Arkansas Times | June 2022 by Arkansas Times

WEED, DIVERSIFIED | BEST CHICKEN SANDWICHES | WOE TO THE UTERUS

ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022

THE RAZORBACKS ARE TRENDING UP. SAVVYKIDS: GET READY TO PARTY

BY BEAU WILCOX

ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 1

Featuring: DJ Kramer DJ Abnormal & DJ Terence

JUNE 2022

FEATURE 22 HOG HEYDAY

It’s a great time to be a Razorback fan.

NOISE IN THE NATURAL STATE: We talk with Chris Terry, a cornerstone of the heavy music scene in Arkansas.

By Beau Wilcox

9 THE FRONT

Q&A: With rising law scholar Justyce Yuille. Inconsequential News Quiz: The Limp Bequette Edition.

13 THE TO-DO LIST

18 NEWS & POLITICS

Arkansans steel themselves for a rocky abortion rights battle. By Austin Bailey

29 SAVVY KIDS

Tips for hosting a birthday bash that’s all fun, no drama. By Katherine Wyrick

39 CULTURE

Meet Mahakala Music, Arkansas’s foothold in the world of avant-garde jazz. By Sammy Williams

42 CULTURE

A Q&A with Chris Terry (CT) on keeping heavy music in Arkansas loud and weird. By Stephanie Smittle ON THE COVER: The Razorbacks rally at War Memorial Stadium in October 2021, facing an in-state opponent for the first time since 1944. Photo by Brian Chilson. 4 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

MATT WHITE

Juneteenth, Carmen Morales at The Loony Bin, The Irie Lions at Stickyz, North Mississippi Allstars and Dogtown Throwdown in Argenta, Big Boi and Run the Jewels at the Momentary and more.

52 FOOD & DRINK

A list of chicken sandwiches worth crossing the road for. By Rhett Brinkley

56 HISTORY

On Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe, El Dorado’s famously superstitious baseball star. By Ernest Dumas

60 CANNABIZ

Could the state’s restrictions on medical marijuana offerings be loosening? By Griffin Coop

66 THE OBSERVER

It’s a wild time to have a uterus.

VISIT ARKANSAS IN COMFORT

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Newest hotel in Conway Just off I-40 near Hendrix College and UCA Large contemporary rooms and suites Breakfast included Large indoor pool and exercise room Meeting room Group and corporate rates available Pet friendly Hilton Honors points

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HILTON GARDEN INN JONESBORO 2204 E Caraway Road Jonesboro, AR 72712 870-931-7727 www.jonesboro.hgi.com

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK 811 E. 4th Street Little Rock, AR 72201 501-372-5102 www.hiexpress.com/littlerockdwtn • • • • • • • •

Newest hotel in Downtown Little Rock Next to Heifer International and Clinton Presidential Center Minutes from The River Market District Breakfast included Indoor pool and exercise room Meeting room Group and corporate rates available IHG Rewards points

Close to biking trails Bike lockers available Crystal Bridges & The Momentary -3.5 miles Walmart headquarter 2 miles Indoor pool and exercise room Meeting room Group and corporate rates available Pet friendly Hilton Honors points

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Just off Caraway Road, 3 miles from Arkansas State University 5 meeting rooms totaling nearly 5000 square feet Meetings for up to 300 people Free parking Indoor pool and exercise room Group and corporate rates available Pet friendly Hilton Honors points

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PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt EDITOR Lindsey Millar CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener SENIOR EDITOR Max Brantley MANAGING EDITOR Austin Bailey ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Stephanie Smittle ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rhett Brinkley CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Jordan Little ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sarah Holderfield DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Phyllis A. Britton ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Brooke Wallace, Lee Major, Terrell Jacob and Kaitlyn Looney

Bettye Baxter, Naomi Persons, Denise Persons and Sonjia Persons Semaj Thompson, Superintendent Mike Poore

Student artists Paula Aguilar-Ortiz and Semaj Thompson from Booker Arts Magnet School provided the art used for this year’s special recognitions. (Carrie Porter, art teacher and Dr. Cheryl Carson, principal.)

2022 Volunteers in Public Schools Award Nominees and Winners

Scott Allen * Arkansas Children’s Hospital * Arkansas Peace Week LaKeitha Austin Austin Bailey Josh Bazyk, Lifeline Baptist Church Angela Bishop Dr. Samuel Branch * Dr. LaTonya Brooks, BNB Projects * Janet Meyer Buford Siobhan Carpenter Jaydah Carruth Dr. John Carter * Central Church of Christ Cornerstone Pharmacy Tracy Debro Kisha Dunn * Gandolfo’s NY Delicatessen Dave Garner, Little Rock Church

Kyle & Nat Graumann Nona Grubbs Elizabeth Haskett Highland Valley United Methodist Church Jen Holman * Lasaundra Johnson Angela Jones * Edward Jordan Pam King * Sadie Kirk * Jessie Lapham Chloe Lee Cameron Menzies * Caroline McCormick Sabrina Mills * Brandi Nichols Park West Pharmacy * Denise Persons *

Pfeifer Camp AmeriCorp Kim Reed Khadijah Rideout Rotary Club of West LR Lori Schaffhauser * Adele Simmons Samia Smith * Deborah Solee Doris Starlard The Bridge Church of Cabot Daniel Voth Ron Watson, Had2 Graduate Mike Watts Crystal Whittington Cheryl Wilson Zionalvary Mentoring * from Mt. Zion Baptist and Calvary Baptist Churches * award winners

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Roland R. Gladden IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jackson Gladden CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson BILLING/COLLECTIONS Charlotte Key PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

association of alternative newsmedia

FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE CALL: (501) 375-2985 Subscription prices are $60 for one year. VOLUME 48, ISSUE 10

Kim Reed, Brandi Nichols, Edward Jordan

Arkansas Children’s Hospital and Mentors of Zionalvary 6 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

Samia Smith, Mike Poore

Pam Smith, Pam King, Pam Whitaker

ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each month by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MRKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $60 for one year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is $5, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $5.00 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially. ©2022 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

ARKTIMES.COM Phil Cox, Michael Hall, Scott Allen (ACH), Mike Poore, Alllie Freeman, Lionel Davis, Bryan Merrell, Randy Madison

201 EAST MARKHAM, SUITE 150 LITTLE ROCK, AR 72201 501-375-2985

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THE FRONT Q&A

WHAT’S IN A NAME? JUSTYCE YUILLE MEETS HER DESTINY.

We can thank God and Grandma Hazel for 23-year-old Justyce Yuille’s career plans. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville graduate ships out to law school this fall with a mission to secure equity, understanding and justice in her native Arkansas. One of 10 recipients of this year’s NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s MarshallMotley scholarships, Yuille earned a full law school scholarship in exchange for her commitment to devoting the first eight years of her career to practicing civil rights law in service to Black communities in the South. The granddaughter of 97-year-old Hazel Bogard Fingers, a past president of the Little Rock NAACP chapter, Yuille braids her inherited passion for civil rights with a deep faith. You were born for this, right? Has your name shaped your career path? What’s interesting is that my dad said he named me Justyce because God spoke to him and told him I was going to bring justice to lots of people’s lives.

she was president of the NAACP chapter in Little Rock and helped to integrate all-white Bishop Street. She told me a story about how the KKK surrounded her home and tried to force her out of the neighborhood. That story reminds me of the fact that justice work is really important. Despite the threats on her life she continued to do this work. So I am going to do this work because God called me to do this, and also because of Grandma Hazel.

FAVORITE MOVIES TO RELAX TO: “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Encanto” FAVORITE SCRIPTURE: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” When I get nervous or anxious, that resonates.

Spirituality seems to be a huge part of your life. I grew up in the church. When I was in Little Rock I was at Word of Outreach Christian Academy. The foundation for everything was God. We learned scriptures and Bible stories, we learned our ABCs through Bible scriptures. Every day we went to church, and when I moved to Houston I still attended Bible studies, I sang in the choir and I was a praise dancer. God has always been a part of my life.

Where will you go for law school? Tell me about your Arkansas ties. I haven’t decided yet where I’m going, I’m from Little Rock. I’m the youngest girl but I’m committed to staying in the South TIP FOR SELF-PRESERVATION: To protect my in my family. I have two older sisters, an and serving communities in the South. mental health, I personally am learning to say “no” older brother and a younger brother. But And then I want to build my foundation more. I went to high school in Texas. So half of in Arkansas. I really want to build up my life was in Little Rock, the other half my community in Little Rock, to be a was in Houston. It’s really because of civil rights attorney and then hopefully God that I went to UA. God called me back to Arkansas. UA ended up a judge. So wherever I go, I’m coming back. There’s lots to be done in being the only school I applied to for undergrad, and I got accepted. Arkansas. Did you plan a career in law all along? I always knew I wanted to go to law school. My undergraduate degrees are in criminal justice, political science and African American studies, with a minor in legal studies. All my professors played a role in where I am today, but the professor who really helped me solidify the fact that I want to be a civil rights attorney was Dr. [Alphonso] Grant, who passed away a year and a half ago. I took two classes with him, and he had us read James Baldwin and W.E.B. Du Bois. We talked about race a lot and he constantly challenged my mind. He told me, “Justyce, there’s always more to learn.” It also runs in the family, right? I will be the first lawyer in my family. But my Grandma Hazel is 97, and

What problems do you want to tackle specifically? I want to address voting rights, I want to address incarceration, and I always want to address education. Those three issues, amongst others, are something I just continuously see. Not only do I want to help register people to vote, but I also want to try to tackle any laws that are discriminatory, that keep people from voting. Growing up in Little Rock, you would see a lot of racial discrimination on a daily basis. That’s the realization I came to. My neighbors, my community, they never really sought justice because they felt that they couldn’t get it. I myself have been a victim of racism. I have seen my father be a victim of racism. I plan on building a practice right where I grew up and really trying to seek justice, to fight for justice, for so many individuals who felt like that wasn’t an option for them. — Austin Bailey ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 9

THE FRONT

THE INCONSEQUENTIAL NEWS QUIZ

THE LIMP BEQUETTE EDITION PLAY ALONG AT HOME WHILE RECOVERING FROM YOUR RABIES SHOT.

