Arkansas Times | March 2024

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

SANDERS

AND CO. PLAY POLITICAL GAMES WITH OVERCROWDED PRISONS

BY MATT CAMPBELL

With properties around the state, you’re never too far from a comfortable night’s stay. At Beechwood Pinnacle Hotels, our welcoming rooms and suites are the perfect place to rest after experiencing everything the area has to offer.

FEATURE

28 PRISON GAMES

The governor’s games of political chess have not gone as planned.

By Matt Campbell

DIY DAREDEVILS: Under a bridge near Kanis Skate Park (Page 56), an unlikely collaboration between skateboarders and city government.

MARCH 2024

9 THE FRONT

From the Vault: A reflection from Editor Emeritus Max Brantley marks the Arkansas Times’ golden anniversary.

Q&A: With Allison Grigsby Sweatman.

Big Pic: The total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, by the numbers.

17 THE TO-DO LIST

The Arkansas Cherry Blossom Festival, Doug Hyde and Frank Buffalo Hyde at Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Robinson Center, Kurt Vile at The Hall, Stevie Nicks at Simmons Bank Arena, a special eclipse edition of The To-Do List and more.

24 NEWS

Arkansas students get voluntold to put in community service hours if they want a diploma.

By Jeannie Roberts

48 SAVVY KIDS

Advice for young people from Little Rock’s women leaders.

By Tricia Larson and Stephanie Smittle

52 CULTURE

A sneak peek at Kasten Searles’ new graphic memoir about the March 31, 2023, tornado. By Stephanie Smittle

56 CULTURE

An oral history of Kanis Skate Park.

By Correne Spero

65 FOOD & DRINK

The new Filipino bakery in North Little Rock is an ube-centric delight.

By Rhett Brinkley

70 CANNABIZ

David Couch and Melissa Fults on the amendment to expand the state’s medical marijuana program.

By Griffin Coop

74 THE OBSERVER

Cornado! The tornado’s unlikely aftermath.

ON THE COVER: Illustration by Kasten Searles.

BRIAN CHILSON

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PotlatchDeltic

PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Austin Bailey

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephanie Smittle

MANAGING EDITOR Benjamin Hardy

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rhett Brinkley

CANNABIZ EDITOR Griffin Coop

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Daniel Grear

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Matt Campbell REPORTERS

Mary Hennigan, Debra Hale-Shelton and Jeannie Roberts

EDITOR EMERITUS Max Brantley

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt

PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER Madeline Chosich

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Wythe Walker

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sarah Holderfield

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING/

SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHER Brooke Wallace

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Terrell Jacob, Kaitlyn Looney and Evan Ethridge

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER

Roland R. Gladden

SPECIAL SECTION MANAGING EDITOR Becca Bona

DIRECTOR OF CANNABIS SALES AND MARKETING Lee Major

IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jackson Gladden

CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson

BILLING/COLLECTIONS Charlotte Key

CHAIR MAN Lindsey Millar

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

association

VOLUME 50, ISSUE 7

subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

©2024 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

WATCH MARCH 28 AT 7 P.M.

As anticipation builds for the rare total solar eclipse gracing Arkansas on April 8, immerse yourself in “Once in a Lifetime: The Total Eclipse Over Arkansas”, the 30-minute documentary that uncovers local stories and unravels the science behind this monumental celestial event not seen here in more than 100 years.

Watch live on Arkansas PBS , on the PBS App or on demand at myarpbs.org/ondemand

ONCE IN A LIFETIME

LIVE Eclipse Event Across Arkansas LEARN

JOIN US LIVE APRIL 8 AT 1 P.M.

Experience the eclipse journey live like nowhere else as we come to you LIVE from four strategic locations along the eclipse path. From DeQueen and Petit Jean Mountain to downtown Russellville and Jonesboro, we’ll showcase community members from each location, coupled with insights from esteemed national and local physics and astronomy experts.

Watch live at myarpbs.org/eclipselive

Educational materials to support families and classroom educators will be available by March 28 at myarkansaspbs.org/ArkansasIDEAS .

myarpbs.org

MAX OUT

THE EDITOR EMERITUS ON HIS FIRST ASSIGNMENT AND HIS FAVORITE STORIES.

BY MAX BRANTLEY

Imet Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leveritt in 1973 when he was a weekend obit desk relief man at the Arkansas Gazette and I was in my first year as a reporter at the Gazette. We talked in the slow hours about his dream of starting a monthly magazine.

When his dream became reality, I wrote an article for Volume 1, Issue 2 under a pseudonym [J. Wakeman Trimper]. Gazette employees were prohibited from working for “competitors.” Alan was fired as a part-time employee (on what we called “the crap desk”) for starting his new publication.

I wrote about sampling every barbecue joint in the Little Rock phone book. I took the photos, too. Alan laid it out (and jumbled the pages). I don’t think I was paid the full $35 I was promised ($25 for words, $10 for photos).

But I was a subscriber and admirer. When the mighty Gazette closed in the fall of 1991 and the Times decided to convert to weekly publication to fill the void left by the silencing of a resolutely progressive editorial voice, Alan, his then-wife Mara Leveritt and thenpublisher Olivia Farrell persuaded me to join the Times as editor of the new weekly in May 1992. I accepted after Alan matched a slightly higher pay offer from the now-defunct Spectrum Weekly.

I remained editor until 2011, then continued as primary writer of the Arkansas Blog, begun in 2004. I retired Feb. 1, 2023, after 50 years as a working newsman in Arkansas. Those years included more than eight years of doing a daily live Facebook news roundup and, for several years, a weekly podcast.

Lots of memories are associated with my 31-plus years at the Times. Our

TWICE MONTHLY, 25 CENTS: The Sept. 19, 1974, issue of the Arkansas Times featured a dive into the local theater scene, a list of Little Rock’s best happy hours, an astrology column and a story titled “Plea Bargaining in Pulaski County.”

ORIGINS: At left, a roundup of the best plate lunches, barbecue and more in Vol. 1, Issue 2 of the Arkansas Times. Below, Max Brantley at the Gazette city desk, circa 1973.

CLINTON’S PRESIDENCY AND THE WHITEWATER INVESTIGATION, WITH THE RELATED UPHEAVAL IN STATE GOVERNMENT, WERE JOURNALISM GOLD.

reporting contributed to the demise of the careers of corrupt state legislators. I received death threats for linking to the publicly available list of concealed weapon permit holders. Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign was the subject of our first weekly cover story. His presidency and the Whitewater investigation, with the related upheaval in state government, were journalism gold and brought the Times occasional national media attention. We were not admirers of Special “Persecutor” Kenneth Starr, unlike some of his acolytes at national news organizations. That gave us some scoops large and small. (Among the small: my FOI request, fulfilled by his minion and now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that revealed the lavish expenses [including for dog food] Starr was paying for his star witness, the corrupt former Municipal Judge David Hale. (Years later, I had a chance encounter with Starr. I wish you could have seen his face when he boarded an elevator in a San Francisco hotel to find the only occupant of the car was me. I was pleased to be remembered.)

During my time as editor, the brilliance of contributors like George Fisher, Ernest Dumas, Robert McCord, Mara Leveritt, Bob Lancaster, Leslie Newell Peacock, David Koon and Lindsey Millar (to name a few) continued the Times’ historic ability to attract talent far richer than its bankroll.

For singular brilliance, I always point to Bob Lancaster’s coverage of the conviction of the West Memphis Three in the deaths of three children. His prescient analysis of the flawed prosecution case would be borne

out in time by the defendants’ exoneration and release from prison (in one case, from death row).

In the past-is-prologue category, my favorite story has to be Leslie Peacock’s epic recitation of Gov. Mike Huckabee’s use of public money to pay his personal expenses at the Governor’s Mansion. It was the first of many Huckabee grifts, and our coverage of them and other political shenanigans did not endear the Times to the Huckster. He ultimately cut off press services to the Arkansas Times, an approach his daughter adopted from the outset of her campaign and which she continues, to a large degree, as governor. Happily, Matt Campbell is already at work documenting a new generation of Huckabee grifting. Early results indicate that the panty hose, dry cleaning and Velveeta loaves Mike Huckabee charged to the public will be trivial stuff indeed compared with the likes of a $19,000 lectern and State Policeescorted European trips for Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ kids.

Huckabee, like Clinton, also afforded the Times some national exposure when he made his unsuccessful runs for president. We found him less genial than some in the national press corps and I’m happy to say my compendium of the darker side of our governor, compiled from Times coverage for a national publication, got quite a bit of attention. Find it at salon.com under the title “The Dark Side of Mike Huckabee.” You might read it and decide our current gubernatorial apple didn’t fall far from her pop’s tree.

Arkansas’ First Proton Center

Inspiring hope for children and adults with cancer

If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you no longer have to leave the state for proton therapy, a sought-after form of radiation treatment known for its success against solid tumors. Proton therapy is so powerful and precise that it kills your cancer with less damage to your body’s healthy tissues and organs - all so you can be “healthy you” again after the cancer is gone.

If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you no longer have to leave the state for proton therapy, a sought-after form of radiation treatment known for its success against solid tumors. Proton therapy is so powerful and precise that it kills your cancer with less damage to your body’s healthy tissues and organs - all so you can be “healthy you” again after the cancer is gone.

Scan the QR code to learn more.

Scan the QR code to learn more.

UAMS.Health/Advanced

UAMS.Health/Advanced

The Proton Center of Arkansas is a collaboration of UAMS Health, Arkansas Children’s, Baptist Health and Proton International and is one of only 43 proton centers in the U.S.

The Proton Center of Arkansas is a collaboration of UAMS Health, Arkansas Children’s, Baptist Health and Proton International and is one of only 43 proton centers in the U.S.

BLUE CAUSE, RED STATE

A Q&A WITH ALLISON GRIGSBY SWEATMAN.

Arkansas purveyors of reproductive autonomy are in the thick of their campaign to collect 90,704 signatures from across the state to get abortion rights on the November ballot. Social worker Allison Grigsby Sweatman, a volunteer organizer for the group Arkansans for Limited Government, is hustling to raise money and recruit volunteers. It’s a big job made even tougher by the state’s conservative politics. If you’re wondering how she does it, read on.

You’re a young mom of two who was certainly busy before you took on advocating for abortion rights. What gives you the drive and energy to add this cause to your list? I first got into politics by running for office in a competitive state Senate district [District 13, in 2022]. My focus was educational equity, access to mental health services and disability rights, all which are very personal to me as a social worker and parent to my kids, who both have disabilities. I didn’t intend on talking about abortion much in my campaign, but everything changed with Dobbs and our state’s trigger law.

WHAT’S THE LAST GREAT BOOK YOU READ? “Wholehearted Faith” by Rachel Held Evans

FAVORITE OUTDOORSY ADVENTURE?

I love taking the kids to the playground and walking path in our North Little Rock neighborhood. We love this spot because it’s accessible for Rosie’s wheelchair. Plus, there are always ducks for my Beau to chase.

The more I talked to voters about their concerns, the more I met folks from all over the political spectrum who share the same message for our legislators: Arkansas’s abortion ban goes too far. Even folks who identify as pro-life were open to conversations like never before, because they realized the safety of their daughters and granddaughters is being put at risk with this total abortion ban. With one Supreme Court opinion, abortion went from being a topic I avoided to one that I wanted to talk about with anyone who would listen.

WHAT’S YOUR SOUNDTRACK FOR 2024? I am incredibly basic and love Taylor Swift’s music. I was born in 1989, after all.

feel strongly about. But it’s also an issue with nuance, and the policy that addresses the issues is specific to each state.

If you could change one thing about Arkansas, what would it be? Mosquitos in the summer, frozen power lines in the winter. (I’m only half-kidding.) On a more serious note, I would change the vitriol and divisiveness that happens in political spaces. I firmly believe that it is possible to disagree with someone’s politics vehemently and still keep their humanity in full view while engaging respectfully. It’s also true that for some people, like Arkansans of color and LGBTQ+ folks, engagement with folks who “disagree” with them is actually unsafe. I say that because I don’t think it’s anyone’s job to educate people into not hating them for being who they are, ever.

What’s the trick to advocating so passionately for progressive political causes and still getting along with conservative friends and family members? When you find the magic trick, please send me the memo. In the meantime, I think we have to look at each person’s needs differently in this regard. I have some loved ones with whom there is an unspoken understanding that we don’t talk about certain issues. With others, we table certain discussions for when we feel ready to engage respectfully. And, unfortunately, there are loved ones with whom my relationship will never be the same because learning my political stance was deeply uncomfortable for them. I have worked really hard to remind myself that decision is about them, not me, and to love them from afar.

What should people know about your efforts that they don’t know yet? The Arkansans showing up to help with our efforts come from across the political spectrum. This is not a blue or red issue, it’s a health care issue. Arkansas women and girls deserve to have the care they need without interference from the government.

We’re also overwhelmed by the support of health care providers who are currently terrified to practice basic health care in this state. We are already in dire straits from a health care perspective; this amendment is critical to moving Arkansans from one of the unhealthiest states in the nation to one where families can thrive.

What lessons are you taking from similar efforts in other states? One big lesson is that every state is different. The Arkansas Abortion Amendment is not a copy-and-paste ballot initiative. In fact, our language was crafted by Arkansans alone. This is an issue that Americans, including Arkansans, already

Advocating for blue causes in a red state can be demoralizing. How do you avoid burnout? This is the focus of my work as a social worker right now. I’m paying close attention this cycle and trying to share strategies to protect our efforts from burnout. My experience shows me that the rate of burnout and turnover in political work is incredibly high, and it’s concerning for several reasons. First of all, I care deeply about the people I’m doing this work with. I want them to be well because they deserve that as much as anyone else. It’s also true that our outcomes suffer when burnout becomes a cultural norm. Think about what would be possible if the people doing political advocacy and organizing had the space to meet their emotional, physical and spiritual needs. They would stay in the fight longer. Their passion for the work would influence others to join. Our ongoing efforts would become more sustainable. I have thoughts about how we could accomplish this, but that’s probably an answer for another day.

Austin Bailey

2/3 OF ARKANSAS

IN THE PATH OF TOTALITY

1:46 P.M.1:56 P.M.

