who go on to medical school and who go into Partnership (WISE-P3) will bridge the gap between the College’s research,” Smothers said. “This division will be developed to get programs and the needs of the state’s employers. 42

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS VISIONARIES

“The program is an outgrowth of the College’s strategic plan to think creatively and get outside of the box,” Smothers said. “We will partner with private industry to say, ‘What do you need in your workforce.’ After they tell us what they need, we go back and put together some creative training programs that will prepare the workforce accordingly, whether that’s a baccalaureate degree, a certificate program or an associate’s degree.” The idea grew out of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s challenge to public and private entities in the state to think creatively about accelerating job growth in Arkansas. In fact, Smothers said that Philander Smith College has actively been in talks with the Office of the Governor and various state departments to try and secure funding to broaden WISE-P3’s reach. Regardless, he said, the College has already engaged companies about participating – securing a $25,000 technology grant from Wal-Mart in the process – and will move forward with the program for the greater good of the community. “Unemployment is clearly one of the urban challenges of today and it’s going to take more than just the government trying to solve this problem; it’s going to take private entities partnering with governmental entities and that is essentially what we’re trying to do.” The College’s third plan seeks to address the state’s stagnant K-12 education system. The plan seeks to address several contributing elements to excellence in schools, including how teachers are educated, paid and supported in their professions. “I think I’m most excited about this initiative because, at my core, that’s my discipline as well, education,”

“We were founded on the premise of education. As a historically black college, our mission was to train teachers to go out and teach the children of individuals who had been freed from slavery. That was the core mission of Philander Smith College back in 1877.”

– Roderick L. Smothers

“While we have a very strong education program, our goal is to train a unique type of educator. That’s why we’re going to scrap our conceptual framework on how we have trained teachers heretofore, and we’ve brought together some of the best minds

from across the state and from other states to think through a new conceptual framework for how we’re going to train teachers.” Smothers said this training not only means assigning the highest level of instruction in students’ subject matter – math, science, English and so on – but also cultural sensitivity training and leadership skills that go beyond individual classrooms to transforming the culture of underperforming school districts. Another part of this initiative advances a radical new idea in increasing the level of pay for teachers. “I believe we don’t always treat education with the respect it deserves,” Smothers said. “I honestly think among physicians, lawyers, and all the other individuals who help provide us a quality of life as Americans, teachers should be at the top of the list.” To this end, Philander Smith is spearheading an effort to engage corporate entities to supplement teacher salaries for those who remain in the state’s public school system. This effort not only rewards today’s teachers and attracts more talented, motivated scholars into the field, but helps keep the best teachers at home instead of being lured by other states due to compensation. Finally, the College is developing a Teaching Excellence Center to provide ongoing support to teachers and administrators as they work to transform their respective schools. The center will host educators with special events, seminars, and other educational opportunities promoting Philander Smith’s new educational framework and methodology. Smothers said the education initiative is expected to be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2016. He said this aggressive timetable, as well as the ambitiousness of launching three new initiatives simultaneously, speak to the gravity of the societal issues they are meant to address. But it also speaks to the spirit and optimism he finds inherent to the Philander Smith College community “I encouraged the community to dream really big; so, we’ve come up with these big dreams and these big ideas. We have the courage to go after them,” he said. “I believe in making a big splash and this is Philander Smith College’s big splash.”

To help with the fundraising efforts or to donate please contact C.J. Duvall Vice President for Advancement at 501-370-5378. 900 Daisy Gatson Bates Drive | Little Rock | 501.375.9845 | philander.edu www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

TWENTY YEARS IN, RIVER MARKET KEEPS ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER

BY DWAIN HEBDA PHOTOS COURTESY MOSES TUCKER REAL ESTATE

sked to describe downtown Little Rock’s pre-River Market era, real estate developer Jimmy Moses paused. Given the runaway success and rampant development that has transpired there over the past 20 years — inspiring projects from North Little Rock’s Argenta District to South Main Street Little Rock along the way — it’s a tall order.

“Well, if you kind of go back to the first half of the 1990s,” began the founder and chairman of Moses Tucker Real Estate, “before anything began, East Markham Street, now President Clinton Avenue, was mostly a boardedup and largely deserted old commercial district. There was a casket company on the corner, LaHarpe Office Furnishings and further down the street, what was called the Terminal Building.” That two out of three businesses Moses mentioned evoke images of death is fitting. Photos from that era reveal a streetscape right out of a zombie movie: stark, crumbling brick buildings and weedy, empty sidewalks perched hard against the searing Arkansas sky, utterly devoid of life or promise. Little Rock’s downtown had suffered the same fate as many cities during the 1970s and 1980s as

ON THE WATERFRONT — Downtown’s River Market lights up the neighborhood. A steady influx of new residential and hotel construction sidles next to bars and restaurants to make the district a 24/7 attraction.

economic meltdowns and the rise of ancillary neighborhoods drained the life from the city’s core like topsoil ferried away by a hundred-year flood. “Prior to 1995, I remember the east side of Main Street was pretty much a ghost town,” said Mayor Mark Stodola. “I remember walking down there and there were these old warehouse buildings, most of them boarded up or they were certainly underutilized, and there were a couple that were open where you could get some used furniture. That was it, basically.” Twenty years later, a stroll through the River Market on any given day is to see everything an urban neighborhood should be: a thriving corporate enclave, home to a growing horde of urban denizens and a showcase of activities for all ages. The sparkling new condominiums and apartments nestle against office space carved out of historic buildings or encased in steel and glass. The River Market is unquestionably a 24-hour operation; most evenings, music throbs out of local venues or wafts through

the twilight from the First Security Amphitheater, tinged with hundreds of aromas from $50 ribeyes to food truck tacos al pastor. “We’ve had communities like Jackson, Mississippi, come up and ask, ‘How did you all do this? And not only how did you get it started, but how have you been able to maintain it?’” said Bruce Moore, Little Rock city manager. “I think there’s a few reasons. One, we continue to focus on it. We know it’s an integral part of our city, so we’ve got to continue to ensure it’s a safe place and that it fosters and enhances the quality of life where people not only want to work down there, they want to live down there.” The River Market as an economic strategy was not a novel undertaking — lots of cities across the country took a shot at similar projects to help jump start their local economies — but Little Rock’s success makes the district a model for others to follow. If it’s not the best development the city’s ever seen, it’s certainly in the conversation. “When prospective customers come to see our headquarters, they are flabbergasted by what, sometimes, I think Little Rock takes for granted,” said Rush Harding, CEO of Crews & Associates. “When we have people from other state capitals in the South and they see the bustle and the energy and the activity, they’re incredulous that ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com www.arktimes.com

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RIVER MARKET @ 20

GHOST TOWN — A series of economic hits, the exodus of retail and office vacancies combined to create a surreal downtown landscape. As developer Jimmy Moses put it, “The late 1980s, up to 1992 or 1993, downtown Little Rock had pretty much fallen about as far as it could fall.”

we have what we have in Little Rock.” Harding, whose investment banking company has headquartered in downtown for more than a decade and whose First Security Bancorp funded renovation of the district’s amphitheater, said the neighborhood itself gives his company a distinct competitive advantage. “If people walk on the street and feel the energy downtown and then they come into your office and your employees are enthused about being at work, they’re energized by the fact they’re in a vibrant location,” he said. “That vibe is readily evident to a potential customer and they want

to be a part of that by doing business with you.” Of course, the discussion was very different a quartercentury ago. Though Moses, as then-head of the Little Rock Downtown Partnership, and his business partner, Rett Tucker, were consistently staunch supporters of downtown redevelopment, theirs was a lonely bandwagon. “The late 1980s, up to 1992 or 1993, downtown Little Rock had pretty much fallen about as far as it could fall,” Moses said. “Downtown Little Rock was about as dead as any downtown in the country for a city our size. We had no retail; we had lost all of our retail out to the sub-

urbs. The office market was declining rapidly because so many of the financial institutions were consolidating and downsizing and office vacancies were rising.” About the only positive one could point to in downtown then was the opening of the Excelsior Hotel and the convention center, but with so few attractions to support them, officials’ attempts to lure groups into town were crippled. “It was a trick to figure out, for the conventioneers who came here, where were they supposed to go in downtown because we really didn’t have anything at all,” Moses remembered. “In fact, most of the hotel doormen would send them to (North Little Rock’s) McCain Mall. We were pretty sick and tired and without much direction in those days.” Community, political and business leaders all recognized downtown’s problems, but few demonstrated the will or the ability to advance an agenda resulting in, or perhaps because of, a citizenry that seemed largely resigned to watching downtown implode. After voters drubbed an economic initiative in the early 1990s called Diamond Center Project 2000, Moses and fellow downtown advocates were left searching for a signature idea. A trip to Seattle and its Pike Place Market proved a spark of inspiration. “Quite literally, on the trip home from Seattle, I drew a little sketch on a napkin,” he said. “I said to my wife, ‘You know, this is what we oughta create in downtown Little Rock for our farmers market.’ That was kind of the impetus for triggering a serious planning process along East Markham that eventually became the River Market district.”

425 Presiiden dentt Clin Clinton i ton Av Ave., e., Li L ttle Rock | 501-850-0265 | cachelittlerock.com m

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RIVER MARKET @ 20

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH — The view down East Markham Street, what is today President Clinton Avenue. Before to the River Market, long-timers remember boarded-up warehouses and weedy sidewalks with just a few struggling businesses hanging on.

Perhaps not surprisingly given recent history and the economics of the time, Moses’ visionary doodling wasn’t universally admired, particularly when he and his confederates started soliciting funds. “It was a hard sell,” he said. “We had to go out and raise money for the River Market facility and we did it in $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 increments from private companies, along with the city. And trying to convince people to ante up that money was not easy. They were saying, ‘You want us to write a check for you to go sell tomatoes in a nice shed somewhere

At First Security, we have a special place in our hearts for the River Market District. Why? It’s a hub of energy, action and culture, where local shops mingle comfortably with big business, all on the banks of the Arkansas River. Our team is proud to be a part of this amazing downtown community – and we can’t wait to be a part of what happens next.