2. The University of Arkansas announced it’s moving away from Pepsi products this summer. Who will be the university’s new exclusive nonalcoholic cold beverage sponsor and provider? A) Cheerwine. B) Mountain Valley Spring Water for its healing powers. C) Lost Forty’s new Punchy Hard Seltzer Sno Cone Collection (only 5% ABV). D) Coca-Cola. 3. Because you can’t run for president without a book, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton has a new one coming out in November. What’s it called? A) “I Hate Everyone: If You Do, Too, I’m Your Man” B) “My Life: A Sand Lizard in the Senate” C) “Passion in the Trenches: Brothers in Arms” D) “Only the Strong: Reversing the Left’s Plot to Sabotage American Power” 10 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

4. The first game of the Arkansas Razorback baseball team’s series vs. Vanderbilt on May 13 was disrupted when a wild animal made an appearance in the left field stands. What happened? A) A western chicken turtle (the rarest aquatic turtle in Arkansas) was discovered in the stands eating a fan’s discarded hot dog. B) Tusk V, the Razorbacks’ official live mascot, was purposely released from his cage by an animal rights activist and charged his way through the “Big Red” section of the left field stands, injuring five. C) A bald eagle swooped into the stands and was struck by a routine foul ball, injuring the endangered bird of prey. It was revived by a freshman nursing major who later released the bird from the pitcher’s mound after the 9-6 loss in extra innings. D) A raccoon was captured in the stands by an outdoorsy Razorback fan who was able to subdue the creature by the scruff of the neck, to raucous cheers from the crowd. He was bitten by the creature after releasing him outside the stadium and has undergone one round of rabies shots. 5. Jake Bequette, the former Razorback football player and wacko Republican who challenged U.S. Sen. John Boozman in the primary (and almost certainly lost; press time was before election day), called fraud and filed a lawsuit that went nowhere after his name was incorrectly listed on the ballot in two Arkansas counties. How was his name mislisted? A) Jock Biscuit B) Limp Bequette C) Teeny Tiny Tommy Cotton D) Jack Bequette 6. Chris Bequette, Jake’s even wackier uncle, got a celebrity endorsement for his longshot bid for lieutenant governor. Who from? A) Bill Cosby B) Tiffany Trump C) Cooter from “Dukes of Hazzard” D) Lou Holtz

ANSWERS: 1.D, 2.D, 3.D, 4.D, 5.D, 6.D

1. Heifer International has sold its entire Little Rock campus and will lease two of the building’s four floors from the new owner for continued operations. Who bought the building? A) TopGolf, the golf-themed entertainment venue, bar and restaurant. The company promises visitors to its driving range can earn prizes by hitting barges in the Arkansas River with golf balls. B) Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based convenience store chain known for its massive floor plans, will open its largest-ever roadside outpost — with a full floor devoted to a beef jerky bar and a sign with the buck-toothed beaver mascot towering over the building. The chain said it was excited to be conveniently located near the sea of concrete created by the ongoing I-30 bridge expansion. C) Holy Ghost Ministries, Jason Rapert’s “nonprofit,” is expanding its footprint. Rapert says he’ll put up a statue of Jesus that will make the Christ of the Ozarks look like one of them little pink muscle men figures you had when you were a kid. D) Lyon College. The tiny Batesville-based liberal arts school will open dental and veterinary schools on the campus.

Flexible treatment for an unforgiving disease PHP vs IOP: What is the difference? While each program is different, they are similar in some ways

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MOD, MAGIC, MUSIC, AND MORE Join Summer Reading Club for hands-on science with the Museum of Discovery and enjoy live performances featuring puppeteer Lela Bloom; magicians Tommy Terrific and Scott Davis; and musicians Brian & Terri Kinder, mömandpöp, and Stephin Booth. Participants also receive a ticket to a Travs game! Receive a free book bag from your local branch when you register.

THE LIBRARY, REWRIT TEN.

ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 11

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SARACEN RESTAURANTS At the Red Oak Steakhouse, enjoy prime-grade beef and bison from the Quapaw herd alongside a carefully curated menu in the property’s flagship restaurant. Red Oak’s signature cuisine is presented in a class of its own, with Saracen’s focus on offering the best steaks in the South carefully managed from pasture to plate.

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COURTESY OF RUN THE JEWELS/MOMENTARY

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

‘THE DIRTY SOUTH: CONTEMPORARY ART, MATERIAL CULTURE, AND THE SONIC IMPULSE’ THROUGH MONDAY 7/25. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART. $12 (EXHIBIT), $98-$200 (CONCERT).

In conjunction with “The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse” — a visual exhibit displaying “100 years of visual art, material objects, sound and music to explore how Black culture, across time and geography, has shaped and influenced the South and U.S. contemporary culture at large” — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is bringing hip-hop royalty to the stage on the Momentary Green, with a July 16 show from Big Boi (OutKast) and Run the Jewels (Atlanta god and Bernie Sanders’ Most Valuable Endorser Killer Mike, plus producer EI-P, née El-Producto, née Jaime Meline), whose delivery makes 2020s-era activism seem simultaneously merry and chilling: “And every day on evening news they feed you fear for free/And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me/And ’til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, ‘I can’t breathe’/And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV/The most you give’s a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy/But truly the travesty, you’ve been robbed of your empathy.” Get tickets for the exhibit at crystalbridges.org and tickets for the concert at themomentary.org. ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 13

MUTANTS OF THE MONSTER FESTIVAL

THURSDAY 6/2-SUNDAY 6/5. REV ROOM, WHITE WATER TAVERN, VINO’S. Doom rock, stoner metal, Southern sludge, grindcore — whatever you want to call it, heavier music has officially outgrown the confines of genre. Those various offshoots and mutations, too, mean that “metal audiences” don’t necessarily look the way they did in decades past, though the transition hasn’t been without its cultural tensions; see author Laina Dawes’ “What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal,” for one. Curated by Rwake frontman and “Slow Southern Steel” filmmaker Chris Terry (better known locally as CT), the long-running Mutants of the Monster Micro-Fest embraces all the bits of subculture that heavy music touches (or grapples in the pit with), with daytime book panel discussions (including the aforementioned Dawes), an open-air pop-up market featuring art and food vendors, and sets from Rebelmatic, Weedeater, Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdad (with a crawfish boil!), Rwake, Two Runner (pictured at left), Hexxus, Crankbait, Second Life, Black Cobra, Cloud Rat, Tim Easton, Adam Faucett, Stinking Lizaveta, Brat and others. Follow Mutants of the Monster on Facebook or Instagram for details, and get weekend or single-day passes at whitewatertavern.com.

JUNETEENTH IN DA ROCK

“Juneteenth is more than just a celebration with music and food,” Mosaic Templars Cultural Center Director Quantia “Key” Fletcher said in a press release. “It’s the very foundation of the story and history of our people in America.” The day marks the emancipation of Black Americans on June 19, 1865, when Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Texas’ gulf-side doorstep and informed Texans that “in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free” — a full 2 1/2 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This year, Little Rock’s celebration adds a 5K walk/run to the street party festivities (trucks and vendors, a kids zone, music and entertainment), which routes runners past historical sites like Arkansas Baptist College, Little Rock Central High School, Philander Smith College and the home of Mifflin Gibbs, the first elected Black municipal judge in the United States. Check out, too, “And the Beat Don’t Stop: 50 Years of Hip-Hop,” the hip-hop history exhibit at Mosaic Templars up through July 1, and the 8 p.m. concert at The Hall from R&B singer Leela James (pictured at right). 14 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

COURTESY OF THE HALL

SATURDAY 6/18. DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK, MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, THE HALL. 8 A.M. $20-$35.

RACHEL TRUSTY’S “THE NEW SAINTS”

‘QUEER’

THURSDAY 6/2-SATURDAY 7/30. FENIX GALLERY AT MT. SEQUOYAH, FAYETTEVILLE. Fayetteville not-for-profit Fenix Arts is hosting “QUEER,” a gallery collection of works by LGBTQIA+ artists across the Mid-South that wades into questions about queer identities through photography, ink pressings, fiber arts and drawings in graphite and colored pencil. In one sculpture — Rachel Trusty’s “Uncle Wayne” — a coppery braid of human hair emerges from a corner of a gray concrete cube, while in Joshua Brinlee’s “Self-Portrait as Hoarder,” the artist’s musculature strains a latex Polo shirt as he stands among an immaculately shiny assemblage of anal plugs. The works are gorgeous and defiant and deeply varied in both tone and medium, and the represented artists will give a discussion at the Fenix Gallery starting at 6 p.m. Friday, June 3. A performance of a one-act play from folk entertainer Willi Carlisle accompanies the showing, and the exhibition stays up until July 30. The exhibition was juried by retired UA Little Rock Gallery Director Brad Cushman, whose longtime championing of self-taught and radically outspoken art dovetails perfectly with the exhibition’s thrust. See fenixarts.org for details.

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS FRIDAY 6/24. ARGENTA PLAZA. 7 P.M. FREE.

What do you do when your dad is the late Jim Dickinson, low-key god of a muddy Memphis sound that made its way into (and frequently defined) records by Bob Dylan and Mojo Nixon and Big Star and Ry Cooder and The Replacements and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins? You get heralded — despite that gloriously greasy legacy of recordings — by your pops as his “greatest productions,” and you strike up a band of your own. Guitarist Luther Dickinson and drummer Cody Dickinson played with Jim beginning in 1989 and, under the moniker North Mississippi Allstars, have remained at the core of a revolving lineup of musicians making what’s functionally called “roots music,” but which anchors itself in horn-flecked blues and soul traditions. Paying homage to North Mississippi godfathers like R.L. Burnside and forever delivering on the mantra etched on the cover of their eighth studio album — “World Boogie Is Coming” — Luther and Cody make blues for listeners who might otherwise have written off electric blues altogether, sealing the deal with vocal performances from Mavis Staples, Otha Turner, Jason Isbell and, lately, vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. They give a free concert at Argenta Plaza as part of the monthly Argenta Vibe Music Series, which will feature (also free) shows from folksinger Gina Chavez in July, gospel legend Elizabeth King in August, hip-hop multihyphenate Big Piph in October and Austin partymaker Shinyribs in November.