Estimated time total solar eclipse can be seen in Arkansas

AVERAGE TEMPERATURE DROP DURING A SOLAR ECLIPSE: 10˚F

Next total solar eclipse in Arkansas: AUGUST 2045

100,000 TIMES DARKER THAN REGULAR SUNGLASSES

NATIONAL PARKS IN THE PATH OF TOTALITY:

STATES IN THE PATH OF TOTALITY:

13

4 MINUTES, 28 SECONDS

Maximum duration of totality expected in Arkansas

EXPECTED NUMBER OF TOURISTS:

3 MILLION

BY DANIEL GREAR AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

THE DREADED LARAMIE, TWO RUNNER, KIN & COMPANY

THURSDAY 3/14. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M. $12.

To say nothing of their acrobatic guitar work and ear-wormy songwriting, Nashville power pop quartet The Dreaded Laramie puts on the kind of live show that’s impossible not to be won over by. Though their performances are carefully choreographed, they imbue every moment with a full-bodied exuberance that feels nothing less than spontaneous. Anchoring the project is singer/guitarist MC Cunningham, whose impressive vocal range stretches from angst-laden to sugary sweet, often in the span of a single phrase. Also on the bill are Two Runner, a fiddle-heavy folk duo from North California, and Kin & Company, a Northwest Arkansas-based indie rock outfit led by singer-songwriter Jonah Thornton. Get tickets at whitewatertavern.com. DG

LEXI ADAMS

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS

SATURDAY 3/23. THE HALL. 8 P.M. $32-$50.

Right around the time “Waking on a Pretty Daze” — Kurt Vile’s fifth record — came out in 2013, I was a college kid discovering weed for the first time. Fortuitous, one might say. If the title doesn’t already give it away, the album is — like all of Vile’s indie rock discography — supremely mellow. As is the case with the best stoner music, though, Vile’s songs are as peculiar and thoughtprovoking as they are chill and spacious, rooted by a craggy voice full of nooks and crannies. When, on “Too Hard,” he alternates between jokingly quoting the Boy Scout oath (“I will promise to do my very best / To do my duty for God and my country”) and solemnly embracing fatherhood (“There comes a time in every man’s life / When he’s gotta take hold of the hand / That ain’t his but it is), Vile proves that irony and sincerity are comfortable bedfellows. Get tickets at littlerockhall.com. DG

STEVIE NICKS

WEDNESDAY 3/6. SIMMONS BANK ARENA. 7 P.M. $99.50-$1,000.

If there’s anyone who singlehandedly forged the reclassification of witchy wardrobe vibes from “double double toil and trouble” to a sexy, flowy “W.I.T.C.H. is short for ‘woman in total control of herself’” vibe, it might be Stevie Nicks. But wardrobe is a mere sliver of Nicks’ enduring splendor; the acclaimed singersongwriter upended expectations in a pre-punk era of what the “pretty girl” in the band should sound like, imbuing grit and pathos and swagger into vocal lines like “Oh, mirror in the sky / What is love?” — lyrics in jeopardy of being rendered saccharine, maybe, in a more honeyed vocalist’s hands. Rock ‘n’ roll, after all, was never just for men, and Nicks’ career plants a defiant flag in that soil as testimony. Oh, and remember Vanessa Carlton, who had the radio hit “A Thousand Miles” in 2002? Turns out, she and Nicks are fast friends (Nicks officiated Carlton’s wedding!), and Carlton opens this show. Get tickets at simmonsbankarena.com. SS

JO MCCAUGHEY

BRIAN CHILSON

ARKANSAS CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

SUNDAY 3/3. HOT SPRINGS CONVENTION CENTER. 12:30 P.M. FREE.

In northern Japan, there’s a small town called Hanamaki with a strong tourist economy, powered by its bathhouse resorts. The source of the warm water? Geothermal activity, not unlike the kind you’ll find in Hot Springs, Hanamaki’s official sister city. One product of that partnership is the annual Arkansas Cherry Blossom Festival, now in its seventh year. In addition to musical performances, traditional carnival games, an anime cosplay contest and a haiku competition, this year’s festival boasts workshops and lectures about tea, sake, furoshiki gift wrapping, manga, the yukata summertime kimono and the Buddhist symbolism behind cherry blossoms. Perhaps the most provocative activity offered, however, is a sumo wrestling exhibition (Arkansas’s first!) featuring professional fighters like Hiroki Sumi, who weighs 570 pounds and starred in “John Wick: Chapter 4.” While the general festival is free, admission to the wrestling exhibition is $30-$50. Occurring the same weekend is the American Craft Sake Festival, which will host a $45 tasting at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with more than 30 styles of sakes from breweries across the country. Get tickets at hotspringssistercity.org. DG

FUST

MONDAY 3/18. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M. $12.

In another life, Fust (pictured left) frontman Aaron Dowdy could have been a country singer. I don’t know what possessed him to make downtempo introspective folk rock instead, but I’m grateful all the same. If I had to guess, it’s Dowdy’s less than direct lyrical tendencies that pushed him to slow things down and trade twangy hollers for a dampened vocal delivery. Even on more straightforward songs, like the title track from 2023’s “Genevieve,” there’s a knotty poeticism. “But did you know me, Genevieve? / When rarely did I speak / For fear that you might think / Me damaged in my need / To think you family,” he sings, dissecting the strange, counterintuitive ways that love makes us behave. Sleepy Zuhoski is set to open. Get tickets at whitewatertavern.com. DG

WHEATUS

FRIDAY 3/22. STICKYZ ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK. 8:30 P.M. $20.

Of all the one-hit wonders out there, Wheatus is special. For starters, it doesn’t seem like frontman Brendan Brown has a chip on his shoulder about “Teenage Dirtbag,” the outcast anthem he released 24 years ago. In 2021, Vice put out a surprisingly moving documentary short about the making and legacy of the song, and it’s clear that Brown still loves it deeply and unironically. It’s his magnum opus, and he’s OK with that. Another reason Wheatus is so noteworthy is that their one and only monster hit keeps bubbling to the surface of cultural awareness, and not just on karaoke night. Whether it’s being reinterpreted by One Direction, Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzy McAlpine, or accompanying embarrassing pictures of our distant teenage selves on TikTok, “Teenage Dirtbag” has never fully slipped into obscurity. Do your part in keeping it relevant and come out to Stickyz, where Brown will be playing solo. Get tickets at stickyz.com. DG

CHARLIE BOSS

JIMBO MATHUS

SATURDAY 3/30-SUNDAY 3/31. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M.

SAT.; 2 P.M. SUNDAY. $10 SAT.; FREE SUN.

When we interviewed Jimbo Mathus in 2019, he reflected on the sharp turn toward the personal in his album “Incinerator,” wondering whether he “was just looking to see, like, who’s with me? Who’s really with me?” And it’s a fair question, given the sweeping territory his catalog has trod. The self-described “Arkansas son-in-law” is maybe best known as the founder and frontman of New Orleans swing/jazz outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers, but his music wanders through gospel traditions and Delta blues and punk rock and bluegrass, always seeing the big stuff — death, birth, work, fishing — with a mystic’s eye. He’s an enthralling live performer, and this two-show stand at the White Water Tavern — to be recorded for a live album from Single Lock Records — is bound to straddle Saturday and the Sabbath aptly, with doses of both the sacred and the profane. Get tickets at whitewatertavern.com. SS

‘JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR’

FRIDAY 3/1-SUNDAY 3/3. ROBINSON CENTER. $34-$84.

Before Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” — a rock opera about the last week of Jesus’ life — was first performed, it was released in 1970 as a concept album. That’s how good the tunes are. A sungthrough musical with no spoken dialogue, the songs had to sustain not only the climactic moments, but also the entire narrative thread, which pays particular attention to Judas, Jesus’ notoriously disloyal follower. The album was so popular that it quickly found its way onto the stage just a year later, often in an unauthorized fashion. Now on its 50th anniversary tour, “Jesus Christ Superstar” has four showings at Robinson Center — 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. Sunday. Get tickets at ticketmaster.com. DG

ARTIST TALK: DOUG HYDE AND FRANK BUFFALO HYDE

WEDNESDAY 3/6. ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. 6 P.M. FREE.

When you think of Native American art, what first comes to mind? I’m guessing it’s something traditional, plucked from the faraway past and put on display behind glass among other functional artifacts. “Action/ Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s to 1970s,” the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts’ newest exhibition, serves as a corrective to those stereotypes by uplifting 20th century Native American artists who belong to movements like abstract expressionism, color field and hard-edge painting. Culled from the Institute of American Indian Arts’ collection, the exhibition includes work by George Morrison, Fritz Scholder and T.C. Cannon. To supplement “Action/Abstraction Redefined,” which runs through May 26, AMFA has invited father and son artists Doug Hyde and Frank Buffalo Hyde to speak alongside Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, one of the exhibition’s curators. Get tickets at arkmfa.org. DG

JOHN DRIVER

THE TO-DO LIST: ECLIPSE EDITION

ECLIPTIC FESTIVAL

FRIDAY 4/5-MONDAY 4/8, CEDAR GLADES PARK, HOT SPRINGS. STARTING AT $385.

In place of the 20th annual Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival, Hot Springs nonprofit Low Key Arts is partnering with Atlas Obscura for Ecliptic, a four-day camping-friendly eclipse celebration. Expect performances by artists like Blonde Redhead, AllahLas, Sun Ra Orkestra and Deerhoof and appearances by astronomy-savvy speakers like mythologist John Bucher, theoretical physicist Dr. Kelly Reidy and science writer Rebecca Boyle.

SOMA IN THE DARK

FRIDAY 4/5, SATURDAY 4/6 AND MONDAY 4/8. SOMA. FREE.

Following an eclipse-themed version of the monthly SoMa After Dark event on Friday (4-9 p.m.) including a 2.29 mile run/ walk, Saturday (11 a.m-9 p.m.) will see the SoMa neighborhood transformed by art installations, cosmic-themed activities, a market of local craft and food vendors and a nighttime parade featuring celestial floats. Then, on Monday, there’s a watch party from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. featuring a diorama contest, educational booths and a viewing area with telescopes.

ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: HOLST’S ‘THE PLANETS’

SATURDAY 4/6-SUNDAY 4/7. ROBINSON CENTER. 7:30 P.M. SAT. 2 P.M SUN. $35$97.

Cast your gaze beyond merely the sun and the moon with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s pre-eclipse presentation of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” a sevenmovement tour through the solar system. Also to be performed is Anna Clyne’s “Night Ferry,” a contemporary voyage that’s said to shuttle listeners through the highs and lows of manic depression.

ECLIPSE AT THE RIVER MARKET

SATURDAY 4/6-MONDAY 4/8. FIRST SECURITY AMPHITHEATER. FREE

The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau is pregaming the eclipse with

concerts by Dumas native trumpeter Rodney Block and his outstanding band on Saturday (6 p.m.) and Monticello native country singer-songwriter Ward Davis on Sunday (7 p.m.). The day of the eclipse, The Machine — one of the best and oldest Pink Floyd tribute bands — will be playing from 12:40-3 p.m.. Don’t worry; they’ll be performing “The Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety.

ECLIPSE AT UA LITTLE ROCK

MONDAY 4/8. JACK STEPHENS CENTER. 10 A.M-4 P.M. FREE.

Beginning with a lecture by motivational speaker and author Alaina Levine, eclipse festivities at UA Little Rock include guided observation sessions via telescopes and big-screen projections, an inflatable planetarium, a Foucault’s pendulum, activities for children and food trucks. Up to 30,000 pairs of solar glasses will be distributed for free.

ECLIPSE AT UCA

FRIDAY 4/5-MONDAY 4/8. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS, CONWAY. FREE.

UCA is throwing a watch party from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Estes Stadium on Monday, but the main events come earlier. From Friday through Sunday, the Department of Physics and Astronomy is offering nine opportunities to see an eclipse-themed show at their Dr. Edmond E. Griffin Planetarium. Then, on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., NASA astrophysicist and Bee Branch native Amber Straughn will speak at the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts.

ECLIPSE AT AMFA

FRIDAY 4/5, SATURDAY 4/6 AND MONDAY 4/8. ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. FREE, $15 FOR SCREENINGS.

In conjunction with “Action/Abstraction Redefined,” their new exhibition on modern Native American art, AMFA will host Erin Ferh for a talk on Friday (6 p.m.) about the intersections of Indigenous storytelling and the eclipse. The museum is also screening two eclipse-adjacent films on Sunday: “Fantasia” (12:30 p.m.) and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (3 p.m.). Their Monday viewing party takes place on the Crescent Lawn from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes a performance from Ballet Arkansas.

March

1st - Grits and Greens

2nd - Jenna and the Soul Shakers

8th - Fonkey Donkey

9th - Mojo Depot

15th - Stillhouse Junkies

16th - The Crumbs

22nd - Tina Cossey

23rd - Joe and the Feels

29th - Big Damn Horns

30th - Chris Combs Trio

LABOR OF LEARNS

A NEW STATE REQUIREMENT THAT PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS COMPLETE 75 COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS TO GRADUATE DROPS A HEAVY BURDEN ON SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES.

BY JEANNIE ROBERTS

In the last months of the 2023-24 school year, parents and public school districts are still grappling with the requirement in the LEARNS Act that students — beginning with current ninth-graders — log 75 hours of community service before they can graduate.

So far, neither the law itself nor guidance from the state Department of Education offers solutions or funding for the challenges of transporting students to and from volunteer jobs, tracking hours worked or providing staff to supervise students outside the classroom.

It’s also unclear — for now — how or if the new requirement will take into account the limitations of parents already stretched thin time-wise and financially.

When we asked ADE spokesperson Kimberly Mundell if the department offers any kind of assistance to the school districts on this matter, she referred us to two spots on the ADE website that spell out the requirements but provide no implementation guidance.

Mundell answered “Yes” when asked if there would be rules crafted to offer more guidance about the new community service requirement, but had no other information to share.

“I don’t have a date,” she said when

asked when the rules might be available.

DISTRICTS TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT

Questions sent to some Arkansas public school districts about the community service requirement produced varied responses, many of them having no plans in place.

The Russellville School District doesn’t have any hard and fast rules or procedures in place yet. District spokesperson Samantha Ballew gave few insights when asked, saying the school district is working with local businesses and organizations to ensure students have an abundance of service opportunities.

“The goal is for students to be able to serve as many hours as possible in the school environment,” Ballew said. “The district will be there to guide students as they work to meet the required hours.”

When asked if transportation would be provided for the students to get to and from volunteer opportunities, Ballew said, “If during the school day, yes.”

