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OCTOBER 2021
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THE STATE FAIR: Back in action Oct. 15-24.
STEPHANIE SMITTLE
OCTOBER 2021
FEATURES
23 A BLUNT SYNOPSIS
Who’s growing weed, who’s smoking it and why Arkansas medical marijuana prices are too damn high. An edibles explainer. Plus, grandma’s guide to the gateway drug. By Rhett Brinkley, Griffin Coop and Lindsey Millar
35 PUNKIN’ TIME
Monster sightings, grow your own poison, scorpion cannibalism and a charming character known as Meat Man. Have you seen the Woodson Lateral light? Here’s your complete Halloween roundup. By Austin Bailey and Rhett Brinkley ON THE COVER: The rolling topography of Arkansas. Styling by Mandy Keener. Photography by Matthew Martin. 4 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
9 THE FRONT
Q&A: A chat about taxes with head librarian Nate Coulter. The Big Pic: Records, eight tracks, tapes and downloads. Counting down Arkansas’s greatest hits, then and now.
13 THE TO-DO LIST
Main Street Food Truck Festival, Valley of the Vapors and documentary films are back in Hot Springs, Simone Biles comes to town, “The Firebird” at the symphony and more.
18 NEWS & POLITICS
A farmer named Archie Cude fought the war over vaccines in Arkansas long ago. He lost. By Ernest Dumas
81 SAVVY KIDS
Furry favorite family members. By Katherine Wyrick
86 CULTURE
Book on over to the Six Bridges Book Festival, where the lineup is literally perfect. By Stephanie Smittle
99 FOOD & DRINK
Throw your own pandemic pizza party, no one’s invited. By Rhett Brinkley
106 THE OBSERVER
A rooftop birthday in the Spa City.
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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 Katie Hassell DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Phyllis A. Britton ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Brooke Wallace, Lee Major, Terrell Jacob and Kaitlyn Looney 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)
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ARKANSAS TIMES
THE FRONT Q&A
THE FUTURE OF THE CENTRAL ARKANSAS LIBRARY SYSTEM A Q&A WITH NATE COULTER.
Little Rock voters will be asked Nov. 9 to approve a millage increase to support the Central Arkansas Library System. The 0.5 mill increase would raise Little Rock’s rate from 3.3 to 3.8 mills. A millage rate represents the amount of tax paid per every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. Early voting begins Nov. 2. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
computers and such that we provide for the community who are on the wrong side of the digital divide. We saw this in the pandemic. So many things were shuttered, but the library reopened after June of last year, and scores and scores of people were coming to our branches to connect to the internet, to get photocopies of things they needed for benefits, to get a notary on some important document — there really wasn’t another place to do it.
Why is the revenue that would be generated by this millage increase important for the library? The library needs to address a strucWould it affect staffing? Since I got here we’ve tural problem in its revenue stream. If you look made an effort to be fiscally responsible. We back to the last time there was an increase reduced the number of people on the payroll by to the operational tax in 2007, and you take about 8% by some efficiencies I thought were the revenues since then, which have grown a important. We brought in-house some things little bit, and you compare that to increase in that were more expensive when outsourced. expenses and adjust that all for inflation, there’s But one thing we haven’t done very well is a growing gap. paying our people, particularly at the bottom, a AGE: 61 One significant driver is that the pricing model competitive rate. We’ve got 63 people makfor buying digital content is so much less ing less than $13 an hour. When Amazon and JOB: Executive director of the Central favorable to libraries than the print model. The Costco are paying people more than the library, Arkansas Library System company OverDrive is the middleman in these that says something about our community. transactions. Digital publishers and OverIf taxpayers approve this, it will generate about FROM: Nashville (Howard County) Drive are exacting a toll on libraries and public $2.3 or $2.4 million of operational revenue evschools that’s all being borne by taxpayers. We ery year. We would earmark about $800,000 READING: Jonathan Alter’s “His Very can’t solve that problem; I wish there was some of that for upgrading salaries on the bottom Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life,” Anthony sort of solution, some type of regulatory or end and about $400,000 for dealing with Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See,” congressional resolution, that would deal with technology and outreach. Another substantial Douglas Blackmon’s “Slavery By Another digital content the way a case in the Supreme chunk would go toward deferred maintenance. Name.” Court of the United States over 100 years ago dealt with print. Until that case, it was not clear Of all our longstanding institutions, libraries that libraries could do what they do with print seem to me to be among the most adept at books. adapting. Gaze into the crystal ball, how will the CALS 20 or 50 If we buy a copy of Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” for $17 or $18, and years in the future look different? I’d be presumptuous to assert I think we bought 20 or 25 copies of it when it first came out, we can much. I do think books aren’t going away; they’re just going to be in circulate that until it falls apart or there’s no longer demand for it. different formats. Even though people are going to continue to read, When we buy copies of the book digitally — $55 for the e-book, about they’re going to read printed materials in fewer instances. $65 for the audiobook — it’s a license, and once the meter clicks over Because the library has evolved, it’s been respected in a lot of quarters 26 times or a certain period of time passes, we have to buy it again. for transcending many things that otherwise divide us, socioeconomWhen I got here in 2015, the digital component of the total book budically or politically. Because of that, it has a lot of credibility and that get was about 12%. It’s now 27%. allows it to be a source of information on a whole number of fronts. We handed out over 175,000 meals during the pandemic, along with What about programming? We need to do more of what we’ve been a lot of other allies, to help deal with the shutdown of schools and trying to do, in terms of connecting to underserved communities. We nutrition programs. I think libraries are going to continue to be seen hired two liaisons, one to serve the African American community and as community resources that fit whatever challenge comes along. I one to serve the Latino community. We need to do more of those think that’s one of the things libraries are particularly good at because kinds of things to get out in the community for people who can use the they’re close to the street and they hear things. We were one of the library but aren’t generally aware of it or don’t have a habit of coming first, probably 25 or 30 libraries in the country, to hire a social worker. to it. We also need some more in the way of upgrading our hardware, — Lindsey Millar ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 9
THE FRONT
125,000,000
2002
Let’s Stay Together
3 23 ,1 0 0, 0 0 0
AL GREEN
186,000,000
1972
Southern Nights
1 28 ,191 , 0 0 0
GLEN CAMPBELL
22,000,000
1977
Hello Darlin’
44,811,000
CONWAY TWITTY
21,000,000
1970
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
5 3 , 9 8 7, 0 0 0
JR. WALKER & THE ALL STARS
3,200,000
1966
The Most Beautiful Girl In the World
30,049,000
CHARLIE RICH
8 ,1 0 0, 0 0 0
1973
Last Two Dollars
3,554,000
JOHNNIE TAYLOR
24,000,000
1996
Help Me
1963
on lli bi 1.5 n io ill m
4 2 7, 4 0 0 , 0 0 0
JOHNNY CASH
SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON
n io ill m
n io ill m
n io ill m
Hurt
0 50
0 25
0 10
25
0 00 0, 10
s am re st
n io ill 1m
0
BIG PIC
2 0 ,375 , 0 0 0 898,000
Woman To Woman
SHIRLEY BROWN 1 9 74
Clay Pigeons
BLAZE FOLEY 2010
9,591,000 8,900,000
7, 1 9 0 , 0 0 0 1,800,000
VINYL HITS TO DIGITAL BITS COMPARING ARKANSAS’S MUSICAL LEGENDS TO THEIR CONTEMPORARY COUNTERPARTS ON SPOTIFY AND YOUTUBE.
To determine what Arkansas artists get the most modern-day love online, we selected the song from each artist with the most combined streams on Spotify and YouTube and compared those totals. We surveyed many, many more Arkansas musicians, but please let us know if you think we overlooked someone. 10 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
st re am s 0
10 0, 00 0
1m ill io n
m ill io n 25
m ill io n 10 0
25 0
m ill io n
50 0
bi lli on 1.5
m ill io n
Bring Me To Life
5 3 7, 9 4 2 , 0 0 0
EVANESCENCE
945,000,000
2003
So Sick
483,970,000
NE-YO
251,000,000
2006
Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
89,028,000
JOE NICHOLS
34,000,000
2005
Heavy Cross
65,979,000
GOSSIP
50,000,000
2009
Bait a Hook
3 7, 6 5 9 , 0 0 0
JUSTIN MOORE
52,000,000
2011
Time Marches On
5 5 ,7 6 9 , 0 0 0
TRACY LAWRENCE
14 ,000,000
1996
Drip Like Dis (Remix)
16,975,000
BANKROLL FREDDIE
51,000,000
2019
One Night Standards
41 ,3 5 1 , 0 0 0
ASHLEY MCBRYDE
19,000,000
2020
Live Like We’re Dying
1 9 ,7 9 9 , 0 0 0
KRIS ALLEN
10,000,000
2009
Evergreen
2 2 ,7 8 4 , 0 0 0
YEBBA
4 ,3 0 0 , 0 0 0
2017
Which decade of music had the most streams? 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
78.4 MIL 781.7 MIL NO DATA 97.3 MIL 3.04 BIL 226.9 MIL 60.3 MIL
0
100M
500M
1B
2B ARKANSASTIMES.COM
3B OCTOBER 2021 11
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ARKANSAS TIMES
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BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND RHETT BRINKLEY
COURTESY OF ARKANSAS CINEMA SOCIETY
Vax up, mask up and support your local creatives however you can. As more and more artists — and local venues — move toward requiring proof of vaccination, make sure you have that card ready to go. Gathering safely these days is hard; be on the lookout for policy changes or date changes, and handle them with all the grace you can summon.
FILMLAND
THROUGH 10/3. MACARTHUR PARK LAWN. $5-$40 PER EVENT, DISCOUNTED RATES FOR ACS MEMBERS. Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain is headlining Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland in the Park on Saturday, Oct. 2, with her new biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (pictured), which tells the story of the “rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.” A Q&A with Arkansas native director and Arkansas Cinema Society founder Jeff Nichols (he directed Chastain in his 2011 feature “Take Shelter”) will follow the screening. Also on the schedule: headlining documentary “Becoming Cousteau,” about the life of adventurer, filmmaker and environmentalist JacquesYves Cousteau, who sounded the alarm about the warming seas and Earth’s vulnerability 50 years ago; David Gordon Green’s slasher film “Halloween”; Oscar-winning writer/director Asghar
Farhadi’s “A Hero,” which won the Grand Prix award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival; tons of Arkansas-made short films; a roster of feature films like “88.3 FM and The Voice of the People” from former Arkansas Times entertainment editor J.T. Tarpley. Plus, the Society offers a wide range of workshops from film experts like Graham Gordy to coach aspiring filmmakers and creators on everything from “Landing the Role” to “Building A Scene (And Hopefully, Eventually, a Screenplay).” Filmland screenings will take place on the MacArthur Park lawn at 1200 McMath Ave., so bring a blanket and chairs. The gates open each night at 6 p.m., with shows starting at 7:15 p.m. Find tickets at arkansascinemasociety.org/filmland. RB ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 13
HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
COURTESY OF WILDWORKS PR
FRIDAY 10/8-SATURDAY 10/16. HISTORIC MALCO THEATER, 817 CENTRAL AVE., HOT SPRINGS; CENTRAL THEATER, 1008 CENTRAL AVE., HOT SPRINGS; HORNER HALL, 134 CONVENTION BLVD., HOT SPRINGS. FREE-$300. Between this long-standing documentary film fest, formidable newcomers like the Bentonville Film Festival and Arkansas Cinema Society’s Filmland, Arkansas’s film scene is officially a Big Deal. We owe that, in part, to three decades of dogged work from the folks behind the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021. This year, HSDFF employs a hybrid of in-person and virtual screenings, with headlining films “Citizen Ashe” (pictured), Samuel D. Pollard and Rex Miller’s profile on tennis champion Arthur Ashe; “The Rescue,” Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s portrayal of the harrowing 2018 rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a cave in Thailand; CJ Hunt’s “The Neutral Ground,” which follows the removal of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans; and Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s “Julia,” which chronicles the life of Julia Child. New festival director of programming Greta Hagen-Richardson emphasizes an effort “to accurately reflect the world of nonfiction filmmaking,” adding that 55% of film fest directors identify as female or nonbinary and that 40% of film fest directors are people of color. “There is always a heightened energy and anticipation during anniversary years,” Executive Director Jennifer Gerber said, “and this year’s films, our stellar trio of honorees, and the panels, events, activities, parties and more that our staff has put together point to a truly exceptional film festival.” Find the full list of feature-length documentaries at hsdfi.org, divided into categories of International, U.S. and Southern, and which includes Gerard Matthews and Kathryn Tucker’s “A Good Campaign,” which follows Democrat Clarke Tucker’s campaign for Congress in the heart of Trump country. SS
MAIN STREET FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL
Downtown Little Rock’s largest gathering of food trucks celebrates its 10th birthday this year with more than 60 food trucks rolling in to cure your hankerings for wok-fired soba noodles, frozen lemonade, loaded fries, elotes, gulf shrimp, funnel cakes, Italian ice and lots more grub, plus handcrafted art from local makers. Find the full list of trucks and vendors at mainstreetfoodtrucks.com. Bonus: The food truck fest is phasing in a sustainability initiative this year, requiring that trucks serve their wares in certified compostable products, and contracting with a company called Food Loops to sort festival waste into recyclables, compostables and landfill waste when the festival ends. SS 14 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
CREPE COOP
SATURDAY 10/2. CAPITOL & MAIN STREETS. 10 A.M.-8 P.M.
ASH DYE
VALLEY OF THE VAPORS
JERRY METELLUS
FRIDAY 10/1-SATURDAY 10/2. CEDAR GLADES PARK, HOT SPRINGS. FREE-$200.
GOLD OVER AMERICA
SUNDAY 10/10. SIMMONS BANK ARENA. $29-$149. Whether we deserve it or not, Simone Biles (pictured) is coming to Little Rock, and she’s bringing her high-flying cast of teammates along with her. This gymnasts’ stadium show — think Olympics-style feats, but with a wild LED light show and, as promoters bill it, “big pop concert energy” — includes the G.O.A.T. herself, Biles, who this year medaled with silver for team competition and bronze for the balance beam; Jade Carey, who won gold in floor exercise; Jordan Chiles; Grace McCallum, who won silver for team competition; and MyKayla Skinner, who won silver in vault. “The show embodies the themes of empowerment and togetherness which were on display in Tokyo,” Biles said in a release. “Together, all the gymnasts on this tour want to inspire the next generation of women and athletes.” Get tickets at simmonsbankarena. com. (The “Gold Squad Premium Upgrade” ticket earns you the opportunity to dance with the gymnasts in the show finale.) SS
Traditionally a mid-March affair, this independent music fest in Hot Springs has made an art of luring bands on their way to and from the behemoth South by Southwest festival in Austin. After a long COVID-induced hiatus, Valley of the Vapors is forging ahead this fall and, for the first time in its history, it’ll be a campout. That means things will look a little different, with hiking, disc golf, rock wall climbing, family yoga, paint pour workshops, a radio-controlled flight exhibition, late-night video antics by a film collective called Museum of Home Video, a scavenger hunt on the Northwoods Trails system, art installations, kids’ activities, food from Tacos Xilitla and Lagniappe Po’ Boy Co., plus sets from Crush Diamond, We Are the Asteroid, Esme Patterson, Dendrons, Estereomance, Ohmme (pictured), Deeper, Psychic Graveyard, Various Blonde and Holy Wave. (Find all those artists on a Spotify playlist at valleyofthevapors.com.) The festival is allages, and children under 12 enter free for both camping and music. Otherwise, you’ll need to select an RV pass, camping pass or a day pass from VOV’s abundant options; make sure and check the camping rules at valleyofthevapors.com beforehand so you’re in the know. SS ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 15
DAVID MALCOLM ROSE: THE LOST HIGHWAY
ARKANSAS STATE FAIR
FRIDAY 10/15-SUNDAY 10/24. ARKANSAS STATE FAIRGROUNDS. $8-$30. Whether you’re in it for the close encounters with livestock, the blue ribbon quilts or the dizzying centrifugal force of the Gravitron, you’re in luck, because the state fair is back after being canceled in 2020. This year’s main stage, sponsored by Vaccinate Arkansas (great idea!), features performances from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, our very own Dazz & Brie, Maddie & Tae, Bell Biv Devoe, Zac Dunlap, Better Than Ezra, Blackberry Smoke, Riley Green and the Jettaway Music Group, while the Bud Light Pavilion features football nights, karaoke nights, a performance from local one-man band wonder Mister Morphis and more. As ever, culinary wonders abound — for example, turkey legs, pizza pretzels and a sandwich of chicken, bacon and cheese stuffed into a funnel cake. Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children (slightly less if you buy tickets before Oct. 14), and allday ride bands are $30 in advance, $35 at the gate. SS
ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: THE FIREBIRD
GENEVA LEWIS
SATURDAY 10/2-SUNDAY 10/3. ROBINSON PERFORMANCE HALL. 7:30 P.M. SATURDAY, 3 P.M. SUNDAY. $21-$77.
16 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
There could be no better opening to a month known for spooky magic than Stravinsky’s breakout hit “The Firebird,” and maybe no better way to lure orchestra-deprived listeners back into the concert hall. With low-howling winds and brasses, slithering oboes and instantly recognizable leitmotifs, “The Firebird” is myth translated into sound, led in this performance by guest conductor Stephen Mulligan. Stravinsky’s centerpiece is surrounded by other delights: John Adams’ 1985 “The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra),” Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” and Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, featuring cellist Gabriel Martins (pictured). Get tickets at arkansassymphony.org. SS
THROUGH 2022. FORT SMITH REGIONAL ARTS MUSEUM. 11 A.M.-6 P.M. TUESDAY-SATURDAY, 1 P.M.-5 P.M. SUNDAY. FREE.
Fort Smith’s got more than great Thai food, and some of those nonedible offerings are found at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum. Catch, for example, this exhibit of miniature sculptures from artist David Malcolm Rose, which Rose calls a “portrait of the people who made their living by the side of the road.” Get details at fsram.org/ exhibitions. Here’s to the bygone highway culture that presided before exits became Applebee’s-ExxonWalmart monoliths. SS
BRI AILENE, JOSE HOLLOWAY SUNDAY 10/24. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 7 P.M. $10.
Arkansas native and jazz/soul/R&B vocalist Bri Ailene joins forces with trumpeter/educator Jose Holloway for this Sunday show at Little Rock’s beloved dive bar. Expect flecks of gospel to find their way into Holloway’s set as they do on his 2021 record “In His Time,” and expect for any waning flicker of faith you may have held in Little Rock’s COVID-thwarted jazz scene to be renewed. SS
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OCTOBER 2021 17
PHOTOGRAPH OF GOV. ORVAL FAUBUS WITH CUDE CHILDREN. ORVAL EUGENE FAUBUS PAPERS (MS F27 301), FAUBUS SERIES 25, SUBSERIES 4, BOX 907, ITEM 1. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS LIBRARIES, FAYETTEVILLE.