ARKANSAS TRAVELERS VS. WICHITA WIND SURGE TUESDAY 6/7-SUNDAY 6/12. DICKEY-STEPHENS PARK. $7-$13.

Will the sinkholes that plague Dickey-Stephens swallow us all alive during the Seventh Inning Stretch, inspiring a Netflix documentary titled “The Night the Lights Went Out at Dickey?” Anyone’s guess! Are the Travelers even good this year? Not especially! But who cares? Baseball is back! There are corn dogs and nachos and fresh air, the beer garden is in full swing and the between-inning games are as madcap as ever. Later in the month (June 21-26), the Travs play a series of home games against the Frisco RoughRiders, a team we gave a run for their money earlier this season. See milb.com/arkansas/tickets for tickets. ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 15

‘FLEX’

A ROWDY FAITH

FRIDAY 6/24. HIBERNIA IRISH TAVERN. 7 P.M. The harmonies of Alisyn Reid and Cate Davison are an absolute balm, alternately sweet and haunting, and when 2017’s “Wide River” pops up on my Spotify playlist, I know good and well it’s going to be in my head for days on end and I’m not even one iota mad about it. This show at Hibernia Irish Tavern marks a reemergence to the stage for the duo, and the music’s tendency to gravitate to themes of lightness/ heaviness couldn’t feel more timely in 2022. If you can manage to make it to the end of their set without becoming a die-hard fan, you may want to have your pulse checked by a licensed physician.

“We’ve never had so many people tell us on their way out of a workshop reading, ‘You have to do this play,’” TheatreSquared’s Dexter Singleton said in a press release. “The audience loved it. The artists loved it.” That would be Candrice Jones’ “Flex,” a play that follows a girls high school basketball team in the fictional Plainnole, Arkansas, centered on “being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas.” Jones’ “A Medusa Thread” was shortlisted for the Yale Drama Prize this year, and the Dermott (Chicot County) native is quickly garnering attention in drama circles around the globe. “Flex” premieres at TheatreSquared under the direction of Delicia Turner Sonnenberg June 29-July 24, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sat.Sun. at 477 W. Spring St. in downtown Fayetteville. Visit theatre2.org for details and tickets. If a trip to Northwest Arkansas is out of the picture, consider getting in on the digital streaming run of the play July 12-24 for season subscribers to the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, where Jones is a playwright-in-residence. See therep.org for details.

JACOB STORM EWING

KATIE CHILDS

WEDNESDAY 6/29-SUNDAY 7/24. STREAM DIGITALLY (ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY) OR ATTEND IN-PERSON AT THEATRESQUARED, FAYETTEVILLE. $18$58.

DOGTOWN THROWDOWN

FRIDAY 6/10-SATURDAY 6/11. ARGENTA ARTS DISTRICT. 4 P.M. FRI.-10 P.M. SAT. FREE. On one hand, the pandemic was/is a nightmare we continue to be groggily roused from. On the other, hospitality workers are underpaid masters of invention who, when business becomes untenable indoors, take to the streets. Ergo the sprouting of “entertainment districts” on either side of the Arkansas River, in which patrons can not only dine outdoors, but can bring their adult beverages with them to the party (subject to some regulations). On the second weekend of each month between April and October, the Argenta Arts District turns into a bit of a block party, with a supercharged Saturday Farmers Market and streetside specials from partners Four Quarter Bar, Flyway Brewing, Brood & Barley, Reno’s Argenta Cafe, Crush Wine Bar, Cregeen’s Irish Pub, Skinny J’s, the Innovation Hub and The Culture. Check the rules and regulations at argentaartsdistrict.org, and make sure and be near the district’s outdoor stage at 7 p.m. Saturday for a performance from the fierce (and ethereally voiced, thanks to singer Chris Denny) Gravel Yard Band. 16 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE IRIE LIONS

SATURDAY 6/18. STICKYZ ROCK ’N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK. 9 P.M. $10. Two clicks past the Mento music of post-war Jamaica and tucked unfathomably in the hills of landlocked Arkansas are The Irie Lions, a Fayetteville-based sextet that extends into a bigger ensemble with horns when the occasion calls for it. Their sound has gotten irresistibly smooth over the last few years; see the video for “Likkle Love” from the band’s 2021 performance at Fox Trail Distillery. Bonus: Despite the political injustices that have so often fueled reggae music’s lyrics, it’s actually pretty hard to listen to it and be anything but blissful. See stickyz.com for tickets.

TRILLIUM SALON SERIES: SKY CREATURE

THURSDAY 6/23. FLY’S EYE DOME, CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART. 6 P.M. FREE. From Trillium Salon Series — devoted to showcasing the margins of new instrumental and classical works, and in atypical stage settings — comes this concert from Sky Creature, part of a monthly series in collaboration with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The New York-based duo’s engine is a dance machine, propelled largely by Majel Connery’s otherworldly vocals, sprung of operatic training but utterly unbound by it. Witness “All Different Dances,” for one, as if The Sugarcubes were resurrected in 2022 and tasked with composing the soundtrack for a four-minute film, or the sharp compositional turns the duo takes on a double EP out June 1, “Bear Mountain/Childworld.” Central Arkansans, catch Sky Creature the following night (Friday, June 24) at Maxine’s in Hot Springs with our favorite local sweethearts of graveyard dance music, Ghost Bones.

CHARLOTTE TAYLOR CARMEN MORALES BILL MIZE WEDNESDAY 6/8-SATURDAY 6/11. THURSDAY 6/16. THE JOINT & GYPSY RAIN THE LOONY BIN. $2-$15. THEATER AND COFFEEHOUSE. FRIDAY 6/3. KINGS LIVE MUSIC, CONWAY. 8 P.M. $5.

Charlotte Taylor, a soul vocalist who specializes in making you love songs you previously felt lukewarm about, brings her rock-solid backing outfit Gypsy Rain (Matt Stone, John Roach, Bruce Johnston) to Kings Live Music, a prolific presence in the Conway live music scene (along with the university-centric Bear’s Den Pizza.) A blues-centered singer who’s been on Little Rock stages long enough to outlast some of the venues she’s played in, Taylor’s voice is enormous and remarkably elastic, big and brash enough to do justice to “Chain of Fools” and “Me and Bobby McGee,” and sultry enough to turn on a dime for “Pretty, Pretty,” a song Taylor wrote after a Beale Street bystander tipped his hat to her as she passed.

Tenaciously offering humor in a dystopian era the likes of which yield only rage and disgust, The Loony Bin brings comedian Carmen Morales to town for a run of shows following her HBOLatino comedy special “Entre Nos: Carmen & Alfred.” A heckler’s worst nightmare and creator of a podcast called “No Sir I Don’t Like It” in which she asks guests to talk shit about things they despise, Morales’ Instagram feed attests to her desire to be the face of someone’s airbrushed Impala hood or calf tattoo (“That’s how you really know you’ve made it”), but her website boasts somewhat loftier aspirations: “Be the tits you wanna see in the world.” Fayetteville comedian Stef Bright opens the show. Get tickets at lr.loonybincomedy.com.

7:30 P.M. $30. Watching the video for Tennessee fingerstyle guitarist Bill Mize’s “Girl From Icanikly” is to watch a solo musician completely at ease doing many things at once: establishing the melody, giving it the presence of a low-end bass line, sprinkling sparkly harmonics and flourishes over the top and making the whole damn thing sound seamless. The world of acoustic fingerstyle playing is a tightly knit one, and this series in Argenta is one of the best-kept secrets in town, bringing masters like Mize into a room with pristine recitallevel acoustics that make North Little Rock’s Main Street on the other side of the theater’s curtains feel a million miles away. Get tickets at argentaacoustic.com.

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NEWS & POLITICS FEMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Arkansas protesters are getting loud about threats to reproductive rights.

YOU WEREN’T OVARY-ACTING AS THE CLOCK TICKS DOWN ON ABORTION ACCESS IN ARKANSAS, A NEW BATTLE FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS BEGINS. BY AUSTIN BAILEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON 18 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

rkansas’s longest-running protest against the end of abortion rights happens in Harrison, where a dedicated squad of rural progressives shows up at the Boone County Courthouse square every evening with salty signs in hand. The U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision to erase federal protections for abortion access and allow the states to do what they will leaked out May 2, and the Harrison protesters started showing up May 3. The team usually includes half a dozen or so people, and they come out when the heat of the day relents around 5 or 6 p.m. They stay for about an hour, long enough to be seen and short enough to clear out before the mosquitos show up. Their messages range from staid and straightforward (End the filibuster) to raucous and ribald (If abortion is murder then a blowjob is cannibalism). These protesters in Harrison, along with protesters in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Mountain Home and Jonesboro, have little power to hold back the Arkansas trigger law that will go into effect as soon as the Supreme Court’s decision is officially released, peeling back rights encoded by the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Abortion access here will cease immediately, even for victims of rape and incest. The only exception in Arkansas will be to save the life of the mother. Arkansas lawmakers passed this trigger law without much sweat in 2021, revealing a disconnect between Arkansas voters and the people they send to the state Capitol on their behalf. “We get more positive reactions than negative,” Harrison protester Melissa Weaver said. “We get a lot of honks and waves and peace signs and thumbs up. We get an occasional thumbs down, or people yelling that we’re baby killers.” This support for protecting abortion access, even in arguably the most conservative county in Arkansas, reflects what the poll numbers tell us. Most people in the United States support at least limited access to abortion, even in Arkansas. WEAPONIZED CIVILITY Plenty of anti-abortion Republicans spent recent weeks patting themselves on the back for what they characterize as their decades-long civil, disciplined approach to overturning Roe, a sentiment usually expressed with corollary disdain for Democrats’ sidewalk chalk terrorism and pink pussy hats. “Please don’t protest at