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on the river? Is that really gonna work?’ “Understandably, it was not something that people embraced readily, but the truth of the matter is, it was exactly what we thought would work because we had very few things that did work in downtown Little Rock, but one of ’em was our farmers market and we knew we could convert it.” Alongside Moses, the concept’s early ally at City Hall was Dr. Dean Kumpuris, then a city director and chairman of the East Markham Street Task Force. By 1995, they’d stitched together enough private and public support that the project was unveiled at a September press conference. The three-block development would snug up against Riverfront Park and the amphitheater, which the city had already created as part of cleaning up the riverfront. “[Public initiatives] were not totally unusual, there has been a resurgence of urban revitalization that has gone on in many cities around the country,” Stodola said. “But it takes developers in the private sector to have a vision that can be materialized. It’s great to have a plan, but plans sit on a shelf and if they don’t get executed, then that’s all they ever are. So the River Market became a great exercise in public-private partnership.” The level of cooperation between public and private entities went beyond funding — the city’s initial investment was $1.5 million of the $4.4 million spent on the market hall and pavilions. Equally important was attracting public entities into the neighborhood. “That’s the real key, I think,” Moore said. “It takes the city stepping up and saying we’re going to do this, this is going to be an anchor for the area and then the private investment comes. It really takes both.” In the River Market’s case, the anchors were the market hall to the north, the converted Terminal Building, and later the Museum of Discovery to the east and the Statehouse Convention Center to the west. Looming over a south quadrant in the heart of the neighborhood was the main library of the Central Arkansas Library System, an important get for the River Market. “[CALS director] Dr. Bobby Roberts was behind what became, ultimately, the decision to move the library here,” said Susan Gele, CALS assistant director for public relations. “It was at 700 Louisiana Street and it was a very small building. This location was available and he led the pie-in-the-sky approach to make the main library more available through a more institutional-type building.” The importance of the library entering the district is largely under-appreciated: Not only did the main library convert the Fones Building’s 156,000 square feet, but CALS steadily increased its campus

footprint where now it includes the 18,000-square-foot Cox Creative Center; the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies inside the Arkansas Studies Institute; and the Ron Robinson Theatre inside the new Arcade Building. Beyond occupancy, the library’s investment also sent a strong message to businesses reluctant to return to downtown. “The main library was really one of the first stimuli for that area, and with the public sector involvement in the River Market building itself, those two public investments helped to generate the activity up and down the street,” Stodola said. “It showed private business they could transform some of these old buildings into the vibrant facilities that they are now. Thankfully we didn’t tear most of them down, as we’ve seen happen in other cities around the country.” Even so, it took a while for development, corporations and especially residential growth to flower in the River Market District. Diana Long, director of River Market operations, has lived downtown on and off since 1997 and remembers the early days when the neighborhood was merely long on potential. “My first apartment was over here on Sixth Street and it was before it was really

cool to live in downtown,” she said. “The River Market had just opened and my car payment was a dollar more than my rent and I had a Honda Accord that wasn’t brand new when I got it. There were a lot of people like me hanging around all over who were interested in living in an unusual area where the rent was dirt cheap and the apartment was really cool, and I was crazy enough to not be afraid of the homeless people who were hanging around. “It’s great that the pendulum has swung back and people have realized how great it is to be in an urban core and how

wonderful the architecture is down here and you don’t have to be 30 minutes from everything just so you can have a house that you can pass the sugar through the window to your neighbor.” The scene wasn’t completely without a corporate presence. Though retail struggled initially due to the lack of permanent residents, several early River Market District bars and restaurants that took a flyer on the new area are still there, including Dallas-based Flying Saucer in 1998 and Stickyz (founded as Sticky Fingerz) in 2000. “At that point they were four years out

from the Clinton Presidential Library opening and we felt like it was a smart move to try and get in early as a lot of development was going to take place,” said Chris King, co-owner of Stickyz and the Rev Room. “Of course from an ego-driven perspective, we’d like to say, ‘Oh yeah we could go anywhere and make this happen, we could go anywhere and do what we wanted to do.’ But the reality of it is we couldn’t exist without the River Market district and the growth that has happened over the past 15 years. They’ve built four or five hotels up around us since we’ve

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RIVER MARKET @ 20 people involved and so many opened and there’s that constant traffic down here. It’s moving parts over the last 20 just a great place to be.” years, got the perfect balance “Jimmy Moses was kind of the guy down in the River of all these little things,” she Market area and he was very convincing,” said Shannon said. “I think it’s a nice blend of Wyatt, president of Flying Saucer (as well as Flying Fish, complementary things. Having which came to River Market in 2002). “There were big the convention center down plans underfoot between the Peabody [Hotel] coming here helps us a lot because you there and the River Market district being developed, and have that influx of the people an excitement that went hand in hand with that. And the TERMINAL VELOCITY —Terminal Building, which is now the Museum who are coming to visit. The rents were still pretty low. Center. Home to Sonny Williams’ Steak House and Damgoode Pies. hotels support the convention “That added up to an opportunity for us and probably center, so you’ve got a very a little naiveté because we were pretty young in our expanheavy tourist season in this area and that really helps all what you see today. We never would have gotten that sion at that point. It felt good, it just wasn’t easy the first of the businesses that are here year-round. kind of investment and that kind of large development year. I used to go down to the Peabody and hand out free “The park plays a huge role, too. It’s a very nice, very from any other source.” coupons for Flying Fish because it was hard to get people large park to be right in the downtown area where it is. The economic ripples from the Clinton Presidential to walk those last two blocks. We struggled along there And it’s a draw for people and families, and people who Center have only continued to build, most notably in for a year and half or so and then the [Clinton] museum don’t even live in the area drive over and participate in residential projects and new hotel spaces that have been opened and that was all she wrote.” the different events and just to enjoy the amenities and built anywhere developers can find a footprint large If there was ever any doubts of the viability of the the attractions that we have.” enough (of which there are now very few.) Some areas neighborhood, the 2004 opening of the Clinton Presidential It’s hard to think of an entertainment district as a might have come away from that frenzied pace with a Center at the far end of the neighborhood laid them neighborhood community, but the growth of residential hodgepodge aesthetic, but as Long points out, even as the all to rest. Not only did the grounds provide a defined units in the River Market paint a compelling picture. pace of design and construction continues to accelerate, bookend for the neighborhood, the library would attract Andrew Meadors of Meadors Adams & Lee Insurance everything somehow fits. millions of visitors every year who drop untold amounts with his wife, Susan, moved downtown in 2013 and now “Whoever came up with this, and there’s been so many of discretionary dollars into the local economy. reside just a short distance from his firm’s front door. “I think [the presidential “I never in my wildest dreams growing up a boy in the library] was the most imporHeights in the ’60s and ’70s thought that I would live in tant factor in the long-term downtown Little Rock,” he said. “When I was in college viability of the neighborhood, at SMU in Dallas from 1981 to 1985, coming back here because it validated at the very and driving to the airport or even coming down to the highest level that the commuarena, you kinda wanted to not stop the car. Kinda keep nity’s decision to invest in its it movin’, you know? downtown was a good move “But now we’re just amazed at the people and energy to make,” Moses said. here on the weekends and the farmers market and dif“And then furthermore, ferent events that go on down here. And to think about having the Clinton center how far it’s come in a relatively short period of time has come into the neighborhood been remarkable.” was not only a validation philoDRAB TO FAB — Buildings razed to make way for the centerpiece Meadors doesn’t fit the national profile of the typical sophically, but they bought of the original development, the 10,000-square-foot Ottenheimer urban dweller who trends more toward the millennial 25 acres of old industrial Market Hall. generation. But then neither does Moses, who also calls ground and turned it into

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AS THE RIVER MARKET NEIGHBORHOOD HAS GROWN, SO HAS ITS ROSTER OF EVENTS. A FEW HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: 2nd Friday Art Night MONTHLY Little Rock Marathon MARCH Arkansas Literary Festival APRMAY

Movies in the Park JUNE-AUG Pops on the River JULY Arkansas Sounds THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Jazz in the Park APR & SEP MacArthur Park 5K MAY Little Rock Film Festival MAY Riverfest MAY Jewish Food Festival MAY Little Rock Farmers Market — MAY-OCT

Legends of Arkansas Music & Craft Festival SEPTEMBER Main Street Food Truck festival OCT

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RIVER MARKET @ 20 the neighborhood home, or Wynne, who owns a condo in the district. Here, 50-something professionals are just another of the many demographics gravitating to the River Market district and surrounding downtown neighborhoods. “It’s hard to put the downtown resident in a box,” said Gabe Holmstrom, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership. “You definitely see folks who are empty nesters, whose kids have gone off and they’re looking to downsize and simplify and want a walkable lifestyle. In some other areas, you see millennials who

don’t necessarily want to have a car; they want to be able to walk to work, walk to where they’re going for entertainment and then walk home. “Then you have the historic preservation movement; a lot of people who want to live in and restore these historic homes that we have an inventory of. Then, you see a lot of young couples moving into those areas and buying some of these homes and starting families there.” The influx of people is both homegrown migration and, not unlike attracting new companies, the result of recruitment of people from other areas, both formally and informally. To this end, the River Market has proven the city’s ultimate calling card. “When you’re crossing the river and you see that River Market sign, it is now a landmark,” Holmstrom said. “It’s almost like the Hollywood sign for downtown Little Rock. Having the River Market as an anchor has been immensely important and really been a catalyst for a lot of the good that you are seeing now through other parts of downtown.” Those other projects, redevelopment of Main Street downtown and the continuing revival of South Main across I-630, have borrowed more than marketing punch from the River Market. As Stodola pointed out, the riverside entertainment district provided a living blueprint that to one degree or another has shaped subsequent developments. “When I first became mayor, I took Main Street as a project for downtown and I took the River Market as an example of all the thriving activity that was happening downtown east and west but unfortunately didn’t make a turn south.” he said. “We used that as a challenge for ideas for revitalizing that area. You want 24/7, you want activity on the streets, you want that collision of people which provides for the collision of ideas and it stimulates all kinds of wonderful things happening, which is what the River Market has done over the last 20 years.” Working off of this example, Stodola said, several foundational priorities for Main Street quickly emerged, starting with emphasizing designs that feature mixed-use spaces and elements that promote the sense of community so prevalent by the river. “The park is integral to the River Market district; you’ve got great areas for people to meet and talk and congregate,” he said. “That experience has led to us try to create that in some of the broader spaces on Main Street, which is actually a little wider street than Clinton Avenue. And so we have a little greater opportunity for streetscape development where there’s going to be a lot more sidewalk cafes and things of that nature.”