Rogers Public Schools have long recognized voluntary community service hours for school credit, and that program laid a good framework for meeting the new requirement, district spokesperson Jason Ivester said.

Rogers students will have options to complete volunteer hours on campus during school or off campus during their free time, he said.

“We know that we will need to continue to support our students in finding opportunities to serve and fulfill this requirement,” Ivester said. “We have started a community partners list where our community organizations have let us know that they encourage our students to serve with them to help them see some of the opportunities.”

The challenge, though, is getting the information out to students and families and “helping all students have access to fulfill this requirement, and ensuring that students log their verified hours.”

The North Little Rock School District is “encouraging students to try and get some community service completed each year,” Dustin Barnes, spokesman for the North Little Rock School District, said.

“With this current freshman class, we have encouraged them to end the year with at least 15 hours,” he said.

It’s challenging, Barnes said, to make sure students know about the new requirements and have equitable access to community service opportunities.

“If it is after school or on a weekend,

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“THIS POLICY JUST WASN’T THOUGHT THROUGH WELL ENOUGH — HOW IT WOULD IMPACT THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO HELP.”

students will be responsible for their own transportation,” Barnes said. “We will encourage students to utilize the Rock Region Metro, as this is free to our students.”

The Little Rock School District developed a plan for students to earn community service hours both in class and through independent projects. The goal is for students to complete 25 hours per year, knocking out the 75-hour requirement by their junior year.

The Little Rock district, at its own expense, will still have to find a staff member to coordinate the program, and teachers will need to keep up with community service hours in grade books.

Efforts are underway to allow districts to use the state’s transcript system Triand to record student’s community service hours. That option will not be available until the spring, according to the ADE.

Mike Hernandez, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said the powers that be made it clear that they wanted this requirement to be handled at the district level.

“Each district is doing things a little differently,” he said. “I don’t know that there will be any additional guidance coming.”

Hernandez said the best thing the districts can do is to have conversations with other districts about what is working and what is not.

A NEW BURDEN ON PARENTS, NONPROFITS

Matt Cleveland, whose son is in the ninth grade at Searcy High School, said when he asked his son if anyone at the school had mentioned the required community service, his son responded with a bewildered “No?”

“That’s pretty concerning, not only that schools are not prepared to implement the law, but that our legislators didn’t work with schools in the first place to see if this was needed or even possible,” Cleveland

said.

And most nonprofits are not ready to accommodate the influx of underaged volunteers, he added. Cleveland works for a local nonprofit in Batesville.

“I don’t see enough organizations with spelled-out volunteer opportunities to put that number of volunteers to work without a big investment first,” Cleveland said. “This policy just wasn’t thought through well enough — how it would impact the organizations that it is supposed to help.” Cleveland called the requirement “a byproduct of rushed legislation where our representatives didn’t slow down long enough to ask those who would be impacted most by this policy how it would affect them.”

Heather Rooffener, mother to a ninthgrader at Riverview School District in Searcy, said she had not heard anything about the community service requirement until recently.

“Of course everybody needs to do community service, but they need to inform us and help us make it happen,” Rooffener said. “It’s going to be very difficult for us with my work hours. Are the schools going to supply transportation? What are they going to do to help us with this?”

Other parents aren’t concerned about potential challenges.

Kelly Goocher of Russellville said schools should teach their students more than just academics. Her son is a ninth-grader at Russellville Public School District.

“Over the years it has become so much more about testing and growing the schools, in my opinion,” she said. “Learning to be a well-rounded, educated and productive member of society should definitely include teaching our kids how to work within one’s community. I think it brings a very important part of education back to the kids.”

The graduation requirement of 75 community service hours does not apply to private schools, including those that get publicly funded LEARNS vouchers.

OVERCORRECT

PRISONS AS POLITICAL PAWNS.

BY MATT CAMPBELL

Inthe early morning hours of Dec. 15, a prisoner named Anthony Mosley hanged himself with a bedsheet at the Ouachita River Unit, a state prison in Malvern.

According to Arkansas Department of Corrections policy, guards at the prison are required to conduct visual security checks on inmates every 30 minutes. That night, however, staffing shortages left three guards to do the work of five. Mosley went unobserved by staff between 12:46 a.m. and 2:13 a.m., when all three guards were handling inmates and paperwork related to incidents earlier in the evening. It was during this 90-minute window that Mosley hanged himself.

About 12 hours before Mosley died, the man in charge of the state prison system, Joe Profiri, was suspended from his job by the Arkansas Board of Corrections. Profiri was hired as corrections secretary by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in January 2023, and he soon began carrying out plans to add state prison beds as quickly as possible. But those plans hit a snag with the Board of Corrections — an independent panel that oversees the prison and parole systems — over concerns that the state’s understaffed facilities were approaching a breaking point.

Profiri and Sanders tried to ram through their changes regardless. The corrections board responded by suspending the secretary. A month later, the board fired Profiri outright, capping two months of public conflict with the governor, the attorney general and state lawmakers over who has final control over the prison system.

Behind the ongoing political drama is the looming problem of the overburdened, understaffed system. As of Jan. 1, there were 16,449 inmates in state prisons, which are built to house around 15,000 people; another 1,651 were being held in county jails, which provide “back up” prison space, for a total of 18,502.

More critical than the lack of space is the lack of personnel. According to department records, 981 positions among front-line corrections officers and corporals across the state were unfilled as of Feb. 2, representing 42% of the total.

At the Ouachita River Unit where Mosley died, nearly 46% of frontline positions are vacant. The numbers are as bad or worse at other state prisons, including Cummins (47%), Tucker (69%), Tucker Supermax (43%), McPherson (56%), Varner (48%), Wrightsville (51%), East Arkansas Regional (55%) and Mississippi County (45%).

Staff shortages mean danger for both guards and prisoners. Mosley’s was one of eight suicides among Arkansas Department of Corrections inmates in 2023, according to data provided by the ADC. A total of 48 inmates have taken their lives since the start of 2019.

So, what to do? The short-term answer from Sanders and Profiri has

OFFICE OF GOVERNOR SARAH SANDERS

PRAISING ARIZONA: Gov. Sarah Sanders and Joe Profiri meet in the governor’s office in December. Sanders hired Profiri, an Arizona prison official, as corrections secretary in January 2023.

OVERCORRECT ON

been to simply add more beds, regardless of the risks. A far-reaching bill championed by the governor and passed by the Legislature last spring will lock up more people for longer periods, and Sanders is also aiming to build a new, 3,000-bed prison in the coming years.

Never mind that Arkansas already has one of the five highest incarceration rates in the United States, imprisoning more than 550 people per 100,000 residents. The national rate is 307.

Not everyone is buying what the governor is selling.“If locking people up reduced crime, we would have the fourth lowest crime rate in America, but we don’t; we have the fifth highest crime rate,” said state Sen. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock), who voted against the bill. “We have to do something different. Building more prisons is just doing more of the same. It’s cheap from a policy perspective but very expensive from a dollars perspective and from a human cost perspective.”

Whitney Gass, a professor of criminal justice who served on the Board of Corrections until recently, cited similar concerns. “Over the long haul, locking people up for extended periods of time makes them less likely than before to conform to society’s rules,” she said, calling the desire to extend sentences “counterproductive.”

But, Gass added, there’s a more immediate issue. “We can’t employ enough staff to adequately monitor our inmate population as it is. Building a new prison is not going to solve that problem. In fact, I believe we will be hard-pressed to employ enough staff to open a new facility without a high percentage of vacancy from the start.”

THE PROTECT ACT

Shortly before he left office, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced plans to build a new 1,000-bed penitentiary and a 300bed community corrections facility. Almost immediately after the 2022 election, though, Sanders announced that she and her staff were putting those plans on hold and working on their own, bigger corrections plan.

The announcement was anything but surprising. Sanders campaigned on crime and prison, inveighing against straw men who wanted to defund the police and vowing to limit or end parole for violent and repeat offenders.

To carry out her plans, she brought in Profiri, a former prison official from Arizona, at a salary of $210,000 — almost $40,000 more than the last secretary earned.

Then, Sanders began pushing a package of changes to state law. In the 2023

“I BELIEVE WE WE WILL BE HARD-PRESSED TO EMPLOY ENOUGH STAFF TO OPEN A NEW FACILITY WITHOUT A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF VACANCY FROM THE START.”

make sense. “Eliminating parole for the most heinous crimes is appropriate,” he said. “We’re talking about the worst crimes and repeat offenders; this isn’t too harsh of an outcome. We’re talking about violent criminals, not addicts.”

But Gass, the former corrections board member, said harsher sentences can be counterproductive. “Inmates need incentive to work hard,” she said. “If it doesn’t matter what their behavior is while they are incarcerated, there’s no real reason for them to behave.”

Even before the Protect Act, offenders convicted of many serious crimes had to serve 70% of their sentence before becoming parole eligible. Will incrementally increasing the length of time inmates serve on those convictions make a difference in public safety? It’s not clear.

“Going from 70% to 100% is not that drastic of a change,” Gazaway acknowledged, “[and] a lot of those folks weren’t getting paroled as soon as they hit 70% anyway.”

legislative session, state Sen. Ben Gilmore (R-Crossett) and state Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R-Paragould) sponsored the “Protect Arkansas Act.” In 15 days, the 131-page bill sped through the Senate on a party-line vote, passed the House 82-14, and landed on Sanders’ desk. (For comparison, the governor’s notoriously rushed education bill, the 145-page LEARNS Act, went from introduction to being signed into law in 22 days.)

Similar to LEARNS’ impact on public schools, the wide-ranging Protect Act touches on nearly every aspect of corrections in the state. Most prominently, it overhauls Arkansas’s rules for parole. The new law will keep people convicted of certain crimes incarcerated for at least 85% of their sentences and remove the possibility of parole entirely for the most serious offenders. That’s in keeping with Sanders’ request to the Legislature last spring to set aside $470 million to eventually build a new prison that can house up to 3,000 inmates.

Under the Protect Act, felonies in which an offender must serve 100% of his or her sentence include capital or first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, rape, human trafficking and various crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. The list also includes offenses such as aggravated residential burglary and possession of a firearm, in certain cases.

House sponsor Gazaway said the changes

The idea behind limiting parole eligibility is to stop what Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin have called the board’s “failed catch-and-release policy” and the “revolving door in prisons.” This is a reference to the board’s use of the Emergency Powers Act, a law that allows the board to release prisoners up to 90 days earlier than the date they become eligible for parole when the prison system exceeds 98% capacity or there are more than 500 state inmates being held in county jails. About 2,400 prisoners per year have been released under the act between 2011 and 2021.

Tucker, the Democratic state senator, thinks “catch-and-release” is hyperbole. He pointed to a 2023 survey of seven Southern states that showed Arkansas was at the top of the list in time served for assault, robbery and drug offenses, regardless of the offender’s original sentence length.

For drug crimes specifically, “this means Arkansas was not only number one in average time served, but also that the average time served for drug offenses in Arkansas, before the Protect Arkansas Act, was more than double that of Texas, Missouri and Alabama,” Tucker said.

The impacts of the bill’s parole changes will pile up in the years to come. In the meantime, the system already has more prisoners than it can handle, and the population is growing. From Jan. 1, 2023, to Jan. 1, 2024, the state prison system gained 876 inmates, according to ADC figures.

With the governor insisting Arkansas needs to lock up more people, not fewer, that means adding prison beds to existing facilities — regardless of whether the system has the staff to do it.

CONSTITUTIONAL COLLISION

On Nov. 17, Sanders, Profiri and Griffin held a press conference at the Capitol surrounded by state lawmakers and local law enforcement personnel. Sanders told reporters at the time that the Board of Corrections had recently voted against opening up “hundreds” of temporary prison beds “for no good reason whatsoever,” proving the board was “soft on crime” and part of the “failed status quo” she had sworn to end.

Griffin chimed in as well, going so far as to say that the board was making “Arkansans in this room and all around the state less safe” and calling for “constitutional and statutory change[s]” that would limit the board’s authority.

As it turned out, Sanders and Griffin’s complaints didn’t hold up to scrutiny. Audio from the Nov. 6 Board of Corrections meeting showed a prison official asked the board, on behalf of Profiri, that a total of 622 beds be added to five prisons. The board approved the expansion request for some of the prisons but not all of them.

Three days after the press conference, corrections board Chairman Benny Magness sent an open letter to Sanders and Griffin disputing the claims they had made. The request for new beds had been delivered “just minutes” before the start of the Nov. 6 meeting, he said. At the press conference, Sanders had urged the board to call an emergency meeting to approve the additional beds — but Magness said the board had not received a formal request to call a special meeting. Nor had anyone asked the board to add the request to its agenda for its next regularly scheduled meeting, either.

And any reluctance to add beds was due to the staffing shortfall, not opposition to the idea of adding prison capacity, Magness said. “We are currently experiencing staffing deficits unlike any other time in our history,” he wrote. “In some facilities over one-third of our open positions are unfilled.” More than two-thirds of the proposed additional beds were in three ADC units where staff vacancies ranged from 33% to nearly 39%, he said.

Magness, a former Baxter County sheriff first appointed to the corrections board in 1999 by Sanders’ father, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, was an unlikely antagonist for the governor. But he and the other board members refused to back down.

At the heart of the dispute is a constitutional amendment born out of another fight between a board and a governor 80 years ago. Arkansas voters passed Amendment 33 to push back on actions taken by Gov. Homer Adkins after

his election in 1940.

Adkins was angry that Roberta Fulbright, the publisher of a Fayetteville newspaper, had vocally supported Adkins’ opponent, former Gov. Carl Bailey. Bailey had appointed Fulbright’s son, future U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, as president at the University of Arkansas in 1939. After taking office in January 1941, Adkins installed new trustees at the university and had them fire J. William Fulbright as retaliation against his mother.

Public outrage followed, and the dean of the university law school drafted what would become Amendment 33. Approved by voters in 1942, Amendment 33 gave independence to the boards of public universities and the Board of Corrections, among other boards. It prohibited the governor from removing members without cause and said the powers of a board could

not be reduced unless the institution was abolished or consolidated with another.

Two laws that passed in the 2023 legislative session, however, seem to conflict with Amendment 33. One of them says the secretary of the Department of Corrections serves at the pleasure of the governor, rather than the corrections board. The other is a provision in the Protect Act that says the directors of the department’s two divisions — the Division of Correction and the Division of Community Correction — serve at the pleasure of the secretary, rather than the board.