people’s homes. Please don’t intrude on people attending their houses of worship. Organize politically, be civil civically,” conservative columnist Bill Kristol chided. Congratulations are warranted here to Republicans for their bottomless capacity for obfuscation; these lofty claims of moral superiority leave out the chapters on abortion clinic arson, bombings and the fatal shooting of a Kansas abortion provider, killed while attending a service at his own church. In Arkansas, bullying from anti-abortion protesters at the only operational medical abortion clinic in the state continued into May, at least once at the hands of a state official, no less. Marsha Boss, a pharmacist who Governor Hutchinson appointed to the Arkansas Board of Health in 2018, is a regular protester at the West Little Rock clinic, where she holds a sign that says “I REGRET MY ABORTION.” While the street and sidewalks were mostly empty, no other cars or people, when we visited on a Tuesday morning, Boss beelined right into one of the volunteers who was there to help patients get into and out of the clinic with minimal harassment. “You were taking up the whole sidewalk,” Boss said, then offered an apology. The two bickered, and one of the protesters started filming with her cell phone. “I already said I’m sorry. Let’s just pray,” Boss said. Skirmishes like this one happen often in front of the Little Rock Family Planning Clinic, Arkansas Abortion Support Network co-founder Karen Musick said. Musick volunteers nearly full time at the clinic, donning a signature rainbow vest and manning the clinic parking lot Tuesdays through Fridays to keep protesters off clinic property and try to make patients feel safe. “They push and shove on a regular basis,” Musick said of the anti-abortion protesters. “I’ve been purposely tripped, many of us have been pushed. We just try to stay out of their way. And keep the focus on protecting the patients.” On that particular day, patients included women who drove themselves to and from their appointments, carseats visible through their back windows, and an out-of-state patient with a “Trump 2024” bumper sticker on her car. One clinic patient who planned ahead arrived in a white sedan with its license plate temporarily removed so as not to be identified.

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Boss and her fellow protesters politely declined requests for interviews. “That’s funny that they won’t talk to you, because they talk to me all the time,” Musick said, loudly enough for all to hear. “They call me a demon.” One of the protesters, rosary in one hand and a poster with a Bible verse in the other, said that’s not true. ON TO PLAN B (AND PLAN C) With decorum or no, reproductive rights advocates will certainly keep showing up. At a Bans Off Our Bodies rally at the state Capitol on May 14, the most noticeable contingent included men and women of grandparenting age, some who rolled up with walkers, out there to secure rights that were hard-won the first time and will likely be so again. (Clever signs belied the seriousness of the crowd: “If you cut off my reproductive rights, can I cut off yours?” and “Keep your laws off my drawers,” which does actually rhyme if you say it correctly.) The speakers, a lineup of activists, political candidates and health care professionals, urged the crowd of about 400 people to vote, and to bring their friends along when they do. Notably, the crowd included plenty of young and older people but seemed light on people in their 30s and 40s. Perhaps that’s because the older generation remembers what’s at stake, and the younger one can envision miscalculations, crimes or fetal anomalies that might leave them in need of abortion care. “Two whole generations of women have lived having the right to choose what to do with their own bodies,” Arkansas Democratic secretary of state candidate Josh Price told the crowd. “Just because it doesn’t affect us personally doesn’t mean we can’t stand up for the rights of others.” Arkansas is dead-last in getting eligible voters registered and out to the polls, and Price said he suspects an entirely different squad of people would be calling the shots at the Capitol if that weren’t the case. But hypotheticals won’t matter a bit when the Supreme Court releases its official decision this summer and the locks clink on abortion rights in Arkansas and most other states in the South and Midwest. And so, even as they continue their political push for abortion rights, advocates consider other options. Stop talking about coat hangers and start talking about misoprostol, obstetrician Chad Taylor told the crowd. He referred them to plancpills.org to find reliable information on self-managed abortions, should it come to that. Watching a doctor in his lab coat standing on the steps of the Arkansas Capitol to offer up tips on securing soon-to-be-outlawed abortion care? Well, it’s a new frontier. Things are about to get mighty uncivil around here. “I can give you a million reasons why a woman might need to have an abortion, but it’s none of your business,” Taylor said. “And it’s none of their fucking business, either.” 20 JUNE 2022

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CHOOSING TO FIGHT: An upswelling of activism is sending Arkansans into the streets in the wake of news that the Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion access will soon be overturned. Clockwise from top right: Josh Price, a Democratic secretary of state candidate, speaks to ralliers at the Arkansas Capitol; Sarah Samuels and Karen Musick, escorts at Arkansas’s only procedural abortion clinic, take a Tuesday shift; a protester invokes the words of RBG; a rock garden brightens up a flower bed at the Little Rock Family Planning Clinic; Dr. Chad Taylor pledges to defend women’s rights.

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THE RAZORBACKS ARE ON THE RISE.

mprobably, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, Arkansas athletics stands out now for all the right reasons. For as challenging as the human experience may have been from March 2020 forward, that same period has been uniquely great for Hog fans. Coaching chicanery dominated the “twenty-teen” years, and it’s not without irony that as I write this, a cover piece I wrote in 2012 for the Arkansas Times sits nearby in one of my countless stacks of household debris. That year was noteworthy for arguably being the most tumultuous year in a Razorback football program/soap opera that’s historically replete with oddities and frustrations. Bobby Petrino began that season as the toast of the state, a Cotton Bowl-winning offensive guru that seemed to be, at long last, “the guy.” By year’s end, UA Athletic Director Jeff Long had summoned Bret Bielema from Wisconsin to excise the taste of a John L. Smith interim year. Petrino’s disgrace and exile was old, upsetting news by the time December hit, and Smith’s 4-8 debacle was lowlighted by a loss to LouisianaMonroe in Little Rock that will, sadly, forever be the first 22 JUNE 2022

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Hog game my oldest son attended. This publication chose Long, somewhat controversially, as the “Arkansan of the Year” for 2012 after he spent most of it in the limelight, for better or worse. Long’s tenure bottomed out badly five years later and Bielema’s paralleled it as he never gained traction or sustained the momentum he briefly had. An unqualified stand-in for Long then made an even worse hire, and oh, by the way, the baseball team gave away its best shot at a national championship in the summer of 2018. Mike Anderson followed one of his only good basketball teams with a pedestrian 18-16 bunch that fall, and then Chad Morris followed his clunker of a debut football season with an even worse second one, and… Ugh. My apologies for the hard digression there. But it’s an inescapable fact that empty seats in a beautifully renovated stadium or a proclaimed basketball “palace” were already a thing before COVID-19 vacated them out of public caution. By the time I turned off Morris’ last loss, a pitiful drubbing by Western Effing Kentucky, I wondered in November 2019 if I’d ever really be much of a Hog fan

BRIAN CHILSON

BY BEAU WILCOX

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BRIAN CHILSON

ARKANSAS ATHLETICS 24 JUNE 2022

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ARKANSAS ATHLETICS

BACK IN THE BALL GAME: Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek (top with Jerry Jones) has the Razorbacks pointed in the right direction with smart hires like football Coach Sam Pittman (bottom) and men’s basketball Coach Eric Musselman. The baseball team continues to thrive.

AFTER CHAD MORRIS TANKED THE FOOTBALL TEAM TO THE TUNE OF FOUR TOTAL NON-POWER FIVE VICTORIES, ZERO OF THE SEC VARIETY, IN TWO MISERABLE YEARS, SAM PITTMAN BECAME THE GREATEST RESCUER OF THE PROGRAM, FULL STOP. again. And I’m not joking. My passion for Arkansas athletics is a reckless one most of the time, but my interest, my investments of time and money, and my attention were simply better directed elsewhere. But, alas, an athletic director with purpose and vision changed the dynamic ever so slowly right before lockdowns and shut-ins became sobering reality. Hunter Yurachek arrived from the University of Houston in 2017, and his imprint on the programs across the board started taking shape soon after. I simply wasn’t patient enough. Anderson, imminently likable but underperforming (he never advanced the Hogs past the first weekend of the NCAA tourney in eight seasons), took a severance in March 2019, and Eric Musselman came in with a different brand of bravado. Yurachek terminated the Morris experiment mercifully and properly less than eight months later, and after the usual flurry of rumors subsided, he handed the reins to Sam Pittman, a genial, dogged career assistant but an undisputedly unproven head honcho. Musselman was giving us all a positive early indicator of things to come in early 2020. With Mason Jones and Isaiah Joe in charge, the transition team from the Anderson era ended up being spunky and tough, if totally limited. The Hogs went to Nashville for the SEC tourney and whipped Vanderbilt to notch their 20th win of an overachieving season on March 12, 2020. It was the last college basketball game of the season. For a while, we wondered when the next one really would be, as the novel coronavirus shuttered every public event for weeks, and this country and state tried to reckon on the fly with a new way of life. As COVID summer wore on, Yurachek and his suddenly exceptional stable of coaches clearly stayed at work, adapting to the new realities of pandemic-era recruitment and retention, transfer portals and NILs, and succeeding in ways that, frankly, defy common logic. To wit: *After Morris tanked the football team to

the tune of four total non-Power Five victories, zero of the SEC variety, in two miserable years, Pittman became the greatest rescuer of the program, full stop. The oddball, conferenceonly schedule in 2020, in largely empty stadiums, netted three big victories (a fourth was denied by the damnable SEC officials at Auburn). Then the Hogs’ rise turned meteoric in 2021 as they surged to a 9-4 season, an Outback Bowl thumping of Penn State, and a Top 25 ranking at season’s end for the first time since that accursed final poll from the first week of 2012. *Musselman’s teaser first season paved the way for back-to-back Elite Eight trips; the spirited, social media-adept coach has won six NCAA tourney games in two seasons, and as a result he has enlisted a consensus top three recruiting class with newly anointed national No. 1 Nick Smith Jr. leading a bevy of top-shelf teenage talent. His predecessors, Stan Heath, John Pelphrey and Anderson, combined to win only three NCAA Tournament games over 17 rather agonizing years in the post-Nolan Richardson era. *Mike Neighbors, an engaging Greenwood native, came back home to lead the women’s basketball program, which had labored near the bottom of the league for an extended period and similarly suffered from fan disinterest. The program got back to the postseason with an encouraging WNIT trip in 2018-19, then projected as a four or five seed in 2019-20 when the pandemic truncated the season. The Razorbacks made back-to-back NCAA tourneys and recruiting rankings have trended strongly upward. *Courtney Deifel’s complete makeover of the softball program is at its apex. The sixth-year coach took the team to a share of its first-ever SEC championship in 2021 with a programrecord 43-win campaign, and as an encore she’s got this year’s squad situated in the Top 5 nationally with another league crown. Years of futility have been erased in record time by Deifel, who has taken the Hogs to their first two Super Regionals and two other NCAA tourney ARKTIMES.COM

