12 minute read
THE TO-DO LIST
BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE
COURTESY OF RUN THE JEWELS/MOMENTARY
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.
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
SATURDAY 6/18. DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK, MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, THE HALL. 8 A.M. $20-$35.
“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).
RACHEL TRUSTY’S “THE NEW SAINTS”
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.
KATIE CHILDS
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.
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.
WEDNESDAY 6/29-SUNDAY 7/24. STREAM DIGITALLY (ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY) OR ATTEND IN-PERSON AT THEATRESQUARED, FAYETTEVILLE. $18$58.
“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
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 & GYPSY RAIN
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.
CARMEN MORALES
WEDNESDAY 6/8-SATURDAY 6/11. THE LOONY BIN. $2-$15.
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.
BILL MIZE
THURSDAY 6/16. THE JOINT THEATER AND COFFEEHOUSE. 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.