With these two statutes, the Legislature changed the structure of the operations of Arkansas prisons immensely. Previously, a governor nominated the corrections secretary, but he or she served directly under the supervision and control of the Board of Corrections. Now, the governor

SAFETY DANCE: At top, Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness and board member William “Dubs” Byers take part in a discussion with other board members. At bottom, the Arkansas Board of Corrections during a January meeting.

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

said Profiri routinely refused to talk to anyone about his plans for the Arkansas prison system, even when asked directly by board members. Profiri, who was not in attendance, was described at the hearing as “disdainful,” “rude,” “insubordinate” and “unprofessional.” No one testified in support of him.

The judge sided with the board and ruled that Profiri would remain under the board’s supervision until litigation over the two new laws was completed. On Jan. 10, the board voted 5-2 to fire Profiri.

Sanders announced almost immediately that she was hiring Profiri as a “senior advisor on corrections issues” in her office. He is now earning $201,699 per year, after Sanders got the Legislature to approve an additional $104,000 to cover Profiri’s salary until this summer.

The corrections board scored another legal victory later in January. In a separate lawsuit, Griffin had sued the board over its hiring of outside counsel and alleged violations of the state Freedom of Information Act. On Jan. 22, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox dismissed the attorney general’s lawsuit.

would have full control over the chief of the department (and by extension, their top deputies). It was only a matter of time before the conflict between the legislative changes and Amendment 33 came to a head.

PROFIRI OUT

The moment came in early December, when Profiri said he was moving ahead with Sanders’ plan to add temporary beds despite the board’s objections. Alexa Henning, the governor’s spokesperson, said at the time that, “The Board of Corrections had plenty of time to do the right thing but chose not to act, so the governor and secretary, who has the authority to open certain bed space, are going to do everything in their power to keep Arkansans safe.”

Anticipating a legal battle, the board voted 3-2 at its Dec. 8 meeting to hire an outside attorney to represent it in employment matters. Under normal circumstances, the attorney general would act as the board’s lawyer, but Griffin had made it clear he was not on the board’s side.

On Dec. 14, the board authorized its outside counsel to take the necessary steps to resolve the conflict between the two new laws and Amendment 33. The board also voted to suspend Profiri with pay, based in part on the secretary showing “disdain” for the board’s authority.

Later that day, the board filed a lawsuit

in Pulaski County Circuit Court against the governor and Profiri and asked for an injunction to block the two new laws. Circuit Judge Patricia James entered a temporary restraining order the next day, holding that the two statutes “usurped the board’s power” under the state constitution. Profiri remained under the board’s control.

Benny Magness proposed to the governor that the conflict could be resolved by assigning 138 National Guard members to help staff prisons. But Sanders called that request a “political stunt” and demanded that Magness resign, which he declined to do.

When Judge James held a full hearing Jan. 4, things only got worse for Profiri and the governor. Magness and others testified about Anthony Mosley’s death at the Ouachita River Unit, saying that the lack of adequate staffing was why Mosley went unobserved for nearly 90 minutes. This lack of adequate staffing was explicitly why the board had not agreed to add beds at the pace the governor wanted, they said.

A former director of the Division of Community Correction, Jerry Bradshaw, testified that Profiri had raised the possibility of using tents for inmates if there was not enough room inside the prisons. (This was done in Arizona for several years when Profiri was an administrator there, leading to lawsuits.) Bradshaw also

Profiri’s ouster left the Department of Corrections without a day-to-day executive for several weeks. On Jan. 31, the board hired Eddie Joe WIlliams, a former Republican state senator from Cabot, and a longtime advocate for private prison companies, to be “temporary executivein-charge.” Griffin sent the board and Williams a letter arguing that the secretary can only be appointed by the governor. Griffin threatened that Williams might be sued and have to return any money he was paid if he did not immediately resign.

Williams did indeed resign, and two days later, Sanders announced she had nominated ADC chief of staff Lindsay Wallace to be the new corrections secretary. Sanders mentioned she had already discussed the nomination with Magness and other board members, a possible sign the governor had decided to switch tactics and make nice. The board approved Wallace as secretary on Feb. 15.

But on Feb. 20, Griffin announced he was appealing both recent circuit court rulings to the Arkansas Supreme Court, indicating the governor will continue her effort to seize power from the corrections board.

Most board members seem dug in. “It is clear to me that what we are experiencing is a continuing political attack on a constitutional board that by its very design and creation under Amendment 33 is supposed to be insulated from these games,” board member Lee Watson wrote in a recent open letter to the attorney general.

WHITE KNIGHTS: At left, Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R-Paragould) was the primary House sponsor of the Protect Act. At right, Attorney General Tim Griffin has been in the middle of multiple legal disputes with the corrections board recently.

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

Sanders made another misstep in January with her appointment of Jamol Jones as chair of the state parole board, giving him an automatic seat on the Board of Corrections as well. News quickly broke that Jones had been fired from the Benton Police Department in 2018 for having sex with a 17-year-old girl and then lying about it. Sanders’ spokesperson issued a statement defending Jones, but he resigned after less than a week on the board.

Neither Sanders nor Griffin responded to requests for comment. Magness did not respond to a request for comment sent through the attorney representing the corrections board.

OVERWHELMED

The Protect Act makes a variety of other changes to the corrections system, some of which are less punitive. Tucker, who opposed the bill as a whole, praised its creation of a legislative task force on recidivism and a provision that grants inmates who give birth in custody 72 hours with their newborn in most instances. (Previously, inmates were limited to 24 hours of contact after giving birth.) The Protect Act prioritizes keeping incarcerated parents close to their minor children and emphasizes the need to prepare inmates for reentry, he said.

Gazaway touted the recidivism task force and money for drug courts and diversion programs. He’s proud that the law postpones when a person has to begin paying fines for 120 days after he or she is released from prison. Recently released prisoners have told him “they had to start paying fines before they even had a chance to look for a job after getting out,” Gazaway said.

But it’s the changes to the parole system that are likely to have the biggest impact on the prison system, with its 42% vacancy rate among rank-and-file corrections officers and corporals.

The numbers improve quite a bit beyond those front-line security positions, ADC figures show. Only 13% of 706 sergeant positions, fewer than 9% of lieutenants, zero captains and only one major out of 24 spots are unfilled.

The increased safety risk from direct interaction with inmates is a hard sell when the starting pay for a corporal is a little over $40,000 per year. But there are other factors, too.

“The hassle of dealing with the prison supervising bureaucracy makes the job even less appealing,” said Jeffery Rosenzweig, a defense lawyer and criminal justice reform advocate in Little Rock. There’s also the fact that prisons tend to be in poorer, lower-growth parts of the state.

“In addition to pay, the prisons are placed in areas with declining populations, thus reducing the number of people available to apply,” he said.

Gass said the existing vacancies should be a dealbreaker when it comes to building a new facility. “If we can’t adequately staff the units we currently have, building a new prison shouldn’t even be considered a viable option,” she said. “We will have no more success retaining employees at a new unit until we’ve figured out what the issues are in our existing units. That’s just common sense.”

In an effort to fill vacant positions and retain employees, the Legislature bumped up all ranked positions (corporals, sergeants, etc.) two grades on the state’s pay chart last spring and appropriated an additional $20 million for salaries and

WITH THE GOVERNOR INSISTING ARKANSAS NEEDS TO LOCK UP MORE PEOPLE, NOT FEWER, THAT MEANS ADDING PRISON BEDS TO EXISTING FACILITIES — REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE SYSTEM HAS THE STAFF TO DO IT.

benefits. Current employees should receive raises ranging from $8,000 to $12,000 — but the new money won’t be enough to fully cover raises even for existing workers, let alone recruit new frontline staff.

Wallace, the new corrections secretary, said the department “already had sufficient appropriation and funding to cover any increase in pay” resulting from the pay grade bump. But this is partly due to the number of empty positions in the prison workforce.

If the nearly 1,000 vacant corporal positions go unfilled, how can Arkansas keep inmates in prison longer? An economic impact statement attached to the Protect Act said it’s expected to cost the state an additional $163.8 million over the next 10 years and increase the prison population by 1,465 by 2033.

The number of prisoners was swelling even before the new law. The prison population was 17,784 at the beginning of 2020. It dipped to 16,104 in 2021, due to COVID-19, but by Jan. 1 this year it had rebounded above pre-pandemic levels, to 18,502. Adding almost 1,500 more inmates on top of that baseline growth will clog the corrections system even more.

“The real population crunch will come in the early 2030s, when people who otherwise might be getting out will remain there for another decade or two,” Rosenzweig said.

Gazaway, the House sponsor of the Protect Act, said the parole changes are worthwhile.

“I can’t say for sure — no one can — but when I was presenting the bill, I gave very specific examples of people committing murders while on parole who wouldn’t have been eligible for parole under the Protect Act,” he said. “That’s a real impact: Additional Arkansans would still be alive if their killers had gone to prison the first time under the Protect Act.”

Others argue that harsher sentencing ends up being counterproductive in the long run. “Locking people up for longer periods of time, in theory, protects Arkansas from that offender while they are incarcerated, but there are other issues to consider,” Gass said. “Removing that offender from society leaves a void or a hole in a family, community, organization … and just as places of employment replace employees in short order, families, communities and organizations do the same.

“The incarcerated person was likely meeting or contributing to someone or something’s financial need. Just because that person is incarcerated doesn’t mean that need goes away. If those persons don’t have a legitimate way of meeting the financial need, they will resort to criminality to meet it.”

Celebrating International Women’s Month

Celebrating International Women’s Month

WOMEN IN CHARGE

WOMEN IN CHARGE

March is International Women’s Month, and we want to recognize the trailblazing women shaping Arkansas’s history. Discover the leaders in charge, the ones that make the wheels turn and the lights come on. In this edition, we celebrate the remarkable women of Arkansas and their invaluable contributions to our state’s communities.

ERIN HOUSE

BAR MANAGER | BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT

Erin House, the Bar Manager at Brave New Restaurant, is rooted in the food industry. She spent her formative years in a Shakey’s Pizza – as her grandfather owned a Little Rock location. “I was always in a restaurant with my family,” she remembered. She later discovered her passion for bartending when she began working in the hospitality industry.

Over the past seven years, she has refined her skills behind the bar, spending five at Brave New Restaurant. The eatery is an institution  –as it’s been a Little Rock staple for over 30 years. “I enjoy the creative license I get at Brave New,” she said. “They allow me to experiment and try different drinks and specials, which is nice. They’re always there to support me if I need it, but they let me run the bar.”

House finds inspiration by visiting other establishments and staying

abreast of industry trends, always seeking to elevate the bar experience at Brave New. “I like to go to other restaurants and check out the bar and see what they’re doing,” she said. She also relies on brand reps to inform her about trends coming down the pipeline.

House is excited about the recent rollout of Brave New’s new wine list, a project she spearheaded with passion and dedication. “It was a collaborative effort,” she said, “But definitely a labor of love. It was carefully curated, and everyone was super happy about how it turned out.”

Looking ahead, House is excited about incorporating more non-alcoholic options like mocktails and alcohol-free wine into the menu, catering to evolving preferences. At Brave New, House thrives on the dynamic atmosphere and the opportunity to innovate continuously, ensuring every guest enjoys a memorable experience at Brave New Restaurant.

STAR JACKSON

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER OF ARKANSAS

Star Jackson, a remarkable leader and the Executive Director of the American Indian Center of Arkansas (AICA), is a shining example of female leadership in her community. An Arkansas native, Jackson’s journey to her current role has been defined by her determination to make a difference. “I needed to be fulfilled, and I needed to be doing service work,” she said. She took a significant pay cut to pursue a career at AICA, showcasing her values, resilience and courage.

As a female leader at the helm of AICA, Star has propelled the organization to new heights, expanding its staff and programs to better serve the American Indian community in Arkansas. Her leadership style is characterized by empathy, collaboration and a deep commitment to uplifting her community. “One of the biggest successes in my journey has been the establishment and growth of our programs,” Jackson said. “In

the one year of my leadership, our staff has grown from six to 32. We have tripled our programs, which in turn has allowed us even more resources for the communities that we serve.”

Jackson’s outstanding leadership abilities are evident in the significant achievements of AICA under her tenure. From establishing crucial programs addressing mental health, opioid crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and elder support, Star has demonstrated her ability to lead with compassion and effectiveness. “These programs are actually saving lives,” she said. “There is no greater achievement than that.”

Despite her numerous accomplishments, Star remains humble, attributing her success to the collaborative efforts of the passionate team at AICA. Moving forward the AICA is just getting started. “Stay tuned because AICA has started 2024 with more passion and determination than ever before,” Jackson said.

LINDA HARDING

ARTIST

Linda Harding is not just an artist; she’s a visionary, capturing a world of magic through her lens. From her early days of experimenting with a camera to her current status as a fine art photographer, Harding continues to cover new ground. “I’ve always loved art,” she said. “I picked up a camera in college because of my best friend, and I’ve had one ever since.”

For Harding, inspiration is akin to consistency. “You have to practice every day,” she said. “That’s where the inspiration comes in. Things begin to pop up when you do it all the time.” Harding’s portfolio showcases stunning landscapes and captivating images of the female form, each piece a testament to her artistic vision. She often uses other elements over prints to create a new perspective: “I want to take you out of the real world and into a fantasy world,” she explained. “My images have always been painterly.”

As Harding continues to evolve as an artist, she believes the local art scene also has. “I think we’re starting to rise above and get noticed,” she said. “We have so many beautiful artists in this state –we’re going to be hard to miss.”

Harding’s work has been shown in local galleries and in New York City. Find her current collection at Boswell Mourot Fine Art.

As a mother, grandmother, and animal enthusiast, Harding believes part of success is community involvement. “I want to be involved in our community in some way,” she explained. “I really love that we have great female leaders, and they inspire me to be a better person and do better things. I need that lifting up from a fellow woman who works hard and gets out of the box even when it’s scary.”