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ARKANSAS’S BASEBALL TEAM NOTCHED 50 WINS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN COACH DAVE VAN HORN’S EXCEPTIONAL TENURE IN 2021. berths (the 2020 team was likely headed for one as well). *Dave Van Horn, once a stray beacon of coaching acumen among the athletic department, just keeps plugging away with a baseball program that has, thankfully, provided us with a lot of great springs the past two decades even as other sports experienced fits and starts. Arkansas notched 50 wins for the first time in the coach’s exceptional tenure in 2021, and Kevin Kopps shined on an individual level in a way few Hog athletes have, which took some of the sting out of a Super Regional upset at the hands of NC State. The Hogs were fighting for the SEC West title yet again, having been in the Top 10 all year, and were poised to again host big-time postseason baseball at simply the best venue in the sport. *Never to be outdone, Arkansas track and field thrives. It now seems comical that I have recollections of my old message board-prowling days where posters openly doubted whether Chris Bucknam had the chops to succeed the iconic John McDonnell. Bucknam has only won the national coach of the year honor bearing McDonnell’s name three times over the last nine years, including in 2021, and the retiring Lance Harter guided the women’s indoor team to a national title last year. McDonnell died last June and Harter announced his retirement after an incredible 33-year run, but the overall condition of track and field and cross country is top-shelf, and again backed by unmatched facilities and fan support. *Arkansas’s tennis, golf, volleyball and soccer programs have all experienced upward, obvious team and individual successes. The gymnastics team returned to the Sweet Sixteen in April, and swimming and diving coach Neil Harper has kept that program steady and accomplished. I’m not slighting these important sports with less verbiage here, I promise. The beauty of our new streaming culture is being able to view such events now, and it’s obviously only enhanced the university’s profile that the facilities and athletes are being seen. *Arkansas’s student-athletes just keep making good headlines. And don’t mistake this for some diatribe on culture, but as other prominent universities deal with all manner of scandal or disharmony in their athletic departments, Arkansas is universally regarded as stable in generally every respect. Academically, the litany of All-Americans or All-SEC performers is lengthy, and Yurachek regularly, justifiably touts the classroom achievements in a big way, 26 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

too. I ordinarily resist the bullet-point approach above, but it’s simply the cleanest way to demonstrate how good life has been for Hog fans the past two years. If Long merited cover attention a decade ago for simply being a lightning rod of sorts, today Yurachek commands the honor for different reasons. There’s no controversy brewing of late, right? This settled slate of coaches is completely atypical for Arkansas Razorback athletics, and let’s not delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. Even as Houston Nutt shined in his first couple of years, for instance, Richardson’s star fell and there were ripples of in-house tension as Frank Broyles’ tenure wound down. Or if Bielema was making progress, Anderson’s bunch was flailing about. Inane melodrama ensnared one program or another. Eddie Sutton and Lou Holtz clashed with Broyles publicly in the mid-1980s, and that dirty laundry made its way to the public at a time when it was theoretically much easier to keep such beefs private. A predictable blowback to this take goes something like this: “Well, Arkansas still only went 4-4 in SEC play and ’Bama and Georgia are just bullies that we can’t beat.” “Musselman’s teams take time to gel and he hasn’t won a title.” “Van Horn can’t seem to get the big one and had his best shot last summer.” That’s all possibly accurate, but it simply isn’t fair: Competition is hard, and being the absolute best in any discipline is accordingly not going to come easily. The baseball Hogs spent virtually the entire last season at the top of the polls and won every SEC series but found out in a hard way that a bad weekend can spoil best-laid plans. I’ll urge you to take a different tack. When NC State vanquished the Hogs’ baseball team, it was absolutely an “upset.” And I submit that being in that position alone, after so much heartache due to simply being bad in one or more sports, is pretty special. Arkansas athletics occupies a curious space in many of our hearts and psyches. In a poor Southern state without a professional team to support, these men and women in cardinal and white represent the rest of us whether you characterize yourself as a fan or not. And in the past two strange, tragic and unsettling years, they’ve done an incredible damn job of that. The excitement of being a Hog is back, and I’m ever grateful to be able to write those words today. And I’m prouder than ever to finish out a piece with these words: Woo Pig Sooie.

ARKANSAS ATHLETICS ARKANSAS ATHLETICS BRIAN CHILSON ARKANSAS ATHLETICS

STARS: (Clockwise from top left) All-American JD Notae, the SEC champion softball team, basketball Coach Eric Musselman and baseball Coach Dave Van Horn.

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RETURNS JULY 5! 8:30-11:30 a.m.

Each weekday, a group of all-star Arkansas teachers will share mini-lessons – right on your TV – to help kids in kindergarten through 5th grade continue learning between school years. Plus, you can request free Power Packets (available in both English and Spanish) that include at-home activities and allow kids to follow along each day.

Visit myarpbs.org/riseandshine for more information. 28 JUNE 2022

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PAYNE HARDING CHEF | CACHE RESTAURANT Chef Payne Harding, a Little Rock native, owns and operates Cache with his father. A modern restaurant located in the downtown River market, Cache opened in 2013. Harding’s passion for fine dining developed at a young age working as a line cook for local restaurants, launching a career path to success. At the University of Central Arkansas, Chef Payne was a student athlete participating in basketball while earning a bachelors degree in science with an emphasis in nutrition. After graduating in 2010, Harding enrolled at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America located in Hyde Park, New York. During his time there, Harding completed an internship at the famous Le Cirque in Manhattan. Harding graduated in the winter of 2012 with an Associates degree in culinary arts. In Chef Harding’s previous positions, he has worked for local chefs such as: Mike Selig at the Vermillion Water Grille; Jerry Barakat at Amalfis, and Tim Morton at 1620. During Chef Hardings tenure at Cache, he consulted for years with award winning James Beard nominated chef Lee Richardson. It was around this time when Chef Harding became an advocate for New American cuisine celebrating Southern Soul Food, Cajun-Creole, and French-Italian. When Chef Harding isn’t in the kitchen, he is usually with his wife, Leah and his daughter, Mila. Chef Payne enjoys boating at the lake, watching sports, and riding his bike on the famous river trails Little Rock has to offer.

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Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times

RED OAK STEAKHOUSE JOSEPH COLEMAN (LEFT) EXECUTIVE CHEF

KEN LIPSMEYER (RIGHT) WINE DIRECTOR The Red Oak Steakhouse at Saracen Casino Resort made its culinary reputation as one of only 38 restaurants in the United States serving the incredibly tender Japanese Kobe beef. Now, executive chef Joseph Coleman is introducing wild game to the menu with two different cuts of elk paired with a beautiful Spanish wine from Rioja. Chef prepares an osso buccostyle elk thigh, shredded and presented in a ‘bowl’ of butter-poached white onion. The second cut is a tenderloin cooked sous vide, then seared and served with a cherry demi-glace poured tableside. “This is what drives the wine guy crazy,” wine director Ken Lipsmeyer said with a laugh. “These are two very different cuts of elk cooked two different ways and served on the same plate. Finding the perfect wine is a challenge, but we have done it.” Lipsmeyer, a candidate for the prestigious Student of the Institute of Masters of Wine, recommends a 12 year-old Gran Reserva Faustino which has seen years of aging in American oak barrels.. “The bright red fruit flavor of this wine with its cherry and plum notes works perfectly with the sous vide prepared tenderloin,” Lipsmeyer said. “The 12 years spent in oak casks gives the Faustino dark chocolate and butterscotch developmental characters, which work wonderfully with the elk osso bucco.” You owe yourself a visit to Red Oak Restaurant, one of the finest restaurants in the South and located at the exciting Saracen Casino and Resort in Pine Bluff.”

ELK TENDERLOIN ELK CONFIT, SOUS VIDE ONION BOWL, CHIPOTLE BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE, BLACK GARLIC EMULSION, BABY VEGETABLES, TAPIOCA TUILE, CHERRY JUS DE VEAU. SERVED WITH 12 YEAR-OLD GRAN RESERVA FAUSTINO.

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17200 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock | kemurirestaurant.com 48 JUNE 2022

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Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times

BAJA

HEATHER BABER-ROE & CRAIG ROE THE TACO SOCIETY | OWNERS Ever heard of them? It’s the official name of Craig and Heather Baber-Roe’s string of restaurants: Baja Grill (In the Heights and Benton), Valhalla (Benton) and coming soon Rōber. I am sure you HAVE heard of those names since they are multiple-award winners (we’re talking over 13 wins) in last year’s Arkansas Times Readers Choice Awards alone. Their awards include Best Overall in Benton/ Bryant, Best Tacos, Best Chips, Best Mexican, Best Gluten Free, Best Soup, Best Vegetarian, Best ToGo Cocktail Mix, Best Cheese Dip, Best Salad, Best Pizza and Best Outdoor Dining, to name a few. So we know the restaurants and their dishes are great, but we want to give you the inside scoop on what the creators, Craig and Heather, like the best. Here’s what they had to say:

Heather: Smoked Chicken Nachos. I love the chunks of chicken breast, the queso and the fact it also tastes good if you sub out the chicken for fajita steak. Craig: Mushroom & Goat Cheese Burrito. The unique flavor combination of the mushrooms and the goat cheese is addicting.