With this work comes the opportunity to examine infrastructure that, at least as far as the city’s ISO Grade 1 water system is concerned, has proven more than adequate to handle the growing needs of the downtown corridor. “For what’s been going on so far, they haven’t been needing water demands beyond what we could already provide,” said Jim Ferguson, director of engineering for Central Arkansas Water, which is itself headquartered downtown. He said the downtown grid is the oldest of the city’s water systems, with cast-iron pipe that’s

between 100 and 120 years old. Such pipes are generally expected to deliver a 100-year lifespan; so, while aging city pipe isn’t quite as alarming as it sounds, CAW is taking advantage of the downtown development to address the future where needed. “We have pipes that are at or beyond their rated life expectancy, but there are plenty of cast-iron pipes around the country and around the world that are 300 years old and still in service,” he said. “So as to whether or not all of our pipes are going to cascadingly fail tomorrow is doubtful. “On the other hand, we do need to start Lucas Strack of Strack Studio Furniture, Conway, AR

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OUT WITH THE OLD — Demolition at what is now 400 President Clinton Ave. Announced in the fall of 1995, the public-private development cost $4.4 million to build.

planning to replace and we have started replacing areas that are giving us problems, and we will continue to do that in the future. We want to get into some preventative replacement versus emergency replacement.” One prime example of taking advantage of community improvements to upgrade infrastructure surrounds work being done on the Broadway Bridge. Like all vehicular bridges linking Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Broadway Bridge has water pipe attached below deck, and as the old bridge yields to a new structure, the 1925-era, 16-inch pipe will be upgraded to 20-inch diameter pipe. “That’s costing us about $1.5 million,” Ferguson said. “And then here in the near future if they do widen I-30, which they’re talking about right now, and replacing the old I-30 bridge, we’ve got a 24-inch pipeline underneath that bridge. That will cost us probably $4 to $5 million.” Moore also noted the potential changes to Interstate 30 as being among the city’s highest priorities to help ensure forthcoming modifications are done in such a way as to not adversely affect what’s been created downtown. “There are some cities that have done this wrong when they are building an interstate or rehabbing an existing one; if it’s not done right it could kill your downtown,” he said. “The highway department has given us their assurance that they’re going to work very closely with us so that doesn’t happen, and so we have regular meetings with them and the local development community. I feel very positive about that.” City Manager Moore said another ongoing focus for the district is the issue of safety, headlined by improved lighting in the River Market, beefed up cameras, efforts to cut down on panhandling and a consistent police presence. According to CALS’ Gele, who’s worked downtown for 54 54

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ater stage. And it may be like 1:30 on a weekday workday afternoon,” he said. “One time we were in the middle of a meeting and Sheryl Crow is out there singin’ warm-up songs, so we just kind of broke the meeting up, everybody came out on the balcony and checked out Sheryl.” “Really, at first, there was some fear that it would kind of be like a New Orleans atmosphere with the bars and the restaurants, but it’s actually a nice mix of office and retail and the bars and restaurants and the fun stuff. It fits our agency culture very well because we’re not the real serious blue-suits-and-ties-type operation, you know; it’s more ‘Hey man, come by and hang out.’ We work hard but we’re also really laid back.” In fact, few who live or headquarter in the River Market confessed drawbacks any more acute than the occasional free concert interrupting a staff meeting. What few things are lacking are seen either as a byproduct “We’re doing things right here in Little Rock and the River of, or can be cured by, the neighborMarket is proof of that. It’s always vibrant, it’s always hood’s continued prosperity. bustling, there’s always something exciting going on.” “We’re doing things right here in Little Rock, and the River Market is proof of that,” Crews’ Harding said. “It’s always vibrant, it’s always bustling, there’s always that has been consistent and why I like it so much, and I’m something exciting going on. As more restaurants come, comfortable down here. I know there are people around as more hotels come, as more condominium developments who are watching what’s going on and making sure that come, more people come.” bad things don’t happen.” “I think the continual thread as we march toward where While Gele’s comments were echoed by merchants, we want to be, whether that’s five years down the road or corporations and people who call downtown home, 10 years down the road, is people. As more people come, insurance man Meadors did confess good-naturedly that all the services that support the populace will come with there are elements of the neighborhood to which one it, be it bookstores, coffee shops or more grocery spots.” must learn to adjust. The next major chapter in the neighborhood would likely “Sometimes when there’s bands that are gonna perform, focus on expansion of the Statehouse Convention Center, they’ll do warm ups and sound checks on the amphithe20 years, the neighborhood’s safety record is one that’s often misunderstood. “Not everybody feels that same sense of comfort, especially people who are coming in from out of town. Sometimes even people in Little Rock are hesitant to come downtown because they don’t know the area as well,” she said. “The Little Rock Police Department is excellent at being around and helping to make sure that it is a safe environment. “I have two daughters who are grown now, but they would come down here to go to a restaurant or go to Riverfest or do whatever and I felt completely comfortable having them down here. I knew what the area was like and I knew what the police were like and if something happened I knew that they would be OK. That’s one thing

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RIVER MARKET @ 20 at least if city leaders work off of Gretchen Hall’s wish list. The Little Rock Convention and Visitor’s Bureau executive director said that while current facilities suffice the in-state convention business, continued investment and development will be required to become a regional or national player. “Facilities are always key,” she said. “While we’ve been blessed with updating and renovating the Statehouse Convention Center over the last few years, I think it’s not going to be the too-distant future before we have to start talking about ‘do we want to take that next big leap and expand the convention center?’ ” She also noted such expansion alone cannot be effective without a commensurate increase in services. “In order to attract larger groups, you also need to expand your hotel product that’s attached or adjacent to the center to be very successful,” she said. “If you have multiple properties that are all detached, that’s a harder sell.” Hall also pointed out that, for all Little Rock and North Little Rock have brought online, there remains one glaring deficiency in its arsenal to attract groups and events. “We produced a study earlier this year talking about our sports facilities,” she said. “Sport is a huge market for us, but we’re lacking a really great multipurpose indoor facility. So that’s a key component for future growth and development for us as a destination.” Arkansas’s famous change of seasons is nearly upon its capital city, but amid the cooler climes and soon-to-be-brilliant colors, it’s business as usual in the River Market. Beyond a few more office windows popped open during the day or the switch from free movies to free Jazz in the Park, the neighborhood continues to delight visitors and citizenry alike. Pondering the 20-year journey to get here, Jimmy Moses again pauses to find suitable words to sum up what the crowning achievement of his professional life represents to him and the city he loves. “The best thing I can say about what the River Market district has done for Little Rock, it’s given people in our community, I think, a new sense of pride about their city,” he said. “I think it kind of replaced some negativity that was going on 25 years ago. We needed a good shot in the arm, and seeing a rejuvenated and exciting urban core again has made us all feel better about ourselves and our community.” ■

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BARTH, CONT. conservative locale and as a capitulation to bias dressed up as religious belief. Could Fayetteville have passed a broad ordinance tidied up to satisfy business leaders but lacking the broad religious exemption? The experience from neighboring Eureka Springs (where over 70 percent of the city’s voters supported equality) tells us that the odds were quite good. Such a move would have been preferable. But, it’s just as clear that the ordinance to be voted on by Fayetteville voters in the next couple of weeks will be a significant step forward for equality in one of the state’s

progressive enclaves and has symbolic importance because of the loss there just nine months ago (although with the passage of SB 202, the battle over HB 1228, and the U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality ruling, makes that nine months feels like an eternity). Fayetteville’s revised ordinance is deeply imperfect, but we all know that true equality on LGBT issues will come only with the passage of federal legislation such as the proposed Equality Act. In the meantime, with the perfect unavailable, the good is good enough.

LYONS, CONT. Basically, the Times told us the judge said something, but contrary to Journalism 101, didn’t say how they knew it or why he said it. Pretending that a reporter attended the hearing when he didn’t, however, would be far worse. Hence, I suspect, the disappearing dateline. We’re to take it on faith. Sorry, no sale. As Huckleberry Finn said, “I been there before.” Actually, “the employee” would be an odd way for a federal judge to refer to the Secretary of State — a cabinet appointee and fourth in line for the presidency. Not to mention that everybody from the Wall Street Journal, to Newsweek, CNN and,

yes, the New York Times has reported that Clinton’s private email setup was consistent with State Department rules. So I’m thinking Rep. Helen Tauscher (D-Calif.) got it right on “Fox News Sunday.” “Judge Sullivan’s extraneous remark was about something completely different,” she said “and it was about something going on with somebody else, an employee.” So it looks like another big hurry, another big screw-up. If the presidential race is as important as the Super Bowl, maybe the Times should show us the transcript.

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overtaking a bicycle

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

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AUGUST 27, 2015

Arts Entertainment AND

‘The presence of the past’ A Q&A with poet Davis McCombs BY CAITLIN LOVE

oet Davis McCombs was awarded the 2015 Porter Fund Literary Prize earlier this month, joining Arkansas writers Mara Leveritt, Trenton Lee Stewart, Kevin Brockmeier and others in literary recognition. Born and raised in Kentucky, McCombs has lived with his family for nearly 14 years in Fayetteville, where he teaches and directs the Program in Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas. His poems, which have appeared in the New Yorker, the Oxford American and “The Best American Poetry 2008,” are dense, lyric visions of silence and solitude and history and, lately, Arkansas — especially the Ozarks. We recently talked over email about books, his writing and how Arkansas has only recently begun to unroll itself in his work: Where does a poem start for you? How do your poems develop? It varies, but to me some of the most satisfying writing experiences have been those times when, for lack of a better word, I sensed the poem, almost as if it were a presence, still without form, still without subject, and often, in the beginning, without any words attached to it. One finds one’s way toward a poem like that by intuition, through openness, by grasping, stumbling. But once you bring the poem into being, if you’re able to, the process has a whiff of the miraculous about it, and I find that that sense of magic, for me at least, clings to the finished poem. In an essay you wrote for the Oxford American last month, you mention that you came to Arkansas 13 years ago from your home 58

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state of Kentucky. Because your poems are so much about landscape, I’m curious — how did the change in landscape first start affecting your work? Well, it started with a single poem. Out of the blue. My wife, Carolyn Guinzio, is a poet and back in the fall of 2013 we got in the habit of exchanging poems on a given day every week. Many of these pieces, of course, could be discarded or perhaps contained a line or two we could salvage, but some of the poems were more than that. It was a very intense time for both of us. I think the energy of that experience, the pressure of having to produce, allowed me to find my way to writing about Arkansas, something I thought I’d never do. I used to say that my poems had a kind of homing instinct. Even a poem that started out with a setting in, say, Arkansas or Massachusetts or Virginia or Illinois or California (all places I’ve lived) would have this way of circling back, through the twists and turns of revision, to Kentucky. And then, during the course of this fertile autumn, that stopped happening. All of a sudden. I was surprised, a little frightened, but then, really quickly, I was excited, filled with a sense of new possibility. That’s how writing about the Ozarks started for me. And Carolyn’s work from that fall became a large part of her newest book. Your most recent poems are very much about Arkansas, specifically the Ozarks. Even more than that, these recent poems absorb, or at least channel, the history of the region. How do you channel the past?

FINDING POETRY IN ARKANSAS: Davis McCombs, Porter Fund Prize winner.

I’m not sure how to answer this question with any certainty. I do feel the presence of the past, intensely so. I always have. When I worked as a park ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park [in Kentucky], the past was very present there. In the cave itself, the evidence of over 4,000 years of human activity is visible, easily accessed. I felt the lingering energy of that past very deeply. I suppose the same is true here. You just have to look a bit more closely.