NEWS & POLITICS
FAUBUS, PANDERING: (From left) Wayne, Delia and Linda Cude posed with Gov. Faubus at the Governor’s Mansion.
YES, ARKANSAS CAN (AND DOES) REQUIRE VACCINATIONS THE MODERN PERILS OF ARCHIE CUDE.
This article, or a version of it, will appear soon in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.
A
rchie Cude, a farmer who was born and reared around Houston, Texas, moved his young family in 1948 to the remote community of Board Camp, 9 miles east of Mena in the mountains of Polk County, and years later refused to put his children in school because he claimed to have discovered that God opposed the smallpox vaccinations children had to take before enrolling. Cude’s long-running legal fight over his unvaccinated kids, which embroiled Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus, finally produced an order from the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1964 that his religious beliefs did not exempt him from obeying laws that required the education of his children and that also helped protect children and teachers from the dreaded smallpox virus. Cude v. State, as the case became known, forms a basic foundation of public health policy in Arkansas — actually, in the entire United States because similar decisions in other states and the United States Supreme Court, sometimes citing Cude v. State, established that governments could and should regulate personal behavior, like vaccinations and masking, when public health and safety are at stake. The Arkansas court said
18 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
BY ERNEST DUMAS
it was so firmly settled in the United States that governments could require vaccinations and other steps to protect the health and safety of people that no extensive discussion of the matter was needed. Even religious excuses, the justices said, were beyond the pale. Although such questions were settled in law, during the coronavirus pandemic that gripped the country and the world starting in 2020, the Republican Party in Arkansas and many other states took the position that mandatory vaccinations and mask wearing in certain situations violated individual rights. Those states tended to lead the country in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The Arkansas Supreme Court’s strongly worded order in Cude v. State held that the state and federal constitutional protections of religious freedom had no bearing on a public-health matter like vaccinations. Written by the conservative jurist Sam Robinson, the decision cited a number of controlling precedents — in the Arkansas Supreme Court, the high courts of other states, and the U.S. Supreme Court — all of which declared that religious beliefs, no matter how earnestly held, could not interfere with the government’s need and right to pass and enforce laws to protect people’s health and safety. Although it has often
been cited in subsequent cases, including a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Cude v. State was not a groundbreaking decision. In fact, the Arkansas court had ruled in three previous cases — State v. Martin in 1918, Allen v. Ingalls in 1930, and Seubold v. Fort Smith School District in 1951 — that the government’s constitutional charge to protect the health and safety of American citizens overrode any religious objection or claim of individual rights. But the court’s decision in April 1964 did not end the battle over the children’s smallpox shots. Cude and his wife continued to fight the vaccinations and school for their three school-age children until the county sheriff, with court orders, forcibly took the youngsters to a Mena doctor and got them vaccinated — kicking and screaming, newspapers reported. Cude eventually relented and enrolled them in school, but they rebelled, refused to study or participate in classroom exercises, and were suspended from school. Gov. Faubus, facing reelection for his last term against Republican Winthrop Rockefeller that year, had embraced Cude’s cause when the local dispute over the kids’ mandatory school attendance first came to the state’s attention in 1963. Cude appealed a local court order for vaccination and schooling to the state Supreme
Court. When the state finally took custody from the father and mother after the Supreme Court decision, and the sheriff headed for Little Rock to deliver the children to the state welfare department, Faubus had the youngsters diverted to the Governor’s Mansion for three days. The statewide papers carried front-page pictures of Faubus and his wife, Alta, with the children on the lawn of the mansion. His stand portrayed him as the champion of the little guy. The legal fight and the governor’s intervention attracted state and national coverage for four years. The decision in Cude v. State did not end the dispute over whether constitutional religiousliberty provisions, or the Declaration of Independence’s guarantee of personal freedom, prohibited governments from imposing mandates to protect public health, such as requiring vaccinations or wearing masks in crowded areas during a viral pandemic. Although Cude v. State and other cases had long ago and often settled those questions, political and legal battles over such issues surfaced with vehemence in the Arkansas legislature and courts and in other states during the deadly coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. While Justice Robinson and his five colleagues argued forcefully that the religious-freedom exemption from state laws should not be applied where public health and safety and the universal right to education were imperiled, they were careful to point out that a number of precedents in state and federal courts supported the conclusion. Nevertheless, the U.S. Supreme Court, in an opinion in 1990 (Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith) written by Justice Antonin Scalia, cited Cude v. State in support of a radical interpretation of the free-exercise-of-religion clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Scalia majority upheld the state of Oregon’s firing of two Native Americans and then denying their unemployment claims, because they had ingested peyote, a hallucinogenic substance used in the religious rituals of their Native American Church. Scalia said the court was following examples such as Cude v. State where state or local governments denied people’s claims that they were exercising their religion by refusing vaccinations or claiming other exemptions from laws like compulsory military service or child-labor laws. The court minority said the courts had never before denied religious exemptions in cases where, unlike exemption from vaccinations, the religious exercise resulted in no harm to society. Archie Theodore Cude had an uncommon family history, even before his battle to keep his kids unvaccinated and out of school, and afterward as well. The eldest of five sons of Theodore and Lucy Cude in Houston, Archie was working as a furniture upholsterer by 1940 and had married a Houston woman, Lena Nell Highnote. They had a son, whom they named Archie Jr., and also a daughter, who died when she was 5 months old. In September 1942, Archie married Lena Nell’s sister, Mary Frances Highnote, and it was their
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passel of children that he brought to his little farm between Coyote Canyon and Apache Ridge in Polk County in 1948. An older son apparently had been vaccinated and attended school at Mena for a while. Cude would explain that God had not yet informed him of his opposition to vaccinations. The Cudes were not known to have ever had any religious affiliations. Cude said he developed his ideas from reading passages of the Bible and getting his instructions from God in that way. Polk County school officials began to insist that the Cudes obey the compulsory-attendance law. He said he wasn’t sending them to school because he didn’t believe they should be vaccinated. Cude was fined three years in a row for not enrolling his children, and finally the county decided to get state custody of the children and get them vaccinated. Cude said he would never take the children back if they were vaccinated, implying that it was God’s plan for people to avoid vaccinations. He said vaccinations were unnecessary because God would protect those whom He wanted to protect and heal those He wanted healed. When the probate court in Polk County in 1963 awarded custody of the children — ages 12, 11 and 8 — to the state Welfare Department to get them vaccinated and to find a guardian or adoptive parents if the parents rejected the vaccinated kids, Cude’s attorneys, the Mena law firm of Shaw and Shaw, appealed to the Supreme Court. 4261 Stockton Dr., Suite 200 (The same law firm would oppose Cude in another family dispute North Little Rock that reached the• Supreme Court 16 years later.) 501-791-7546 arkansasdermatology.com The Supreme Court majority — Justice Jim Johnson cast the lone dissent — dismissed Cude’s and his law firm’s claims that vaccinating his kids violated his constitutional right to worship as he chose. Justice Robinson wrote that Arkansas law unquestionably required the Cudes to put the children in school somewhere and also required that every schoolchild be vaccinated against the killer disease smallpox. That left the religiousfreedom argument. Robinson recited the long religious-liberty provision of the Arkansas Constitution and summarized it this way: “The foregoing provision of the Constitution means that anyone has the right to worship God in the manner of his own choice, but it does not mean that he can engage in religious practices inconsistent with the peace, safety and health of the inhabitants of the State, and it does not mean that parents, on religious grounds, have the right to deny their children an education.” He recited decisions by both the U.S. Supreme Court and earlier by the Arkansas high court. In the 1943 case of Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court proclaimed: “The right to practice religion freely does not include the liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death. Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have
reached the age of full and legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves.” In his solitary dissent, Justice Johnson said the majority had made a good case that children should be vaccinated and sent to school and that the laws requiring them were valid, but he said the only thing the state was allowed to do to Cude for violating the school-attendance and vaccination laws was fine him $10 a day when the children were not put in school. He said the state was powerless to force him to obey the law with his children. The children’s forcible vaccinations and enrollment in school in the fall of 1964 did not end the trouble. The children were disruptive in class and were suspended for misconduct after several weeks. The chancery judge held a hearing and, on the recommendation of two Mena physicians, ordered the sheriff to take Cude to the Arkansas State Hospital at Benton (Saline County) for a mental evaluation, where it was found that he was sane. The next year, the prosecuting attorney charged Cude again with violating the school-attendance law and he relented and sent the children to school, this time with fewer disciplinary problems. Five years later, Archie Cude confronted the Supreme Court with another legal dilemma arising from a family conflict, this one not altogether his own. In the 1970 decision in Ida Hiler v. Archie Cude, the court split again, this time 5 to 2, but in Cude’s favor. It involved the estate of Rose Gordon, a 72-year-old widow who had moved to Polk County and was befriended by a neighbor, Archie Cude, who helped her change her will to make him the executor of her estate and to leave much of it to Archie’s teenage sons, Clark and Wayne. Some months earlier, her Mena lawyers, Shaw and Shaw — Archie’s lawyers in 1964 — had prepared a will at her request that left most of her estate to a foster son. She had no children. Gravely ill, she became angry at the foster son’s insistence that she go to a nursing home rather than live alone, and invited Cude, who had befriended her and worked some on her farm, to help her burn the previous will and write a new one making him the executor of her estate and his sons the primary beneficiaries. The widow’s three sisters and brother, represented by Cude’s former attorneys, contested the Cude will and accused him of fraud and undue influence on the dying and incapacitated woman. After a trial, during which all of her mental and physical agonies were brought out in great detail, the chancellor ruled that he could not conclude that Gordon was mentally incapable of making an independent decision about who should be rewarded or punished for the conditions of her care. The Supreme Court upheld his decision 5 to 2. The dissenting justices were Chief Justice Carleton Harris and Justice George Rose Smith, who had cast votes against Cude in the vaccination case. Cude eventually moved to Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where he died on Feb. 11, 1993. He is buried in Akins Cemetery in Sallisaw.
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The pandemic has caused people to consume alcohol at unprecedented levels. The BridgeWay offers hope and recovery for adults struggling with alcohol or other substances. Led by Dr. Schay, a board-certified psychiatrist and addiction specialist, our continuum of care includes: • Medical detoxification • Partial hospitalization • Intensive outpatient program To learn more about our continuum of care for substance use disorders, call us at 1-800-245-0011. Physicians are on the medical staff of The BridgeWay Hospital but, with limited exceptions, are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of The BridgeWay Hospital. The facility shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. Source: Journal of the American Medical Association. 22 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
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Medical Director of Substance Use Disorders
CANNABIS HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER TO GET IN ARKANSAS. BUT IS IT GOOD? BY LINDSEY MILLAR
For many of us, especially in the more urban parts of the state, it’s been easy to get quality marijuana for years, thanks to the (illegal) influx of relatively cheap cannabis grown in California, Colorado and an increasing number of other states. But for those wary of dipping into the black market, the advent of medical marijuana completely changed the game. Since the first dispensary opened in May 2019, Arkansans have spent $400 million on 60,000 pounds of medical cannabis. There are nearly 80,000 active marijuana patient cardholders. But largely absent in media coverage, here and elsewhere, has been any exploration of what it’s like to smoke or otherwise consume marijuana in Arkansas. What’s good? What’s not? How does medical weed compare with black market pot? To attempt to answer those questions, we turned to a cross section of marijuana aficionados: a high-level industry participant, a dispensary owner, a former budtender, a prominent advocate, a patient, a longtime all-day-every-day smoker and a black market dealer. They offer an occasionally conflicting collage of Arkansas cannabis experience. Elsewhere in the issue, we explore how the price of Arkansas’s medical marijuana compares to other states (preview: It’s higher!), what goes into making cannabisinfused chocolates and Good Day Farm’s budding regional marijuana empire. And for those still stumbling around in the dark, we worked up an introductory glossary, Grandma’s Guide to Weed.
ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 23
MARIJUANA INSIDERS PUT IT BLUNTLY. BY LINDSEY MILLAR
24 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
MATTHEW MARTIN
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
DRAGAN VICENTIC OWNER OF GREEN SPRINGS MEDICAL DISPENSARY IN HOT SPRINGS People come here who have been in California and Colorado, and they say the quality is really good. It’s just we needed more cultivators to get the price down. There’s a hierarchy. I think Natural State Medicinals is probably No. 1. Good Day Farm is No 2. Delta is probably three. No. 4 would be Osage. Bold hurries their product way too often to market. Their quality is probably at the bottom of the spectrum. Bold never cured its product right. It always smelled like hay when we got it. If it smells like hay, that’s a big flashing red light that it’s not properly cured. That has really hurt their brand name. They came online first along with Natural State. Osage entered the market third. They were a little bit of a player. Then they were plagued with seeds in their product for about six months. Natural State hasn’t really had any setbacks like the other two. They’ve been a more quality product. They’ve always tried to out-package the other cultivators. They have cleaner-cut buds with less shake. Delta came along and tried to do a super high-quality product and advertise it that way. It just never really materialized. There were one or two strains that people were semiinterested in, but I haven’t heard Delta’s name mentioned by anyone in the last quarter. Good Day Farm moved to Pine Bluff. They picked up a cultivator who used to work at Natural State. I think that’s why they have so many of the strains that are like Natural State. We’ve seen some really good product from them. I think the two main contenders are Natural State and Good Day Farm. The other three are probably going to take a year to get their level of quality and variety of products up. A lot of times patients will come in and just ask for the strongest strain. That’s not always the smartest thing to do. It’s not really the strongest THC that does the best for you, it’s the particular strain that has the cannabinoids your body is looking for to help you. Cannabis affects everyone differently. You have to try a lot of strains to see which one of them works best for you. Natural State’s Commerce City Kush has month in and month out been the strongest strain. It’s pushing 30%. When patients say they want indica with strong THC, nine times out of 10 that’s what they get. Sour Tangie from Natural State is another really popular one. It’s usually 21%. It isn’t the highest, but it’s really popular. Chiesel, also from Natural State, is another bestseller. Good Day Farm has mimicked a lot of the strains Natural State did and has Chiesel, too. It’s not as high in THC as Natural State, but it’s pretty close. There’s no question, hands down, that medical is much stronger and a better quality than what you find on the black market. At Green Springs, we’ve always done $5 per gram deals [for shake]. That brings in a lot of people. When you start
BY THE END OF THE YEAR, PATIENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPECT MORE OF A VARIETY. THERE ARE PROBABLY GOING TO BE 75 MORE STRAINS ON THE HORIZON. — DRAGAN VICENTIC, OWNER OF GREEN SPRINGS MEDICAL DISPENSARY
hitting the $5 market, that gets really close to what it is on the black market. When you get to the price that’s equal to black market, they’re going to come in to get the medical one every single day. Because they know what they’re getting. They know that it’s stronger. They know that it’s not laced with chemicals. It’s like anything else, any other commodity: It’s a supply-and-demand thing. The more supply there is, the better pricing gets. Customers are getting more discerning. They’re becoming more interested in certain brands or strains. People are learning more. That’s a good thing. We’re moving along with the program. By the end of the year, patients should be able to expect more of a variety. There are probably going to be 75 more strains on the horizon. Prices are going to be less once other cultivators get on board. I think we’re going to see more products, like concentrates. It takes a lot of dry herb to make concentrates. Once there’s an overabundance of the dry herb with the cultivators that they’re not going to be able to sell, they’re going to be able to do some neat stuff.
ANONYMOUS INDUSTRY PARTICIPANT IN ARKANSAS AND ELSEWHERE Osage probably has the best flower in Arkansas. I think their grower has a little better feel for what the outcome of that crop needs to be. There’s a million different ways to grow it. You just have to make a decision of how you’re going to manage that garden. Most follow the same recipe: They take a 3-gallon pot, fill it with salts and push it hard in the greenhouse or indoor facility. It becomes salt bud, which means it’s grown with too much fertilizer salt. Typically, it has too much chlorophyll and can kind of be harsh. For extraction it’s great because you’re going to get the maximum amount. Osage is focusing a little more on soil instead of flushing with salts. I don’t think they’re doing a great job. But I think they’re doing a better job than others. I don’t think there is a good grower. I’m super disappointed in all of them here in Arkansas. They’ve all chosen to kind of take the easy way out and to follow a cookbook. They streamlined it, and they’ve got their costs down to bottom dollar. In the cannabis world, we have to breed certain strains for certain illnesses, so that we don’t break the cannabinoid chain and don’t break the entourage effect. You’re focusing specifically on PTSD, or chronic pain or anti-inflammation. Weed isn’t all the same. You have to really do the research. A certain strain is going to be good for certain patients. I don’t think any Arkansas cultivator has actually done that. They pick up trendy strains and they grow them because they sell because they’re a trendy name. It’s not about patients, it’s not about medicine at all, it’s about money. Money makes the world go round, and I get that. But we’re supposed to ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 25
be focused on patients. There needs to be more organic grows. I think there needs to be more variety. I think there needs to be more cultivation competition to drive some prices down. We have eight cultivators here in Arkansas and have four running. Over in Oklahoma there are 3,800 cultivators, which can grow unlimited amounts outdoors, in greenhouses and indoors. Oklahoma is the Wild West. In Arkansas wholesale prices per pound are going for about $3,500 and retailing for $6,000 to $7,000. Retail prices for the same indoor bud in Oklahoma are $1,200 to $1,600. I think the best of the best is in the Oklahoma City area. There are some growers there competing with the best growers in California and Colorado. I’m talking about big facilities that have millions upon millions invested and very large management groups who have big shoulders who can push. A lot of growers in Oklahoma really feel like it’s the center of the country and makes sense for distribution. As we move into deregulation and a recreational market that’s nationwide, there’s a big push to kind of get positioned properly on the front end. But Oklahoma has a major problem. Just like California and to a lesser extent Colorado, Oklahoma sees a lot of growers illegally moving product out of the state into more restrictive states. Because it’s a race to the bottom for growers. The wholesale price for weed grown outdoors is expected to reach $500. Close to that point, it’s not worth your time. So growers say, screw it, I’ll take it somewhere else and make $2,000-$3,000. I don’t see Arkansas going recreational in 2022. I think Missouri will go. I think Kansas is going to go medical. Oklahoma will go recreational. At some point the iceberg falls off the glacier and recreational will be everywhere. In the 1930s, we banned cannabis and made it illegal. Everyone took these large agronomics and went underground in their basements. Over time we bred these short things, that are kind of prima donna, crappy little plants. But they produce really great buds in our basements, in our greenhouses, in our backyards covered up in the bushes — concealable plants. Now we’re taking these plants out of the basement and trying to grow them commercially again. The thing is, nobody has done a good job breeding. There haven’t been good geneticists involved in breeding cannabis. There’s starting to be. But there hasn’t been. For example, let’s say you get 10 Blue Dream seeds. You crack all 10 of them. You’ve got 10 different phenotypes in them. Those are 10 completely different plants that genetically express differently. And you have to find one that’s really good. You may crack all these seeds and think, “Man, we got all this Blue Dream.” But you’re not getting the same phenotype that guys in California have had such success with. 26 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
According to Arkansas law, cultivators have to start with a seed, not a clone. The genetics of that seed may not express the same way the best of that strain in other states has.