VALHALLA

Heather: All the wings are so good, but my favorite are the Cajun Dry Rub. I’m borderline addicted to these wings. Craig: The Valhalla Club. The bread, the raspberry mayo, along with all the meats; it’s a really good sandwich.

ROBER

Heather: My favorite is actually the Braised Short Rib (no photos yet) or the Gorgonzola Gnocchi. I love the soft gnocchi paired with the creamy gorgonzola. Craig: The Shrimp + Roasted Scratch Grits. This is a long story, but wasn’t our original recipe. At 11 p.m. one night, Heather whipped these up and I told her, “These are magical. You have to put these on the menu instead of the other way.”

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JUNE 2022 49

OAKLAWN RACING CASINO RESORT

KEN BREDESON | EXECUTIVE CHEFF Not to take anything away from the fabled corned beef sandwich at Oaklawn Race Track, but it is a new culinary day at what has become Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs. With two upscale dining options, a food court, the award-winning Silks Bar & Grill, and multiple concession stands, Oaklawn dining offers something for everyone. Recently, Oaklawn recruited Executive Chef Ken Bredeson to oversee its’ two newest upscale venues; The Bugler and The OAK room & bar. The Bugler, located in the hotel concourse, is bright and airy with floor to ceiling windows, historic Oaklawn photos, and an outdoor dining area overlooking the legendary racetrack. The menu features amazing steak options and succulent lobster mac & cheese, but if you are a fan of great seafood, don’t miss the sea bass, served with pan-seared bok choy and jasmine rice. The OAK room & bar is a throwback to classic upscale dining with dark polished wood, red marble and locally-sourced crystal centerpieces on each table. Chef Ken recommends the smoked half duck with a cranberry reduction and Gruyere bread pudding. The bar, in an adjoining room, creates a romantic, intimate, quiet setting. “Oaklawn is excited to showcase Chef Ken’s culinary experience to all of our guests,” said Wayne Smith, General Manager. “His passion for cooking and extensive food and beverage background will provide our patrons with a whole new level of dining. We can’t wait for everyone to experience it.” Today’s Oaklawn is so much more than just racing. It is a beautiful, luxury hotel, a fun and exciting casino, a worldclass spa, a multi-purpose event center, and now two of the best restaurants in the state. It’s time for a road trip to Hot Springs and Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort!

THE OAK ROOM & BAR SMOKED HALF DUCK & CRANBERRY REDUCTION WITH GRUYERE BREAD PUDDING & FIELD GREEN SALAD, HONEY ROSEMARY DRESSING, TOASTED MACADAMIA NUTS

THE BUGLER MISO GLAZED SEABASS & MIRIN SHITAKE MUSHROOMS WITH PAN SEARED BOK CHOY AND JASMINE RICE

OAKLAWN RACING CASINO RESORT | 2705 CENTRAL AVE. | HOT SPRINGS | RESERVATIONS: 501-623-4411 50 JUNE 2022

ARKANSAS TIMES

Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times

PETER BRAVE CHEF | BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT Summertime is farm-to-table time at Brave New Restaurant. Chef and owner Peter Brave has been talking to local farmers all spring, lining up locally sourced heirloom tomatoes, squash, cantaloupes, watermelons, microgreens and more. Mid-month, look for the return of Brave New’s Heirloom Tomato Caprice Salad with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, corn relish and Burrata Cheese. Peter’s famous heirloom tomato BLT will be back on the menu as well. Over the decades Peter has cultivated strong connections with local farmers. The Melon and Prosciutto Salad, with seasonably available cantaloupes, mixed greens, watermelons and prosciutto is the fruit of those relationships. And they don’t stop at the Arkansas border. Brave New is perhaps best known for its many iterations of Walleye from Lake Michigan. “Walleye will be the fish in my obit” he jokes. Peter has used the same Great Lakes supplier for 32 years and thanks to strong conservation efforts, wild caught Walleye is totally sustainable. And don’t overlook the scallops and lobster. The next time you visit Brave New Restaurant, try the twice smoked lobster tail over lobster risotto and asparagus with a watermelon reduction. The smoked lobster tail is wonderful but the magic is in the lobster risotto sauce. It is just amazing. The Arkansas Times Reader Choice Awards have named Brave New the Best Overall Restaurant in the state and Peter Brave as Best Chef many times over the decades. This summer is the time for you to find out why!

THE MELON AND PROSCIUTTO SALAD

TWICE SMOKED LOBSTER TAIL

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FOOD & DRINK

A CENTRAL ARKANSAS FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH GUIDE A SANDWICH THAT THRIVES BEYOND THE FAST-FOOD SPHERE. BY RHETT BRINKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

BIG ORANGE

good friend of mine who is a fantastic cook and restaurateur once told me that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about fried chicken. We were talking recently and he woefully described a time in his life when he was opening a new restaurant and dealing with the stress by eating Popeyes every night after leaving the restaurant, his car littered with an assortment of Popeyes’ boxes and wrappers. When the conversation shifted to fried chicken sandwiches, I asked him if he had any favorites, and he could only list Popeyes and Chick-fil-A. I was disappointed that such a notorious Little Rock food person didn’t offer up any local contenders. A couple of Central Arkansas’s best existed before

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Americans went into an unhinged fried chicken sandwich frenzy in 2019, when Popeyes launched its chicken sandwich. People crushed that sandwich so hard in the first couple of weeks that Popeyes infamously ran out of the chicken used for the sandwich for two months and had to remove it from the menu. Maybe it’s always been like this, but it seems that when the Popeyes sandwich entered the collective consciousness, fried chicken sandwiches became ubiquitous. My restaurateur friend’s lack of knowledge on the subject made me realize that I had a job to do: Compile a list of irresistible locally made fried chicken sandwiches that aren’t Chick-fil-A or Popeyes. I’ll try to schedule a full cholesterol/blood pressure work up when the mission is complete.

ESTABLISHED

2017

BIG ORANGE HOT ’N‘ HOT CHICKEN ($13) A decade ago you might’ve been playfully teased for ordering anything but one of the many burger varieties at Big Orange. But over the years, word-ofmouth about its signature Hot Chicken Sandwich made it a must try. It’s well seasoned, artfully constructed and perhaps better than your dining companion’s burger. The spicy version of Big O’s Southern fried chicken comes with pepperjack cheese, mayo, butter leaf lettuce and dill pickles cut lengthwise. NORTH BAR ANGRY BIRD ($11) A legitimate response to America’s overreaction to the Popeyes launch could’ve (and might’ve) been, “Why would I go sit in a drive-thru line extending out into the street when I could just go to North Bar and get the Angry Bird chicken sandwich and support a local business?” If I just plagiarized a Facebook post from 2019, I apologize. Let me be clear, I’m not judging anyone for freaking out about the Popeyes sandwich; it’s really good and definitely warranted hype. But in all truthfulness, North Bar’s Angry Bird had the same amount of wow factor for me when I first tried it in December 2018. The sandwich is something to behold. I asked my friend Motley, who’s an expert on the grill, if the extent to which the fried chicken extends outside of the buttery brioche bun was an inch on both sides. His response: “No way, that’s a 4-inch bun. Looks like a 2-inch extension on both sides for a total extension of 4 inches outside the bun.” Most chicken sandwich patties are round; this one looks more like a boomerang. Another unique addition is the melted provolone, which pairs nicely with the smokey house-made chipotle sauce. HILL STATION STATE BIRD SANDWICH ($12) I had a feeling Hill Station’s fried chicken sandwich would be good because just after the Hillcrest restaurant opened in February 2020, people at my former workplace were obsessed with its Italian grinder, and for good reason. It has a minced, pureed pepperoncini spread so flavorful and fresh that it puts fast-food cold-cut sandwiches to shame. The State Bird Sandwich also has a fresh quality that gave me the false hope that I was eating healthy fried chicken. Purple onion, tomato, aioli and minced petit cornichons marry well with the seasoned patty that is crispy on the outside and perfectly plump and juicy on the inside. The sandwich comes with the option of salad, fries, chips or mac and cheese. I told myself I was going to order the salad, but my inner food desire demons took hold and ordered the mac and cheese, which was creamy and delicious. And oh, look, there’s Space Suit Session Ale from New Province Brewing on tap.