Where do your historical characters (ones like Maw Earl in “Trundle”) come from? Sometimes they’re real people, but more often than not they’re creations, amalgamations, bits and pieces drawn from people I know or have known. “Of Thorns” draws the reader to a beautiful image of quiet and solitude. It happens gradually (“there’s no shepherd / stepping from the trees with his crook, not even the curve of the moon / that gathers each night its flock of pol-

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A&E NEWS teacher of creative writing, I try to guide my students and support them and direct their reading. I try to serve as an example of how you make a life that has room for poetry. But I also know that the real work they have to do happens when they’re alone in a room. That’s where they’ll learn how to take what’s going on in their minds and give it form. It’s a process that will be different for every person — intuitive, probably impossible to explain. That’s the most crucial task a young poet faces; it requires solitude, lots of it, and no one can do that work for you. What are some of the books (not just poetry collections) that have shaped you as a reader and writer? Here are a few of the books that have entered near talismanic status for me over the years: Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” Aleda Shirley’s “Chinese Architecture,” Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice,” Ted Hughes’ “River,” Lucie Brock-Broido’s “The Master Letters,” Seamus Heaney’s “Death of a Naturalist.” I just noticed that the word “death” appears in three of these six titles. I’d never thought of that before …

ished stones”). What is this place for you? Is it the “place,” the headspace where you go to write? I think so, yes. But I’m also talking about a real location or series of locations that throughout my life have served as wellsprings, sanctuaries, centering, sustaining or grounding forces. Can you tell me about solitude? How important is it to you? It’s quite important. I think often about my students and their need for solitude. As a

Are you teaching this semester? What’s on your syllabus? I’m teaching our undergraduate poetry workshop this semester. It’s one of my favorite courses, but given the nature of the class, I won’t have an extensive reading list. A poet you can bet will show up, though, is Keats. I don’t think I ever teach a course without somehow bringing Keats into the mix. What’s next for you? Are you working on a new collection? Finishing one, I hope. I think I’m close, but I have thought so before, only to realize that something wasn’t right or that there was some piece missing and that I had much work left to do. I’m such a slow writer. Each of my previous two books took around eight years to write, and this one, it seems, is no different.

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NEXT UP IN THE ARKANSAS TIMES Film Series, we’ll be screening Terrence Malick’s 1978 masterpiece “Days of Heaven,” starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard, the last film Malick directed before his legendary 20-year hiatus. The Village Voice has called it “almost incontestably the most gorgeously photographed film ever made,” and Variety has called it “one of the great cinematic achievements of the 1970s.” We’ll show the film at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, $5. After that, on Thursday, Oct. 15, we’ll screen Otto Preminger’s great and strange 1944 film noir “Laura,” which Roger Ebert wrote “achieved a kind of perfection in its balance between low motives and high style.” Nominated for five Academy Awards, it has been called a “stone cold classic” by Indiewire. “Less a crime film than a study in levels of obsession,” the Chicago Reader’s Dave Kehr wrote, “ ‘Laura’ is one of those classic works that leave their subject matter behind and live on the strength of their seductive style.” THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS Libraries and Special Collections Department will open its new digital Ozark Folksong Collection at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28, with a celebration in Mullins Library. Assembled between 1949 and 1965, the collection is considered “the largest and most complete collection of traditional music and associated materials from Arkansas and the Ozarks in the nation,” with songs and recordings from over 700 performers. The day will feature panel discussions and lectures by folklore scholars and experts including Brooks Blevins, professor of Ozark Studies at Missouri State University, and Alan Spurgeon, professor of music at the University of Mississippi. Local bands East of Zion and Old Ties will perform.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY WILL STEPHENSON

THURSDAY 8/27-SUNDAY 8/30

FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS FESTIVAL

Various venues, Fayetteville. $20-$39.

If Pokey LaFarge isn’t enough to satisfy your appetite for banjos and jug bands and suit vests, head northwest for the annual Fayetteville Roots Festival, which this year features Punch Brothers, Watkins Family Hour, JD McPherson, The Steel Wheels, Cory Branan and many more over the course of four nights. Cleverly subtitled “A Mountain Town in its Natural State,” the festival seeks to revive the atmosphere of the great Ozark string bands — the “Corn Dodgers and Hoss Hair Pullers,” as the title of a recent archival compilation put it — presumably absent the devastating poverty and murderous prejudice that made their era so inimitable. Frankly, it all sounds pretty Fayettechill. Also on hand, however, will be Fiona Apple, one of the most thrilling and inventive artists of her generation. She’ll apparently be appearing as part of Watkins Family Hour, a folky supergroup also starring members of Nickel Creek. Slightly less exciting, but probably still worth a ticket (selling out fast).

SATURDAY 8/29

MESHUGGA KLEZMER BAND 7:30 p.m. Studio Theater. $10.

OLD WAYS: Pokey LaFarge performs at South on Main 8 p.m. Thursday, $17.

THURSDAY 8/27

POKEY LAFARGE

8 p.m. South on Main. $17.

“Once upon a time, pop’s metabolism buzzed with dynamic energy,” the music critic Simon Reynolds wrote in his alarmist (and persuasive) 2011 manifesto “Retromania.” As Reynolds saw it, the 2000s had marked a slackening of pop’s forward-thinking progress in favor of a preservationist obsession with older styles. “Instead of being about itself,” he wrote, “the 2000s has been about every other previous decade happening again all at 60

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

once: a simultaneity of pop time that abolishes history while nibbling away at the present’s own sense of itself as an era with a distinct identity and feel.” Enter Pokey LaFarge, who dresses like an extra from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and bows to nobody — save for maybe far-right Republicans — in his reverence for America’s cultural past. “The world changes so quickly, I don’t think we have an identity in America anymore,” he told Rolling Stone recently. “I don’t know if we ever will again.” The trappings of the present don’t interest him:

“Computers don’t have souls, cell phones don’t have souls,” he said. LaFarge prefers vintage suits and bourbon and harmonicas and hair product — listening to his music gives you the stylized nostalgiarush of a sepia-toned Ken Burns documentary. I can’t help wondering what he’d think of Burzum or Destiny’s Child or Skrillex or Gucci Mane — would the juxtaposition trigger some sort of “Back to the Future” time rift? — but fair enough: Good songwriting beats innovation for its own sake nine times out of 10.

American klezmer evolved out of a collision between early jazz and Jewish folk music brought over by Eastern European immigrants around the turn of the 20th century. I know nothing about it, other than that it was revived in the 1970s and that it’s fascinating — both sonically and from an ethnomusicological perspective. The Arkansas klezmer scene isn’t particularly deep, but it will be activated Saturday night thanks to Little Rock’s Meshugga Klezmer Band, originally formed in 1999. I reached out to the group’s singer Stephanie Smittle for context. “It’s a bizarre thing,” she told me, “an ensemble of instruments one usually hears in a classical context (trombone, violin, clarinet, etc.) making decidedly unclassical sounds. Because the origins of the music are in the early folk music of the Ashkenazic Jews, the lyrics are mostly Yiddish, sometimes English, Hebrew or Russian, and can range anywhere from a swinging Andrews Sisters-ish jazz to a cantorial, droning prayer style.”

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 8/27

SATURDAY 8/29

‘LIGHTS! CAMERA! ARKANSAS!’ SEMINAR 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Old State House Museum.

BEYOND BRONCHO BILLY: The Old State House Museum presents its “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” Seminar, featuring presentations on Arkansas and film history.

“The Great Train Robbery” (1903) is often called the first Western or even the first American action film, and its editing innovations (cross-cutting between simultaneous scenes in different locations) have long been considered revolutionary. Far less appreciated, however, was its breakout star, Little Rock native Broncho Billy Anderson, who played three roles in the film (especially impressive as it’s only 12 minutes long), launching a career as an actor in silent Westerns that would persist for two decades. Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a film festival named in his honor in Fremont, Calif., though most Arkansans probably couldn’t tell him from William S. Hart. To address this outrage (and more), the Old State House Museum is presenting the “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” Seminar, a morning of presentations on Arkansas cinema history. KUAR’s Ben Fry will give a talk on Broncho Billy at 10 a.m. Other speakers include the Arkansas DemocratGazette’s Philip Martin (on “Arkansas in the Rise of Regional Southern Cinema”), “Arkansongs” host Stephen Koch (on “Musicians in Arkansas Film”), Robert Cochran (“Marginal Heroes’) and Suzanna McCray (“Arkansas Women in Film”), the latter two being the authors of the new book “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!”

SATURDAY 8/29

PURPLE RAIN REVISITED

8:30 p.m. Revolution. $10 adv., $15 day of.

Pop music doesn’t get any more desperate or crystalline or life-affirming than Prince’s “Purple Rain,” a song he recorded — sort of astoundingly — live at a club called First Avenue in Minneapolis on Aug. 3, 1983. It was a Wednesday. Tickets cost $25, and the set list included

a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.” The show marked the first appearance of The Revolution’s new guitarist, Wendy Melvoin, later the girlfriend of keyboardist Lisa Coleman. “Every moment that you were in Prince and the Revolution had to be like your last day on Earth,” Melvoin remembered later. The club is still there on the corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street, a large black build-

ing with silver stars on the walls, though the whole thing seems like it happened a long time ago, maybe in another galaxy. There’s something monolithic and unapproachably brilliant about it, but Saturday night, Arkansas’s own Drummerboyinfinity will try and resummon the vibes with “The Purple Rain Revisited Experience,” featuring guitarist and Prince sound-alike Gary Esco.

afternoon set for White Water, which will be offering its own food and also encourages you to bring your own. It’s also notable because the band will feature fiddle legend Joel Savoy, born into “Cajun music royalty” as the son of famous accordion builder Marc Savoy and Grammy Awardnominated musician and author Ann Savoy — and as a de facto member of the highly regarded Savoy Family Band.

In addition to his accomplishments as a performer (Linda Ronstadt has called him “one of my favorite musicians on just about any instrument”), Savoy is also the founder of the independent Cajun music label Valcour Records, responsible for everything from box sets of Alan Lomax field recordings to vibrant younger groups like the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Feufollet.

SUNDAY 8/30

KYLE HUVAL AND THE DIXIE CLUB RAMBLERS 5 p.m. White Water Tavern. Donations.

In keeping with this week’s throwback regional music theme, you’re encouraged to close out your weekend with a potluck and performance by the Cajun band — straight from Eunice, La. — Kyle Huval and The Dixie Club Ramblers. It’s a rare

The Arkansas Travelers play the Tulsa Drillers at Dickey-Stephens Park at 7:10 p.m. Thu.-Fri., $6-$12. Comedian Robert Hawkins is at the Loony Bin at 7:30 p.m., $7 (and at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $10). Houston soul band The Suffers plays Stickyz at 8:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of. Indie Music Night at Revolution features Misery Meets Mayhem and itsjusbobby, 9 p.m., $10. Comedian Seth Dees performs a free set (his stand-up album recording) at The Joint in Argenta, 9 p.m. Alt-rock band Aranda plays Juanita’s with The Revolutioners and Chariot the Moon, 9 p.m., $10. Folk singersongwriter Graham Wilkinson plays at the White Water Tavern at 9:30 p.m.

FRIDAY 8/28 Emily Reeves gives a lecture at the Clinton School’s Sturgis Hall titled “Stay Safe: A memoir of life after loss from the sister of a fallen Nav y SEAL,” noon. “Captain,” a new film directed by Rob Reep and filmed in South Arkansas, will be screened by The Film Society of Little Rock at the Studio Theater, 6:30 p.m. “The Great Gatsby” (the 1974 version) plays at the Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $5. Local R&B group Bijoux & The LoVe Theory plays at South on Main at 10 p.m., $15. Final Drive plays at Revolution with Moment of Fierce Determination, Every Knee Shall Bow, Minerva and Killing Souls, 8:30 p.m., $8. Local metal band Enchiridion plays at White Water with Construction of Light and Apothecary, 9 p.m., $5.