JT
I DON’T THINK THERE IS A GOOD GROWER. I’M SUPER DISAPPOINTED IN ALL OF THEM HERE IN ARKANSAS. THEY’VE ALL CHOSEN TO KIND OF TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT AND TO FOLLOW A COOKBOOK. —ANONYMOUS INDUSTRY PARTICIPANT IN ARKANSAS AND ELSEWHERE
FORMER BUDTENDER IN LITTLE ROCK I quit because the dispensary where I worked was after the money and that’s all they were doing. They really didn’t care about it being a patient business. They were just pushing the highest percentage of THC. I got into it to help people. I’ve studied terpenes and I’ve studied different strains. I kept getting told, “You’re spending too much time with the patient. We need to get them in and out.” “Turn and burn” is what they kept saying. That frustrated me to the point that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I got interested in cannabis after I got home from Iraq. The VA had me on so many prescription drugs for so many different things. I finally moved into marijuana and was able to move away from a lot of those drugs. I went black market then, and I’m still black market. I got rid of my [medical marijuana] card once it expired. I didn’t re-up it. The person I go through is able to get it through different states that have it legalized. It’s so cheap there they can bring it here, and they’re making some money. It’s all labeled and has the test stickers. It’s not in a baggie or a jar. It’s legit stuff. They offer things that Arkansas doesn’t. For instance, I buy bags of indica tea. It helps me sleep. Outside of Arkansas, they have cartridges that don’t gum up. There’s a wide variety of different gummies. A lot of them are fast-acting. When you eat it, you get effects in 10 or 15 minutes. With Arkansas gummies, buckle up. You never know when it’s going to hit you. I don’t like that. I like to ease into it. In other states you can get a soda pop or a lollipop or something that’s quick-acting. In Arkansas, Natural State’s chocolate is the only edible I’d recommend to anybody. As for Arkansas bud, it’s all garbage. It’s dry. You find popcorn buds. They look like the kernel of a popcorn. You might find a big fat stem in there. That’s a third of your weight. So you’re really not getting enough flower. At the place where I worked, I got a 40% discount. I tried every one of the cultivators and every strain they offered. It was all consistently bad. I still have friends who have cards. We’ll meet up for a game or a movie. They’ll bring their stuff, and I’ll bring mine. All the THC trichomes on the outside aren’t there in the Arkansas weed. That’s where a lot of the relief comes from. Arkansas cultivators are cutting too many corners and trying to make too much money without thinking about the patient side of it. How can you tell what’s good? Trichomes on
the outside. The smell of it. You don’t want it to be too moist or too dry. You know what Kinetic Sand is? When you grind up flower and grind it fine, it should act like Kinetic Sand where, if you squish it just a little bit, it should go back to its normal form. When you smoke it, you want to taste the bud and not the chemicals they use to fertilize it. You want an even burn. That kind of stuff is hard to get in Arkansas. Arkansan consumers are just not that educated. When I was at the dispensary, eight out of 10 people, when they’d walk through the door, the first thing out of their mouth was, “Which one has the highest THC?” I’d ask, “Do you want indica or sativa?” “What’s that?” “Indica will help you sleep, while sativa will help you get through the day.” “Well, which one has the highest THC?” They were all about the high. Other common questions: “How long does it take for the gummies to kick in or the edibles to kick in?” Then customers would come back after about a week and say, “Can I exchange this card, it’s all gummed up?” I had to tell them they weren’t allowed to bring it into the dispensary, much less get a refund or exchange. My recommendation is, if you do get a card in Arkansas, apply to Oklahoma and get the temporary and drive over there and get the good stuff. They allow out-of-state vendors, so it’s like going to Colorado, California or Michigan. The good stuff usually comes with a sticker for authentication.
EATS ARTIST WHO SMOKES ALL DAY, EVERY DAY I’m a real heavy smoker. It’s the first thing I do in the morning. I do it all day long before I go to sleep. Then I wake up and repeat. It’s good for my system, good for my day-to-day. I smoke it like it’s legal. I probably didn’t start until I was maybe 17 or 18. I was straightedge for most of my youth. I was on some drug-free, punk rock, hardcore shit. I didn’t try marijuana ’til I was probably 17 or 18. Back in the late ’90s there was some trash weed out. It wasn’t good. It was coming from Texas or smelled like gasoline or smelled like perfume. You could tell it had been in a gas tank. Back then it had a lot of seeds in it. It hadn’t really been cultivated. It would give you a little head change, but for the most part it wasn’t fire. You couldn’t pinpoint if it was an indica or sativa. Back then you didn’t really have names for strains, it was just weed. Today, it’s a lot more accessible and people are more accepting of cannabis smokers. It’s a lot easier now than it was to buy weed. And you can go somewhere and smell like a whole pound of weed and no one is really going to blink an eye. Back in the day they might call the police on you.
YOU’LL FIND SOME PEOPLE DOING TWO GRAMS FOR $15. I’M NOT REALLY SURE HOW THESE CATS ARE MAKING MONEY. — EATS, ARTIST AND HEAVY MARIJUANA SMOKER
It’s a lot pricier in the dispensaries than it is in the streets. I don’t have a card. I’d much rather keep my options open than being on someone’s radar as far as the government. Having an official card that says I can smoke pot is cool, but I can’t roll up and fire it up in the street because it’s still not recreational, so it’s kind of pointless to me. But I’ve tried a lot of Arkansas medical weed. Natural State has a bunch of nice strains. They’re probably most consistent in terms of strains and the feel of the smoke, the high. Most of the weed you buy on the street is coming from Colorado or California or another state that’s fully recreational. But it’s so common now. Homie could be living in Southwest Little Rock and growing some fire. You never know unless it’s packaged and says “processed in California” or wherever. When I started smoking, an eighth would be $25 and a quarter would be $100. Somewhere within the last five to 10 years, the scaling system got lost in translation. Now a gram on the streets would be like $15 or $20. It’s been marked down for some reason. And you’ll find some people doing two grams for $15. I’m not really sure how these cats are making money. They’re doing really crazy deals. That’s like real hood deals. An ounce back in the day would be $270. Now it’s $160. I don’t know how their conversion chart works [laughs]. It didn’t used to be like that back in the day, this shit was expensive. I have neck and back issues from working in restaurants my whole life. My spine and back are messed up. If I can get some strong weed that’s more of an indica, that will lay me down and relax my muscles and bones. But my main bag is sativa. I like smoking weed and getting hype — clean my house and pay my bills. It locks me in. I get more meticulous and kind of OCD when I’m smoking and painting. I see a vision and I want it to be perfect, so I keep smoking and chiseling away at my piece until it’s perfect. I don’t take any pills. I’ve never taken a pill to get fucked up. I’ve smoked thousands and thousands of strains over the years. I usually try to pick up something I’ve never heard of, just to switch it up. But I’m not a snob. If it’s green, and it breaks up, I’m going to smoke it. I’m not hating on any particular strains. But I know when weed is off. If it’s under-cured, it’s not going to be dense. The buds are going to be loose. It’s going to be flaky. Sometimes you might get a pack of bud that’s really thick and smells like cat piss. It might be fire, but it’s really not good for your lungs. If the ash burns black, you know it’s got chemicals all in it. With pure weed that’s cured perfect, your ash is going to burn white. I’ll mess with anything — THC edibles, brownies, dabs, blunts. But for the most part, I smoke j’s. I just like the taste of the weed. I’m a professional joint roller. I roll by hand. You put ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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the weed down, and I can roll it in 45 seconds. Your average drug dealer on the streets, he gets a pound and it says OG Kush on the package, he might split that pound up and call it something else. Half the time on the streets, these dudes don’t know the name of the weed they’re selling. “What is this?” “I don’t know.” “You should know if it’s hybrid or sativa or indica. Am I going to smoke this and fall asleep or smoke it and be awake?” There will be dry points when no one has weed. If it gets dry like that, if one of my guys doesn’t have it, I’ve got six or seven more I can hit up. Sometimes, I’ll hit up six people and nobody has any. Let me try again tomorrow. And sure enough someone pops up with some.
MELISSA FULTS LONGTIME MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE AND THE TREASURER FOR THE ARKANSAS CHAPTER OF THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE REFORM OF MARIJUANA LAWS (NORML). If you buy Natural State Medicinals, you’re going to get a new product. I’m very hopeful for River Valley and the Carpenters [two cultivators scheduled to begin producing marijuana this year]. Osage and Bold, not so much. They’re going to have to step their game up. For a while there were only three of them out there. Now the competition is coming in. I haven’t gotten a chance to try Good Day, but I’ve heard rave reviews. I’ve never grown it. I don’t care how they do it. If it smells great, feels great and tastes great, I’m not having to trim the leaves and it’s not filled with seeds and stems, I’m happy. I want to know it’s safe and not full of pesticides or been in a gas tank brought across the border. I want to know potency, so I know how much to take. Before long we’re going to have enough product so the dispensaries will have no choice but to lower the prices. When there were three cultivators supplying 80,000 patients, they could charge whatever they wanted and they didn’t care whether the quality was any good because they were the only game in town. Once all eight of the cultivators are up and running, I don’t think the dispensaries are going to have a choice. Some — not all — of the dispensaries have made the commitment that as soon as wholesale prices come down, their prices will come down. Even though there’s only 40 dispensaries, if you have three or four dispensaries dropping their prices drastically, where is everyone going to go? Would it be worth it to drive an extra 20 miles to save an extra $200? Still, until we get adult use [recreational], it’s never going to come down to where we need it to be. 28 OCTOBER 2021
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MIKE
I DON’T CARE HOW THEY DO IT. IF IT SMELLS GREAT, FEELS GREAT AND TASTES GREAT, I’M NOT HAVING TO TRIM THE LEAVES AND IT’S NOT FILLED WITH SEEDS AND STEMS, I’M HAPPY. —MELISSA FULTS, LONGTIME MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE
MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDHOLDER I got my card because I got tired of being paranoid all the time. I have some mental health issues — anxiety and depression and PTSD. My house burned down, and I went back in and tried to save things. Don’t ever do that. That’s how I got my card because that gave me PTSD. I also didn’t want to get arrested. I have two kids. Going to meet Steve at 11:30 at Kroger on Kavanaugh? Come on man, I’m tired of doing that. I haven’t really found any trash. When you’re getting this medical grade, I mean, I’m 48 and I’ve been smoking for a long time. When I’m at a dispensary, and I hear somebody say, “That’s really no good,” I don’t buy it. You never got a big brick that had seeds and stems all attached to it. You don’t know what bad weed is. Chiesel is my favorite strain. I also really like Green Crack. It’s really uplifting. It’s a sativa. Chiesel is a hybrid. It’s kind of uplifting also, but it also keeps the depression away. I like the vape carts, too. But they kind of hit you kind of hard. I found that out the hard way. I took a couple of hits on a vape cart and thought I was going to go somewhere and that didn’t work. The Chiesel I get is usually about 23%. The THC levels in the pens can be as high as 92%. Take one or two hits and you set it down for a couple hours. It’s really medicine. It’s not one of those that you can pass around like a joint. If it’s an indica, you’re going to go to sleep most likely. If you don’t, you need to get off whatever stimulants you’re on. Another thing about getting it from a dispensary: You know where it comes from. I don’t know where Steve got it from. He tells me it’s this, and it may not be that at all. Even if you’re paying for top-notch bud. “This came from Eureka, California, and it’s Blue Dream.” You don’t know what the hell that is. Unless you’re really, really that good at discerning what it is.
JOHNNY ROTTEN MARIJUANA DEALER I had to lower my prices once medical marijuana became legal in Arkansas. However, my prices are still cheaper and there is no limit to the amount you can purchase like with the MMJ card. I pay $2,600 per pound for supreme quality and $1,600 per pound for regular. I sell an ounce for $250 and quarters for $80. I get product from Southern California, Denver and Michigan. The product from California and Colorado is overflow from growers to dispensaries. The product from Michigan is from a private legal grower. My shit is always fresh. I get shipments every two weeks. I’m not sure what I’ll do once weed becomes fully legal. I might only do this for a couple of more years. But there will always be a black market.
INSIGHT INTO EDIBLES
TREVOR SWEDENBURG TALKS ABOUT WHAT SETS NATURAL STATE MEDICINALS APART. BY RHETT BRINKLEY
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atural State Medicinals’ cannabis-infused chocolates win rave reviews from Arkansas medical marijuana cardholders in our orbit, so we called up Trevor Swedenburg, head chef for the White Hall (Jefferson County) cultivator, to find out his secrets. Swedenburg was previously chef at Flyway Brewing and at 21C. How do you think the edibles made in Arkansas compare with those in Colorado or California or other states that have been doing this longer? That’s a tricky question and a really good one as well. In each state you go to there’s going to be regional flavors, regional tricks of the trade, but here in Arkansas we really try to focus on deriving from local for local purposes as natural as possible; hence the name Natural State. But when it comes to others, we rival them in prices and really rival them in flavor compositions as well. What do you think sets yours apart from others? Our actual chocolate. We have a sustainable chocolate source. The company that we use has been doing their chocolate for about 200 years, and they got into Vietnam after the war and taught the Vietnamese people how to grow the cocoa bean. And it helps the Vietnamese people rebuild their economy, rebuild their city structures and give us what Vietnam is today. Where is that chocolate from? It’s grown in Vietnam and processed in Belgium. I have a hard job here. I had to eat like 40 to 50 kinds of chocolate trying to figure out which one I wanted to use, and I came across this one. It’s a dark chocolate that hits you like a milk chocolate. We also try to find companies that will help us locally and support them as they’re supporting us by letting us use their products. So we’ve partnered with Onyx Coffee in Fayetteville, and we’ve also partnered with the Ozark Nut Roasters. Could you talk about the process a little bit? What were some of the things you learned that surprised you? Probably the most shocking and frustrating thing
COCOA FROM VIETNAM, CHOCOLATE PROCESSED IN BELGIUM: That’s one of the secrets to Natural State Medicinal’s marijuna chocolate bar.
about working with chocolate in this case is how fickle or temperamental, for lack of a better and punnier word, it is to temper the chocolate. The French used to say that if you were running a little bit hot that day, like in your own body temperature, that you shouldn’t mess with chocolate that day because you will never get it to be in temper. So going through and learning all the ins and outs of the confection world, and that’s even through our hard candies and gummies as well, you have to have extreme attention to detail. Could you talk about some of the products you make there? We have a very limited range here until the market and the state allow us to open up a little bit more. But we have hard candies called Petit Roches, which means “little rock.” We have our gummies; we have two different kinds of chocolate, a white chocolate line and a dark chocolate line; and we have our honey line. I wonder how much the regulations limit what you can do and how much creativity is possible within that. How do you stand out? That is really going to the quality of chocolate and the quality of the products because we can’t dress up the bars like you would see on the back of most chocolate bars you’d buy or something of that nature. So it’s an artform of kind of making it unattractive to children but still attractive enough to sell. That’s a tricky fine line to walk. Gummies can’t be colorful, right? To my knowledge, from the get-go I’ve had to put black food coloring in my gummies because kids don’t like black-colored gummies. I’ve had to reformat my chocolate bar a couple times because
the state wouldn’t allow me to have anything but triangles because children are terrified of triangles. So I gave them a rectangle that contains squares that have triangles in it and that’s how I was able to put out my bar. The child safety on all of our packages statewide is very important and we follow that to the T. What’s a typical work week like? Literally, that’s changed out through the many changes of our process. It started out with me with one table, a machine and a couple of racks. And now we have about 15 staff members underneath me and literally, those guys, I trust them on my bread and butter. We walk in and they are basically doing the processing as I’m being able to construct a new kitchen but develop new recipes. It’s run very much like a service kitchen, but it’s totally a production kitchen. What do you think of the gummy and hard candy production here and how much room does it have to grow? I think it has a lot of room to grow. We’re the only ones currently with hard candies out on the market. Gummies, a lot of the gummies that are on the market right now are all pectin-based. That’s something called a jelly, which is actually a traditional British candy. I think I’m maybe one of two that has an actual gelatin gummy out on the market. It just goes back to what people want and it’s the variety that we give them. The only one that doesn’t really have a variety is the Petit Roche or the hard candy side. That one is diabetic friendly, sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free. It’s kind of meant for more of the elderly or people [with allergies]. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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BLUEBERRY CLEMENTINE, DELTA MEDICAL CANNABIS CO.