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NORTH BAR

HILL STATION

THE PRICKLY PICKLE

BROOD & BARLEY

K HALL & SONS

FOUR QUARTER BAR

THE PRICKLY PICKLE FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH ($10) When I first approached The Prickly Pickle, the green food truck that looks like a pickle, I thought the simple five-item menu featuring fried pickles, okra and “toothpick” strips of jalapeno, cactus and onion were perfectly befitting the design. The only sandwich on the menu is the fried chicken sandwich, served two ways, regular or Buffalo. I ordered the regular, which comes with truck-made dill potato chips. I really enjoyed the texture of the sandwich: solid bun; a perfect thin, crispy batter; fresh iceberg lettuce; tomato; crispy, delicious pickles with a drizzle of truck-made ranch. I’m loath to admit it, but next time I’m asking for even more truck ranch on the side. MR. CAJUN KITCHEN & CATERING FRIED SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH COMBO ($11.95) When thinking about restaurants in Argenta, one might not consider Mr. Cajun Kitchen & Catering because it’s not located on the Main Street strip, but that would be a mistake. Located in a purple building at 606 N. Olive St., just a couple of blocks from Argenta Plaza, Mr. Cajun’s offers mouthwatering Cajun specials like blackened 54 JUNE 2022

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salmon, chicken or shrimp served over Cajun pasta. The spicy chicken sandwich is available daily and is one of Central Arkansas’s best. Served on a soft bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles and remoulade, the piping hot chicken is right out of the fryer and is covered in the oily orange and brown spices that confirm any questions about whether or not this sandwich means business. The spicy kick lingers after consumption, and unfortunately my drink was empty before my mouth reached a level of relief. I’ll pack an extra Diet Coke next time I get it to go. BROOD & BARLEY CHICKEN SAMMIE ($13) It’s so refreshing when the first bite of something familiar surprises you with a flavor profile you weren’t expecting. The next bite is a search for the answer. My first bite of Brood & Barley’s Chicken Sammie left me wondering, “What is that sauce?” According to the menu it’s “Shush” sauce and a Facebook post from Brood & Barley says they don’t even know what’s in it. It’s a refreshing flavor with notes of dill, cucumber, maybe even bell pepper. Bonus points for the melted Asiago cheese atop the brioche bun.

K HALL & SONS SWEET STELLA FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH ($3.99) If you’re scanning through this piece thinking, “Yeah, but I could get a chicken sandwich at Popeyes for under $10,” well, sure, you could do that, but the best chicken sandwich deal in Little Rock for under $10 exists at K Hall and Sons Produce on Wright Avenue, for a bargain $3.99. Sweet Stella Sauce has been an option for country fried wings at K Hall & Sons’ excellent Soul Food Sunday for a while, but in early 2021 K Hall debuted the Sweet Stella Fried Chicken Sandwich served with mayo, pickle and the HallBros2go Sweet Stella Sauce on a toasted bun. It looks simple enough right out of the wrapper, but once you bite into it, it’s irresistible. FOUR QUARTER BAR SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH ($12.99) This sandwich special isn’t always on the menu at Four Quarter, so I considered myself lucky when it appeared the last week I dedicated myself to gorging for this story. One bite into the sandwich and I was certain the chicken had been brined or marinated. It has a wonderful spicy, briny flavor that is among the best I’ve sampled the last few

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weeks. It’s also the first of the chicken sandwiches I tried made from dark meat. The menu verified that it’s marinated chicken thigh meat, and it’s served with pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, pickle and garlic aioli. DIAMOND BEAR FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH $12 “Diamond Bear has a fried chicken sandwich,” my co-worker told me. Lunch was decided. Located on the northern side of the Broadway bridge from downtown, Diamond Bear makes a great spot for downtown workers to have a patio lunch and escape the horrors of the office. Its fried chicken sandwich comes with pickles, mayonnaise and a healthy drizzle of “signature chicken sauce” cascading down the side of the bun onto the wax paper. A messy sandwich with an adequate amount of the tangy, pink-hued chicken sauce is just what we needed after the last chicken sandwich we sampled from a venerable downtown restaurant came out dry and flavorless. I’d skip the fast-food options and take a Diamond Bear Fried Chicken Sandwich with a house-brewed BLU Golden Lager any day of the week.

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HISTORY

PUBLIC DOMAIN

FAR FROM SCHOOL DAYS: Lynwood Rowe in 1950 at the end of his professional career.

BEATEN BY A SCHOOLBOY THE STORY OF LYNWOOD ‘SCHOOLBOY’ ROWE. BY ERNEST DUMAS

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Rhea Drug Store

A traditional Pharmacy with Eclectic Gifts Serving Little Rock since 1922 2801 Kavanaugh Little Rock 501.663.4131

This piece was previously published in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

ynwood Thomas “Schoolboy” Rowe was a sports star from El Dorado who became one of the most famous major league baseball pitchers of the 1930s and 1940s. With three other pitchers — Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove and Smokey Joe Wood — Rowe still holds the American League record for most consecutive victories, winning 16 straight games in 1934. Rowe was born on Jan. 11, 1910, in Waco, Texas, the son of Thomas M. Rowe and Ruby Hardin Rowe. The Rowes moved to El Dorado, where Rowe and his brother, Mark, attended El Dorado schools. He established himself as a superior athlete in elementary school and was later a star in football, track, basketball, tennis and baseball. He was an all-state football player for two years and an outstanding amateur golfer. The local legend was that Rowe went to a state track meet alone one year, entered many of the events and won the meet for El Dorado. He began playing baseball in a regional semiprofessional league with a team sponsored by the News-Times Inc., which published the morning and afternoon newspapers in El Dorado. Playing in a men’s league as a 15-year-old boy, he overwhelmed a team that had a number of former professional players, and one of them remarked that they were “beaten by a schoolboy.” The name “Schoolboy” stuck for the rest of his life. At 6 feet, 4 inches, Rowe was a right-handed pitcher with an overpowering fastball. He was also a phenomenal hitter. A Detroit Tiger scout watched him pitch and signed him to a professional contract in 1932. He played that year for the Beaumont Express in the Texas League, winning 19 games and leading the league with a 2.30 earned-run average. Rowe and first baseman Hank Greenberg, who would become his teammate in Detroit and would be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, led the Express to the league championship. In 1933, the Tigers called Rowe and Greenberg up to the majors, and Rowe had his greatest

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season the next year. He won 24 games and lost eight, winning 16 in a row late in the season. At the end of the season, the Tigers needed to win at least two of four games against the New York Yankees — the team of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Frankie Crosetti and Lefty Gomez — to win the pennant. Rowe won the first game for the Tigers. The Yankees won the next game behind Gomez and then won the first game of a Sunday doubleheader. The Detroit News reported that in the clubhouse before the second Sunday game, the Tigers’ manager and catcher, Mickey Cochrane, raged, “Can’t anyone beat these baboons?” From the far end of the clubhouse Rowe yelled, “If nobody else wants it, I’ll take it.” He shut out the Yankees 3–0. In the World Series, the Tigers lost a seven-game series to the St. Louis Cardinals — the legendary Gashouse Gang with its Arkansas-born pitching stars, Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean and Paul “Daffy” Dean. Rowe pitched 12 innings to win the second game for the Tigers 3–2, retiring 22 consecutive batters at one point. The Cardinals, behind Paul Dean, beat Rowe and the Tigers 4–3 in the sixth game, and the Cardinals won the seventh. Like the Deans in St. Louis, Rowe had a folksy and garrulous manner, and that, coupled with his superstitions, made him a celebrity. He carried talismans in his pocket for good luck, always picked up his glove with his left hand, and muttered to the ball while he was pitching. On a radio broadcast interview in 1934 with Eddie Cantor, the comedian, singer and dancer, Rowe whispered into the microphone, “How’m I doin’, Edna?” — referring to his high school sweetheart, Edna Mary Skinner, who became his wife after the 1934 season. Cantor thereafter frequently ended his broadcasts by whispering “How’m I doin’, Edna?” Opposing players and fans taunted Rowe with the line when he got in trouble on the mound. During the World Series, the Detroit News brought Edna Skinner from El Dorado to Detroit to write articles on cooking or baseball and to keep her around for the pitcher’s good luck. Rowe won 19 games the next season and led the Tigers to the World Series championship. He pitched 21 complete games and led the league with six shutouts. He developed arm trouble in 1937, however, and was sent to the minor leagues. He returned to the Tigers two years later and led them to the World Series again with a 16–3 record. The Tigers sold him to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942, and he finished his career with two stretches with the Philadelphia Phillies, in 1943 and from 1946 to 1949. He missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons while he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He spent most of the 22 months at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, where he starred in the military services’ baseball rivalry. He pitched and played the outfield for a Navy team made up of former professional baseball players and managed by Mickey Cochran. The team had a 48–2 record in 1944, and Rowe led the team in batting with a .446 average.

HE CARRIED TALISMANS IN HIS POCKET FOR GOOD LUCK, ALWAYS PICKED UP HIS GLOVE WITH HIS LEFT HAND, AND MUTTERED TO THE BALL WHILE HE WAS PITCHING.

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Returning to professional baseball in 1946, he had a league-best 11–4 record and a 2.12 earnedrun average. He last pitched for the Phillies on Sept. 13, 1949. He moved on to pitch in 16 games for San Diego in the Pacific Coast League in 1950 and in 16 games for Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1951. In 1952 and 1958, he did brief stints as a minor league manager. Over his major league career, Rowe won 158 games, lost 101 and struck out 913 batters. He was named to the American or National League All-Star teams in 1935, 1936 and 1947. He had a lifetime batting average of .263 as a batting pitcher and pinch-hitter and hit .303 and .312 in his best seasons, 1934 and 1935. He hit 18 home runs and batted in 153 runs during his career, both exceptional for pitchers. After his playing career ended, he returned to El Dorado while he worked in the Tiger system as a manager at Williamsport, in the front office in Detroit, and as a roving scout for baseball talent. He was the Tigers’ pitching coach in 1954 and 1955. Rowe and his wife had a son and a daughter. Rowe died of a heart attack on Jan. 8, 1961, in El Dorado, at the age of 50. He is buried in Arlington Memorial Park Cemetery in El Dorado. ARKTIMES.COM

JUNE 2022 59

CANNABIZ

A POTENTIAL EARTHQUAKE FOR THE MARIJUANA INDUSTRY LAWSUIT CHALLENGES LEGISLATURE’S ABILITY TO AMEND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. BY GRIFFIN COOP

ongs and pre-rolled joints could find their way to dispensary shelves pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the state legislature’s power to change the state constitution. Since 2016, when Arkansas voters approved medical marijuana at the polls, the state legislature has voted to change the amendment 27 times. But those changes could be ruled null and void pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed earlier this year in Pulaski County. The suit, filed by Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC and Capital City Medicinals LLC, could void the restrictions the legislature placed on such things as advertising by cultivators and dispensaries, telehealth for prospective consumers and the sale of prerolled joints, which the legislature prohibited in 2017. “If the Good Day lawsuit is upheld, it will radically change the rules that the medical marijuana industry currently operates under,” said Bill Paschall, who runs the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association. “So, it’ll be a bit of an earthquake in the industry.”