SATURDAY 8/29 The River City Comic Expo kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center, with gaming tournaments, cosplay contests and numerous appearances and presentations by comics writers and illustrators. The Live Action Ninja Turtle Show is at the Statehouse Convention Center at 5 p.m., $15. Memphis band Motel Mirrors, a group featuring Amy LaVere, Will Sexton and John Paul Keith, plays at White Water, 9:30 p.m., $7. The Sofa Concert Series presents Candy Soul, Tonya Dyson and TwinSpirit at Afrodesia Studio, 7 and 10 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. The B Flats play at the Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7-$12. Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts play at Stickyz, 9:30 p.m., $5.

www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

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

Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Randall Shreve & The Deville’s (album release). Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $8. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz. com. Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway. Savagist, Amokst the Trees. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com. TP & The Feel. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $7-$10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Upscale Friday. IV Corners, 7 p.m. 824 W. Capitol Ave.

THURSDAY, AUG. 27

MUSIC

Aranda, The Revolutioners, Chariot the Moon. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $10. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Arkansas River Blues Society Thursday Jam. Revolution, 7 p.m., free. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new. Camille Rae & District 26. Another Round Pub, 9 p.m. 12111 W. Markham. 501-313-2612. www. anotherroundpub.com. Chris Long. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 6 p.m. 1515 E. 4th St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com. Fayetteville Roots Festival. Featuring Watkins Family Hour, Fiona Apple, Punch Brothers, Don Heffington, Pokey LaFarge and more. Fayetteville Square. Downtown Fayetteville. www.fayettevilleroots.com. Finger Food. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Graham Wilkinson. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Indie Music Night: Misery Meets Mayhem, itsjusbobby. Revolution, 9 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www. rumbarevolution.com/new. “Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Kevin Slattery, Parker Francis. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Open Jam. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com. Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994. Pokey LaFarge. South on Main, 8 p.m., $17. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com. RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7-9 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505. The Suffers. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com. Tragikly White (headliner), Jocko (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

COMEDY

Robert Hawkins. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com. Seth Dees (stand-up album recording). The Joint, 9 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 62

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

COMEDY

GULF COAST SOUL: Houston soul band The Suffers plays Stickyz at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, $8 adv., $10 day of.

“HOGNADO!” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Robert Hawkins. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

SPORTS

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

FRIDAY, AUG. 28

MUSIC

All In Fridays. Club Elevations. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3317. Bijoux & the LoVe Theory. South on Main, 10 p.m., $15. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com. Brian Nahlen Band (headliner), Steve Boyster

(happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com. Efren G and the Earthtones. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 7 p.m. 1515 E. 4th St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com. Enchridion, Construction of Light, Apothecary. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Fayetteville Roots Festival. See Aug. 27. Final Drive, Moment of Fierce Determination, Every Knee Shall Bow, Minerva, Killing Souls. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $8. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu.

Do more. Hurt less. WE OFFER EXPERT ADVICE AND GUIDANCE • Strength and flexibility training • Corrective exercise for pain relief • Fitness programs for injury recovery • Biomechanical analysis of joint function and mobility • Massage therapy

Ballroom dancing. Free lessons begin at 7 p.m. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 8-11 p.m., $7-$13. 12th and Cleveland streets. 501221-7568. www.blsdance.org. Contra Dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $5. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. arkansascountrydance.org. “Salsa Night.” Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 501-2449690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/ SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St.

FILM

“Captain.” Directed by Rob Reep, filmed in South Arkansas and presented by the Film Society of Little Rock and Made In Arkansas. Studio Theatre, 6:30 p.m. 320 W. 7th St. “The Great Gatsby” (1974). Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $5. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

LECTURES

“Stay Safe: A memoir of life after loss from the sister of a fallen Navy SEAL.” A lecture by Emily Reeves. Sturgis Hall, 12 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

REGENERATION FITNESS KATHLEEN L. REA, PH.D.

(501) 324-1414 117 East Broadway, North Little Rock www.regenerationfitnessar.com Email: regfit@att.net

SPORTS

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

SATURDAY, AUG. 29

MUSIC

Ashley McBryde, Josh Keathley. Another Round

Pub, 6 and 9 p.m. 12111 W. Markham. 501-3132612. www.anotherroundpub.com. The B Flats. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $7-$12. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Big Dam Horns (headliner), Some Guy Named Robb (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www. cajunswharf.com. Collin vs. Adam, Joshua Asante, Single Lash, Future Museums. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. Drummerboyinfinity Presents: Purple Rain Revisited. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new. Fayetteville Roots Festival. See Aug. 27. K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-492-9802. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Meshugga Klezmer Band. Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m., $10. 320 W. 7th St. Motel Mirrors. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m., $7. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org. The Sofa Concert Series Presents: CandySoul, Tonya Dyson, TwinSpirit. Afrodesia Studio, 7 and 10 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. 9700 Rodney Parham Rd. Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $5. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz. com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

EVENTS

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell and Cedar Hill Roads. Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd. Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of historic neighborhoods includes bike, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 9 a.m., $8-$28. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001. Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market pavilions, 7 a.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info. Live Action Ninja Turtle Show. Statehouse Convention Center, 5 p.m., $15. 7 Statehouse Plaza. Pork & Bourbon Tour. Bike tour includes bicycle, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 11:30 a.m., $35-$45. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001. River City Comic Expo. Statehouse Convention Center, 10 a.m. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

LECTURES

“Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” Seminar. A panel featuring Robert Cochran, Suzanne McCray, Ben Fry, Stephen Koch and Philip Martin. Old State House Museum, 9 a.m. 300 W. Markham St. 501324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

SUNDAY, AUG. 30

MUSIC

Al White. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 4 p.m. 1515 E. 4th St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com. Dr. Jess Anthony. Organ recital featuring works by Johannes Brahms and Charles-Marie Widor. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 3 p.m. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. Failure Anthem, Bridge to Grace. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-3721228. www.juanitas.com. Fayetteville Roots Festival. See Aug. 27. Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com. Kyle Huval and The Dixie Ramblers. White Water Tavern, 6 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-3758400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Super Hero Guitar Night. Proceeds benefit Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The Joint, 7 p.m. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Shop shop LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES

EVENTS

Artist for Recovery. A secular recovery group for people with addictions. Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. 1601 S. Louisiana.

MONDAY, AUG. 31

MUSIC

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Monday Night Jazz. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Open Mic. The Lobby Bar. Studio Theatre, 8 p.m. 320 W. 7th St. Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 1

MUSIC

Epic Rap Battles of History. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $20. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month. 120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jeff Ling. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Music Jam. Hosted by Elliott Griffen and Joseph

presents…

Stevie Coyle Thursday September 17 7:30 p.m. The Joint 301 Main Street North Little Rock

Tickets $20

Former frontman for the band The Waybacks, Coyle has gone solo and now tours both nationally and internationally.

Available at the door or online at www.argentaartsacousticmusic.com Sponsored by…

www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

Fuller. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Roger Hoover. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

COMEDY

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

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Juanita’s, 7:30 p.m., $7. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

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

LECTURES

“A Student Centered Learning Approach.” Elliot Washor, co-founder of Big Picture Learning. Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 2

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Bobaflex. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com. Drageoke with Chi Chi Valdez. Sway. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month. 120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Heather Smith Band. South on Main, 7:30 p.m., free. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com. Jazz in the Park: Dizzy Seven. Riverfront Park, 6 p.m., free. 400 President Clinton Avenue. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

COMEDY

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

DANCE

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

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show. Maxine’s, 7 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive.com/shows. html. 64

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARTS

THEATER

“Hairspray.” Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through Aug. 29: Tue.-Sun., 6 p.m., $34-$36. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com. “Two Trains Running.” The Weekend Theater, through Sept. 5: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m., $16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS New shows in bold-face ART GROUP GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road: Doug Gorrell, paintings, opens with reception 5:30-8:30 p.m., show through Aug. 30. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-6 p.m. Sun. 690-2193. GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Detalles,” new work by X3MEX, opens with reception 7 p.m. Aug. 28 with music and refreshments, show through Oct. 3, closing reception 7 p.m. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “14 Holes of Golf,” paintings by Louis Beck, giclee giveaway drawing 7 p.m. Sept. 17. 660-4006. BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “Eric Shiner: Andy Warhol, Nature vs. Culture,” lecture by director of the Andy Warhol Museum, 7 p.m. Aug. 28, Great Hall; “Jamie Wyeth,” retrospective of the artist’s career over 60 years from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Oct. 5; “Warhol’s Nature,” from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, through Oct. 5, $4; “American Encounters: The Simple Pleasures of Still Life,” 10 still-life paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries from the High Museum, the Terra Foundation, the Louvre and the Crystal Bridges collection, through Sept. 14; “Fish Stories: Early Images of American Game Fish,” 20 color plates based on the original watercolors by sporting artist Samuel Kilbourne, through Sept. 21; American masterworks spanning four centuries. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700. HELENA DELTA CULTURAL CENTER, 141 Cherry St.: “A Cast of Blues,” 15 resin-cast masks of blues legends by Sharon McConnell-Dickerson and 15 photographs of performers by Ken Murphy, Sept. 1-Oct. 20, talks by the artists 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 10 (King Biscuit Blues Festival), Delta Drop-In programs 11-11:30 a.m. Saturdays. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Sat. 870-338-4350. JONESBORO ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, 201 Olympic Drive: “Accalia anmd the Swamp Monster,” by Kelli Scott Kelley; “(Selah),” by Stephanie Beisel; “It Figures,” selections from the permanent collection, Bradbury Gallery, Aug. 27-Sept. 27, artist’s talk 4 p.m. Aug. 27, followed by reception 5-6:30 p.m. Noon-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 870972-2567. PINE BLUFF ARTS AND SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St.: “(un)

distorted — Perceptual Paintings by Matthew Lopas,” opening reception 5-7 p.m. Aug. 27, show through Dec. 5; “Pictorialist and Modernist: Howard Stern Photographs from the Permanent Collection”; “Pine Bluff Art League Exhibition”; “Exploring the Frontier: Arkansas 1540-1840”; STEAM Studio and Tinkering Studio. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat. 870-536-3375.