DIANA BRATTON

CHEF/OWNER TACO MAMA

Diana Bratton, the founder of Hot Springs’ acclaimed eatery Taco Mama, has always had a passion for cooking.“My mom cooked all our meals, and it was something we would do together that I enjoyed,” she said. After studying international business, she decided to attend culinary school. Bratton cut her teeth at City Cafe in Dallas, learning the importance of embodying a fresh approach to food. Soon after, she opened Cafe 1217. Taco Mama was born from a nostalgic road trip experience, where she and her husband Shane encountered a taqueria reminiscent of her South Texas roots. “We had already built a name for ourselves at the Cafe when we opened Taco Mama,” Bratton said. Her vision for the new venture revolved around focusing on fresh, scratchmade Mexican cuisine. “There’s a lot of layers to cooking from scratch,” she explained. “We don’t use pre-made much of anything.” Bratton has found her calling as she spreads her love for authentic Mexican flavors across Arkansas and beyond.

STACEY REYNOLDS

OWNER OF BLUE YOGA NYLA STUDIO YOGA THERAPIST IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

Yoga isn’t just a trend for Stacey Reynolds, owner of North Little Rock’s Blue Yoga Nyla Studio — it’s her mission. Battling chronic illness in her twenties, she found solace and healing in the practice. “I felt like something greater than me prompted me to first do yoga,” Reynolds recounted.

She first began teaching and offering classes at a room in her church 23 years ago. When the space was no longer available, she knew it was time to open her own studio. Recently, Blue Yoga Nyla celebrated its 14th anniversary in Park Hill.

From offering pay what you can classes to having a diverse set of yoga instructors: Reynolds believes everyone should have access to yoga.

“No one has to have the right gear, clothes, ability – they just have to have a willingness to show up,” Reynolds said. Blue Nyla celebrates every individual – regardless of age, shape, or demographic. “As long as people keep coming – we’re going to keep showing up.”

HANNA WAID, EMILY WILSON, DANI LEMATTY, NICOLE THOMAS

NATURAL RELIEF DISPENSARY

Adestination in Sherwood, Natural Relief Dispensary elevates the patient experience. Since its inception in 2019, the family-run business has flourished under the devoted leadership of a diverse team of women.

Emily Wilson, the Packaging Manager, utilizes her background in psychology to foster meaningful connections with patients, aiming to alleviate their ailments. “Every patient who comes through this door is like family,” she emphasized. “We want to ensure they can have a good experience and live their life.”

Nicole Thomas, the Patient Relations Manager, draws on her journey of finding relief from rheumatoid arthritis through cannabis. With extensive experience in other established cannabis markets, she underscores the dispensary’s distinctive emphasis on patient education and personalized care. “Even out west, there’s nothing like Natural Relief,” she said. “From a medical standpoint, we help people navigate products to find what works best for them.”

Driven by a commitment to combat opioid addiction and promote cannabis’s therapeutic potential, Hanna Waid serves as the Director of Menu and Education. She spearheads educational initiatives, ensuring staff are well-informed about the latest industry trends and product knowledge. “My main job is to research all day,” she said. “We focus way more on education and knowledge of the plant and products.”

As the Floor Manager, Dani LeMatty oversees seamless operations and fosters a welcoming patient atmosphere. Anticipating the potential legalization of cannabis in Arkansas, LeMatty envisions Natural Relief maintaining its commitment to excellence. “We’re an independent company competing against industry giants, and I believe we’re holding our own,” she affirmed.

Together with the rest of the staff who call Natural Relief home, these women form a cohesive team dedicated to providing compassionate care, empowering patients and advancing the cannabis industry’s standards.

Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana.

Special Advertising Section of the Arkansas Times

(LEFT TO RIGHT)

ANGELA SORTOR

PROPRIETOR THE PUNCHBOWL

Angela Sortor, proprietor of the Punch Bowl antique shop in Little Rock’s SOMA neighborhood, recently celebrated her first year of business. After living in various places across the US and France, she settled in Little Rock in 2016. Drawing from her background in building restoration, Sortor’s decision to open an antique shop felt like both a natural progression and a leap of faith.

“I’ve always loved dabbling in antiques,” she explained. Inspired by the unique experience of French antique markets, she aimed to create a similarly enriching atmosphere in her shop. “I didn’t necessarily want to recreate a French market,” she said, “but I wanted the shop to provide an experience.”

As an entrepreneur, Sortor discovered a profound connection to the business community in SOMA. “This neighborhood and its people are truly special,” she reflected. Her journey exemplifies the courage to pursue new paths. “Part of being an independent woman is recognizing the value of support,” she noted. “I couldn’t have done this without the help of other business owners and people sending people my way.”

DR. BEVERLY FOSTER

CHIROPRACTOR

CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH & REHABILITATION,

Dr. Beverly Foster, a trusted chiropractor with over 25 years of dedicated service in the Little Rock community, is renowned for her expertise in addressing complex back and neck issues. The backbone of Chiropractic Health & Rehabilitation, Dr. Foster combines extensive experience with a commitment to stay on top of the latest advancements in chiropractic care.

A respected member of the American Chiropractic Association and The Arkansas Chiropractic Society, Dr. Foster advocates for evidence-informed treatments, blending natural and conservative approaches with conventional medicine. Her reputation as the “go-to” chiropractor for challenging cases underscores her exceptional skill and dedication to patient well-being.

Dr. Foster believes “diagnosis is the key to successful treatment” and tailors each treatment plan to an individual’s unique needs. With a post-doctorate specialty certification in orthopedics and a philosophy centered on personalized care, she emphasizes the importance of thorough assessment and targeted interventions for optimal outcomes.

Patients can trust Dr. Foster and her compassionate team at Chiropractic Health & Rehabilitation to provide a welcoming environment and expert guidance for their chiropractic needs.

HANNAH DAVIS

DISPENSARY MANAGER

THE SOURCE

Hannah Davis started working at The Source in January 2020, right before COVID-19 impacted the burgeoning cannabis industry in Arkansas. Despite the uncertainty of the time, she knew she’d found her niche. “Very rarely do we get the chance in our work lives to help pioneer an industry that has yet to be developed in our state, and that’s one thing that I have enjoyed the most about working in this field so far.”

Hannah prioritizes fostering a supportive environment where every team member at The Source is empowered. “I try and do my best to make our team feel seen and heard,” she explained. “We have such a brilliant staff, and we couldn’t do what we do if they didn’t bring the passion and energy that we share with our community every day.”

Hannah’s aspirations include advocating for an expanded adult-use program in Arkansas. “I will be hopeful and continue advocating for our patients and doing my best to encourage and inspire any women that might be interested in joining the cannabis industry.”

Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana.

MIND, BODY & SOUL

From the developmental stages of childhood and adolescence through adulthood and into planning for our later years, prioritizing good mental health is as crucial as maintaining physical fitness. Research sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health highlights that more than half of Americans will grapple with a mental illness during their lifetimes, emphasizing the necessity for accessible, high-quality mental health services within communities. These local specialists are invaluable resources for supporting individuals dealing with mental health challenges and addiction concerns.

“HEAL THE SOUL FIRST; THEN HEALING OF THE MIND AND BODY WILL FOLLOW.”

—ZHI GANG SHA

From its humble beginnings 32 years ago to the present, Arkansas Hospice has built a strong, trusted reputation and is now the state’s largest nonprofit provider of hospice and palliative care. Recently, this legacy has grown into the Arkansas Hospice Family of Care to provide expert care for Arkansans, where they are – both in terms of where they live and their stage of life or illness.

This continuum of care includes:

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

• Arkansas Advanced Care: Primary care for seniors, where they live Arkansas Palliative Care: Expert pain and symptom management for patients at any stage of serious illness receiving curative treatment

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

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

Work for families and become part of one.

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

– Thurmeisha White, Youth Villages employee

The Centers provides Arkansans with integrated services that address both mind and body. The Centers now offers behavioral health and primary care, promoting emotional, social and physical wellness for children, adolescents, adults and families. Services include all-ages outpatient counseling, substance use counseling, child and adolescent residential treatment, adult disability residential programming, therapeutic foster care, day treatment and other innovative and high-quality care. The Centers serves as the region’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic for residents of Pulaski County south of the Arkansas River and houses the state’s only nationally recognized human trafficking treatment program.

The Centers has physical locations in Little Rock and Monticello and 24/7/365 Crisis Hotline (888-868-0023).

6601 W. 12th Street, Little Rock 1521 Merrill Drive, Ste D220, Little Rock 501-664-4308 | TheCentersAR.com.

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

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

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

5201 Stagecoach Rd, Little Rock arkansasrecovery.com/locations/arkansas-detox/

Expert care where you are.

The Centers now offers comprehensive healthcare to meet your needs. Our medical clinic offers quick and easy scheduling and accepts most insurance. Our skilled therapists provide child, adolescent and adult counseling. And our on-site pharmacy makes filling prescriptions convenient.

TAKE NOTES

AN ADVICE BANK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

BY TRICIA LARSON AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

ADVICE TO BANK ON:

From Heather Smith, Janis F. Kearney, Nancy Rousseau (top row, left to right); Rep. Jamie Scott, Gwen and Evelyn Herzig, Joyce Elliott (second row, left to right); Sylvia Blain, Meghan Richards, Katherine Williamson (third row, left to right); Stephanie Streett and Katherine Strause (bottom row).

It’s said that the first instance of the word “mansplaining” arose from a 2008 essay penned by Rebecca Solnit, titled “Men Explain Things to Me.” But the phenomenon certainly isn’t new. (See: that time in 1983 when the gents at NASA tried to equip astronaut Sally Ride with 100 tampons for a six-day space flight). In honor of National Women’s Month, we’re passing the microphone to a few of Central Arkansas’s women leaders across various spheres — business, government, the arts and education.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A YOUNG WOMAN IN 2024?

“Intentionally define yourself. In a clear, concise manner, define the woman you are. Then opposite your current self, define the woman into whom you hope to grow. Make this an ongoing process in cycles of your choice. As you do so, remember clarity and ambiguity are fraternal twins but belong to the same family. They will help you accept and deal with the complexities of life. Intentionally and thoughtfully, live in all of life. Get to know peoples and cultures as far beyond your neighborhood, community, city and state as you can. It will help you cultivate what I consider to be the most useful method of resolving issues and making progress: collaboration.”

—Joyce Elliott, former Arkansas state senator and founder of Get Loud Arkansas

“There is no replacement for the work. You have to clock in and DO IT. You have to find a level of devotion and obsession that will drive you. That is how you find authenticity. That is how you become a master.”

—Katherine Strause, painter, educator and artist in residence at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

“What I know from a long and crooked path is that sometimes it is the detours, the sharp turns or the roadblocks that teach us the most invaluable lessons. My life would not have been as rich had it gone exactly as I’d planned it in my head. It is the endless things we don’t know, and that we learn accidentally, that give us wisdom and a willingness to take risks in spite of logic.”

—Janis F. Kearney, author, literary coach, founder of the Celebrate! Maya Project

BREATHE BETTER, WORRY LESS WITH ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S PULMONOLOGY

There’s nothing more important than your child breathing easily. Arkansas Children’s Pulmonary Clinic provides awardwinning, accredited care to infants and children with complete diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic lung disease. We are experts in treating pediatric asthma, with over 25 nationally certified asthma educators throughout Arkansas Childrens’ health system, including expanded services in Jonesboro. For children suffering from sleep apnea and other sleep-related conditions, our Pediatrics Sleep Center is unmatched. We are one of only a few pediatric hospitals nationwide to receive full-service accreditation from the Association of Sleep Disorders Centers (American Academy of Sleep Medicine). Our Sleep Disorders Lab is the only American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) accredited pediatric sleep disorders lab in the state.

500 S. University Ave., Ste. 708 Little Rock, AR 72205 midtown@arkansasdermatology.com

“Your most precious asset is time. It’s the currency you exchange for everything, and it’s the one finite resource you possess. Utilize your time judiciously and refuse to allow others to dictate its value to you.”

—Gwen Herzig, pharmacist and owner at Park West Pharmacy and co-owner at Otaku Takeout and Lucky Cat Arcade

“One thing I always like to do is ‘encourage the responsibility of we’ when I’m looking at issues in my community or solutions for policy change. My unique ability to build authentic relationships has opened so many doors for me in both of my careers.”

—Rep. Jamie Scott (D-North Little Rock); executive director, Pulaski County Youth Services

“Be a sponge to the arts. All art, whenever it comes your way.”

—Katherine Williamson, violinist and assistant concertmaster at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

“Create three folders and never empty them. Networking: Keep track of the who, what, where and why. You never know who will be a help in the future! Notes for a rainy day: Keep the accolades, accomplishments and anything that makes you feel strong, smart and powerful. Use it to build a better resume, write a bio or just to remind yourself that you have and will continue to achieve great things. Plans for the future: Never remove old plans, but update them every few months. It will give insight into your journey and direction for your future!”

—Meghan Richards, director of museum experiences at Museum of Discovery

“Little girls with dreams become women with vision.”

—Nancy Rousseau, principal, Central High School

“Make the move. Take the leap. Wholeheartedly. But be very intentional about it. The leap doesn’t have to be all or nothing. In fact, it simply shouldn’t be. At 22 years old, my first business was a restaurant. What a leap that was! Turns out, I didn’t actually like owning a restaurant. And I was stuck. I had never considered that I wouldn’t enjoy it. I had never considered how to un-own a restaurant. I had never considered an exit plan and sure as heck didn’t have one. So my advice is to jump, climb and run towards your dream, but never forget to calculate

some wiggle room just in case.”

—Heather Smith, owner, Domestic Domestic

“I would tell the young women of today to be laser-focused on pursuing their dreams and designing a road map. First, start building your network! Seek out mentors. You shouldn’t be shy about asking for advice; successful individuals truly enjoy mentoring bright, ambitious, hard-working young women, and they have a strong sense of paying it forward. I have been fortunate to have incredible mentors in my life, and I am so grateful they took the time to invest in my future.”

—Stephanie Streett, executive director, Clinton Foundation

IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

“Remain more open-minded when faced with seemingly opposing views or personalities. You never know when someone might be right. Pause, listen. Be discerning, not stubborn. I moved quickly in my younger years, making fast decisions with my gut, which I don’t regret. But there is also space to let others in.”

—Katherine Williamson

“Go, leave early and get some good sleep.”

—Katherine Strause

“‘No’ should never be viewed as a dead end, but rather as a detour on the road to your dreams and passions. Embrace rejection as a learning opportunity and discover alternative paths to progress.”