HIGH PRICES
MEDICAL CANNABIS COSTS DECLINING, BUT STILL PUT A HURT ON PATIENTS’ POCKETBOOKS. BY GRIFFIN COOP PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON
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he price of medical marijuana in Arkansas has fallen in recent months, but advocates say the prices are still too high. As new cultivators begin to enter the Arkansas marketplace, prices at the state’s dispensaries have fallen over the past three months, according to industry leaders and a review of prices on menu sites Weed Map and Leafly. Good Day Farm of Pine Bluff, which purchased the marijuana cultivation business formerly known as Natural State Wellness Enterprises in Newport in November 2020, is the latest cultivator to add products to dispensary shelves. A new cultivator in Fort Smith has been cleared by state regulators to begin growing, and other cultivators in Grady and Garland County are scheduled to be in operation within the next year. Despite the recent price reductions, Melissa Fults, a longtime marijuana advocate, said patients tell her every day that the price of medical marijuana in Arkansas is still too high. Patients on fixed incomes struggle to pay their bills as well as pay the high prices for medical marijuana, she said. Some struggling patients have even turned to the black market where the product is cheaper, Fults said. “I hear these stories day after day after day,” Fults said. “It’s not just one person.” Fults said the prices of marijuana products and taxes levied by state, county and local jurisdictions often amount to $400 per ounce. David Couch, the Little Rock lawyer who authored the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, said the price of marijuana is still too high in the state. “It is substantially higher than in states with a
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more competitive market,” Couch said. “It’s too high for most people to afford it.” Using prices listed on marijuana menu sites WeedMaps and Leafly, a recent review showed the price of one-eighth of an ounce of indica flower with a THC content of at least 20% in Arkansas has fallen from $44.75 in June to $38 in September. During the same period, the price of a half-gram vape cartridge fell from $61.66 to $48.02 and the price of a 10-pack of edible gummies fell from $26.66 to $21.68. The price review also showed that states with well-established recreational marijuana markets, such as California and Colorado, have lower prices than Arkansas. California has an average price of $21.17 per oneeighth of an ounce of indica flower, while Colorado has an average price of $27.88. California also has an average price of $23.49 for vape cartridges and $14.02 for gummies. Colorado dispensaries are selling vape cartridges for $31.92 and gummies for $18.43 on average. The marijuana markets in California and Colorado are older and quite different from the one in Arkansas. California first approved medical marijuana in 1996 and Colorado followed in 2001. Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012 and California followed suit four years later. The program in Missouri, on the other hand, has some similarities to Arkansas as a new medical program in a state that does not allow recreational marijuana. The Show Me State passed medical marijuana last year and many dispensaries only recently became operational. Missouri has 198 licensed dispensaries and 58 licensed cultivators, while Arkansas is limited to 40 dispensaries and
eight cultivators. According to the price review, Missouri dispensaries sell one-eighth of an ounce of indica flower for $57.49, vape cartridges for $59.33 and gummies for $29.72. Each price is significantly higher than the prices in Arkansas. The review also showed much lower prices in Oklahoma, but some industry leaders caution against using Oklahoma as a comparison to Arkansas. Oklahoma passed medical marijuana in 2018, but the program bears little comparison to Arkansas’s program. Arkansas law restricts the number of cultivators and dispensaries, while Oklahoma does not. Arkansas law also requires patients to meet at least one of 17 qualifying conditions, while Oklahoma does not have defined qualifying conditions. In Oklahoma, doctors can certify patients based on whether they believe medical marijuana would benefit the patient. As a result, Oklahoma has exponentially more cultivators, dispensaries and patients than Arkansas. As of Sept. 3, Oklahoma had 8,630 growers and 2,378 dispensaries serving 378,312 patients. Arkansas, by contrast, has six operating cultivators and 36 operating dispensaries serving 79,420 patients. The price review showed that Oklahoma dispensaries are selling indica flower for $14.42 per one-eighth of an ounce, vape cartridges for $25.62 and gummies for $15.89. While the prices are much lower than Arkansas’s, it’s unfair to compare Arkansas and its neighbor to the west because the programs are vastly different, said Bill Paschall, executive
director of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association. Despite being called a medical marijuana program, Oklahoma’s program is practically recreational marijuana, he said. “On paper, it’s a medical marijuana state, but when you’ve got 400,000 patients in that state, it’s one step shy of recreational or it’s recreation with a wink,” Paschall said. “It’s not a fair comparison.” Robbin Rahman, executive director of Harvest Cannabis Dispensary in Conway, said he hears a continuous drumbeat of comparison between Arkansas and Oklahoma, which he says is unfair. The Arkansas and Oklahoma marketplaces could not be more different because the regulatory framework of each state is vastly different, he said. “You couldn’t have two more different systems legally,” Rahman said. “You couldn’t have just two more different marketplaces than Oklahoma and Arkansas.” Rahman said the economic drivers in a regulated market such as Arkansas’s marijuana market are “created by the regulations themselves.” Arkansas’s limited-license market has created a market dynamic in which Arkansas cultivators and dispensaries invest in their licenses and develop their businesses because they know their licenses are valuable, Rahman said. The limits on the numbers of dispensaries and cultivators create dynamics that affect how the state’s market operates, he said. “[Limited licensing] creates a market dynamic,” Rahman said. “People can invest in those licenses because they have value and will continue to have value, because they are limited. In that sense, people do invest lots of money in their licenses.” Rahman said cultivators spend many millions of dollars to build their facilities with lots of high-tech equipment. Carpenter Medical Group, for instance, recently told the Alcohol Beverage Control board that it is spending $15 million to build its cultivation facility in Grady. Couch has a different outlook on the comparisons to Oklahoma. While Couch wrote the amendment with limited licensing, he said he wrote it that way as a strategy to get the amendment passed. Couch said he learned from the arguments against a marijuana amendment he promoted in 2012 that opponents said unlimited licensing would allow a proliferation of marijuana businesses in neighborhoods. So, Couch said, he countered that argument in his 2016 amendment by limiting the number of cultivators and dispensaries. The 2016 amendment passed, with 53% of the voters approving it. Couch said he believes a more open marketplace like Oklahoma benefits patients more than the Arkansas model. Some Arkansas patients even cross the border into Oklahoma to purchase marijuana more cheaply at Oklahoma dispensaries, then transport it back to Arkansas. (Warning, that’s illegal.)
CHIESEL, GOOD DAY FARM
DREAMCATCHER, BOLD
APPLE SHERBET, NATURAL STATE
BLUE DREAM, NATIVE GREEN
Casey Flippo, owner of Little Rock marijuana processor Dark Horse Medicinals, said it’s important to remember that Arkansas patients get something valuable for their money that other places like Oklahoma lack. The state has good quality standards and controls, resulting in products that have a better effect for the patients. “I’ve been to some of the top cultivation centers in the state, and those guys are spending an obscene amount of money to produce a quality and consistent product relative to states like Oklahoma,” Flippo said. Flippo said he has talked to patients who say they want to move to Oklahoma where marijuana is cheaper. “I totally understand that, but it’s probably grown in the back of somebody’s house,” Flippo said. “And that might be half an acre away from a rice field that is getting sprayed down with multiple different pesticides, herbicides and fungicides throughout the year.” Flippo said marijuana is “not inexpensive to grow,” but Arkansas patients are getting a lot for their money. “While I do think the prices will decline to more acceptable levels, our patient pool needs to understand, it’s more expensive for a reason,” Flippo said. “It is more quality than what you are seeing across the border. I think price will drive down but there is an equilibrium, and they need to understand that when you have somebody producing this material in a $50 million facility, naturally it’s going to be a little more expensive than the guy at the apartment complex that you are used to getting it from.” Fults, the advocate for NORML, is working with a group to get an amendment for recreational marijuana for adults on the ballot next year in Arkansas. The amendment would include an expansion of cultivators and dispensaries, but would not allow residents to grow their own marijuana. Fults would not disclose the name of the group she is working with, but said she expects the amendment to be submitted next month. Fults said she hasn’t seen the final language of the amendment but believes the amendment “should be acceptable for everyone” and will help lower prices. The preliminary proposal would double the state’s cultivators and triple the dispensaries. “That will bring the price down,” Fults said. “If you double the cultivators and triple the dispensaries in the state, it’s going to bring the prices down and patients might actually be able to afford it,” Fults said. Flippo said legalizing recreational marijuana is the logical next step for the Arkansas market. Until then, he expects prices to continue to fall and hopes Arkansas patients know they are getting quality product in the state. “People need to understand when they go into dispensaries, there’s a lot that goes into that product they are putting into bodies,” Flippo said. “There’s a little bit of a premium associated with that.” ARKANSASTIMES.COM ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER OCTOBER2021 20213131
BRIAN CHILSON
GRAY: His legal experience helps him wade through often labyrinthine marjiuana laws.
SEEING GREEN
LITTLE ROCK LAWYER ALEX GRAY AND OTHER INVESTORS IN GOOD DAY FARM LOOK TO BECOME A REGIONAL PLAYER IN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY. BY LINDSEY MILLAR
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lex Gray went all in on medical marijuana. A Little Rock lawyer, Gray rose to prominence by crafting the constitutional amendment to expand casino gambling in Arkansas that voters approved in 2018, but has largely turned his attention to the medical marijuana market, another industry that the conservative Natural State is slowly embracing and which stands to generate a lot of money for participating businesses. He’s now co-owner of both a medical marijuana cultivation facility and a dispensary in Arkansas, and of cultivation facilities in Louisiana and Missouri. He and other investors are primed to open a grow operation in Mississippi and continue to expand throughout the Southeast as the ever-evolving market continues to open up. All of the operations Gray co-owns carry the name Good Day Farm, but because Arkansas and other states have certain in-state ownership requirements, the ventures aren’t owned by an umbrella Good Day Farm corporation, but rather a string of limited liability companies in various states with common investors. In November 2020, Gray’s Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC purchased one of Arkansas’s eight cultivation licenses from Natural State Wellness Enterprises of Newport. Good Day Farm received approval for a construction permit in December and the go-ahead to open its 100,000-square-foot 32 OCTOBER 2021
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facility in Pine Bluff only 3 1/2 months later, in April. It employs more than 150 people. “We hope it will be an economic engine driver for the area,” Gray said. Meanwhile, in November 2020, another company co-owned by Gray purchased a Little Rock dispensary license from Natural State Wellness Dispensary, owned by some of the same people as the Natural State cultivation facility, including former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. Harvest, an Arizona-based multistate cannabis company, was an operating partner in both Natural State Wellness ventures. In a press release, it reported that $25 million was the combined sale price of the cultivation and dispensary businesses. The dispensary, formerly known as Harvest House of Cannabis, was rebranded Good Day Farm Little Rock. It’s located at 900 Rodney Parham Road, but has received approval from the state Medical Marjiuana Commission to move to 11600 Chenal Parkway, behind The Purple Cow restaurant and across the street from Barnes & Noble bookstore. Gray anticipates that will happen by the end of the year or early next year. The dispensary is owned by Gray, his wife, Ann; and Nate and Lauren Steel. Nate Steel, the former state legislator who is a partner with Gray in the still-active Steel Wright Gray Little Rock law firm, is also an investor in other
Good Day ventures and does government relations and compliance work on their behalf. Other investors: Reid Dove, CEO of his family’s Dothan, Alabama-based AAA Cooper Transportation, which recently sold for $1.35 billion, has a stake in all of the Good Day cultivation operations and projects in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi. Eric Thornton, a lawyer and developer in Dickinson, Tennessee, is invested in the Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi operations. (He also owns a large hemp farm in Dickinson County, Tennessee, also called Good Day Farm, but that’s otherwise unaffiliated with the marijuana operations.) Stephen LaFrance Jr., formerly of USA Drug and previously a co-owner of Good Day Arkansas’s cultivator rival Natural State Medicinals, has stakes in Good Day Farm Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. His wife, Wendy LaFrance, owns nearly 11% of Good Day Farm Arkansas, which represents the largest share in the company. Gray’s description of what he does on a dayto-day basis sounds fairly dry: He largely works with regulatory officials and investigates potential markets, he said. “We have a focus on the Southeast because that’s where the overwhelming majority of our investors live and have successful businesses,” he said, adding that there could be exceptions to that regional focus. A clue to what some of those future markets may be: In November 2020, Gray incorporated Good Day Farm LLCs in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. “We look to participate in states that are highly regulated,” Gray said, citing high testing of cannabis as one indication of that. “At the end of the day, we’re in the compliance business. It just happens to be medical marjiuana. We want to be in markets where that is an important factor.” Gray said when he travels to other states and visits with legislators and state regulators, they tell him Arkansas is a model medical cannabis program. There’s a wide variety of laws in medical
GRANDMA’S GUIDE TO MARIJUANA BLUNTS Take a cigar, remove the tobacco inside, replace with ground marijuana, puff and pass. Generally for party situations. Also, remember, the cigar wrapper is made of tobacco, too. If you don’t want tobacco in your smoke, there are hemp-based blunt wrappers on the market.
marijuana states. Louisiana’s program, launched in 2019, began as perhaps the most restrictive in the country. Initially, the state allowed only cannabis tincture to be sold and severely limited the number of qualifying conditions, which only about 60 licensed doctors could prescribe. But beginning in January, any licensed doctor can recommend marijuana to any patient the doctor believes needs it, and patients will be able to buy smokable products. The business side remains highly controlled. The state has only authorized two growers, which are overseen by the agricultural divisions of Southern University and Louisiana State University, and nine dispensaries. Good Day Farm Louisiana works with LSU and recently raised $55 million and bought a 225,000-squarefoot facility in Ruston to produce medical cannabis, according to The Advocate, a Baton Rouge-based news outlet. In Missouri, where voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana, there are 60 cultivation licenses and nearly 200 dispensaries. Good Day Farm Missouri built a 100,000-square-foot facility in Columbia, Missouri; it was waiting on approval from the state to begin growing in mid-September. Last year, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that would have created a medical marijuana program in Mississippi, but in a bizarre outcome, the state Supreme Court declared the citizen initiative was unconstitutional. State justices ruled that the state constitution required that signatures be submitted from the state’s five congressional districts, despite the fact that the state lost one of its U.S. House of Representatives positions after the 2000 census. State legislators have been trying to hash out a deal to create a program in a special session. Gray and partners own property near Oxford, which they hope to develop as a cultivation center if the law is passed. One state Gray and Co. plan to avoid? Oklahoma. “It’s the Wild West,” Gray said. “People are growing it in their bathtubs.”
BONG A water pipe used for smoking marijuana. Often large. Smoke travels through water, which provides some filtration, which might give you smoother smoke. Bongs allow cannabis users the ability to take big hits. BOWL The part of a pipe that holds marijuana. Often used synonymously with “pipe.” Available in glass, ceramic, wood and plastic varieties. Most have a small hole, or carb (short for carburetor), in the side that allows smokers to control the airflow. CANNABINOIDS The compounds found in cannabis, including the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Cannabidiol (CBD) is another cannabinoid, which is found in marijuana and hemp. There are more than 100 other cannabinoids that have been isolated in cannabis. The internet would love to tell you more about them. DAB As a noun, it refers to a wide variety of cannabis concentrates. As a verb, it simply means smoking the concentrate with a vaporizer or another device. The concentrate is often very potent, so watch out. (Not to be confused with the celebratory gesture with the same name with roots in Japanese pop culture and more recently embraced by rappers, athletes and elementary school students, where people turn their heads like they’re sneezing into their elbow while pointing their arms in the opposite direction at a 45-degree angle.) ENTOURAGE EFFECT How the cannabinoids and terpenes of a particular strain work together. In the medical marijuana world, this interplay is often discussed in terms of the benefits of certain strains to patients with specific medical conditions.
FLOWER The petalless flower of a female cannabis plant, aka bud or nugs. It’s the raw botanic material that most people think of when they think of weed. GRINDER Like a spice grinder, this handheld tool grinds cannabis flower. Ground marijuana burns more evenly and fully than unground. HYBRIDS Technically, all strains on the market have been hybridized or crossbred, but hybrid is often used a shorthand to describe marijuana that is a mixture of sativa and indica plants. INDICA One of two types of marijuana plants, indicas generally have a calming, sedative effect. (“In-da-couch” is a popular mnemonic device for remembering its effects.) They’re more likely to give you a body high. But not always! JOINT A marijuana “cigarette,” usually hand-rolled with rolling papers. Affordable joint-rolling kits are also widely available. SATIVA One of two types of marijuana plants, sativas generally have an uplifting or energizing effect. They’re more likely to give you a head high. But not always! SHAKE Small pieces of cannabis flower that are no longer attached to a bud. A bag of weed that’s been passed around a lot will naturally lead to a lot of shake. Some dispensaries offer special deals on shake. TERPENES Aromatic compounds that give cannabis strains their smell. VAPE PEN A vaporizer, typically the size of a pen, with a rechargeable battery that accepts replaceable cartridges of cannabis oil. VAPORIZER A device, usually handheld, that turns marijuana into smokeable vapor, which is widely considered to be less harmful than smoking. There is a wide variety of products on the market, to work with flower, dabs or oil. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana. We are a cash-only business, but don’t worry, we have an ATM in the store.
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ARKANSAS TIMES
THE SUPERNATURAL STATE ARKANSAS HAS SOME WEIRD SHIT GOING ON. Scorpions. Poison. Ghost lights. Elusive swamp beasts. October is the best time to embrace them. Here’s a roundup of Arkansasspecific people, places and things to tempt your friends and alarm your enemies.
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SEARCHING FOR THE BOGGY CREEK MONSTER TIME TO GET THE FOUKE OUT OF TOWN.
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPY BY AUSTIN BAILEY
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he glossy black cat that dashed across the highway in front of us that muggy Saturday morning felt like the best possible omen, considering we were in pursuit of what most people would consider terrible luck. Armed with only bug spray, a picnic lunch and minimal knowledge about the elusive Bigfoot family of North America, my son and I barrelled toward Fouke in Miller County in hopes of crossing paths with the Boggy Creek Monster. For nearly a century now, people in and around Fouke have reported sightings of a red-eyed, 7-foottall Sasquatch-type creature clomping around in the swamps, screaming through the forest like a lonesome bobcat and occasionally peeking out from behind trees to terrorize unsuspecting hunters. Whispers about a monster roaming around 36 OCTOBER 2021
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in the brushy southwest corner of Arkansas started circulating in the 1940s, but got national attention in 1971 after Bobby Ford reported being attacked. Ford’s wife, brother and a family friend corroborated his story, and Ford went to the hospital for treatment of cuts, scrapes and shock. The family was scared enough to pick up and move away. Filmmakers retold the harrowing ordeal in the classic 1972 docudrama “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” Sustaining a physical attack like the one that earned Ford and Fouke national fame was, of course, the ultimate goal for our trip, but we weren’t sure how to achieve it. Camping out overnight, possibly in a Lady Gaga-style meat dress, was our best idea. We chickened out, though, not from fear of the monster, but of the chiggers and mosquitos whose early September
WALK AMONG THEM: View replicas of the Fouke Monster family at Monster Mart.