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If Good Day Farm is victorious, Amendment 98 will revert back to its original form, meaning the legislature’s changes to it will be null and void, as if they never happened, according to Joshua Silverstein, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rules made by the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration to regulate the industry could be voided as well if any of those rules were based on changes the legislature made to the original amendment, Silverstein said. The case could take a few months at the trial court level where it is in the hands of Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce. Given how much is at stake, Silverstein said he expects the losing side to appeal, which would take several more months. Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC, which is a major force in the Arkansas medical marijuana industry, owns a cultivation facility in Pine Bluff. Capital City Medicinals is the legal name of the dispensary better known as Berner’s by Good Day Farm in Little Rock. Good Day Farm also manages dispensaries in Van Buren and Texarkana.

Defendants in the case are the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration and the state of Arkansas. AMENDING AMENDMENTS Good Day Farm argues in the suit that the state constitution prohibits the legislature from amending the constitution on its own without a vote of the people. “Amendments to the Arkansas Constitution require a vote of the people because the people have reserved that power to themselves and not delegated it to the General Assembly,” the lawsuit states. Amendment 7 to the state constitution, which covers initiatives and referendums, states that measures can only be amended by a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly. Elsewhere in the amendment, a “measure” is defined as a “bill, law, resolution, ordinance, charter, constitutional amendment, or legislative proposal of any character.” So, that means the state legislature can change amendments by a two-thirds vote, right?

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A state Supreme Court ruling from 1951 says no. In that case, Chief Justice Griffin Smith said it is “inconceivable” that the people intended for the state legislature to have that power. With such authority, the legislature could change the meaning of any constitutional provision and, if that was the people’s intention, the people would have expressed such a desire in more emphatic terms, Smith wrote. So that means the legislature can’t amend an amendment? Not so fast. Generally, a Supreme Court ruling means an issue has been resolved but, as Silverstein points out, the court can change its precedents as the state Supreme Court did on the issue of sovereign immunity. In this case, the precedent is from 1951 — that’s 71 years ago — and a lot of water has passed under the bridge in that time. The court could decide to make a change. “There’s a case out there [from 1951], but there’s been a lot of activity since, so the Supreme Court may revisit the issue and may simply say that the older case is governing or maybe that older case isn’t as clear as it appears,” Silverstein said. In other words, the constitution is unclear and the ruling from 1951 might not have settled the issue. David Couch, the Little Rock lawyer who wrote the successful 2016 amendment, said he believed the legislature could change certain aspects of the amendment when he wrote it. Couch said he believed the legislature could change anything about the amendment except the fact that marijuana would be legalized, the number of dispensaries and cultivators, and they couldn’t change their power to amend the amendment. Couch said he has other concerns about the amendment. “I have always been concerned about the Supreme Court reversing that 1950s decision,” Couch said. Couch said some justices take a more literal approach to interpreting law and they could “very easily” rule that Amendment 7 gives the legislature the power to amend a constitutional amendment. The constitution is unclear on the issue and the Supreme Court ruling that governs the issue could be tossed aside. So anything could happen, although Silverstein said “probably the better reading” of the state constitution is that the state legislature doesn’t have the authority to change the constitution on its own. Regardless, expect appeals until the matter is settled, Silverstein said. SECTION 23 There’s another issue at hand in this lawsuit — Section 23 of Amendment 98.

When voters approved Amendment 98 in 2016 to legalize medical marijuana, it appeared they gave the legislature some authority to make changes to the amendment. In Section 23, the amendment says “the General Assembly, in the same manner as required for amendment of laws initiated by the people, may amend the sections of this amendment so long as the amendments are germane to this section and consistent with its policy and purposes.” The lawyers for Good Day Farm say that means the legislature can only amend the constitution through the way it typically does, by referring an amendment to the voters. Furthermore, Good Day Farm argues that “germane to this section” means the legislature can only amend Section 23. If the legislature can only amend Section 23, then the rest of the amendment can’t be touched. That would mean any purported changes the legislature made to the rest of the amendment would not stand. The state argues in its filing that Amendment 98 gave the legislature the authority to make changes. “Section 23 of Amendment 98 specifically provides for amendment by the General Assembly — it is even entitled ‘Amendment by General Assembly’,” the filing states. “Moreover, Section 26 of Amendment 98 confirms this provision by using the language, ‘an act of the General Assembly’.” CHANGES If Good Day Farm gets a favorable ruling and all of the legislature’s changes are considered null and void, that would open the door to legalizing some things that have been off limits in the state medical marijuana marketplace. The legislature made 27 changes to Amendment 98, including limitations on telemedicine for people seeking medical marijuana cards, limitations on advertising and packaging and a prohibition on supplying “paraphernalia that requires the combustion of marijuana to be properly utilized.” That measure, known as Act 1024 of 2017, specifically lists “pipes, water pipers, bongs, chillums, rolling papers and roach clips.” If that measure is voided, then those items — including prerolled joints — could find their way to Arkansas dispensary shelves, although they would still need to be cleared by regulations at the ABC. And that’s how Couch always figured those items would be regulated anyway. “I never anticipated that our General Assembly would get into such minutiae over the involvement of whether or not you have prerolls,” Couch said. “I just always assumed that was a regulatory function.”

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THE OBSERVER

MIRENA MATH WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING A REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH MELTDOWN.

n an unseasonably hot afternoon in May, The Observer took the elevator to the second floor of the UAMS Women’s Center for her annual gynecology appointment. The Observer doesn’t have children and doesn’t plan to, but here in the waiting room, reminders of alternate babycentric universes were everywhere: An easelmounted Foam-Core panel embossed with a QR Code portal to UAMS’ (presumably substantial) network of pregnancy resources. An identical panel in Spanish. Pamphlets with the word “Expecting?” flowing in graceful cursive across their covers. A laminated card calling for participants in a breast milk study. A framed photo of a bright-eyed infant on the wall, sporting a winning smile above the words “Your Baby Deserves the Best.” Out in the lobby, we’d passed a pregnant acquaintance, greeting them with a wave and an under-the-mask smile. It’s a strange time to be a person with ovaries. Born into the Reagan era with the Roe v. Wade decision as the law of the land and seemingly a given, The Observer grew up going to a fireand-brimstone Baptist church in a no-stoplight small town, where “pro-life” was a synonym for “morally upright.” Sunday morning sermons, when they weren’t enumerating the perils of listening to 2 Live Crew or “the homosexual lifestyle,” positioned abortion as baby murder — something pitiable that happened to girls far older than I who drank or smoked or “got in with the wrong crowd.” Conspicuously, I never seemed to hear about rich girls at school getting pregnant. On the Jerry Springer daytime talk show circuit and at my middle school alike, the idea of getting knocked up before high school graduation was shrouded in a cloak of rural poverty I’d learned to resent (and which I’d desperately and clumsily try to

66 JUNE 2022

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shirk in adolescence). “Babies having babies,” as the church ladies would shake their heads and say, was unfortunate but also accepted as inevitable. In my preteen eyes, it was a death sentence for dreams of college and a career, or for the possibility of escaping Arkansas for the erudite wonders that surely lay beyond state lines on either coast. Worse in retrospect, the topic of teenage pregnancy never seemed to include any discussion about what a pregnant teenager should actually do, or what options she might have. The Big Questions at Hand, either explicitly or in hushed and coded language, came across less like a paragraph from a sex ed textbook and more like a shame-mongering tabloid blurb: Do her parents know? Was she drunk? Does she even know who the dad is? Inside the examination room, a nurse asked me the usual: “Any problems? Discomfort? Lumps or bumps around the breasts?” Sporting a nametag with a happy ovary cast in resin with anime eyes, she expertly dodged my questions about whether or not the clinic had received an influx of calls following the SCOTUS headlines of the last several weeks. She mentioned that her family does ask lots of questions about her and her husband’s pregnancy prospects, though it was pretty clear those weren’t the questions I was curious about. Getting nowhere with my attempts to take the temperature of the reproductive health zeitgeist, I asked the chiefest of questions on my mental list: My intrauterine device was set to expire in December. With the imminent encroachment of right-wing politicians into my ovarian designs, would it be OK to go ahead and have it replaced a few months early so as to give myself five more years of reliable birth control? “You know it’s seven years now?” “Seven years?!” I shouted. “Some European

countries leave them in for 10 years,” she told me, and the FDA had, last year, approved Mirena for an additional two years of safe pregnancy prevention. My whole body felt relieved; I like sex and would just as soon not put it on the shelf til menopause-o’-clock. On that good news, the nurse left and told me my nurse practitioner would be in shortly. I peeled off my clothes and donned the crinkly blue disposable gown (“Leave it open in the front!”) and a different feeling settled in. I did the math — seven years from 2017. So, 2024. What would the repro rights landscape look like in the winter of 2024? The SCOTUS leak had upended expectations overnight, prompting a flood of genuine dread and concern mirrored in “Handmaid’s Tale” memes, rallies at the state Capitol, and a flurry of infighting among the various contingencies who’d like to see Roe v. Wade stay — tensions around the push for more gender-inclusive language, and about the problematic postures of privilege and whiteness that plague the battle for so-called “women’s rights.” When I got into the car and cranked up the air conditioning, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) was mid-soundbyte on KUAR. “Who should be making this decision? Should it be a woman and her doctor? Should it be a politician? Should Ted Cruz be making this decision?” A commentator cut in, adding that “Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had said it was possible that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, we could see a nationwide ban on abortion if Republicans regain control of Congress this fall.” I dread doing the math for my fellow Arkansans here — weeks on the gestational countdown accrued, miles traveled to an out-of-state clinic, days of work missed, percentage of paychecks diminished, hours of sleep untaken.

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Arkansas Times | June 2022

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