—Gwen Herzig

“I’d start by telling myself to ‘trust the journey.’ Many of your experiences will hold value that isn’t obvious to you in the moment. Also, the more challenges you face head on, the quicker you’ll come to know yourself, so don’t avoid the hard stuff and put in the work.”

—Sylvia Blain, executive director, Potluck Food Rescue; CEO of Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance (beginning April 1)

“Remove the Superwoman title. Add yourself to your ‘to do’ list. Make your mental health and physical health a priority. We can’t be Superwoman and effectively advocate for the important issues in our state or community when we consistently fail to show up for ourselves.”

—Rep. Jamie Scott

EVERYONE GROWS WITH FRIENDSHIP!

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Friendship Aspire Academy provides a world-class education that motivates students to achieve high academic standards, enjoy learning and develop as ethical, literate, well-rounded and self-sufficient citizens.

To contact the schools administration:

Pine Bluff elementary FAA Administration: 501-500-9332

Pine bluff elementary Pine Bluff Elementary: 870-395-7401

LR Middle School & Garland Elementary: 501-621-1500

Visit our website: friendshipaspire.org

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galleries! new two

INKING MARCH 31, 2023

KASTEN SEARLES’ TORNADO MEMOIR CAPTURES LITTLE ROCK, RAVAGED.

When the EF3 tornado hit Pulaski County on a Friday afternoon one year ago, Kasten Searles and her husband, Michael Norton — both educators — weren’t at home. Each was at school teaching when the text messages and weather alerts began rolling in, dread growing as the storm headed straight for their home on Buttermilk Road in West Little Rock’s Sturbridge neighborhood. Over the months that followed, the pair would watch as their former home succumbed to the elements. Rain drenched the house’s exposed interior, too little of the roof remaining to cover in tarp. Birds moved in. Searles and Norton stayed with her parents at first, then at a rental house. They sold the Sturbridge house and will shortly move into a new one.

Now, Searles — an illustrator, the head of the art department at Arkansas Tech University and the artist behind our cover illustration this month — is creating a graphic memoir about the experience, including depictions of the devastation as she saw it that day. It’s too early for a release date or title, but Searles gave us a sneak peek at some of what the graphic novel documents. —Stephanie Smittle

‘TAKE COVER NOW’: Searles, like many, got updates on the storm’s path from meteorologist Todd Yakoubian, whose childhood home was in the shattered Sturbridge neighborhood. “During that broadcast,” Searles said, “when he saw it coming through and it was headed straight for Sturbridge, I could tell, like, his heart dropped. You could see it in the video. … When he told his wife to take cover, I don’t think he really meant to do that. I think he was terrified.”

‘KEEP US POSTED’: From Kasten Searles’ forthcoming graphic memoir about the March 31, 2023, tornado.

ORGANIZED CHAOS

AN ORAL HISTORY OF KANIS SKATEPARK.

BY CORRENE SPERO

URBAN OASIS: When the October 2023 Kanis Bash got rained out, skateboarders set up skate features under a nearby bridge.

The day of the October 2023 Kanis Bash, the annual fundraiser for the skatepark at Little Rock’s Kanis Park, was a washout. Faced with relentless rain, the organizers relocated the event to the area under a nearby bridge, installing skate features into the concrete. Adaptation is a hallmark of the Kanis DIY ethos.

Over a roughly 15-year period, a collective of local skateboarders has helped to transform Kanis Park, just south of Interstate 630 at Mississippi Street, into an urban oasis featuring a skatepark on par with the best in the country. The scene at Kanis on any given Saturday — an inclusive space where folks from different walks of Little Rock life buzz in and out of playgrounds, pickleball courts and walking paths — is in stark contrast with the dilapidated Kanis Park of the ’90s and early aughts.

Operating without a formal structure or corporate entity, the Kanis skate crew formed an unlikely partnership with the city of Little Rock and became central players in an urban revitalization success story. Fueled by hard manual labor and grassroots fundraising, they sidestepped hierarchy and bureaucracy to create a valuable and lasting public resource. In 2015, the Kanis skatepark was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Co. for an expansion that began in 2016.

This is an abridged story of the volunteerism and brotherhood that built Kanis skatepark, in the words of some of its creators.

OLD BOWL

Georgie Launet: At first, the skatepark at Kanis was just this old bowl you had to take a path to, and it was one of the oldest city-sanctioned skateboard parks.

Oby Berry: The old bowl was built around ’87. … I skated that bowl when I was in fifth grade and I was like, “I’ll be back.”

Kevin Fowler: I started going out to Kanis in the ’90s. Gary Duncan was the main guy back then. When I was a kid, it was a treat when you went out and Gary was there. He could skate that bowl really well.

Will Ehrle: A lot of things I know about the old bowl are hearsay because it was built around when I was born.

Kevin Fowler: When I was in high school I started hanging out there more. Like 1998-2002. At that time, Kanis was a pretty sketchy park. Brian Lee would be out there. He was a regular. And Brock [Eads]. So we all started hanging out. It’d be Brian, Brock, Oby, Jon Boyd, Matt Clark.

SKATE OR DIE

Georgie Launet: Around 2006, the Riverview Skatepark was being constructed in North Little

Rock and Oby, Will and Tyler [Edwards] were wanting to start building something in Little Rock. At the same time, there was a real DIY movement across the U.S. We were inspired by parks like Burnside [Skatepark, in Portland, Oregon] and Washington [Skatepark, in Jefferson City, Missouri].

Oby Berry: I was aware of Burnside, but information at that time wasn’t traveling as fast as it does now, except through magazines. The Dreamland Skatepark guys from Oregon who had built Burnside were building the Riverview park in North Little Rock. I called in sick for a week and went and volunteered to work with them. They taught me how to build a park.

Georgie Launet: Oby had already dealt with small townships to build parks around the state and I think I was inspired by that.

Oby Berry: I grew up in South Arkansas, and there was a small group of kids who all skated. I started building my own stuff as a kid, out of wood, and it progressed through high school and college. I presented a slideshow to towns across the state to try and build more skateparks across Arkansas. This was from 2001 to 2003, something like that. We built a ramp down in Star City. I got turned down a lot.

Georgie Launet: Skateboarding can be like a disease, like an addiction. Skateboarders are naturally driven. It’s not a sport or hobby. It’s a way to see the world around you.

Oby Berry: Right after the build in North Little Rock, I went out to Portland with some friends and we did a week skating down the coast. I wanted to see all these little parks that had come up. I just wanted what was going on in the Pacific Northwest for us. We went all over the place on the coast of Oregon and I thought, “Well, why can’t we do this? I’m not getting any younger, so let’s start building it.”

THE FIRST POUR

Will Ehrle: The first pour at Kanis was around 2006. It was an upside down wheelbarrow of concrete that got dumped over. It was common for people to do little patch jobs — take a little concrete and pour it to make little structures to skate.

Kevin Fowler: Matt Clark flipped over a wheelbarrow and covered it with concrete. It was just this lump, and that was the first DIY thing. It was like the first feature. It got Oby motivated, and I think he built the spine next, and for a while, that was all that was there.

Will Ehrle: The spine was the first planned pour. It’s when two ramps come together, two quarter pipes that intersect and share the same coping.

Oby Berry: In the spring of 2005, I was hired to build a 10,000-square-foot indoor park in

of the LRWRABoard of Commissioners

Women & Allies who HELP BUILD A

This Women’s History Month, we celebrate our Women of Water & Allies, whose contributions help us protect public health and the environment. We acknowledge allies like Schawnee, Chair of our Board of Commissioners. He works with LRWRA to ensure that policies are in the best interest of ratepayers and the City of Little Rock.

SCAN HERE TO:

Read more about Schawnee’s role and the utility. Or visit lrwra.com/WoWA.

Malvern. This was in the time between Riverview and the first pour at Kanis. I was teaching during the day and building that thing at night. I had a bunch of leftover stuff from that project and the Kanis slab was always on my mind, so one night I cut some forms for that first spine and I called Tyler, Will, Allen and Johnny Taylor and Matt Clark and said, “Hey y’all, let’s do this.”

Kevin Fowler: After the spine, there was a little pole jam — a little ramp that’s a bent pole in the ground — and we just started hanging out. It was a cool scene for a little bit. It was always the same people. In the winter they’d have trashcan fires going. I’d go hang out with the older guys and laugh at their jokes and not talk.

Georgie Launet: Kanis was just this raw idea, and we did it for the love of skateboarding, and it kept growing. At that time, there was a total disconnect from the city. It was just a piece of concrete with random skateboard obstacles, but it had no real direction.

GRIND IT OUT

Oby Berry: Everyone was kind of spread out — in college, living in other places — and then in 2007, everyone descended into Little Rock, and that’s when it went insane. I told Matt Clark we need to have a big ol’ bash with bands to raise money. We didn’t have a nonprofit, but people gave us money and trusted us and we immediately started building stuff. I was 27 or 28 when we started Kanis, and my whole focus became Kanis.

Kevin Fowler: Oby taught Georgie and Will and Tyler. Other guys like Kent [Summers] and Brock were handy. Brian Lee, too — he was re-

ally good at concrete work. He had worked odd jobs working concrete. He and Oby were like the foremen.

Oby Berry: Because I’m a math teacher, and I was an engineering major before I became a teacher, all I’d have to do is see what’s going on and start figuring stuff out. Also because I had been building stuff since I was a kid.

Will Ehrle: We built a retaining wall, a cinder block wall, so that we could expand.

Oby Berry: We built a block wall from 2007 to 2010.

Will Ehrle: The vertical wall that we call the punk wall was the next big pour.

Oby Berry: And then the Jabba wall and the back 2-foot-tall wall behind the Jabba — that was happening about the same time.

Will Ehrle: The Jabba wall is this amorphous thing. It got painted to look like Jabba the Hutt.

Oby Berry: All of that was happening all the way until 2012. And then Kent somewhere in there built a real big addition, the demon wall — it had a demon painted on it.

Georgie Launet: I’d say 80% of the huge shit at Kanis was built with shovels and pickaxes.

Oby Berry: When we were working, it wasn’t like we were working. Why are you gonna be excited on a Saturday morning to go work for free? But we were. I’d get up early on a Saturday and load my truck up and go work on a weekend or in the summer when I was off from school. I got heat sickness one summer.

Jonathan Gilbert: There was some butting heads at times, and we all had full-time jobs.

Georgie Launet: I wanted to make sure there were things there that everybody could skate, but also keep it unique. I wanted it to be rad but

MEMORIAL BOWL: The late Ryan Galvan, who was commemorated in the skatepark’s “memorial bowl,” skates barefoot on the deep wall of the park’s older, DIY section.

WILL EHRLE

Schawnee

Chair

not impossible, but Kent was a driving force in making sure we kept things super gnarly.

Will Ehrle: It was commonplace to take jersey barriers, like the things that are on the highway, and tilt them or lift them up and pour a little bit of concrete. A third or two-thirds of the structure already exists, so you just have to do a little bit of work to make it skateable. That’s when the city started helping us.

Georgie Launet: We wanted to be able to just drop in and flow and skate it like a bowl. Once we got the jersey walls up, that made the whole thing have a flow to it. Kent’s a welder, so he had access to equipment that we needed to build a bowl of the size we wanted. Once that bowl was built, that’s when the city was like, “What’s happening?”

AN UNLIKELY PAIR

Georgie Launet: I think what we were doing started to need a little more of a direction or a narrative to it. It seemed like we were gonna need more of a plan. At some point, it started to become something the city couldn’t ignore — in a positive way. Not only were we out there skating, we were out there working all the time.

Jonathan Gilbert: We were at it forever, because we were poor, and it took forever. We put on fundraisers to get materials. People put in their own money. Eventually it got to the point where we had a Kanis fund.

Kevin Fowler: I kept the money for the last 10 years, like in a little account. Georgie had it at one time. Matt Clark kept it in a fanny pack at one point. Finally, I was like, “We just need a bank account instead of going to Georgie’s

INK, PAINT, CONCRETE: Skatepark co-creator Georgie Launet (top left); a custom Kanis tattoo by Miguel Arrue (top right); Skull of the Americas plays a set at Kanis Bash in October 2023 (above).

MIGUEL ARRUE

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

Rhea Drug Store

‘SUPER GNARLY’: Skatepark co-creator Kent Summers was instrumental in the park’s DIY construction.

basement and seeing what’s in the fanny pack.” I tried to set up an LLC but it would cost money to set up. We never had enough for it to seem worth it, so I set up the account in my name. It’s never had more than like $4,000 in it.

Georgie Launet: We felt like in Kanis we had the ideal place to create our own world, and nobody was gonna tell us no — and then they did the opposite. They told us yes.

Jonathan Gilbert: Matt Clark started talking to the city. Georgie did, too. I thought it was rad when the city got involved, because then we knew they weren’t gonna tear it down.

Leland Couch: I started as a [Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department] park planner at the end of 2006. There was a time period when I went out to Kanis and I saw someone was building on the concrete slab. They were starting to develop this DIY and I saw that they had such strong ownership in this area. From my experience, when you have real buy-in from a user group, it’s always a successful project. Georgie Launet was the one that was communicating with me via email, and we started understanding how we could help. I’ve been talking with him about this for 10 years, at least.

Oby Berry: Georgie is a silver-tongued devil. He can talk to people.

Georgie Launet: Working with Leland was a pleasure because he was clear about what he needed us to submit, the guidelines were easy to follow, and he was willing to be open-minded. These guys had never poured a concrete skateboard ramp before. They pour slabs, and we were building quarter pipes. The way Leland and I could talk to each other evolved over time to where I could explain one of the obstacles — a quarter pipe, a tranny bank, a pyramid — and he started to understand our jargon. If it had been someone else, I don’t think it would have worked out the same. He saw the value in it. It went from me driving my Contour with 2,000 pounds of concrete to the city dropping off rebar and telling us we could go to Home Depot and buy stuff.

Leland Couch: It was tough, from a park planner perspective, to say, “Yeah, build whatever you want,” while also needing to have some safety guidelines in place, but I was able to work with them and have conversations about what they were going to build. A lot of what they needed was just materials to make things better, so we started partnering with them. Were there some concerning times where we were like, “Guys, you need to change that, that’s not gonna work?” Sure, that’s happened over the past

Women & Allies who help Build a

Throughout history, forward thinking individuals have pushed boundaries, challenged the status quo and improved our world. History books are filled with women leading that progress in the workplace and beyond.