THE NAMESAKE: According to locals, Boggy Creek never succeeds in washing away the Fouke Monster’s infamous stink. assaults were all but guaranteed. My 10-year-old and I prepared for the possibility that we might come up with nothing at all, and agreed we would be satisfied with some sightseeing and maybe, if we were lucky, a firsthand account from a local. Most of the physical evidence that the Boggy Creek Monster is real lives at the Monster Mart, a hybrid gas station, snack bar and museum on Fouke’s main drag. Appropriately themed with a giant carving of the Fouke Monster traversing the roofline and murals and statues flanking the door, this locus of all things monster is the obvious first stop, especially since there aren’t many other places to go in this slow-moving town of 808 people. The museum portion, with its casts of telltale three-toed footprints and a replica of the baby monster whose remains were found in the swamp, is a fine spot to wile away 10 minutes. But the opportunity to chat up native Foukers about their local mascot is worth the whole trip. Within 15 minutes of us rolling into town, strangers were pulling out their cellphones to offer up audio and photo evidence of the wood ape we came to see. Shopkeeper Bridgett Story gamely pointed us to a paper map of Miller County on the wall, marked up with locations of the most recent sightings. She played us a clip of audio captured out in the woods of an angry howl in the wind. “I’m a skeptic,” she admitted, “but it makes my hair stand up.” Her husband happened to be at the shop, too, sprawled out in full camo in a booth after an
unsuccessful morning of squirrel hunting. And while he seemed like he would prefer to join his wife in the skeptics camp, he’s had a few run-ins that he can’t shake. There was the time he was out deer hunting by Horseshoe Lake and saw a grizzled brown face watching him. He looked over at his son, who was paying attention only to his phone screen. When he looked again, the face was gone. It was early in the morning, though, and Story wonders if he’d talked himself into it. “If you think about stuff, you’re going to see stuff,” he said. But then there was the night the family went frog gigging on McKinney Bayou and ran into a wall of stink he described as “wet dog mixed with skunk.” He and his wife exchanged wide-eyed, knowing looks but said nothing about what they suspected was the source of the smell. “I don’t want my son to be scared to go out in the woods,” he explained. Another man came into the Monster Mart, bearded, kitted up with a daypack and dressed head to toe in army green. Was he headed out in search of the Southern Sasquatch? Turns out he was just picking up some supplies, but he had some thoughts to share. The lack of leadership in this country is what we should really be scared of, he warned. “In 1963 when God, the Bible and prayer were taken out of school, that’s the real monster,” said the man, who asked to be identified only as Joe American, patriot. We left Monster Mart with a half-dozen packs of
Nerds Ropes, a glow-in-the-dark Fouke monster T-shirt and one of those Wooly Willy-style magnetic toys, but instead of drawing beards and mustaches on a man’s face, you use the magnetic stylus to arrange fur on a naked Bigfoot. Chris Story had given us directions to a culvert where we could easily scope out Boggy Creek, now shrunken down to a muddy, sluggish channel in the late-summer drought. As we strained our eyes to see through the trees, three fur-covered creatures burst unexpectedly from the bushes, but they were only two hound puppies and a pugbeagle mix looking to join in our adventure. En route to Alex Smith Park, another monstersighting hotspot, we drove into a cloud of funk that at first seemed promising but turned out to be only the fumes of a livestock event at the Cowboy Church. And while the park was a perfect picnic spot, with a broad lake bordered by cypress trees and dancing with frogs and turtles, the only other wildlife we spied were a blue heron and a tiny green-striped ribbon snake. The scariest part of the day followed, when we found ourselves on backroads somewhere between Doddridge and Texarkana with a gas gauge near empty. Headed north toward home, we weighed the evidence and decided we fit in the same camp as the Story family. Maybe the Boggy Creek Monster is real, maybe it’s not. Regardless, you shouldn’t be afraid to get out in the woods.
SCORPIONS IN THE ATTIC Striped bark scorpions, Centruroides vittatus, live in western Arkansas, often under rocks and in woodpiles. Carnivores that dine on spiders and bugs, they gladly munch fellow scorpions if there’s no other food around. Females carry writhing masses of young on their backs. If you get stung, expect pain, vomiting, dizziness and a tightness in the chest. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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TAKE IT FROM SOCRATES: Poison hemlock, Conium maculatum
HOW TO GROW YOUR OWN WITCH GARDEN CAUTIONARY TALES OF ARKANSAS’S POISONOUS PLANTS
©2021 STEVEN FOSTER
BY AUSTIN BAILEY
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ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
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ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
KEEP YOUR CHILDREN AWAY FROM THESE: Yellow jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.
FOR POISONING SOVIET DEFECTORS: Castor oil plant, Ricinus communis. ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
f you’re plotting to murder your enemies but hoping to go the naturopathic route, Arkansas is an opportune place to be. Look out the window and you’ll likely put eyes on flora that, when rubbed on the skin or ingested in adequate quantities, can bring on punishing effects ranging from mild rash to deadly cardiac arrhythmia. We also have the expertise on the ground to pull it off. Steven Foster, an author, photographer and master herbalist in Eureka Springs, is an expert on medicinal plants. Co-author of a “Peterson Guide to Venomous Animals and Poisonous Plants” and photographer for the “Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants, Third Edition,” Foster is the rare writer whose content fits equally well at Barnes and Noble as Flourish and Blotts. His interest in herbology first bloomed on a walk to school, when he asked a friend about a trillium he saw in the woods. “She said, ‘My grandfather calls it “stinking benjamin” and they use it as an aid in childbirth.’ At that moment I said, ‘Oh, I want to learn the names and uses of all the plants.’ And so, 19 books and 47 years later, I’m still learning the names and uses of all the plants.” Foster uses his powers only for good, sharing decades of knowledge about dangerous plants to help people avoid getting sick or worse. But it’s Halloween, and if you’re itching to boil up a potion or two, what can we do about it? You’re obviously free to use this information however you like, be it cautionary or instructive. Please note that this list is far from exhaustive. Arkansas is apparently so packed with dangerous plants that “there are too many to mention them all,” Foster said. But there are about a dozen that can induce a forever dirt nap fairly easily. The key thing to remember for pretty much all potentially problematic plants, Foster said, is that “the dose makes the poison.” A nibble of something might be harmless, but a cupful could do you in. “It really depends on how much you eat or take,” he said. Take pokeberries from the pokeweeds ubiquitous along Arkansas roadsides. They’re known to be poisonous, but they’re also purple and juicy and look far more appetizing than, say, a Tide pod. So it’s no wonder children snack on them sometimes, necessitating a trip to the emergency room. Usually, Foster said, those kids are fine. That’s often not the case when people incorrectly prepare the leaves of that same plant for the Southern classic dish of poke sallet. The leaves have to be cooked twice, using fresh water each time, to boil away the toxicity. Otherwise, vomiting and convulsions can result.
THE BEST REVENGE: Common mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum.
Like those shiny, pretty pokeberries, the latewinter blooms of yellow jessamine can prove irresistible to the young and curious. Parents, beware. “Those flowers contain an alkaloid that can have a deadly impact on the heart,” Foster warns. “There are fatalities attributed to children eating as little as one flower.” Some of the deadly plants growing in Arkansas soil arrived uninvited. Foster calls such plants “noxious weeds” and “invasive aliens,” and is clearly put out by them. He blames Christopher Columbus. “I don’t think of Columbus as discovering America,” Foster said. “I think of Columbus as initiating the cross-cultural transoceanic spread of plant propagules.” One such propagule is the poison hemlock that arrived in the New World from Europe and Northern Africa, possibly brought by witches; there’s really no way to know. Not that anyone would want to do this, but you could reenact the poisoning of Socrates using this particular ingredient that may well be growing in your yard right now. Poison hemlock is “a rank weed with carrot-like leaves,” per Foster’s disdainful description. Unlike the evergreen hemlocks that grow in the Pacific Northwest, the hemlocks in Arkansas, Conium maculatum, belong to the carrot family. “We have lots of it here. It comes up in the spring and it will get these large, fernlike leaves,” Foster said. “They have a rank smell and the stems have purple spots. The seeds and the roots are especially toxic.” Each spring Foster notices a patch of poison hemlock along the road from Eureka Springs to Berryville, reaching heights of 7 to 9 feet. “There’s a half-mile stretch with a wall of poison hemlock along the road in the springtime, which is a little scary,” he said. The castor oil plant, far more lovely than its name lets on, is an ornamental that’s not native to Arkansas, but is often used in landscaping. These plants are also the source of ricin, the poison an assassin famously loaded into the sharpened tip of an umbrella and fatally jabbed into the leg of a Bulgarian dissident in London in 1978. Less showy but equally deadly is white snakeroot, a small and relatively nondescript plant with tiny white button flowers that took down Midwestern settlers by the thousands in the 19th century. Unbeknownst to them, white snakeroot contains tremetol, a toxin that causes trembling, vomiting and severe intestinal pain in people who drink milk or eat meat from animals that grazed on it. The affliction is called milk sickness, and it killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
FOREST GHOST: Indian pipe, Monotropa uniflora.
ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
YOU’LL PROBABLY SURVIVE: Pokeberries and pokeweed, Phytolacca americana.
YOU’RE PROBABLY DOOMED: White snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. The adorably named common mayapple is another plant whose innocent appearance belies a propensity to wreak havoc on human bodies. These sweet-looking flowers huddled beneath umbrellas of star-shaped leaves harbor the nastiest of secrets. “The root is not deadly toxic unless you took way too much of it,” Foster said, “but it’s strongly laxative. Like, cathartic, purgative laxative.” Tinkering with medicinal and poisonous plants can be an art as much as a science, and there’s often no way to know how one person’s biology might react. Foster himself has personal experience with this. Six years ago an herbalist friend gifted him with honey candies infused with edible hawthorn berries. The berries are often sold in supplement form, and have long been used to regulate heart rates. But how much is too much? “I was eating them like peanuts,” Foster said. That night, he suffered shortness of breath and a feeling that something was wrong enough with his heart function that medical attention was in order. By 11 a.m. the next morning, he had a new pacemaker installed. “That just shows you how easily somebody can make a silly mistake with a plant.” 40 OCTOBER 2021
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PARASITIC CORPSE PLANTS No, you didn’t just imagine those otherworldly clusters of waxy ghost flowers you tripped over in the deepest woods of Arkansas. Commonly known as indian pipe, these unusual plants have no chlorophyll to make food from sunlight, and instead suck nutrients from other organisms. They look like zombie daffodils, and they thrive in darkness. Many people mistakenly assume indian pipes are a fungus. In fact, these ethereal plants are a member of the blueberry family and are pollinated by brave bumblebees willing to venture into the forest’s murkiest depths. Theo Witsell, an ecologist with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and co-author of “Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Arkansas,” helped shed some light on these elusive blooms. Where can we find indian pipes in Arkansas? Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is scattered throughout the forested areas of Arkansas but is mostly found in upland habitats. That means it’s rare or absent over most of the lowlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (the Delta) of eastern Arkansas, but it’s widespread in the uplands in the northwestern half of the state, as well as on Crowley’s Ridge in eastern Arkansas. And it is scattered, but less common, in the uplands of the Gulf Coastal Plain in the south. Are they useful in any medicinal or poisonous or recreational way? Well, they have certainly been used for medicinal purposes — to treat everything from pain and fever to anxiety and depression to seizures, but as a disclaimer, I’m no doctor and can’t recommend their use. Individuals should consult their doctor
and conduct their own research before touching or using any wild plant for food or medicinal uses. Are they fungi? Flowers? Something else? No, they aren’t fungi, they’re plants. They have flowers and make seeds like other higher plants — they just aren’t green. Believe it or not, they’re in the same family as blueberries, cranberries, huckleberries, rhododendrons and wintergreen (the family Ericaceae). They’re pollinated by insects that are drawn to their flowers, including bees. In addition to being weird looking, they can do some odd things. For example, because they don’t photosynthesize, they can grow in darker environments than most other plants, like beneath dense thickets of evergreen trees and shrubs. They can also grow from the ground to full size (3-8 inches) in just a couple of days when conditions are right (a period of sudden moisture after a dry period, which triggers growth and flowering). Why do they look like that? They aren’t green because they lack chlorophyll (the pigment that allows green plants to make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis). They don’t need chlorophyll because they evolved a different means of getting their food. Is it true that they are vampires to trees, sucking at their roots for nutrients? Not exactly, but kind of! Indian pipe is parasitic, but not on trees directly. In technical terms, it’s a mycoheterotroph (pronounced mike-O-het-ehro-trofe), which means it’s a parasite on fungi that live in the soil. But the fungi they parasitize live in symbiosis with trees, so they do ultimately get some of their energy from trees.
ERIC HUNT, ARKANSAS NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
MEAT FLOWERS, BLOWFLIES AND SQUISHY FLESH: THE DARK SIDE OF PAWPAWS BY AUSTIN BAILEY
BUTCHER SHOP BLOSSOMS: Pawpaw blooms, asimina triloba.
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f you have a fall float trip planned, you’re apt to see a pawpaw or two bobbing along down the river with you, although you might not notice. These rare and unsung treats are the biggest wild-growing fruits in North America, but they get hardly any attention — not even during harvest season, when these sweet, squishy pods are literally falling out of trees from Florida to Ontario. Having been admonished since toddlerhood to not put things we find on the ground into our mouths, it’s not exactly shocking that more of us haven’t embraced pawpaws as a favorite fall snack. But pawpaws are having a moment, snagging some attention from foodie magazines and finding their way into microbrews, smallbatch ice cream and other hyper-local fare. Pawpaws, aka asimina triloba, have long had a roster of colorful nicknames: American custard apple, Indiana banana, hillbilly mango. Its most recent moniker is the hippie banana, in homage to its newfound popularity among hacky sackers and white people with dreadlocks.
Pawpaw farmer Mark Blossom doesn’t keep up with any of that. He’s been growing pawpaws for decades and will continue to do so, regardless of attention (or lack thereof) from food tourists and trendy magazines. Blossom came to Arkansas from California in 1973, one of the thousands of back-to-thelanders who converged on The Natural State to scoop up property and plant seeds, tend cows and otherwise embrace rural life. His pawpaw superhero origin story dates to those early days, when Blossom was exploring swaths of Arkansas forest before staking his claim. “It was getting to be evening and I was looking for a place to put down my bedroll,” he said. “There was a little tree growing right where I wanted to lie down, so I snapped it over and decided in the morning I would see what kind it was and make amends to it.” Upon discovering the fallen pawpaw at daybreak, Blossom made a pledge. “I said, ‘OK, I will be kind to pawpaw trees from now on.’ ” Blossom and his wife initially moved to
an 80-acre chunk of land in Madison County before deciding they needed to be closer to basic amenities when they started a family. They bought 30 acres of land along the Kings River, about halfway between Eureka Springs and Berryville, and have been there for 40 years. They raised four children there and now have 13 grandchildren (The grands call him “Grand Dad,” forfeiting a perfect opportunity to stick with the theme). “I’m 72 years old. Most of my working career I was a handyman, I did light construction and repairs around the area. Now that I’m pretty much retired from that, I’m busier than ever with a small farm,” Blossom said. They have goats, chickens and honeybees, along with a pawpaw nursery. It’s a small operation, mind you, nothing on a commercial scale. But Blossom wouldn’t classify it as a side hustle either, mainly because he doesn’t know what that is. “I don’t hustle. I’m too slow,” he said. He sells anywhere from 200 to 2,000 trees a year, depending on how busy he wants to be or how many seeds he’s collected. He sells them for ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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It’s spooky season in The Natural State. Embrace the night and howl at the moon with this playlist from Arkansas artists. Find it at arktimes. com/spookyArk The Easys “As the Vampire” Big Bill Broonzy “In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down” Gossip “Nite” 607 “Vampire Selfie” Mandy McBryde “Spiritbox (Snake in the Grass)” Hell Camino “Jaws of the Ouachita” William Blackart “Devil May Care” Dale Hawkins “Everglades” Evanescence “Haunted” Amina Claudine Myers “Wasted Life Blues” Rwake “Woodson Lateral” CeDell Davis “The Horror” Pallbearer “Love You to Death” Mulehead “Dig My Grave” Frank Frost “Midnight Prowler” Tsukiyomi “Gucci Ghoul” Lefty Frizzell “Long Black Veil” The Body “Adamah” Moondog “Witch of Endor” Johnny Cash “I Hung My Head” 42 OCTOBER 2021
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$20 a pop, a price that covers shipping in those long triangular cardboard boxes designed for blueprints. He sends seeds, too, and has mailed them as far as South America and Eastern Europe. Once the seeds or seedlings are shipped, the fun begins. Blossom said he especially enjoys chatting with fellow pawpaw connoisseurs online and seeing photos of the fruits of his labor, planted and thriving at their new homes. “When I get people interested in growing pawpaws who are living in other countries, I really enjoy that,” he said. He’s not proprietary at all about the pawpaw business, and in fact would love to see more people try their hand at smallscale farming. “I recommend a backyard nursery because you can produce a lot of value in a very small space,” he said. “Pick out a plant you like that you can grow from seed or a cutting, and sell them or just give them away.” But why grow pawpaws in the first place? While pawpaws grow wild and can be gleaned on hikes and boat trips, those woodland specimens can be temperamental. Young trees won’t grow if they get too much sun, but older trees won’t fruit if they get too much shade. Trees have to be genetically different to pollinate each other, meaning lots of wild pawpaw trees don’t fruit. And when they do, you have to share the harvest with squirrels, bears and raccoons. Backyard pawpaw hobbyists don’t have to take the gamble. Blossom’s customers get a tree already coddled through infancy and off to a strong start, and they have access to a growing guide he gives for free with every purchase, and also to anyone who asks. In it, Blossom eschews the poetic for the practical, although he does riff a tiny bit on the pawpaw’s personality: “Wild Pawpaw fruit range from insipid to delightful. Their flesh ranges from firm to custardy, from pale yellow to deep orange, and their skin from thin to leathery.” We think it’s fair to crown Blossom the preeminent pawpaw farmer of the Ozarks although he admittedly doesn’t have just loads of competition. Unlike grocery store-friendly apples, oranges and the like, pawpaws don’t travel well. They bruise and split, and they don’t stay fresh for very long. As such, they’ve never caught on for mass market audiences. Even so, there are plenty of true believers spreading the gospel of the pawpaw far and wide. Part of the pawpaw’s appeal might be its punk rock cred. Pawpaw flowers resemble lobes of uncooked meat, which helps them attract the blowflies they rely on for pollination. Whether or not the blooms give off the stench of rotting flesh at a level detectable to humans is debatable. Blossom says that he’s spent decades surrounded
by pawpaws and has never noticed. Other pawpaw experts disagree, claiming the smell of death cannot be ignored. Some of them even try to egg the pollination process along by hanging roadkill from pawpaw branches in April and May. Blossom doesn’t go in for the roadkill trick, but does use some other shortcuts to speed things along. “You can plant pawpaw seeds in the ground but you won’t get much to show for them the first year,” he said. Seeds planted directly in the ground in the fall are likely to grow only a few inches by the end of the next summer. Blossom speeds up the process by taking seeds harvested from the fruit that ripens mid-September to midOctober and popping them into the refrigerator to trick them into thinking they’ve had a winter. After keeping them chilled for a few months, Blossom pots the seeds in January, then coaxes them along in heated soil so they’ll be ready for sale in late spring or early summer. Blossom sells pawpaw trees only when he has some ready to go, and right now that means buyers need to hold tight until May 2022. To score one you’ll need to visit his website, a green and yellow phantasmagoria Blossom built 20 years ago and hasn’t ever redesigned. It includes links to content about how pawpaws can be used to combat lice and intestinal parasites, plus a lot of photos of the Blossom family in their pawpawrich natural habitat. You can’t order online per se, but you can print off an order form to send in with your check, or email for instructions on how to pay with a credit card. The functionality is not exactly up-to-date, but it works alright. Blossom’s son, a web designer, has so far resisted tinkering with this vintage gem. Since we’re in the middle of prime pawpaw season in Arkansas right now, Blossom shared a few tips: In Arkansas, pawpaw season runs from the middle of September to the middle of October. You have to time it just right. If you pick pawpaws when they’re still hard and green, they won’t ripen. Let them ripen on the tree until they’re soft. Ripe pawpaws often fall to the ground on their own. You can also try to shake them out by wiggling the branches. You can keep whole pawpaws in the refrigerator to slow down the ripening process. If you pick more than you can eat fresh, you can separate pulp from seeds and freeze the pulp in baggies for later. Blossom once went to Kentucky for a pawpaw conference, and at the end of it they all sat down for a meal that included pawpaws in every course. It was OK, he said. “People do make all kinds of things out of them. Personally, I think they’re better just plain.”