CONTINUING GALLERY EXHIBITS ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: 57th annual “Delta Exhibition,” 88 works by 84 artists from Arkansas and surrounding states, juried by George Dombek, through Sept. 20. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP. GROUP, 200 River Market Ave.: “Different Landscapes,” paintings by Greg Lahti, photographs by Brennan Plunkett, drawings by Robert Bean, woodwork by Steve Plunkett. 374-9246. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Disparate Acts Redux,” paintings by David Bailin, Warren Criswell and Sammy Peters; “Weaving Stories and Hope: Textile Arts from the Japanese Internment Camp at Rohwer, Arkansas”; “State Youth Art Show 2015: An Exhibition by Arkansas Art Educators,” Underground Gallery, through Aug. 29. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790. CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “A Range of Options,” collages by Eric Spann, through Sept. 4. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335. CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0880. COX CREATIVE CENTER, 100 River Market Ave.: “Art by Design,” works by Sandra Marson, through September; “Hotel Pines: Light through the Pines,” photographs by a dozen art photographers of abandoned Hotel Pines in Pine Bluff, through August. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 918-3093. GALLERY 221, Second and Center streets: “Round Robin,” through Aug. 31. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211. GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Recent works by Julie Holt, John Kushmal and James Hayes, through Sept. 12.10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.Sat. 664-8996. GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Southern Abstraction,” work by Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer, Andrew Bucci, Wolf Kahn, Sammy Peters, Robyn Horn, James Hendricks, Pinkney Herbert and Gay Bechtelheimer, through Sept. 12. 664-2787. GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander. 801-0211. HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Beautiful Influences,” ceramic sculpture and mixed media paintings by Chukes, through Sept. 3. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM GALLERIES, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Katherine Rutter & Ginny Sims,” paintings and pottery, through Nov. 8; “Pop Up in the Rock: The Exhibit,” through Oct. 4; “Art. Function. Craft: The Life and Work of Arkansas Living Treasures,” works by 14 craftsmen honored by Arkansas Arts Council; “Suggin Territory: The Marvelous

World of Folklorist Josephine Graham,” through Nov. 29. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St.: “Windows Within: The Art of Elizabeth Weber,” through Sept. 11. 665-0030. LOCAL COLOUR, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Rotating work by 27 artists in collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422. M2 GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell Road: “Mikesell and EMILE,” new paintings by Michelle Mikesell and Jennifer Freeman; also work by V.L. Cox, Bryan Frazier, Spencer Zahm and others. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 225-6257. MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “Dog Days,” dog art by Tanya Holifield, Debilynn Fendley and Fran Austin. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 960-9524. RED DOOR GALLERY, 3715 JFK, NLR: Paula Jones, new paintings; Jim Goshorn, new sculpture; also sculpture by Joe Martin, paintings by Amy Hill-Imler, Theresa Cates and Patrick Cunningham, ornaments by D. Wharton, landscapes by James Ellis, raku by Kelly Edwards and other works. 753-5227. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. STEPHANO’S FINE ART, 1813 N. Grant St.: New work by Jennifer Wilson, Mike Gaines, Maryam Moeeni, Ken Davis, John Kushmaul and Gene Brack. 563-4218. THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: Illustrations by Sally Nixon, part of The Art Department series, through August. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 379-9512. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK: “Fieldwork — Alternative Process Photography,” work by Kate Breakey, Beth Dow, Carol Golemboski and Jamie Johnson, through Sept. 27, Gallery I, talk by Breakey 6 p.m. Sept. 8, Fine Arts Room 161; “Recollections,” work by artist-inresidence Heidi Hogden, through Sept. 27, Manners/Pappas Gallery; “Learning to Fish,” work by Rusty Scruby, through Oct. 2, Gallery III, with film “Beyond the Plane” 12:15 p.m. Sept. 1. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 569-8977. BENTON DIANNE ROBERTS ART STUDIO AND GALLERY, 110 N. Market St.: Work by Dianne Roberts, classes. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 860-7467. BENTONVILLE 21c MUSEUM HOTEL, 200 NE A St.: “Duke Riley: See You at the Finish Line,” sculpture, and “Blue: Matter, Mood and Melancholy,” photographs and paintings. 479-286-6500. CONWAY ART ON THE GREEN, Littleton Park, 1100 Bob Courtway: Paintings by Eldridge Bagley, Marty Smith, Sheila Parsons, Don Bingham, Haley Proctor, Patricia Wilkes, Mary Ann Stafford and others. 501-499-3177. HEBER SPRINGS BOTTLE TREE GALLERY, 514 Main St.: Fine art and jewelry. 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 501-590-8840. HOT SPRINGS ALISON PARSONS GALLERY, 802 Central Ave.: “In Perfect Balance — Art in Motion,” kinetic mobiles by Gerald Lee Delavan. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501-625-3001.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘END OF THE TOUR’: Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg star.

Posthumous prophet Jason Segel dons the bandana for ‘The End of the Tour.’ BY WILL STEPHENSON

hen “The End of the Tour” was announced, it seemed like a cruel joke. David Foster Wallace, the avant-garde fiction writer and essayist who committed suicide in 2008, had written and spoken at exhaustive length about the warping effects of visual culture, about all the subtle and tortuous ways that television and film can impact and emotionally manipulate us. Another obsession had been ambition — careerism and fame (to the extent that he knew it) were obviously sources of great pain and fascination for him. He was absurdly self-conscious, repulsed by his own need for mass approval, and didn’t own a TV — not out of pretension, out of fear. So, to make a movie about him, much less a ponderous biopic starring Jason Segel (fresh off “The Muppets” and “How I Met Your Mother”), seemed like the bleakest of cosmic ironies, one final punishment from the universe for a man who had probably suffered enough. There was poor taste, and then there was this. Now that the film is out, the narrative has shifted. It’s not about Wallace at all, many critics have argued, but about writing, professional envy or the petty exploitations of magazine journalism. While it’s true that you don’t have to be familiar with his writing to follow it — just as you don’t have know abstract math to follow the Stephen Hawking or Alan Turing biopics — to say “The End of the Tour” isn’t about

Wallace is just being stubborn. Based on a book-length interview transcript, the film is assembled from actual Wallace quotes (condensed, cherry-picked and buffed up for optimal poignancy) with one or two minor fictionalized incidents added for dramatic effect. Fans of Wallace’s unusually absorbing interviews (YouTube videos of which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, for good reason) will find the film’s dialogue entirely familiar, if oversimplified and vaguely disappointing, like one of those Great Illustrated Classics books that tricks you into thinking you’ve experienced the real thing. And unfortunately the dialogue is just about all there is on offer here. Segel does a competent Wallace impersonation, but it seems kind of silly — not quite as crass as it could have been, but close to it. By the last scene (which actually is as crass as it could have been) I was wishing it were more offensive. Or more anything. As is, it seems content to let its profundities (e.g., success doesn’t necessarily buy happiness) carry it, and the result is mostly awkward and a little ghoulish, the literary fiction equivalent of the Tupac hologram. Because I don’t want this to seem overly mean-spirited, here’s something nice: I liked the way Wallace’s house looked. It seems somehow important to remember that a writer who won the MacArthur Genius Grant, who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, who the L.A. Times called “one of the most influ-

ential and innovative writers of the last 20 years,” spent a good portion of his actual day-to-day life in a dumpy twobedroom rental house in snow-covered Normal, Ill., subsisting on Pop-Tarts and McDonald’s and dip. The filmmakers have done a commendable job of recreating his clutter. And as best as I can tell, that was basically the goal here: to recreate the writer’s (literal and figurative) clutter. It’s an odd sort of tribute, though. It’s

hard to overlook the fact that Wallace’s family, friends and professional colleagues have all publicly denounced the movie. Maybe you don’t care about that — I’m not convinced that you should — and maybe the film succeeds on its own limited terms. But between the goofy dancing and the earnest moralizing, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion — the virtual certainty — that this film would be Wallace’s worst nightmare.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

Dining

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

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

WHAT’S COOKIN’ THE LITTLE ROCK OUTLET OF THE Del Frisco’s Grille chain is scheduled to open Sept. 12 in The Promenade at Chenal shopping center. On Tuesday, the parent group of the Little Rock location got one step closer to that opening by revealing the names of the general manager and executive chef who will oversee operations. Mark Smith has been hired as general manager of the restaurant, with Maeve Grey named executive chef. Smith, a release said, has over 35 years in restaurant management, while Grey previously served as director of kitchen operations for all restaurants in the Yellow Rocket Concepts family. According to the release, the Del Frisco’s Grille location at the Promenade will offer “creative twists on American comfort classics with local influences,” including a large slate of local beers. The Del Frisco Restaurant Group is based in Dallas and has over 45 restaurants under its umbrella, including Del Frisco’s Grille and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse. THE FIRST ARKANSAS LOCATION OF the Aliso Viejo, Calif., burger chain Johnny Rockets will be opening in at the Outlets of Little Rock, near Bass Pro Shops. Founded in 1996, the chain currently has over 325 locations in 32 states and 27 countries. There are also locations aboard 12 Royal Caribbean cruise ships. With a tagline of “The Original Hamburger,” you can probably guess the restaurants menu: big burgers in a dozen styles, plus shakes, floats, Philly cheese steaks, fries and onion rings, served in a 1950s diner setting. No word yet on a firm opening date, but the Outlets of Little Rock will open in October. For more information and to see a menu, visit johnnyrockets.com. PASADENA, CALIF.-BASED BLAZE Pizza, a chain with locations all over the U.S., has announced a location coming soon to the Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center at 11525 Cantrell Road near Fresh Market. It’s part of a steady, nationwide march for the company, which opened 50 new locations in 2014 and plans to open up to 70 this year. From what we’ve been able to glean from a video on their website, blazepizza.com, the idea is infinitely customizable pizzas, with customers picking fresh ingredients assembly-line style while watching their pie being assembled, sort of the same way you might build a burrito at Chipotle (decor appears to be remarkably Chipotle-like as well). Topping options include eight meats, seven cheeses and three sauce options. Into a specially designed oven it goes 66

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Jonesboro export fits in Argenta Skinny J’s stands out.

kinny J’s seems destined to become the anchor restaurant needed in its high-profile stretch of Main Street in North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood. Cregeen’s and Reno’s adequately fill their niches, and Ristorante Capeo is an absolute rock star. But Skinny J’s offers the variety and size — of menu and seating — to become the spot. When we heard the restaurant was moving into the former Cornerstone Pub and Grill space, the best news was that this wasn’t owner-chef James “Skinny J” Best’s first rodeo. In October 2009, after culinary school, Best, a member of a Northeast Arkansas farming family, opened Skinny J’s in Cash, 16 miles west of Jonesboro. Best closed his Cash restaurant a year later and opened in Jonesboro’s resurgent downtown. It continues to thrive, as does the downtown Paragould location opened in 2013. So it wasn’t surprising there were no apparent hiccups when Skinny J’s opened July 30 in Argenta with the same huge, 100-item (!) menu as the other two offer. A week later, every table was taken at 7 p.m. We took two seats at the bar for a glass of wine (it’s a decent list) and some avocado fries ($7) — strips of avocado of varying thicknesses lightly battered and fried. Yum! We returned for a full-fledged dinner and were even more impressed. The crawfish dip ($9) is spicy, creamy and studded with plenty of plump, tender crawfish tails. It’s served with wonton wrappers rather than chips. (If we had our way, the dip would be served with sliced, toasted and buttered Boulevard Bread baguettes.) As we pondered entrees, our waiter told us, “Steak is what Skinny J’s has become known for,” touting that theirs

are cut in-house daily, rubbed with house seasoning and topped with house butter. Our mouths were almost watering by the time the eight-ounce filet ($27 with two sides) arrived. And what a fine filet it was — nicely marked on the grill with a bit of crunch to the finish but medium rare as ordered. The rub is flavorful but not too spicy; it is conservatively applied, complementary rather than dominant. Riverfront Steakhouse is a couple of blocks away, and the much higher-priced Sonny Williams is just across the river, but Skinny J’s has no reason to be intimidated. The bacon mac-and-cheese is divine — gooey, served piping hot, with plenty of bacon, proving once again that bacon makes almost everything better. The green beans weren’t as big of a hit — a bit

al dente for our tastes, though the flecks of garlic made them slightly interesting. We also adored the Mutt ($8), a thick slice of pan-seared bologna, topped with melted cheddar, a fried egg, mayo and plenty of shredded lettuce and tomato. The egg, disappointingly, was a nonfactor — small and cooked too long. But it really didn’t matter. This is one fine combination of flavors and textures. The homemade chips were perfect, evenly cooked (some places’ chips have soft, greasy spots from being bunched up in the fryer). They were well salted and not at all greasy. At 12:50 p.m. on a rainy Wednesday, 13 tables of folks were having lunch. Our friend took our challenge and ordered the Big Skinny ($14), a one-pound burger that’s really two massive burgers in one. It has to be deconstructed to be gracefully consumed. The sauteed onion, mushroom and cheddar were nice additions, the limp bacon not so much. The patties weren’t dry, but they could have used a hint of pink. We were proud he got down three-quarters of it. The fries were excellent, ample like a steak fry but cut in a twist. The waiter told us the cut helps them hold up as a base for the buffalo fries and cheese fries. Another thing besides steak that sets Skinny J’s apart from pub-grub places is its selection of oysters. You can get them six ways; we chose chargrilled ($9

‘THE BIG SKINNY’ : One pound of beef, sauteed onions, mushrooms, bacon and cheddar at Skinny J’s.

DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK, LOOKING TO GET FIT?

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

for a half-dozen) and loved them. The chargrill taste comes through, but the smallish oysters are still tender. Butter, seasoned salt and a dusting of parmesan stand up well to the broiling and make for an interesting, slightly spicy taste. The Skinny J’s folks have done wonders with the old Cornerstone space, a vast improvement over the old, blacked-out windows and light-starved, smoky environment. The original windows have been uncovered along with an antique advertisement painted on the brick wall between Skinny’s and the stairway up to Bourbon and Boots, smartly showcasing the ghost sign through a glass hallway. There is taxidermy aplenty on the walls, including a fat possum near the door. Also adding to the eclectic atmosphere are vintage and modern signs promoting everything from Verizon Arena concerts to beer to a Jonesboro tractor company. Pendant “Edison bulb” lights over the bar and the stackedwood treatment behind the bar add to the casual, relaxed feel. Four TVs show sports with no volume. Note: If you need to have a serious or low-toned romantic conversation, this is not the place. Hard surfaces bounce around the sound. But it’s perfect for a casual meal or after-work get together. Thanks to Skinny J’s for bringing its winning formula and winning food from Northeast Arkansas to Argenta. A bright future seems almost guaranteed.

and out comes a perfectly personalized pizza, all at a claimed speed of under three minutes from raw to edible. We’ve got an email in to inquire about a target open date for the Little Rock location, but hadn’t heard back by press time.

AMERICAN

RED DOOR Fresh seafood, steaks, chops and sandwiches from restaurateur Mark Abernathy. Smart wine list. 3701 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-666-8482. BL Tue.-Sat. D daily. SHARKS FISH & CHICKEN This Southwest Little Rock restaurant specializes in seafood, frog legs and catfish, all served with the traditional fixings. 8722 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-2330. LD daily.

ASIAN

BANGKOK THAI CUISINE Get all the staple Thai dishes at this River Market vendor. The red and green curries and the noodle soup stand out, in particular. 400 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-5105. L Mon.-Sat. SKY MODERN JAPANESE Excellent, ambitious menu filled with sushi and other Japanese fare and Continental-style dishes. 11525 Cantrell Road, Suite 917. Full bar, All CC. $$$-$$$$. 501-224-4300. LD daily.

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BEST LIQUOR STORE Rahling Road @ Chenal Parkway • 501.821.4669 • olooneys@aristotle.net • www.olooneys.com

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

QUICK BITE Skinny J’s almost literally has something for everyone with its mind-blowingly large menu – 17 appetizers and 15 burger choices, for example – but the good news is this is the same menu that has been a hit in Jonesboro and Paragould, and the kitchen seems to have everything down pat.

ZAZA Here’s where you get wood-fired pizza with gorgeous blistered crusts and a light topping of choice and tempting ingredients, great gelato in a multitude of flavors, call-yourown ingredient salads and other treats. 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer and wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-661-9292. LD daily. 1050 Ellis Ave. Conway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-336-9292. LD daily.

OTHER INFO Full bar, credit cards accepted.

AFFORDABLE SMALL GROUP PERSONAL TRAINING

BARBECUE

CHATZ CAFE ‘Cue and catfish joint that does heavy catering business. Try the slow-smoked, meaty ribs. 8801 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-4949. LD Mon.-Sat.

Skinny J’s

HOURS 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Easy access to I-630 Free parking • Private showers 24/7 member access

DINING CAPSULES

GEORGIA’S GYROS Good gyros, Greek salads and fragrant grilled pita bread highlight a large Mediterranean food selection, plus burgers and the like. 2933 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-5090. LD Mon.-Sat.

314 Main St. North Little Rock 916-2645 skinnyjs.com

Whether you seek to lose weight, tone and firm, train for an event or achieve some other fitness goal, our fitness professionals can help you get better results in less time.

ITALIAN

LATINO

TACOS GUANAJUATO Pork, beef, adobado, chicharron and cabeza tacos and tortas at this mobile truck. 6920 Geyer Springs Road. No alcohol, No CC. $. LD Wed.-Mon. TAQUERIA EL PALENQUE Solid authentic Mexican food. Try the al pastor burrito. 9501 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-3120045. Serving BLD Tue.-Sun. www.arktimes.com

AUGUST 27, 2015

SEPTEMBER EDITION

TWENTY YEARS OLD AND STILL AN INCORRIGIBLE START UP

wenty years in business hasn’t changed Aristotle’s attitude much. The Little Rock-based Internet, technology and marketing company still has what CEO Marla Johnson calls a “startup mentality” that foster’s a corporate culture always in search of the next viable technology and Internet solution. “We’ve always been a learning culture, jumping in and figuring it out,” Johnson said. “We’re very attentive to our clients and customers who come to us with new problems and challenges. We’re constantly studying the latest trends in the field and thinking of new ways to solve those problems.” Johnson said that with the constant, rapid changes in technology, it’s vital to assemble the right team. “It’s important to have people who are flexible, intellectually engaged and curious – forward thinking,” she said. “We have the best team ever in place.” ARISTOTLE LABS “THE INTERNET OF THINGS” The Aristotle Labs division is dedicated to making sci-fi dreams a reality. One of its newest projects involves app development for beacon technology - a product of the “Internet of Things.” “Beacons are small Bluetooth devices that can take physical objects and turn them into smart devices,” said Matt Shull, Aristotle Labs’ research and development specialist. Beacons can be placed on any regular object – such as a lamp or a vending machine – indoors and out - and connect that object to the Internet via a unique transmitted web address. A consumer can use an app to access that web address through a mobile device and get detailed information about the object, make a purchase, or download special offers. 68 68

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“Beacon technology is currently used for things such as smart scales, but these items each require a specific app, so Aristotle is developing a universal app that can access all beacon signals.” Shull said. “The opportunities for beacons span every industry--from retail and museums to health care facilities, universities and tourist attractions,” he added. ARISTOTLE VOIP FOR BUSINESS Having managed the creation and evolution of Aristotle’s hosting, connectivity and email services, Aristotle cofounder and CIO Carl Shivers is now directing the launch of Aristotle’s Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone solutions for businesses. “VoIP phones use the Internet instead of landlines to connect eliminating the need for expensive hardware and maintenance costs that traditional phone systems require,’ Shivers said. “With Aristotle VoIP, business staff can answer and make office calls and access their voicemail from anywhere using their cellphones, tablets or computers,” he added. Shivers has the distinction of being the first Aristotle employee back in 1995. He first came into contact with the Internet in 1993 as a grants administrator at the Arkansas Department of Health, where he participated in a pilot program that tested an online grants management process. “I recognized the potential of the new technology and wanted to get in on the ground floor,” Shivers said. ARISTOTLE FILMS – BRING IN THE DRONE Mixing technology with creativity, the Aristotle Films division produces videos for websites, online campaigns and YouTube, as well as television commercials for clients nationally and internationally.

Jason Shivers, director of Aristotle Films, was a freelance photographer and videographer for Aristotle before he was hired full-time back in 2003, when online videos were growing in popularity. YouTube was founded two years later, and the rest is history. Today, Aristotle uses cutting edge technology to produce videos using drone technology to shoot video in such USA locations as San Jose, California, Shivers recently took a drone to shoot footage for a Tanzanian tourism company. “Using the drone on location in Africa, we were empowered to capture stunning imagery such as a pride of lions, migrating wildebeest and a 275 foot waterfall from a safe distance,” Shivers said. “BIOMORPHIC” DESIGN THE NEED FOR SPEED In the dial-up days, Christopher Stashuk, Aristotle cofounder and Director of Digital Art, won awards for his compression techniques that helped images download faster over a phone line. Today, Aristotle is still on the leading edge of biomorphic or responsive design–creating websites that adapt to desktop, tablet and mobile screen sizes automatically. “The challenge of responsive design is providing the user an optimal web experience across all devices.

This requires an understanding of what information people want from a site based on the device used. A person on a desktop looking at a tourism site is probably planning their vacation, while a person looking at the site on a phone is probably already there,” Stashuk said. People also want form with their function and crave an interesting visual experience that loads quickly on their devices explained Adrian James, Senior Designer. “The latest data shows that the average mobile user only waits three seconds for a page to load before leaving a site” James said. To meet the challenge of the impatient user, the design team at Aristotle is experimenting with new lossless image compression for faster page loads and website images that can be coded into the page itself, instead of being added as a separate file.

Stashuk. As a Google partner with a dedicated Google team, Aristotle gets direct assistance in setting up new campaigns as well as optimizing and expanding current campaigns for maximum results.