Since 2019, Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority has used Women’s History Month to salute women leaders who we call Women of Water, or WOW. These women are an integral part of what makes LRWRA an industry leader. This year, we salute Women of Water and their Allies! LRWRA recognizes that numerous male colleagues within and associated with the utility actively support Women of Water Together, we are building a stronger utility.

This Women’s History Month, we celebrate Alexandria, a communications assistant, who crafts messages to visually communicate LRWRA’s mission to stakeholders and ratepayers; Tammy, who manages accounts and billing to ensure accuracy in LRWRA’s transactions; and Schawnee, Chair of the Little Rock Water Reclamation Commission, which works with LRWRA to ensure that policies are in the best interest of Little Rock ratepayers and the City of Little Rock.

Of the power of women in his life, Schawnee said, “My life has been blessed by tremendous women; however, none more impactful than my mother, Aleen Hightower. I watched her display a work ethic that was second to none and an attitude that was all about empowerment. She stressed to be present and accountable which have been pillars in my career.”

Learn more about the individuals improving our utility and their daily contributions that help preserve our city’s quality of life and support its continued growth. Visit lrwra.com/WoWA to read their stories.

NICK GIBSON

ARKANSAS TIMES

LOCAL TICKETING:

Call Me Mara

March 1-3, 8-10, 15-17

The Weekend Theater

Spring Awakening

March 6-10, 13-17, 20-23

Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church

Stillhouse Junkies

March 15

Four Quarter Bar

Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival 2024: 11th Annual

March 29

Argenta Plaza

Barkus on Main 2024

April 7

Main Street, Little Rock

Rusty Tractor Eclipse Party

April 8

Sunset Lodge at Rusty Tractor Vineyards

13th Annual

The Hat Club Crawfish Salute

April 11

DickeyStephens Park

GOING PROFESSIONAL: Hunger Skateparks, a skatepark design company based in Bloomington, Indiana, worked with the Kanis crew to expand the park in 2016. At right, skatepark co-creator Georgie Launet sits “in the flat” of an earlier iteration of the park.

15 years or so. It’s a give and take, but we are providing a place for people in the community to gather and have a good time, and I think it’s worth the effort.

Kevin Fowler: That’s why Kanis is awesome — because the city supported it. That’s what makes us different than other DIYs. The city eventually bulldozes most of them, but they’ve had our back the whole time.

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM

Leland Couch: The opportunity for the grant came in 2015 from our grants office who found it through their different resources. We got a whole bunch of money from Coca-Cola and we said, “We’re gonna put it into this Kanis skatepark, but let’s not destroy everything and build a new park. How do we make something really cool?”

Georgie Launet: We wanted to take this 1987 skateboard park and take this DIY skateboard park and put a new park in the middle that would be professionally crafted that could be the bridge between these two things.

Leland Couch: I don’t know how to design a skatepark, so I got the skateboarders together and we worked with a contractor on the design and build.

Georgie Launet: The grant allowed us to work with professional contractors to connect everything. We wanted a younger company who could do what we wanted for the money we had, and we ended up working with Hunger Skateparks [a skatepark design company based in Bloomington, Indiana]. They let us handpick a crew of people to work with them from our group who had been building the DIY.

Oby Berry: In 2016, we did the big add-on with Hunger. It worked out great. It was a lot easier than DIY. We had proper tools. You can tell what’s the oldest to the newest stuff. When Hunger came in, you can tell where the work got better. When you’re mixing concrete, there are a lot of inconsistencies. When Hunger came in, that’s legit.

Leland Couch: The end result is so unique because we now have the historic skate bowl and the new elements we used the Coca-Cola money for, but we still have the DIY area. The bowl from the ’80s is still there, and then recently they’ve added a half pipe with leftover funds from the Coca-Cola grant. It’s a unique combination, and it just works.

THANK YOU, SKATEBOARDING

Georgie Launet: What makes me the proudest is the overall evolution of the park and the people who have come from around the country to skate it — the community we built, and all the memories.

Oby Berry: I just love those dudes. I was so fortunate to have a crew of cool people to be with. That’s the whole thing. It was always about skating No. 1, but we always had fun. I knew it would get big and people would be coming into town to skate it. I believed in that. I wanted that.

Kevin Fowler: Kent built the memorial bowl for our friends. That was all Kent. It’s pretty cool, all the different people’s ashes in there. JP [Dupas], Ron [Ryan Galvan], Alli’s [Summers] hair is in there. Sleazy Steve. You could write a whole novel about Sleazy Steve.

Georgie Launet: It was emotional finishing

HUNGER SKATEPARKS

the memorial bowl. Kent led that crusade but got us together to talk about the shape and the design. Kent had people fly in from around the country to get it poured. The city paid for materials, and Kent and some others paid a lot out of pocket, plus money Kanis had raised.

Leland Couch: Kanis Park has become one of the really nice projects for the parks department — you have the skatepark, a pickleball court, we replaced the playground, we’re bringing back the basketball courts. When I first went out there, there wasn’t much going on, and now it’s packed.

Georgie Launet: Leland has a very natural and creative eye that you can see in the way they’ve added the walking paths, for example. From the day we built the first little thing at Kanis, we had no idea the snowball effect it would have.

Leland Couch: I use Kanis as an example for other locations where we can develop other amenities and as an example of why it’s so important to do that. It’s naturally a deterrent to crime while providing a public resource. We have to invest in our parks.

Georgie Launet: Kanis is one of the raddest skateparks I’ve been to, and I’ve been all over the world skating. “All roads lead to Kanis” is what we’d say on the way home from a skate trip because when you get home from a skate trip, all you wanna do is skate Kanis.

Oby Berry: The last time I went up there, there were so many people there skating. That’s just good to see. I don’t skate as much now, but I still dream about skating. It was always about skating, first and foremost. I’m glad people are still skating it. I’m just glad it’s there.

ALLEN TAYLOR

AMERICAN SOLERA

ATHLETIC BREWING

AVAL BELLS

BENTONVILLE BREWING

BLACK APPLE

BOULEVARD

BRLO

DESCHUTES

DOGFISH HEAD

participants include:

DUCHESSE DE BOURGONGNE

ELYSIAN

EQUILIBRIUM FLYWAY

FOUNDER'S

GOLDEN ROAD

GOOSE ISLAND

KONA

LAZY MAGNOLIA

LOST FORTY

MARTIN HOUSE MONTUCKY

MOODY BREWS

NEW BELGIUM

NEW PROVINCE O'HARA'S OUTLAW

OZARK

PIPEWORKS POINT REMOVE

PRAIRIE

RAPP’S BARREN

SAISON TREMIST SHINER

SHOCK TOP

SOUL & SPIRITS

ST. PETER

STONE'S THROW

TOPPLING GOLIATH

VINO'S BREWPUB

WISEACRE

VIVA UBE

A NEW FILIPINO PASTRY SHOP IN PARK HILL IS PLUM DELICIOUS.

BY RHETT BRINKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

LATTICE

EAT: The Sweet Spot’s ube macapuno pie received rave reviews at the Arkansas Times office.

“I TOLD MY KIDS I LOVE TO BAKE AND I LOVE TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY, SO WE DECIDED TO PUT UP A BAKERY.”

In the six months since Carol Occidental opened her Filipino bakery, The Sweet Spot, in North Little Rock’s Park Hill neighborhood, I drove right past it some 260 times on my daily commute without the slightest idea it was there. The pastry case inside the modest little bakery features wonderful Filipino-inspired desserts, including ensaymada pastries, slices of cassava cake, several cookie varieties and a glass warmer case full of siopao asado — soft, white steamed buns with a braised sweet and savory pork or chicken filling. Maybe most vibrant, though, is the use of ube, a purple yam native to the Philippines. Like the violet paint on the walls of the bakery, The Sweet Spot’s ube cheesecake is a rich indigo, as is the filling in a Filipino pastry called a macapuno pie.

As a food scene reporter, letting a Filipino pastry shop go unnoticed in my own neighborhood is an embarrassing failure and one I don’t take lightly. The aptly named bakery really is a sweet spot in the historic residential neighborhood, which boasts three gas stations within a few blocks of each other, multiple hair and nail salons and a new obnoxiously lit vape shop that opened in September to the ire of many neighborhood residents and businesses. New independent food establishments in the district should not go overlooked.

Occidental has been a passionate home baker for many years. A native of the city of Calamba in the province of Laguna, Philippines, she worked as a nurse in New Jersey before moving to Arkansas in 2002 after her husband, a retired anesthesiologist, took a job at Little Rock’s John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital.

Now that her kids are grown, Occidental said, she needed to do something and didn’t want to return to nursing.

“I told my kids I love to bake and I love to make people happy, so we decided to put up a bakery,” Occidental said. “The name of the store, the color, the logo, it’s all my kids’ idea.” Occidental’s contribution, she suggested demurely, “is just the baking.”

The shop opened in July 2023, and most business is from walk-in customers, but Occidental does take requests for whole pies and cakes. She runs the shop with only one other employee, but business has picked up in 2024, and she expects to hire more. Her kids still help her out with behind-thescenes work, Occidental said. Her daughter — a cellular and molecular biologist living in Boston — runs the shop’s Instagram page (instagram.com/ the_sweet_spot_cpd) from the East Coast.

“Sometimes she’s busy, so that’s why Instagram is not updated all the time,” Occidental said. “And I’m technology impaired.”

Her technological limitations didn’t deter her from taking online baking courses, which she started doing when her kids were still in school. She learned the method of making the crust for the ube macapuno pie from an in-person baking course she took in the Netherlands. She’s also taken

VIBRANTLY VIOLET: The Sweet Spot owner Carol Occidental, a slice of ube crepe cake and the ube ensaymada.

courses in Belgium and the Philippines, she said.

“Every time we traveled, I took a class,” she said.

I found on a recent visit that the shop’s siopao asado with pork is a perfect handheld for lunch, one you could eat in your car while avoiding the office or while taking a neighborhood stroll. The sweet and savory filling is based on Occidental’s grandmother’s recipe — braised pork with a combination of soy sauce and oyster sauce, packed inside one of the most pillowy buns imaginable. Occidental said the bun is difficult to make, and there’s a secret behind it that she cannot reveal. On my way out, I bought a chocolate marshmallow cookie and a cookie with blueberries and cream. I told myself I’d just take one bite of each before heading into the office. Neither cookie made it inside.

The ensaymada pastry is a sweet, buttery bread about the size of a muffin, topped with a buttercream frosting and grated cheese. Occidental offers traditional and ube varieties, and both pair perfectly with a morning or afternoon cup of coffee.

She insisted we try (after removing from the container and heating in the microwave for about 30 seconds) a slice of cassava cake, a traditional dessert from the Philippines made with grated cassava root, coconut, and coconut milk. It’s similar to a custard but more firm, with crisped edges and wonderful coconut flavor. Again, I ate the entire slice after trying to practice self-control.

Despite its striking purple appearance, the ube cheesecake tastes pretty traditional. Occidental tops it with toasted coconut, and said the distinct ube flavor is kind of masked by the cream cheese. Occidental recommends trying her ube macapuno pie if you want the full experience. It received rave reviews at the Arkansas Times office. Think: the latticework pie from a mid-century Betty Crocker cookbook, but Filipino style. Ube is a staple in Filipino cooking and is commonly described as having a nutty, vanilla flavor profile. Occidental said it’s become a trendy ingredient in bigger cities. In fact, the #ubecake hashtag on TikTok has more than 30 million views.

Since opening the shop, Occidental said she’s made some friends in the Central Arkansas Filipino community and was surprised to find so many were from the same area of the country where she grew up. She said friends like to stop by the shop to hang out on Saturdays. It sounds like a fun place to be. The service Occidental and her employee provide is as friendly as you’ll find anywhere.

She said the community response has been positive and people have told her that they’re happy with her offerings, “which I hope is true,” she said, “because I want to see people smile when they eat my pastries.”

DON’T MISS THIS!

BOTTOMS UP

The Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival is back.

BY BECCA BONA

Calling all ale aficionados and lager lovers alike: Prepare to raise the bar at the upcoming 11th annual Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival. Presented by Bet Saracen, this year’s hop-tour benefits the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock and takes place in the Argenta Plaza at Sixth and Main streets on Friday, March 29. From 6-9 p.m., satiate your taste buds and enjoy a curated selection of Arkansas sudsy nectars. Thanks to supporting sponsors Edwards Food Giant, over 600 brats will hit the coals on PK Grills for ticketholders, and there will be ample opportunity to try craft beer rooted in The Natural State.

This festival is more than an ode to beer — it’s an homage to an art. Craft beer in The Natural State is a testament to the rich tapestry of flavors, traditions and stories that define Arkansas. From the rolling hills of the Ozarks to the fertile plains of the Delta, each sip tells a tale of local ingredients, innovative brewing techniques and a deep connection to the land. Whether it’s a crisp farmhouse ale infused with the essence of Arkansas-grown peaches or a robust porter that pays homage to the state’s rich brewing history, every pint reflects the diversity and resilience of the Arkansan spirit.

Join us and enjoy crisp lagers, bold IPAs, rich stouts and more as you journey through the diverse world of Arkansas-specific suds. In addition to the vast array of brews, attendees can also indulge in refreshing seltzers and other beverages that capture the essence of The Natural State.

Get ready to boogie with music by DJ Mike Poe, tasty treats from your favorite food trucks and many more surprises. There are a limited number of VIP tickets for $100 each, which include access to special beers, VIP seating, early entry at 5:30 p.m., access to a private bathroom and catered food from Mr. Cajuns Kitchen. General admission tickets are $40 and are available online and at the door.

All that’s left to do is mark your calendars and join us for a day of sipping, savoring and celebrating the spirit of Arkansas’s vibrant craft beer scene!

BRIAN CHILSON

PARTICIPATING

BREWERIES ARE:

AMERICAN SOLERA

ATHLETIC BREWING

AVAL CIDER

BELL’S BREWERY

BENTONVILLE BREWING COMPANY

BLACK APPLE HARD CIDER

BOULEVARD BREWING COMPANY

BRLO BRWHOUSE

DESCHUTES BREWERY

DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY

DUCHESSE DE BOURGOGNE

ELYSIAN BREWING COMPANY

EQUILIBRIUM BREWERY

FLYWAY BREWING

OZARK BEER CO.