MEET MEAT MAN
BRIAN CHILSON/STYLING BY MANDY KEENER
When decorating for your Halloween party, you could set out some cheese and crackers for people to snack on, maybe some cute finger sandwiches. No one would complain. But it’s Halloween, so why don’t you take some of that prosciutto, slap it on a cheap plastic skeleton head and blow your guests’ minds with a cold cut meat man? What are you doing, don’t put your smoked BBQ weenies in a bowl! String them together with floss or jewelry wire and give your skeleton some good old-fashioned guts. The ends of sausages make great lungs and kidneys. Don’t forget a bologna stomach. Also, it’s great that you made Rice Krispy Treats, but you totally blew it by not adding a scoop of red velvet cake mix and red food coloring to turn them into crispy meat patty hearts. Try again. — Rhett Brinkley
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TIM SCOTT
THE GHOST LIGHT ON WOODSON LATERAL ROAD BY RHETT BRINKLEY
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rkansas has its share of haunting folklore: the Gurdon Light, Crescent Hotel, the ghouls in the current legislature. The tale I heard the most about growing up in North Little Rock in the ’90s was the ghostly motorcycle light that would follow cars on a creepy stretch of Woodson Lateral Road about 20 miles south of Little Rock. As a teenager I started taking trips out to Woodson with friends, and even though we never saw anything, the two-lane highway was a scary setting with trees forming together over the road like a canopy, making it feel like you were driving through a tunnel. An old cemetery just off the road on the south side added to its spooky aura. In the wee hours of the night on May 7, 1999, the night of my senior banquet, my friends and I decided to keep the night going, and five of us left my parents’ house and piled into my best friend’s Chevrolet Corsica and set off to Woodson Lateral. Over the next hour or so, we had an experience that blew our young (and sober) minds. Twentytwo years later, I spoke separately to my friends Mark Lierly (driver) and Michael Motley (backseat passenger) about that night. Mike Motley: My childhood home was in Hensley, about five miles from Woodson. The people in that area were very keen on the Woodson Lateral legend, including my parents and my neighbors.
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Mark Lierly: My brother and the Soophie kids [Mark and his brother Mike were both members of Soophie Nun Squad, a legendary ’90s North Little Rock punk rock band], there was a lot of lore always being kicked around in that young Soophie group. As a junior high kid riding out there with my brother, I remember one time seeing a light off in the distance that seemed weird, but it was always way down the road. MM: On one Halloween when I was 7 and my sister was two years younger, my dad took us to Woodson Lateral. He said it was a light or a motorcycle that we might see and that it was a ghost. He didn’t really get into more detail than that. I remember we didn’t see anything, and I think he felt a little let down. But it was enough of a thing for him to take his two relatively small children to go try to see. My great uncle lived next door to us; he was a World War II veteran. We called him Uncle Johnny. He was a skeptic, he’d just write it off and say, “It’s just swamp gas,” or a natural phenomenon and it’s tricking people. ML: The legend I always heard was a guy on his motorcycle went around the curve where the graveyard is and died. I have absolutely no idea if there’s truth to that [or] if it’s a weird lore to try to make sense of a light. But there’s definitely a sharp ass curve. MM: [That night] we were kind of bored, it was very spontaneous.
ML: The way a lot of fun, dumb shit starts in your high school days, you’re not ready to go to bed. MM: We would not have been up that late if it wasn’t towards the end of the school year. High school was kind of over. We had all, I think, gone out there and had failed trips where we didn’t see shit. So I definitely was not planning on seeing a damn thing. ML: We leave right around 3 a.m. I’ll never forget that. On the way there in two seconds on Randolph [Road] we passed [our friend] Luke [Hunsicker] and stopped to talk to him. We met at Baskin-Robbins. He was like “Dude, let me ride.” I was like “Yeah, absolutely. Cram in.” I would not do that [six people in a five-seater] these days because that’s an immediate ticket. MM: Woodson is a long, narrow road with trees on both sides. It’s like if the Batcave entrance went on for a mile, and it’s flat, no streetlights, totally black for like a mile and a half. So if a headlight came up on the horizon, it would just appear and you’d see it a long way away. That had happened before on previous trips where you go like, “Oh, my God, is that it?” And then you realize it’s two headlights, so it’s an actual car. ML: We took the exit, took a left, got just a little ways past the bridge that went over the interstate [and] there was a weird kind of mist in the air, and we drove by a single light that looked like a motorcycle, but not really. Just a bright ass light.
MM: The big difference in our trip was the almost instantaneous encounter that we had as soon as we got out there. There was no very faraway component. As soon as we turned on there we drove for a minute, maybe two, and then a light passed us and it’s almost like it came up quicker than it should have. It didn’t have a mile of runway. It’s almost like a football field away and just passed us. We all kind of shut up for a minute and observed it. When it went past us, we definitely said like, “Hold up, was that the thing?” ML: It took about three or four seconds, I don’t remember who said it first, but I remember we started going, “Was that it?” MM: We didn’t freak out at that point because it happened so fast. I can definitely remember it was a teardrop headlight like an old motorcycle and it went right past us, fast enough that you couldn’t clearly see who was on it, all you could see was that light. It was just so unbelievable that it came and went that quickly that it compelled us to turn around, and we were all saying, “Turn around. Let’s go see what it is.” We all were pretty proactive about wanting to do that. ML: We turned around, pull into the U-shaped driveway in the cemetery and what else other is it than a massive fucking black dog in the cemetery looking at us. Hindsight, that was weird. In English folklore, when you see a big ass weird black dog, you might see a ghost, or you might be about to die. It’s a thing. MM: We observed the tail light drift up and to the right after about 200-300 yards, no more than a quarter-mile, and then it just went out. It disappeared in a direction that didn’t make sense to the point that we said, “Whoa, wait a minute, that’s not supposed to happen.” I didn’t observe any turnoffs or curves or elevation changes or anything like that. About the time we would’ve thought we’d see some turnoff on the right where that thing went, that’s when we saw a white light, a single headlight, come up behind us from the same direction we saw the original headlight. It came out of nowhere. ML: It came up on me very quick. That’s officially when we started getting creeped out. MM: We were yelling for Mark to speed up. We wanted to get away from it. He was telling us all to shut up because he thought he was going to wreck. So he was balancing speeding away as fast as he could while trying to have five people not scream in his ear. ML: I was like, “Guys, y’all need to chill, you’re
freaking me out.” I took the exit; it was the wrong fucking exit. MM: Mark took the freeway on-ramp to continue south onto [I-5]30 away from Little Rock. That was a product of us being freaked out and trying to get away. It was not a strategic move to head further from Little Rock. We looked behind us and the light eventually disappeared. ML: The light didn’t follow us. It didn’t come out of the tunnel. The light went away. We got like 1012 minutes down the road and took the next exit and we all got out and smoked a cigarette. MM: We tried to make sense of what happened although we were all full of adrenaline. ML: Driving back towards Little Rock, like two minutes before we got to the Woodson exit, everybody was just like, “Well, let’s do it again.” MM: As we’re taking the exit, I remember a couple of us making a comment like, “If we see this thing again, then there’s no way it’s fake.” So we get on the road again. We travel basically a half-mile, and all of a sudden, a teardrop white headlight comes up and we all just start screaming. Again, it did not start a mile away; it appeared and passed us within the span of 15 seconds. It was just there. It looked to my eyes 100% identical to the first experience we had. ML: I’m like, “OK, here’s this goddamn motorcycle, same place as last time, I’m about to look at this shit.” Couldn’t see any mechanics, it was just a light. MM: You couldn’t see what was behind it, it was kind of a gray mass and we screeched to a halt in the middle of the road and watched that tail light. Again, somebody said, “If that tail light goes off around the bend again … ” ML: It goes up to the right. That’s where it was really like, “Oh, man, this thing is some fairy shit, this thing is like a trickster.” MM: At that point we were like, there’s one more thing that can happen right now. We’re going to turn around on this road and follow that light again, and if it disappears and then pops up behind us again, then the odds of that happening if it weren’t a ghost were astronomical. We were looking out [the back windshield] for it, and it appeared so abruptly that all of us screamed at the same time, which was confirmation that it came out of nowhere. It didn’t turn onto the road. We’re looking behind us and we see nothing, then we see something. ML: People talk about this light going through the car, that would’ve been fucking wild, I
would’ve wrecked the car if that would’ve happened. I’m really glad that didn’t happen. The empirical part of my brain was trying to not give way to dread and fear of the fact that we’re interfacing with the paranormal and was like, “OK, there’s three guys out here.” MM: If it were someone on a normal motorcycle, they would’ve had to have been sitting in the road with their lights off, but, mind you, we’d already driven down that way and seen nothing. We’d already passed that stretch of road. I look over at Luke, whose jaw is dropped and there are tears streaming down his face. He’s literally crying and speechless. Some of us are screaming, some of us couldn’t make sounds anymore. That’s how scared we were at that point. ML: There’s sentiment everywhere between elation and fear. We were scared. There’s this thing out here and I don’t know if we’re fucking with it or it’s fucking with us. MM: Mark speeds towards the northbound on-ramp to the highway to go back towards Little Rock. The light is following us then we kind of come out of the tunnel [of trees]. Nothing ever came out behind us. And that was it. ML: The light did not come out of the tunnel. I slowed way down to see what it did, and it did not come out of the tunnel. MM: We talked about it the entire way back home. ML: All freaked out, maybe at some stage of actually crying, we were so freaked out. MM: I can’t imagine something that matched up to the legend closer than what we experienced, and that’s what has stuck with me over the years. If it was somebody trying to prank us, they would’ve had to stage it and done it twice in exactly the same way. And I’m a skeptical person. I started to try to poke holes in it as I got a little bit older. In my 20s I would try to find ways to debunk it, but I never could. Now I just believe it. I just think whatever people have ever seen, whether it was real or not, is what we saw. ML: Some people have experiences that they don’t ever really quantify in their lives, and they have to step down and act like it didn’t happen. I’ve never second-guessed it. Never. It was a super auspicious night; it happened the night of our senior banquet. It was a definite tight-knit era passing. It was us getting out of high school. I’ve often thought about how our experience might not have been that direct and pure had it not been right then.
BRIAN CHILSON
SNUGGLE UP AT SNAKE WORLD If you crave cuddle time with snakes and lizards, be the Ertel family’s guest. Dale and Melina Ertel are the longtime proprieters of Snake World, Carroll County’s most unusual roadside attraction. The $12 price of admission gets you up close and personal with cobras, vipers, rattlesnakes, lizards, tortoises and hissing roaches. Set up in a trailer next to the Ertels’ home, Snake World is situated on Highway 62 and is a popular stop for families headed to Eureka Springs. The personalized tours by people who are clearly passionate and knowledgeable about their animal collection garner rave reviews from snake lovers. Non-snake lovers may want to wait in the car. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 45
SIX BRIDGES BOOK FESTIVAL OCTOBER 21-31 | SixBridgesBookFestival.org
Register for book discussions with more than 70 award-winning authors from Arkansas and around the world.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio Charles Yu October 23, 6:30 p.m. October 23, 8 p.m. CALS Speaker Series: J. N. Heiskell program; Session will be available in English and Spanish
CALS Speaker Series: Fred K. Darragh program; Co-sponsored by the Arkansas Humanities Council
The Six Bridges Book Festival, a program of the Central Arkansas Library System, is supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council and made possible in part by the Arkansas State Library and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Junior League of Little Rock/Little Readers Rock is a partner for the Festival’s family events. 46 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
Jacqueline Woodson October 30, 2:30 p.m. Fest’s Book Club Campaign Selection
PHOTO BY BRIAN CHILSON
PET SOUNDS
ADOPTING THE RIGHT PET FOR YOUR FAMILY. BY KATHERINE WYRICK PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON
ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 47
THE PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Visual Arts students are
IS PROUD TO CELEBRATE ITS FINE ARTS PROGRAMS
represented in Young
ACROSS THE DISTRICT IN THE MAUMELLE, MILLS,
Artist Competitions and
ROBINSON, AND SYLVAN HILLS FEEDER ZONES.
service projects in the
PCSSD offers a wide variety of Performing and Visual Arts courses for our students. The District is
surrounding communities. The students’
annually represented in All-Region Bands, Choirs, and
success is leading to an
Orchestras as well as participation in the All-State
increased interest in all
Music Conference, which includes Bands, Orchestras,
of the fine arts programs
and Choirs. Our Performing Arts ensembles also
across the District.
compete in Region Concert Performance Assessments
“The program has
and State Concert Performance Assessments,
grown from about 30
Region and State Marching Band Assessments,
kids in choir when
Forensic and Competitive Speech tournaments. Our
I started, to now 65,” said Joe T. Robinson High School Choir Director Mr. Edmond Hampton. “We have had students get statewide accolades and Superior ratings during assessments. We face some challenges but are still finding ways to be successful and give encouraging experiences to our students.” In addition to band, choir, and orchestra, theatre programs are always popular among students. “Enrollment and participation in theater is the highest it has been in years,” said Mills University Studies High Theater Director Patrick Laxson. “The energy and enthusiasm of our students will be evident for all to see on the stage in our productions this year!” PCSSD also offers a number of visual arts programs, including drawing, pottery, painting, printmaking, and art history.
December 2019
ABOUT PCSSD Pulaski County Special School District spans more than 600 square miles in central Arkansas and requires highly skilled and passionate personnel to adapt educational policies and personalization to 25 schools. Every school is accredited by the Arkansas State Board of Education. PCSSD has served schools across Pulaski County since July 1927. PCSSD is committed to creating a nationally recognized school district that assures that all students achieve at their maximum potential through collaborative, supportive and continuous efforts of
501.234.2000 48 OCTOBER 2021
all stakeholders. ARKANSAS TIMES
ON THE COVER, LONGTIME ANIMAL ADVOCATE AND NEW MOM CASEY CARTER WITH SON, BENJAMIN, AND DOG, SAMSON. LEFT, ALANA BUZATU WITH ADOPTED DOGS SAM AND EDDIE PLUS A RECENT ROADSIDE RESCUE.
I
t is said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I’ve always subscribed to the belief that the same goes for pets: When the person is ready, the dog will appear. A little metaphysical maybe, but my family’s experience bears that out. Our first dog came from the side of a highway in Nashville. He walked like a Tennessee walking horse, so when asked what breed he was, we responded “Tennessee walking dog.” We attributed his wonky gait to being run over by multiple cars, but who knows? A terrier mix, Lucky looked like a cross between a possum and a polecat. He barked for 17 years straight. He was my familiar, my first child. He tolerated the birth of my kids and gradually warmed to them, making it his mission to get them to school on time and generally keep them in line. He didn’t approve of dancing; he was puritanical in that way. In recent years we had Leon, literally a junkyard dog, discovered under the rusted shell of a car as a puppy. A hound/Great Pyrenees mix — with the tell-tale double dew claws — he was standoffish but serene, dignified and steadfast. He had a spot shaped like a clover near his tail and died too young from cancer at the start of the pandemic. We emptied his ashes in the Little Maumelle during that brutal summer, and at that very moment, a hawk erupted into the air from the tree line and soared above us. Thanks to one of the women interviewed below, Casey Carter of Rock City Rescue, we’ve had Tallulah (or Tü), a corgi/collie mix, for more than four years. I spotted her across a crowded Etsy fest, looking ill at ease in a sea of legs. She’s vulpine with a glorious, gratuitous plumed tail. She sits upright like a prairie dog on the couch. She lacks boundaries and loves her people with an ardor bordering on the neurotic. Our most recent addition, Ruth, was dumped in our neighborhood a year ago, traumatized, emaciated, skittish, afflicted with every sort of parasite imaginable and infested with fleas and ticks. My husband reminds me often that when we first saw her, I turned to him and mouthed, “She’s the one.” She’s a pesky little sister to Tü, but the perfect match for an equally energetic, playful 9-year-old boy. She has the long, slow howl of a hound. That’s our story. Here are a few from other parents who are passionate about their pets — who know that “pet” is really a misnomer; that “family member” is far more accurate. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 49
CARE
JOHN HARDIN BALE WITH HIS RESCUE GIRL, BAILEY.
ADDITIONAL ADOPTION CENTERS: • • • •
Little Rock Animal Village The Humane Society of Pulaski County Jacksonville Animal Shelter North Little Rock Animal Shelter
50 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
Dina Buzatu is a lifelong animal lover who started rescuing while growing up in New Orleans. Her family eventually followed suit. Buzatu’s parents now have 10 rescues of their own at their home in Mississippi (where there’s ample space for running and roaming). When Dina’s family fled New Orleans during Katrina, they landed in Benton with 18 dogs and two cats in tow (one of whom they’d picked up on the way out of town). A very charitable hotel owner housed them all for free, even giving the dogs a room of their own. Dina’s husband, Dan, a research chemist at UA Little Rock originally from Romania, had a purebred dog when they met, but soon came to understand the importance of adoption. Dina said she’s probably taken in 30 dogs over the years. Her family — Dan and their 10-year-old daughter, Alana — had two senior dogs, both 14 and adopted from the Little Rock Animal Shelter as puppies, but lost one to cancer during the pandemic. “I was heartbroken,” said Dina. The remaining dog, Eddie, was grieving and lonely, as was Alana, who was already feeling isolated due to the pandemic. It seemed like the right time to welcome another dog into the pack. Dina’s only criterion was adopting one who really needed a home. “I wanted a dog that was hard to place. I want the dog that no one wants.” Enter Sam, a 7-year-old large black hound/Lab mix. With those three marks against him, Dina said, “His options were limited.” (See “black dog syndrome.”) Alana’s one request was getting a dog who could fetch. Sam fit the bill. “The two of them are so cute together,” Dina said. “Not only does he fetch, but he chases Alana around the house and plays hide and seek with her. He also sleeps in her bed ... they have a very special bond.” Sam helped ease some of the loneliness that Alana — like so many kids — had been feeling during this time. Eddie, the remaining senior dog (now 15), a Great Dane/black Lab mix, seems to enjoy having another dog around the house, and he’s happy to leave the fetching and playing to Sam. As a Paws in Prison graduate, Sam is obedient, well-mannered and loyal. He’s crazy about toys and likes to select a different one each day to present as an offering to his people. The two inmates who cared for him kept a detailed journal that they gave the family upon graduation. Dina said, “It was hugely helpful in understanding his personality.” For one thing, he had been surrendered by his owner and has some lingering issues related to that. “I feel like he still has hope they’re coming to get him,” Dina explained. Maybe it’s because of her background as a social worker or just her tender heartedness, but Dina seems very attuned to Sam’s feelings and needs. “When you look in Sam’s eyes, there are so many stories to tell. There’s so much behind those eyes.” Dina knows that big changes can be traumatic for people and dogs alike, so she reassures Sam that he’s in his forever home. “He’s just a light.” At first that light was difficult to detect, but then “you could just see it come back,” Dina said.