ARISTOTLE WISP AFFORDABLE BROADBAND Aristotle is about more than just finding the Next Big Thing – part of its core mission is to provide affordable Internet access to people in underserved areas, both in Arkansas and abroad in places such as Africa. Aristotle offered one of the most affordable dial-up Internet plans back in the day. Many customers still remember its rate of 50 cents an hour, which at the average usage of 14 hours would have cost a customer a mere $7 when many other companies were charging $20 a month or more. “Our heart has always been to bring affordable Internet access to people who ONLINE MARKETING – A GOOGLE wouldn’t have it otherwise,” Elizabeth Bowles, “SILVER AWARD” PARTNER President and Chair of the Board said. This Who visits a website and why? How do some philosophy extends to the company’s fixed sites get to the top of the Google search results wireless broadband service. heap? Aristotle’s Online Media and Marketing Today, Aristotle is a Wireless Internet team are some of the best in the business Service Provider (WISP) delivering fixed wireat search engine marketing and analytics. less broadband connectivity to underserved Aristotle utilizes sophisticated, proprietary areas in Central Arkansas. The company is software to optimize clients’ websites and to looking to expand in East Arkansas toward deliver the content people want and need. the Delta and is also in the process of bringing its service to parts of Africa. — W.D. Bowles, Founder, Aristotle, Inc. Bowles said that roughly three million people currently use fixed wireless broadband. They can also tell a client how they stack up “It’s a small industry, but it’s critical for those against competitors’ websites. three million people,” she said. “Aristotle has the ability to monitor the specific questions people are typing into search THE MISSION engines or asking into their phones,” said EMPOWERING OTHERS writer and SEO specialist, Harrison Maddox. Aristotle’s contributions to the community “With this information, Aristotle can advise also include supporting the arts and nonclients on how to create multimedia content profit organizations through donations that answers those questions.” and by providing pro-bono and creative Sarah Stashuk, Director of SEO and Online services, such as designing special ghost Media said Aristotle takes a holistic approach effects for The Rep’s upcoming production to online marketing, designing campaigns of “Macbeth.” with the client’s goals in mind instead of “One of our core values is that we believe evaluating success based on website clicks. in the power of synergy and collaboration.” “It’s a strategy that’s helped Aristotle win Said CEO Marla Johnson. “Our goal has top awards from Google’s Partner program, always been to empower and enable people, which recognizes agencies that use online whether it’s a client or a community.” marketing best practices successfully” said

PUTTING A FACE TO A QUOTE

JUMP IN MARLA JOHNSON Founder/CEO

THE INTERNET OF THINGS MATT SHULL Labs Development Lead

AFRICA BY DRONE JASON SHIVERS Director, Aristotle Films

WHY VOIP CARL SHIVERS Founder/CIO

BIOMORPHIC DESIGN CHRISTOPHER STASHUK Founder/ Director Digital Art

THE NEED FOR SPEED ADRIAN JAMES Senior Designer / Labs

DATA DRIVEN SEO HARRISON MADDOX SEO Specialist / Lead Writer

A GOOGLE PARTNER SARAH STASHUK Director, SEO & Online Marketing

“The only absolute is change.”

THE MIGHTY WISP WAY ELIZABETH BOWLES President, Aristotle, Inc.

Aristotle.net

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DUMAS, CONT. Presents

albeit over Beebe’s objections, to lower the taxes of corporations and the wellto-do. Hutchinson began his term with unusual grace, proclaiming that the benefits of the Medicaid expansion “are facts that we cannot deny, should not deny, and should rejoice in.” Let me just keep it for a year, he urged his Republican skeptics, while I will find an even better, more Republican and cheaper way to give all those people medical care. It is proving to be a harder task, at least politically, than he imagined. First, to appease the Medicaid expansion’s angriest critics, he ordered the Medicaid staff to send cut-off notices that would stop insuring tens of thousands of poor people who didn’t quickly furnish the state fresh evidence of their incomes, creating a new nightmare for the already overwhelmed bureaucracy. Then, last week, the wizards at the renowned corporate consulting firm that Republican legislators hired for a million dollars to explain the inefficiency and

exorbitance of the Arkansas Medicaid expansion produced an analysis that showed just the opposite. At least well into the next decade, the Medicaid expansion will be a bonanza for the state budget, not a drag on it, they said. The additional income for the state treasury will far more than offset the expense to the state starting in 2017, when the state begins to pick up a small share of the cost of insuring those 260,000 people. Ignoring the consultants’ report, Hutchinson told the lawmakers the ideas that he is exploring to change the program enough that Republicans could call it theirs and not Obama’s. A few are undoable because they violate the law, like refusing to subsidize medical care for people who are out of work. Others, like imposing adjustable premiums on the least desperately poor or pushing low-income workers onto employer health-insurance rolls, just add more bureaucratic red tape, which already is the Affordable Care Act’s biggest problem. But he’s trying, he’s trying.

HUTCHINSON’S INSURANCE TWEAKS, CONT. said ending this benefit would lead to “worse health outcomes, increased hospitalization, and more preventable deaths for a state’s sickest individuals.” 5. Cost savings for Medicaid. Trying to make the Medicaid program more costeffective is a good thing — and in fact the state’s Payment Improvement Initiative, implemented during Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration, already appears to be showing promising returns on controlling Medicaid costs. More troubling is Hutchinson’s suggestion to reduce Arkansas’s already low Medicaid reimbursement rate, which could further reduce access to doctors and care for beneficiaries. Hutchinson told the task force that it would be necessary to cut costs in the next few years, as the state begins to pick up a portion of the tab for the Medicaid expansion (the feds cover the entire cost at the moment). However, that runs counter to a recent finding by a consultant hired by the legislature, which concluded that the private option will continue to be a net positive for the state budget because of increased tax revenues created by the flow of federal dollars into the state. 6. Create a two-tiered system of private plans and traditional Medicaid. Hutchinson proposed a strange hybrid system in which the state would divide beneficiaries into two groups. Those whose incomes are a bit higher would 70

AUGUST 27, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

be sent to private plans, while those at the very bottom of the income ladder would go to traditional Medicaid. This would save money, the governor suggested. That’s true only if the traditional Medicaid program is in fact significantly cheaper than covering beneficiaries via private plans. But if one thinks the Medicaid program would be a more cost-effective way to provide coverage why not just switch the state to traditional Medicaid expansion? Why have the private option at all? 7. Strengthen program integrity. The state should make sure that people in the program are actually eligible for the private option, of course. But as the recent eligibility verification mess has shown, it is a challenge to do that while protecting eligible beneficiaries and avoiding an excessive administrative burden. Neither Hutchinson nor DHS has offered any evidence of why the private option rolls should decrease by 30,000 individuals, as Hutchinson predicted last week. John Selig, DHS director, has admitted that many of those whose coverage has already been terminated are in fact eligible. Right now, rather than trying to make the verification system more aggressive, Hutchinson should prioritize putting safeguards in place, developing a better outreach program, and reinstating eligible beneficiaries who’ve lost their insurance.

HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

“A Dramatic Expression of the AfricanAmerican Experience of the 1960s”

Directed by Jamie Scott Blakey & Margaret Parker August 21, 22, 28, 29, September 4, 5, 2015

Aug 21,Fridays 22, 28, 29, Sept 4, 5, 2015 & Saturdays 7:30 pm Fri & Sat 7:30pm 1001 W. 7th St., LR, AR 72201 On the corner of 7th and Chester, across from Vino's. $16 Adults; $12 Students & Seniors For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org

DIRECTED BY JAMIE SCOTT BLAKEY & MARGARET PARKER

“Two Trains Running” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Intl NGO headquartered in Little Rock is seeking qualified HR professional to lead recruitment, onboarding, comp & benefits admin. Bachelor’s degree + 2 yrs exp req. Bilingual (English/ Spanish) encouraged.

For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org

Apply at

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/ CAREERS. 1001 W. 7th St., LR, AR 72201 On the corner of 7th and Chester, across from Vino’s.

Support for TWT is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the DAH, and the NEA.

Heifer International is AA/EOE.

Arkansas Times has a position open in Advertising Sales. If you have sales experience and enjoy a fast-paced work environment, then we would like to talk to you. Arkansas Times is published weekly and our arktimes.com website is one of the largest, most successful news websites in the state. You will be selling both print and digital advertising. The Arkansas Times is a fearless, editorially driven publication that stands up for tolerance, treating people equally and advocating policies that further the education, health and cultural advancement of the people of Arkansas. We have the best music, arts and cultural coverage in the state as well as aggressive news reporting. This means readers are engaged with the Times and our advertisers get results. In addition you will be selling a number of annual and quarterly magazines including Arkansas Food and Farm, the Central Arkansas Visitors Guide, Heights, Hillcrest & Riverdale, Welcome Home, Arkansas Made and Block, Street & Building. This is a high-income potential sales position for a hard working sales executive. We have fun, but we work hard. Add to that, the satisfaction you get knowing that you are making something possible that is important in the cultural and political life of Arkansas. PLEASE SEND YOUR RESUME TO PHYLLIS BRITTON, PHYLLIS@ARKTIMES.COM.

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ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE Whole Foods Market in Little Rock is in search of experienced Cooks! Full-time Cook positions available. Min. $11.60/hr + Benefits Email molly.walsh@wholefoods.com for more info!

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The Special Publications division of The Arkansas Times has a position open in Advertising Sales. If you have sales experience and enjoy the exciting and crazy world of advertising then we’d like to talk to you. We publish 4 publications: Savvy, AR Wild, Food & Farm and Shelter as well as corresponding websites and social media. What does all this translate to? A high-income potential for a hard working advertising executive. We have fun, but we work hard. Fast paced and self-motivated individuals are encouraged to apply. If you have a dynamic energetic personality, we’d like to talk to you. PLEASE SEND YOUR RESUME AND COVER LETTER TO ELIZABETH AT: ELIZABETH@ARKTIMES.COM EOE.

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AUGUST 27, 2015

NOV NEW EM DAT BER E 14

ANNOUNCING THE 2015 ARKANSAS TIMES WHOLE HOG ROAST benefiting

WHOLE HOG

Argenta Arts District

SATURDAY, NOV. 14 Argenta Farmers Market Events Grounds 5 until 9 PM

benefiting

Argenta Arts District

WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING:

AMATEUR TEAMS are considered individuals or businesses not connected to any particular restaurant, food truck or catering companies. Amateur teams will be preparing at least 30 pounds of pork butt. Amateur teams wanting to enter our People’s Choice “No Butts About It” will need to provide 30 pounds of options such as chicken wings, thighs, ribs, goat, stuffed jalapenos, anything besides pork butt - be creative. This is a separate award for amateurs only. Edwards Food Giant is offering 20% discount on meat purchases. Entry fee: $150

Arkansas Times and the Argenta Arts District are now accepting both AMATEUR and PROFESSIONAL TEAMS to compete in our 3rd annual Whole Hog Roast

BEER & WINE GARDEN Gated festival area selling beer & wine ($5 each)

PROFESSIONAL TEAMS are considered restaurants, catering companies and food trucks. Professional teams will be preparing a whole hog from Ben E. Keith Company Entry fee: $500 and includes the whole hog, pick up by Nov. 11 Each team must provide two sides serving at least 50 people each.

CURRENT ROAST COMPETITORS AMATEUR TEAM: L.A. Smokers (Levy Area Smokers)

• Ticket holders will cast all the votes via “Tokens” • Three tokens will be provided to all ticket holders, additional tokens are available for sale • Three Winners will be chosen: PEOPLE’s CHOICE FOR Best professional Team, • Best Amateur Team and THE Best Amateur “Anything but Butt” Team.

ARKANSAS ALE HOUSE · COUNTRY CLUB OF ARKANSAS · MIDTOWN BILLIARDS SO RESTAURANT-BAR · CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER Deadline to enter: September 25

To enter, contact Drue Patton dpatton@argentadc.org or Phyllis Britton phyllis@arktimes.com 72

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