NEW PROVINCE BREWING CO

STONE’S THROW BREWING

POINT REMOVE BREWING

FOUNDERS BREWERY

GOLDEN ROAD BREWING

GOOSE ISLAND BREWERY

KONA BREWING

LAZY MAGNOLIA

LOST FORTY BREWING

MARTIN HOUSE BREWING

MONTUCKY COLD SNACKS MOODY BREWS

NEW BELGIUM BREWING

O’HARA’S BREWERY

OUTLAW BREWING

O’HARA’S (BRASSERIE KAZZEMATTEN)

SHINER BEER (SPOETZL BREWERY)

SHOCK TOP (ANHEUSER-BUSCH)

SOUL & SPIRITS BREWERY

ST. PETER’S BREWERY

TOPPLING GOLIATH BREWING CO.

PIPEWORKS BREWING CO.

PRAIRIE ARTISAN ALES

WISEACRE BREWING CO.

ON BOARD FOR ’24

FULTS AND COUCH BACK MEDICAL MARIJUANA EXPANSION.

BY GRIFFIN COOP

Melissa Fults and David Couch, outspoken marijuana advocates who fought a recreational marijuana proposal in 2022, are lending their support to a constitutional amendment this year that would expand the medical marijuana law voters passed in 2016.

So, what’s different this time? “They gave me everything I asked for,” Fults said.

Items on Fults’ laundry list included a longer lifespan for patient cards, elimination of the fee for obtaining or renewing a card, additional qualifying conditions and a provision to allow patients to grow their own plants. All of those changes are in the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024, proposed by a group called Arkansans for Patient Access. The group submitted a ballot title for the proposed amendment to the state attorney general in January. It was rejected; an amended version was submitted Feb. 5 and was approved 15 days later, clearing the way for organizers to gather the signatures needed to put the measure on the November ballot.

Couch, who authored the successful 2016 amendment, and Fults were unlikely opponents of the Arkansas Adult Use Cannabis Amendment, which would have legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older. Pushed by a group called Responsible Growth Arkansas and supported by the state cannabis industry, the amendment would have increased the number of dispensaries and changed some of the rules regarding cannabis business ownership.

Fults said that amendment would have hurt the state medical marijuana program. Incentivized to serve the state’s recreational customers, Fults said, cultivators would not grow strains with lower amounts of the psychoactive compound THC that might be more beneficial to patients.

Couch said the amendment was too favorable to the existing marijuana industry and campaigned against it with arch-conservative Jerry Cox of the Arkansas Family Council.

“Favorable is a nice way of saying it,” Couch said. The 2022 amendment, he and others believed, would have created a monopoly in an already narrow pool of cultivators and dispensaries, keeping profits in the hands of an elite few.

Voters rejected the 2022 recreational amendment with 56.25% voting against it and 43.75% in favor.

Fults and Couch contributed to the creation of the new proposal. Fults said she met with Robert McLarty and Nate Steele, two politically active Arkansans who also have ownership interest in Arkansas cannabis businesses, and was “ecstatic” to hear of their interest in making changes to the medical marijuana program. Fults provided them with a list of what she believed were the program’s biggest problems and what she would like to see changed.

Bill Paschall, executive director of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association, said he consulted with Fults and Couch to get their input on suggested language for the amendment, which was included in the final product.

The proposal is backed by the state cannabis industry with cultivator Abraham Carpenter of Carpenter Medical Group serving as the chair of the group’s ballot question committee. Lynn Parker, owner of Purspirit Cannabis Co. in Fayetteville, and Paschall are also on the committee along with accountant T.J. Boyle and patient advocate Roger Dean of Benton.

The amendment language obtained the attorney general’s sign-off to start gathering signatures on Feb. 20. Constitutional amendments this year will need 90,704 verified signatures by July 5, according to the Arkansas secretary of state.

The amendment would eliminate the $50 fee the state charges for patient cards and would extend the life of patient cards from one to three years. The state Department of Health reported 97,253 active patient cards in early February.

The measure would also allow pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to certify patients for the program in addition to medical doctors. Paschall noted this would benefit rural Arkansans who may not live near a doctor.

The measure would also allow health care professionals to certify patients based on any “debilitating” condition that “may be alleviated” by the use of marijuana. The 18 qualifying conditions listed in the 2016 amendment will remain legal. Couch said he included those 18 conditions when writing the 2016 measure because they had been accepted in medical programs in other states. Couch said he believes

BRIAN CHILSON

‘EVERYTHING I ASKED FOR’: David Couch (left) and Melissa Fults opposed a recreational marijuana amendment in 2022 but support a 2024 amendment to expand medical marijuana in Arkansas.

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Meet Kumquat, a cherished strain in the Good Day Farm lineup. This hybrid boasts a stunning display of pastel purples, hot pinks, and lime greens, shimmering with trichomes. Open a jar, and you’re greeted by a powerful tropical, citrus, and floral aroma that lingers longer than you’d expect. Kumquat’s flavor is a delightful blend of bright citrus, spring florals, and a subtle dank kush undertone. With lineage from Sorbetto x Sorbet a l’Orange, Kumquat delivers a euphoric mood and relaxed vibe, providing both pain relief and happiness.

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arktimes.com

Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vechicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana.

MARKETPLACE NOTICIA PÚBLICA

AVISO PÚBLICO DE SUBCONVENCIÓN PARA EL EDIFICIO BROWNFIELDS DE GODSEY CLEANERS

PERIODO DE COMENTARIOS PÚBLICOS HASTA EL 18/03/2024

El Programa Brownfields del condado de Pulaski acepta comentarios públicos hasta el lunes 18 de marzo de 2024 sobre la subvención propuesta para la ciudad de North Little Rock.

El propósito del aviso público es informar al público sobre los problemas ambientales y el proceso de limpieza propuesto para el antiguo edificio de Godsey Cleaners ubicado en 4116 E Washington Ave, North Little Rock, AR 72114. La ciudad de North Little Rock ha solicitado una subvención de limpieza del programa Brownfields del condado de Pulaski para la reducción del asbesto encontrado en el edificio.

Se considerarán todos los comentarios sobre el proceso de evaluación. Se archivará una respuesta formal a cada comentario en los registros del proyecto. Se llevará a cabo una reunión pública el martes 12 de marzo de 2024, de 3 a 5 p. m. en el 3915 W 8th Street, sala de conferencias del tercer piso, Little Rock, AR 72204.

Una copia impresa del Análisis de Alternativas de Limpieza de Brownfields, con sus siglas en inglés (ABCA) estará disponible para su revisión en la reunión pública y en la oficina de Brownfields del condado de Pulaski durante el horario comercial, y una copia electrónica estará disponible a pedido.

Todos los comentarios públicos deberán enviarse por escrito a Pulaski County Brownfields o por correo electrónico a qpotter@pulaskicounty.net

El Registro administrativo de Brownfields para la limpieza se mantendrá durante la duración del proyecto y estará disponible para su revisión en la oficina de Brownfields del condado de Pulaski, 3915 W 8th Street, Third Floor, Little Rock, AR 72204, durante el horario comercial normal y en otros momentos por cita.

Para programar una cita para revisar el Registro administrativo o si tiene preguntas sobre este anuncio, comuníquese con la Oficina de Brownfields del condado de Pulaski al (501) 340-3594. El condado de Pulaski sigue todas las leyes antidiscriminatorias federales, estatales y locales. Comuníquese con nosotros si necesita esta información en otro idioma, letra grande o Braille.  El Condado de Pulaski se acata a las leyes federales, estatales y locales contra la discriminación. Si usted necesita ésta información en otro idioma, con letra grande o en braille, por favor comuníquese con nosotros.

Esta publicación fue pagada por el condado de Pulaski, Arkansas, a un costo de $600.

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Para mayor información llama al (501) 327-9242

LISA Academy, 10825 Financial Centre Pkwy Ste 360. Little Rock, AR 72211, Attn: HR, Refer to Ad#ZK

WHAT’S IN THE NEW MEDICAL MARIJUANA AMENDMENT?

• Allow pharmacists, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to certify patients for medical marijuana. Currently, only doctors can perform certifications.

• Allow health care professionals (above) to certify patients for any “debilitating” condition, not just the 18 existing qualifying conditions.

• Eliminate the $50 fee for medical marijuana cards.

• Extend the life of medical marijuana cards from one to three years.

• Allow patients to grow up to seven mature plants and seven immature plants.

• Prevent any constitutional amendment from being amended or repealed unless by the people.

• Allow the sale of pre-rolled marijuana by eliminating the state prohibition on dispensaries’ sale of paraphernalia requiring combustion.

there are other conditions, such as migraines and insomnia, for which patients could use marijuana.

Oklahoma, which approved medical marijuana in 2018, does not have qualifying conditions and allows doctors to certify patients based on the same standards they would follow when recommending or approving any medication.

The measure would also allow patients to grow their own marijuana plants, something the 2016 law does not allow. The proposed measure would let cardholders grow up to seven mature plants and seven immature plants, and calls for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, which already regulates the state cannabis industry, to come up with any other necessary regulations.

Since the plants are difficult to grow, Couch predicted that the only people who will grow their own when it’s legal are the people who are already doing so illegally. The amendment will also pave the way for dispensaries to sell pre-rolls by eliminating the state prohibition on dispensaries’ sale of paraphernalia requiring combustion.

The measure does not expunge past marijuana convictions, something that Fults complained was not included in the 2022 recreational amendment. Fults said she and others agreed not to include expungements in the 2024 amendment because it is focused on medical marijuana, and expunging past convictions didn’t fit the mission.

“We all decided that this was strictly going to be about making it more accessible,” she said.

Here are the must-haves for March.

UP YOUR LEMONADE GAME!

SWEET SPRING SCENT!

A TOTAL ECLIPSE OF ART!

1. Pour some liquid sunshine into these colorful rattan wrapped glass mugs. Box Turtle, 2616 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, 501-661-1167, shopboxturtle.com. 2. Relax and unwind with our favorite lavender candle. The Punchbowl, 1501 Main St., Suite 300, Little Rock. 3. Embody the skies with this celestial sterling silver eclipse pendant. Bella Vita Jewelry & Gifts, 108 W 6th St., Little Rock, 501-396-9146, bellavitajewelry.net

4. Rustic meets modern farmhouse in this unique vase. Rhea Drug, 2801 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, 501-664-4117.

HAVE JOB OPPORTUNITIES OR SOMETHING TO SELL? EMAIL LUIS@ARKTIMES.COM TO ADVERTISE IN MARKETPLACE.

Associate Pastor sought by First Korean Presbyterian Church of Arkansas in Little Rock, AR who can support Sr. Pastor, preach, & conduct worship services. MA Req. Email resume to fkpca@gmx.com

St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, AR seeks Medical Technologist. Multiple positions available. Requires BS in Medical Technology, alternatively BS in Chemistry, Biology or Physical Science + 1 yr of lab exp; and current certification by ASCP or equivalent. Apply to pamela. darnold@commonspirit.org

Like many of you, the Observer got well and truly walloped by a tornado that chewed through Central Arkansas one year ago. Did any of us anticipate on that spring morning of March 31, 2023, that our neighborhoods would be so dramatically smashed, trashed and reconfigured by nightfall? That owners of houses crunched by fallen trees would count themselves as the lucky ones compared to neighbors whose erstwhile homes were blown all the way out of existence?

The Observer was clacking away at the keyboard that day, willfully ignoring all #arwx tweets and the gnawing anxiety that seeps in with plummeting air pressure. In the event of natural disasters, it’s the glamorous news outlets with on-air personalities and live Doppler radar that serve you best. Low-tech bloggers and magazine writers have little to offer here. As such, the misfit newsroom at East Markham and Scott was glad to stand down and leave the tornado tracking to the professionals.

Maybe we should have wrung our hands more, or stockpiled a few extra batteries. But honestly, what difference would it have made? When a twister might or might not be headed your way, there’s not much to do but wait to see which way the wind blows.

When it did, in fact, blow this way, the westward-facing view from The Observer’s downtown headquarters didn’t look so bad. Such is the trickster nature of tornadoes, which

CORNADO!

laser-focus their destruction on a narrow and well-defined path of obliteration, leaving the rest of town to wonder what the fuss is about.

A phone call from a neighbor one street over offered assurances that while the tornado did come close, our slice of Kingwood emerged unscathed. Looking back, The Observer realizes it would have been prudent to confirm this allclear report with one’s own eyes before passing the good news along to a friend who lived five houses down in the other direction. Within half an hour of receiving our inaccurately rosy report, the friend texted back to set the record straight: “My house is destroyed.”

The Observer fared better than that, with only blown-down fences, an uprooted patio, a shredded roof and a shattered window. The real loss was the trees: A yard once shaded by 80-year-old oaks now burns unprotected in the Arkansas sun.

The days after the tornado brought an influx of do-gooders forcing more tarps and bottled water on us than we could possibly absorb. Slow-moving waves of chainsaw-wielding strangers streamed through the neighborhood for a week. It didn’t take long to figure out that these zombie-like hordes would not be dissuaded, so it was easiest to point them to a downed limb and let them hack away.

When the caravan of linemen and amateur lumberjacks finally took their leave, The Observer’s street was left quiet, empty and

ugly. With the trees gone, backs of houses were laid inappropriately bare, as if the entire neighborhood was caught out in their underpants. A tick-riddled wedge of woods where the kids used to build treehouses and wade in the creek was stripped down to a ravine of dust and detritus that looks like what it is: a scar.

Eventually, a novel scraggle of weeds crawled out of the naked patches where trees and houses once stood. Among them was a species new to the area, a fat, fibrous plant that grew at a remarkable rate. The Observer found a thicket of it in the backyard, but also along the road and in a newly vacant lot a half-mile away.

While the neighborhood itself remained damaged and depopulated, slow to recover, this new arrival seemed to thrive. True to form, The Observer observed the alien grass over the next few months as it grew tall and taller still. And then, around mid-summer, it sprouted ears.

Maybe the March tornado picked up a bag of deer corn and flung it like fairy dust across Kingwood? That’s the only explanation we can think of. The Observer’s own yard yielded nearly a dozen ears. Nervous that no birds or squirrels had taken even a nibble, we opted to follow suit.

It’s a missed opportunity we now regret. Corn is an annual plant, meaning those stalks won’t pop up again. The cornado of 2023 was a freak, one-time thing, just like the tornado itself. Or so we hope.

SAVETHEDATE!

SPRING

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