ROCK CITY RESCUE
When we asked Casey Carter to participate in a story about adoption, she replied, pet or child? Turns out, the founder of Rock City Rescue had recently adopted a baby boy, Benjamin, who is almost 1 and teething like crazy. Carter’s voice has that tired but giddy quality of a new mom. Having been a “dog mom” for many years, you can tell she’s relishing her new role as mother to Ben. A licensed professional counselor in the Little Rock School District, Carter started Rock City Rescue during a stint with North Little Rock Animal Control about a decade ago. (She saved countless animals from being euthanized while there.) Carter has a “foster fail,” big brother to Benjamin, a handsome 6-year-old chocolate Lab/Chessie mix named Samson. He had a sister (Delilah, naturally) who was adopted. Samson initially went to a family in New Jersey for about a year but was sent back worse for the wear. He returned with major anxiety and had to be put on Prozac. He’s thriving under Carter’s care and is an integral part of her newly formed family.
“He loves Benjamin!” said Carter. The feeling is mutual. What Sam doesn’t love so much? The crying. “That baby cry is very insistent, and one day, I guess I just wasn’t moving fast enough, and he came into the room and looked at me like, ‘Are you going to do something about this?!’ ” You could say rescuing runs in the family. Carter’s mom, who was a rural mail carrier, frequently came across strays on her route. A young Carter hand raised a baby squirrel and bunny and welcomed a menagerie of cats and dogs into their home. Carter strongly believes that it’s essential to find the right match when adopting a pet — and the onus is on the rescue organization to do that (many of them don’t). Rock City thoroughly vets potential adopters. “We work hard for what is in the best interest of the animal,” Carter said. Ultimately, that’s what makes for happy pets and people.
OUT OF THE WOODS ANIMAL RESCUE (OOTW)
Kristy Bale admitted to being a bit distracted when answering our questions because her son, John Hardin, age 14, had just discovered that his 9-year-old tarantula, Rosie, passed away. The Bale household is a refuge for animals — and not just the furry and feathered. Bale and John Hardin live in a rural area of Little Rock with their “rescue pooch, Bailey, her two cats, and countless other critters.” Bailey, from Out of the Woods Animal Rescue, entered their lives at just the right time, during a very difficult period for their family. “We fell in love the first time we met her and knew she was the one to help us through and be there for us no matter what. Bailey is our mood sensor, our consoler, our teacher in loving others regardless.” Kristy’s husband and John Hardin’s dad, Hardin Bale, died two years ago after a long battle with cancer. Kristy said, “[Hardin] was a true dog lover and grinned ear to ear
when he first met her.” Hardin and Kristy shared a love of animals. “We both grew up with pets, from cats and dogs to horses and frogs. Our love for animals goes beyond just being a companion. We cherish the responsibilities of being pet parent and an advocate for our furry and oftentimes scaly friends.” John Hardin has clearly inherited his parents’ love for animals of all stripes (and spots, and scales). When they decided to get a dog, he knew he wanted to adopt. “John Hardin searched for ‘the one’ for a very long time. We were certain that we wanted a more mature dog. Because I work and he is in school, we knew that we should, responsibly, not adopt a puppy.” Bale is a school nurse. And that’s where OOTW entered the picture. “A huge shout out of gratitude and appreciation to OOTW and their standards on behalf of each animal that comes through their care,” Bale said. During the adoption process, “The OOTW representative was there for all of us, making sure we were all comfortable, including Bailey.” Bailey is now living her best life as part of a family that loves all things outdoors. Bale said, “From lazy days sitting on porch, to hikes around countryside, to fishing at the ponds, Bailey joins in contently at our side. If she’s aware that an adventure is in the works, she starts hopping and prancing around before we even say, ‘Let’s go, girl!’ ” Asked if she had any advice for those looking to adopt, Bale offered this bit of wisdom, “Be true to your own life and its demands so when your new family member/pet comes, you’ll give them the best of you.” Most people who choose adoption know the answer to the question, “Who is rescuing whom?” “Our Rescue Girl has changed our lives,” Bale said. “Our Miss Bailey Wren has proven that we really did have more love to give.” ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 51
OCTOBER ACTIVITIES & FUN Oct. 2-30 (except 10/23)
LITTLE ROCK ZOO HOWL-O-WEEN Head to the Zoo for a delightful, frightful Howl-O-Ween Party for three Saturdays in October. Come dressed in your Halloween best, marvel at a magic show, do the monster mash at a dance party or enjoy a ride on the scaredy cat carousel. There will also be keeper chats and animal feedings. Each Saturday has a theme: 10/2 Super Heroes 10/9 Rock Star Day 10/16 Wild West Day 10/30 Wizards and Witches
Oct. 5
WORLD TEACHERS DAY Shower our beloved, beleaguered teachers with praise and gifts.
Oct. 16
FANCYFUL PRINCESS BALL 10-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3 p.m. It’s a parade of princesses. At this event, brought to you by the Junior League of Little Rock, you’ll meet all your favorites: The Snow Queen, The Ice Princess, Cinderella, Beauty, The Frog Princess, Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, The Island Princess and Snow White. To learn more, visit fancyful.com/princess-ball
October 21-31
THE 2021 SIX BRIDGES BOOK FESTIVAL This festival is all virtual this year, and offers an impressive lineup. Two highlights for kids include: Vashti Harrison’s Hello, Star (for young readers) and Sharon G. Flake’s The Life I’m In (for the YA set).
Oct. 30
Oct. 15-24
HILLCREST HARVEST FEST
ARKANSAS STATE FAIR We can still recall the jingle from decades ago, “Fun for all! Fair for all! Arkansas State Fair! Livestock shows! Rodeos! Family fun! Thrilling rides! Win a prize! Everybody come!”
It’s back! Maybe. After missing last year due to the pandemic, HarvestFest is planning to return (subject to public health conditions). You can expect all the popular happenings, including the live concert, dog show, food trucks, kids zone and gumbo cook-off. Complete lineup TBA.
Holiday Gifts for Young Dog Lovers! Pat’s book picks at PatBeckerBooks.com
These beautifully illustrated books are autographed by the authors and are also available in audiobook (audio version available where indicated ) Pat Becker, author and hostess of DogTalkTV.com
Heartwarming stories of dogs finding their forever homes! FREE SHIPPING for books purchased by Dec. 15!
www.PatBeckerBooks.com 52 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
THE MANY FACES OF ARKANSAS NURSING
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 53
Be a Champion Be a Champion for Children! Be a Champion for Children! for Children! for Children! and comforting heart. That is why we are Arkansans’ choice for their health care needs. We have a variety of nursing opportunities, from a Level III NICU to a 90-bed Critical Care area. Baptist Health offers top quality benefits for employees. We look for nurses who think critically and are compassionate and service-oriented. We want to offer a “World Class” environment for everyone. Please apply online at baptist-health.com.
nursing informatics and much more! To learn more about a rewarding career serving as a Champion for Children, visit www.archildrens.org or call us at (501) 364-1398
uams.edu.
MEET THE SCHOOL & HOSPITAL RECRUITERS
Work with a team that has ® Recognition achieved Magnet Work with a team that has Work with a team that has ® for excellence in Recognition patient care. achieved Magnet ®that Work with a team has Recognition achieved Magnet ® Recognition forachieved excellence in in patient care. for excellence patient care. Nurses at ArkansasMagnet Children’s Hospital Experience: UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS SCHOOL FOR MEDICAL •for A focus onSCIENCES safety for employees, patientscare. and families excellence in patient Nurses at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Experience: UCA SCHOOL OF NURSING Left to Right: Rachel VanVeckhoven, Recruitment Specialist and Ava Coleman, Assistant Director of Student Enrollment
Tachia Awbrey, MS., (left) BSN Education Counselor and Amanda Abramovitz, MA, (right) RN to BSN, MSN, BSN to DNP and Post Master’s DNP Education Counselor
Gigi Flory, Nursing Recruiter Gigi Flory Nursing Recruiter
Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Pine Bluff JEFFERSON REGIONAL
Jefferson RegionalMedical Medical Center serves Jefferson Regional Center serves a Terri McKown a 10-county area, so our nurses must be Brenda Trigg, DNP, GNP, RN, CNE 10-county area, so our nurses must be prepared Arkansas Tech University (ATU) Department of prepared for a busy and diverse patient Director of Nursing UAMS is the only health science center in offers many options to acquire nursing for a busy and diverse patient base. From base. From neurology to cardiology, from neuOuachita Baptistlargest. University,It The UniversityNursing of Central Arkansas, School Arkansas and one of the region’s licensure. We work with you and for you to surgery to orthopaedics, JRMC has aorthopaemedical rology to cardiology, from surgery to Arkadelphia of Nursing is committed to educating students includes five colleges (Nursing, Medicine, achieve the career choice you desire. From Listaff that 25 different specialties, Our innovative dual degree RN-to-BSN prodics, JRMC hasrepresents a medical staff that represents at the undergraduate and graduate levels asAssociate censed Practical Nursing (LPN) or an Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public so our program offersso many different nursing gram pairs the strengths of Ouachita Baptist 25 different specialties, our program offers Degree in Nursing (ADN) at our sister camleaders in the delivery of quality health care Health) and a graduateUniversity school with along with a of Baptist Health opportunities for our staff to experience. We the strengths many different nursing opportunities pus in Ozark, to a pre-licensure Bachelor of the advancement of the nursing profession. pride ourselves on patient-centered carefor andour a College Little Rock.centers, Ouachita isand a nationalhospital, statewide network of regional Science in Nursing (BSN) Registered Nursing staff to family experience. Weamong prideour ourselves onand paatmosphere employees, ly-ranked liberal arts college founded in 1886 We offer both online and on-campus programs affiliations with Arkansas Children’s Hospital (RN) degree in Russellville. Want more? We we go thecare extra and mile toahelp our nurses be the tient-centered family atmosphere a mission Healthcare of fostering a love God and to ofaccommodate needs of for ourworking diverse and Central Arkansas with Veterans offerthe bridge programs men and best they can be. JRMC provides competitive a love of learning. And Baptist Health College among our employees, and we go the extra populations: the on-campus BSN, online women to achieve a higher level of educaSystem, and seven UAMS institutes whereleader in health additional compenLittle Rock is a recognized mile to pay helpand ourbenefits, nursesincluding be the best they can be. tion: LPN to BSN at our Russellville campus, completion program RN to BSN, the online clinical, academic and research resources are sation for nurses with advanced degrees, and care education since 1920 and an integral pay and for benefits, or our ADNas to BSN ComePost tour ourJRMC Sim- provides a six-monthcompetitive nurse residency program nurses MSN wellonline. as the part oforBaptist Health, the healthNurse care Educator, focused on specific diseases conditions. Thelargest Labs—we have SimMom, SimNewB, including additional nurses just out of school. compensation Your success is ourfor success, system in Arkansas. Learn howMaster’s you can earn Doctor ulation of Nursing Practice (DNP) and UAMS College of Nursing provides bachelor’s, SimBaby, SimMan, multiple Nurse Anne’s,with and advanced and it all benefits our and patients, who are thenurse degrees, a six-month two degrees (AAS & BSN) in 4BSN obu. (Family Practitioner). Doctor master’s (MNSc), Doctor of Nursing Practice yearstoat DNP much Nurse more! ATU’s nursing faculty are experts reason we are for all innurses the health edu/nursing or call (870) 245-5110. residency program justcare out profesof school. (DNP) students mustand come in their field adding breadth depth to both (DNP), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) of Nursing Practice sion. If you’re interested in a nursing career at Your success is our success, and it all benefits your classroom and clinical education. Come to campus for a few planned events. Whether JRMC, contact me at florygi@jrmc.org. programs to more than 800 students. There join usfor at ATU...where “Everycollege Student Counts.” our patients, who are the reason we are all in 9/24/18 5:07 PM students are looking the traditional
Nurses at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Experience: • Coordinated and collaborative teamwork that provides the • A focus on safety for employees, patients and families highest level of family-centered care •Nurses A focus on safety for employees, patients and families at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Experience: • Coordinated and collaborative teamwork that provides the •• Compassionate care for a wide range of patients, ages, Coordinated and collaborative teamwork that provides the • A focus on safety for employees, patients and families highest level of family-centered care diagnoses and severity of illness highest level of family-centered care •• Coordinated and collaborative teamwork thatages, provides the • Compassionate care for wide range ofapatients, team that strives forafor excellence in kid-savvy environment • A Compassionate care a wide range of patients, ages, highestand level of family-centered care diagnoses severity of illness diagnoses and severity of illness ow. •team Compassionate for a wide range of patients, ages, view current openings, visit archildrens.org/careers. • ATo that strives job forcare excellence in a kid-savvy environment • A team that strives for excellence in a kid-savvy environment diagnoses and severity of illness ow. To view openings, visitvisit archildrens.org/careers. • A current team thatjob strives for excellence inarchildrens.org/careers. a kid-savvy environment job openings, ow. To view current We champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. areview online current programs tojob help openings, existing RNs earn To visit archildrens.org/careers. their BSN or MNSc. The college is engaged experience or to advance their current degree,
the health care profession. If you’re interested in a nursing career at JRMC, contact me at floWe champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. UCA School of Nursing is an affordable and in activities and interprofessional partnerships 9/24/18 5:07 PM We champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. rygi@jrmc.org. 9/24/18 5:07 PM high quality option. For more information, across all UAMS colleges that promote scholarly excellence, research and service to please visit www.uca.edu/nursing. 9/24/18 5:07 PM We champion the university nursing professionchildren and society.by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. Recruiting for UAMS College of Nursing is more Magnet_ACH_Nurses Hire_full page.indd 1 9/24/18 5:07 than informing the prospective student about our programs. It is about introducing them to a career field that allows them to be lifelong ACH_Nurses Hire_full page.indd 1 9/24/18 5:07 PM Magnet_ACH_Nurses Hire_full page.indd 1 9/24/18 5:07 learners and caregivers. We do more than just educate nursing students, we prepare them to care for the total patient and their families. Magnet_ACH_Nurses Hire_full page.indd 1 9/24/18 5:07 For more information on our programs, contact us at 501-686-5224, by email at conadmissions@ uams.edu or visit our website at www.nursing.uams.edu. CHI ST. VINCENT CHI St. Vincent Infirmary is Arkansas’s first hospital to achieve Magnet status for ON THE COVER: professional nursing practice. As a health TOP ROW, Left to Right: Tabitha Kamau, CHI ST. VINCENT system with facilities located throughout the Debbie Fields, Pinnacle Pointe Hospital state, our focus is the health and well-being of Tonya Freeman, Senior Jessica Cedillo, Steffan Lewis, UAMS CON, Nurse Arkansans. We have served Arkansas since Recruiter Recruiter Anesthesia, Second year student 1888 with a history of many firsts and numerous awards for patient care. When you join CHI St. SECOND ROW, Left to Right: Vincent you will enjoy the career you deserve, Jennifer Phan, CHI St. Vincent the quality of life you’ve been looking for, the Dr. Josuanne Nduku, UA Little Rock School joy of serving in our ministry, a comprehensive of Nursing benefits package for you and your family, Alexa Cash, CHI St. Vincent continued education opportunities, and much BOTTOM ROW, Left to Right: more! Sign-on bonuses and NEW higher pay Jonathan Stevenson, UAMS CON, Nurse for all RNs + increased pay for clinical ladder! Anesthesia, First year student To join our team of health care heroes, see more Dr. Colton McCance, DNP, UAMS CON Brandy Shell, Senior Samantha McClard, info at chistvincent.com/nurses. Clinical Instructor Recruiter Recruiter Rani Simpson, Graduate from National Park College, Travel RN Nurse 54 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
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Arkansans’ choice for their health care needs. We have a variety of nursing opportunities, from a Level III NICU to a 90-bed Critical Care area. Baptist Health offers top quality benefits for employees. We look for nurses who think critically and are compassionate and service-oriented. We want to offer a “World Class” environment for everyone. Please apply online at baptist-health.com.
Janice Ivers, MSN, RN, CNE Dean of Nursing & Health Sciences
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Brenda Trigg, DNP, GNP, RN, CNE NATIONAL Director of Nursing PARK COLLEGE NationalBaptist Park University, College is in the business of Ouachita changing lives, one student at a time! Choosing Arkadelphia nursing as a career change the trajectory Our innovative dualcan degree RN-to-BSN pro- of an individual’s life as well as their family’s lives. gram pairs the strengths of Ouachita Baptist We offer awith Practical Nursing and a University the strengths of program Baptist Health Registered Nursing program with a traditional College Little Rock. Ouachita is a nationaltrack, as well as arts LPNcollege to RN founded options. in National ly-ranked liberal 1886 Park College nursing programs have offered an with a mission of fostering a love of God and Associate of Science in Baptist Nursing degree since a love of learning. And Health College 1976 and is aa Practical Nursing Certificate Little Rock recognized leader in healthsince 1958. Whethersince you just graduated from high care education 1920 and an integral school or are changing careers, National Park part of Baptist Health, the largest health care College help you meethow your goals. Applisystem incan Arkansas. Learn you can earn cation period(AAS for & traditional two degrees BSN) in 4entry yearsbegins at obu.in January and or runs the first Monday in edu/nursing callthrough (870) 245-5110. March for fall admission. Please go to www. np.edu for more detailed admissions information. We would love to meet with you and get you on the path to meeting your education and career goals. For more information on our programs please contact the Division of Nursing at (501) 760-4290 or email at jivers@np.edu. At National Park College, student success is our focus!
Janice Ivers, MSN, RN, CNE Dean of Nursing & Health Sciences National Park College National Park College is in the business of changing lives, one student at a tim Choosing nursing as a career can change the trajectory of an individual’s life well as their family’s lives. We offer a Practical Nursing program and a Regist Nursing program with a traditional track, as well as LPN to RN options. Natio Park College nursing programs have offered an Associate of Science in Nursin degree since 1976 and a Practical Nursing Certificate since 1958. Whether y just graduated from high school or are changing careers, National Park Colleg can help you meet your goals. Application period for traditional entry begins i January and runs through the first Monday in March for fall admission. Please to our website www.np.edu for more detailed admissions information. We wo Gigi Left toFlory Right: Lindsay Blitz, MSN, RN,education TNCC love to meet with you and get you on the path to meeting your and Recruiterand Susan Erickson, MNSc, -Nursing Nurse Recruiter career goals. For more information on our programs please contact the Divisio Jefferson Regional Pine Bluff RN, BC-NA, CHCR Medical - Senior Center, Nurse Recruiting Terri McKown,atDNP, APRN, FNP-BC Jefferson Regional MedicalAt Center serves Park Colle Nursing (501) 760-4290 or email at jivers@np.edu. National Manager Terri McKown Professor Nursing, Assistant Head a 10-county area, soUAMS our nurses must be studentof success is (ATU) our focus! Arkansas Tech University Department of prepared for a busy and diverse patient Nursing offers many options to acquire nursing ARKANSAS licensure. We workTECH with youUNIVERSITY and for you to Arkansas Tech University Department achieve the career choice you(ATU) desire. From Liof Nursing offers many options to acquire nurscensed Practical Nursing (LPN) or an Associate ing licensure. We work with and for you to Degree in Nursing (ADN) at you our sister camachieve the career choice you desire. From pus in Ozark, to a pre-licensure Bachelor of Licensed Nursing or an Nursing Associate SciencePractical in Nursing (BSN)(LPN) Registered Degree in Nursing (ADN) atWant our sister campus (RN) degree in Russellville. more? We in Ozark, to a pre-licensure Science offer bridge programs forBachelor working of men and in Nursing (BSN) Registered degree women to achieve a higherNursing level of(RN) educain Russellville. Want We offercampus, bridge protion: LPN to BSN at more? our Russellville grams for working achieve higher or our ADN to BSN nurses online.toCome tour aour Simlevel of Labs—we education:have LPNSimMom, to BSN at our Russellulation SimNewB, ville campus, or our multiple ADN to Nurse BSN online. SimBaby, SimMan, Anne’s,Come and tour Simulation Labs—we have muchour more! ATU’s nursing faculty are SimMom, experts SimNewB, SimMan, in their fieldSimBaby, adding breadth andmultiple depth toNurse both Anne’s, and much ATU’s nursingCome faculty your classroom andmore! clinical education. are in their fields adding breadth and join experts us at ATU...where “Every Student Counts.” depth to both your classroom and clinical education. Come join us at ATU...where “Every Student Counts”.
Whether just graduated, pursuing a second base. or From neurology cardiology, fromnurscareer looking for a to new work family, surgery to orthopaedics, JRMC has a medical es have a servant’s heart, providing care and staff that represents different specialties, compassion to those25 who need healing. That’s so our program offers many different nursingfor why nurses are the heart of UAMS, caring opportunities for our staff to experience. We patients and their families each and every day pride ourselves on patient-centered care and a to provide the very best health care with our familyofatmosphere among ourTeam employees, team providers. By joining UAMS, and you we go mileexperience to help our of nurses be thein will getthe theextra unique working beststate’s they can JRMC provides the onlybe.academic medicalcompetitive center that pay and benefits, including additional compenalso supports a culture of nursing excellence sation forcareer nursesadvancement, with advancedprofessional degrees, and through dea six-month and nurserecognition residency program for nurses velopment, – the best place justpractice out of school. Your success is ourimmediate success, to nursing. You and your and it all benefits our patients, who are the disfamily can also enjoy a generous tuition reasonofwe all inthroughout the health care profescount up are to 50% the UA System. sion. If you’re interested in salary a nursing at In addition to competitive andcareer benefits, JRMC, contact me at florygi@jrmc.org. including 11 paid holidays with separate sick and vacation accruals, UAMS provides up to a 10% percent match to retirement savings – five times what many employers offer. To join the more than 11,000 people who have made a career for life, log onto: nurses.uams.edu or join our Facebook/Instagram pages by searching UAMSNurses!
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL OF NURSING
2021 NURSES GUIDE PUBLISHER
ALAN LEVERITT
NURSES GUIDE EDITOR DWAIN HEBDA
DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING PHYLLIS A. BRITTON
Belinda Nix, Academic Counselor
For over 50 years, the UA Little Rock Department of Nursing has inspired and guided individuals toward the dynamic profession of nursing. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to improving the health care of all Arkansans by educating professional, thoughtful and compassionate nurses. We offer an Associate of Applied Science (AAS), BSN, LNP/ Paramedic to RN and online BSN completion program. Our advice for students is to take ownership and get as much information as possible about the nursing profession and degree options. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Do this early and often! Visit: www.ualr.edu/nursing or email bknix@ualr.edu for additional information.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
BROOKE WALLACE, LEE MAJOR, TERRELL JACOB, KAITLYN LOONEY
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OCTOBER 2021 55
E SCHOOLMEET & HOSPITAL RECRUITERS THE SCHOOL & HOSPITAL RECRUITERS BAXTER REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
In 2021, Baxter Regional Medical Center, located in beautiful Mountain Home, became the first Magnet® hospital in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri and was named by Modern Healthcare and Arkansas Business as one of the Best Places to Work. Baxter Regional is a place our nurses and staff call home; we are family! Our CNO believes in servant leadership, and shared governance ensures that our nurses have a voice in their practice. Join the Baxter Regional Family to see for yourself! You’ll fall in love with the Ozarks, our lakes and rivers, and most of all, our hospital and culture. Visit www. workwhereyouvacation.com or contact Kim Beavers, Recruiter, at kbeavers@baxterregional.org or (870) 5081070 for more information.
Kim Beavers, Recruiter Jennifer Yarberry, Chief Nursing Officer Belinda Nix Jennifer Yarberry PINNACLE POINTE BEHAVIORAL Academic Counselor Chief Nursing Officer SYSTEMSystem, UA Little Rock PinnacleHEALTHCARE Pointe Behavioral Healthcare Pinnacle Little Rock Pointe Behavioral Healthcare Sys- For over 50 years, the UA Little Rock Departare Pinnacle Pointe Behavioral Healthcare System a ment of Nursing has inspired and guided tem is committed to consistently delivering e high is committed to consistently delivering a system system of quality behavioral health care with individuals toward the dynamic profession of ces. of qualitytobehavioral health care with in integintegrity children and adolescents concert nursing. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to merrity totheir children and adolescents concert and improving the health care of all Arkansans by with parents, caregivers, in guardians care educating professional, thoughtful and comwith their parents, caregivers, and community professionals. The guardians team at Pinnacle s. In offer Word, an Associate of community professionals. The team atand PinnaPointe Hospital is both passionate highly passionate nurses. WeAlishia Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System ees BSN, Gaston, LNP/Paramedic cle Pointe Hospital both passionate experienced. Our isdedication to theand highest Applied Science (AAS), Amanda Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System heir completion highly experienced. Our dedication thepresti- to RN and online BSNAnna standard of quality helped us attaintothe Williams,program. University of Arkansas at Little Rock been is to take ownership highestGovernor’s standard ofQuality qualityAchievement helped us attain the Our advice for students gious Award. Chad Moore, Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks Work as possible about prestigious Achievement This awardGovernor’s recognizesQuality Pinnacle Pointe Hospi- and get as much information Colby Ross, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System Work and degree options. Award. This award recognizes Pinnacle tal’s commitment and practice of qualityPointe princi- the nursing professionColton McCance, University We are Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Do this early of Arkansas for Medical Sciences- College of Nursing Hospital’s commitment and practice quality ples through a thorough process of of excellence. Cortney Threat, Central ers who Visit and often! Visit: www.ualr.edu/nursing or Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System principles throughtoaapply: thorough process of our website pinnaclepointehospiRiddle,informaMagnolia Regional Medical Center re. We tal.com/career-opportunities/ email bknix@ualr.edu Courtney for additional excellence. Visit our website to apply: pinnaCristena Cook , Arkansas Air Ambulance n can tion. clepointehospital.com/career-opportunities/ Crystal Rose, University of Arkansas at Little Rock with Deborah Hutts, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences portuAshley Davis, MNSc, RN, PhD(c) e also Fairah Solomon, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Executive Director ailable FarrenInc. Moore, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Arkansas Center for Nursing, Care, Howard, The Arkansas Center forFiona Nursing wasUnited startedHealthcare nd James Braxton Yeager, Mission Family Practice by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson oin Janine Randles, Foundation in 2011 in response to theCentral recom-Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System it our Jennifer Shuler, Department of Human Services mendations that were published in the Arkansas Institute of ou Medicine’s “Future of Nursing” report. TheUniversity ACN Joanna Rostad-Hall, of Arkansas at Little Rock llani@ was established to promote a culture of health JoLeigh Davidson, Conwayfor Regional Health System 8. the citizens of Arkansas Kaitlin by advancing nursing Stringfellow, Hospice Home Care education, practice, and workforce Dustin Evans Recruiter, , RecruiterConway - North Little Rock, *use same photoleadership Katelin Whiddon, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Ken Duncan, development. CAN offers several different lead-Children’s Hospital Conway, regionalRecruiter, facilities Manager Kristan Cooper, Arkansas Joni Stephenson, training in MSN working toward third their Joni Stephenson, ManagerLittle Rock Hospitals ership Michelle S. programs Odom, RN, fromTech left) University April Robinson, Recruiter, Kristin Jaye(pictured, Henderson, Arkansas mission to empower and equip the current and April Robinson, Recruiter, Little Rock Hospitals Director of Recruitment and Retention Whitney Brewer, Recruiter, Krystal Goodwin, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System- North Little Rock future nursing Children’s workforce,Hospital, includingLittle the 40 Nurse Whitney Brewer, Recruiter Arkansas Rock North Little Rock Hospital Lakeisha Falls, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Leaders Under 40 award program and the BSN Children are at the center of everything we do.Regional Arkansas Children’s Kelli Hopkins, Recruiter, Regional Lauren Elliottmember, North Arkansas Medical Centeris the only hospital Young Leaders program. Individual system in the state solely dedicated to caring for children, which allows our organizaBAPTIST HEALTH MEDICAL Hospitals (not pictured) Utley,membership Arkansas Children’s Hospital shiption of ACN is free.shape YouLoren can to uniquely thefind landscape of pediatric care in Arkansas. As Champions for CENTER Baptist Health Medical Center Mallory Brown, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences information, as well as information regarding Children, Arkansas Children’s Hospital has joined the elite 6 percent of hospitals in the Our belief at Baptist Health is that we aare Our belief at Baptist Health is that we are Mark Foster, Arkansas State University ACN programs and workforce reports, on their world that have Magnet Status. Arkansas Children’s offers a wide range of opportua healing ministry. provide quality patient healing ministry. WeWe provide quality patient Olivia Cox, Baptist Health Center – Little Rock administration, website, www.arcenterfornursing.org. nities for nurses, from direct patient care toMedical staff education, research, care services servicestotoall allArkansans Arkansanswith witha a caring care caring System Patrick Blaylock, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare nursing informatics and much more! To learn more about a rewarding career serving and comforting comforting heart. heart. That That isiswhy whywe weare are Arand Philip Prousnitzer, Baptist Health Medical Center Little Rock 364-1398 as a Champion for Children, visit www.archildrens.org or call us at (501) kansans’ choice Arkansans’ choicefor fortheir their health health care care needs. Sara Damron, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences We have haveaavariety varietyofof nursing opportunities, We nursing opportunities, Sarah Goodhart, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences from aaLevel LevelIII III NICU a 90-bed Critical from NICU to ato90-bed Critical Care Sarah Holland, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Care area. top quality area. BaptistBaptist HealthHealth offersoffers top quality bene-beSherrie Searcy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences ne-fits employees. for nurses fits for for employees. WeWe looklook for nurses whowho Taylor Chapman, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences think critically criticallyand andareare compassionate think compassionate andand Teresa Dukes Scott, Baptist Health College Little Rock service-oriented. We We want wanttotooffer offera a“World “World service-oriented. Class” environment environmentfor foreveryone. everyone.Please Pleaseapply apTierra Donson, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System Class” ply online at baptisthealthcareers.com. Veronica Taubert, Baptist Health Medical Center - Fort Smith online at baptist-health.com.
2021 40 Nurse Leaders Under 40
!snoitalutargnoC
MEET THE SCHOOL & HOSPITAL RECRUITERS
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Brenda Trigg, DNP, GNP, RN, CNE Director of Nursing
OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY keeping with Ouachita’s BrendaInTrigg, DNP, GNP, RN,commitment CNE to answering nationwide calls for innovation in nursDirector of Nursing ing education, the university offers two degree Ouachita tracksBaptist and hasUniversity, received prerequisite approval Arkadelphia from the Arkansas State Board of Nursing to establish a third: 4-year, residential BSN proproOur innovative duala degree RN-to-BSN our distinctive RN-to-BSN dual gram gram. pairs Through the strengths of Ouachita Baptist enrollment completion program in partnership University with the strengths Baptist Health with Baptist Health College of in Little Rock, you College Little Rock. Ouachita is a nationalcan earn two degrees (AAS and BSN) in four yearsliberal with thearts option of adding a BA inininterly-ranked college founded 1886 national missions, Spanish or biology with only with aone mission of fostering a love of God and additional year of study. Our 100% online a lovedegree of learning. And Baptist Health College track offers licensed Registered Nurses with no a program Little Rock is arestrictions recognized leaderforinearning healtha BSN in 9-12since months. Pending approvcare education 1920 and initial an integral from the Arkansas State Board of Nursing, part ofal Baptist Health, the largest health care Ouachita will launch the 4-year residential BSN systemprogram in Arkansas. Learn you and canopen earn in the Fall 2022how semester new state-of-the-art, high-fidelity two degrees (AAS & BSN) in 4 simulation years at and obu. teaching or center. how one of Ouachita’s edu/nursing call Learn (870) 245-5110. nursing degree tracks can meet your educational goals at obu.edu/nursing or by calling (870) 245-5110.
Terri McKown Arkansas Tech University (ATU) Department of Nursing offers many options to acquire nursing licensure. We work with you and for you to achieve the career choice you desire. From Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) or an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) at our sister campus in Ozark, to a pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Registered Nursing (RN) degree in Russellville. Want more? We offer bridge programs for working men and women to achieve a higher level of education: LPN to BSN at our Russellville campus, or our ADN to BSN online. Come tour our Simulation Labs—we have SimMom, SimNewB, SimBaby, SimMan, multiple Nurse Anne’s, and much more! ATU’s nursing faculty are experts in their field adding breadth and depth to both your classroom and clinical education. Come join us at ATU...where “Every Student Counts.”
Peggy Henderson, Director of Nursing
METHODIST FAMILY HEALTH
Methodist Family Health is a statewide continuum of care for Arkansas children and their families who are abandoned, abused, neglected, and struggling with psychiatric, behavioral, emotional, and spiritual issues. We have immediate openings for nurses who love children and want to see them thrive. We offer full-time, part-time, and contract positions; signon, retention, and Christmas bonuses; tuition assistance; public service loan forgiveness; a complete suite of insurance; 401(k) with match; telemedicine for outpatient programs, generous personal time off (PTO); a $300 bonus for proof of COVID-19 vaccination, and much more. Visit MethodistFamily.org and click on Careers for more information and to apply.
WE SEE
Gigi Flory Nursing Recruiter Jefferson Regional Medical Ce Jefferson Regional Medical Ce a 10-county area, so our nurs prepared for a busy and dive base. From neurology to card surgery to orthopaedics, JRMC staff that represents 25 differe so our program offers many d opportunities for our staff to e pride ourselves on patient-cen family atmosphere among our we go the extra mile to help o best they can be. JRMC prov pay and benefits, including ad sation for nurses with advance a six-month nurse residency p just out of school. Your succes and it all benefits our patients reason we are all in the health sion. If you’re interested in a n JRMC, contact me at florygi@
the
Providing advocacy, community, education, and resources to Arkansas's hospitals and health systems for more than 90 years. 501.224.7878 | arkhospitals.org Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
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Alan Bandala, nursing student at UCA, prepares for an exam.
UCA/ SETH FOLEY, UCA PHOTOGRAPHER
THREE REASONS TO BECOME A NURSE
N
ursing is one of the most time-honored and important jobs in American society. In times ordinary and extraordinary, at the point of birth to the moment of death, nurses have without fail answered the call to serve patients. Nursing is also one of the toughest and most demanding profession there is physically, academically, mentally and emotionally. It’s always been that way; nursing takes everything you have to give and demands that you come back the next day for more. There have been few times in American history where the nurse is more important — or more needed — than today. Demand is everywhere and opportunities have never been greater, but then, so have the stakes. Here are three reasons why the world needs nurses — needs YOU — now more than ever: 1. The pandemic. Nurses have been the first line of defense against COVID and continue to stand toe-totoe with the greatest medical foe humanity has seen in generations. But time in the trenches is taking its toll and many nurses are worn down enough to consider leaving the profession, a particularly dire statistic considering how deep the shortage was before the world had even heard of COVID. Yet, above the fatigue and mental duress, nurses’ pride shines through as they fight the greatest battle of their professional lives. “I’ve been so impressed by the way our nursing staff has performed,” said Ron Peterson, CEO of Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home. “It’s been a roller coaster over the past 18 months with ups and downs and so many days we switched directions on a dime. I think of the word ‘resilience’ when I think about our team; at first nobody understood the impact the pandemic would have and it’s amazing to look back and see how we learned to adapt
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and move forward. “I think, and I hope, that this experience will inspire more individuals to get into health care. I go to orientation every other week and I welcome people to our hospital family and hear their stories for going into nursing, and they all come down to helping people. I think the pandemic will continue to bring the cream to the top and get more people interested in health careers.” 2. There’s room for everyone There was a time when nurses looked as identical as the starched uniforms they wore, but that’s no longer the case. Nursing has evolved to welcome everyone to the profession; right here in Arkansas you can find male and female nurses of all ages, backgrounds, national origins, sexual orientations, family backgrounds, religions and native languages. It’s a stunning display of diversity and the profession has been the better for it. “Society itself is diverse,” said Hauwa Anda, a native Nigerian who works on the Stem Cell Transplant Unit at the UAMS Medical Center. “America is a country of immigrants and there are many different people from different backgrounds. That is the beauty of this country. And in health care, when you see that kind of diversity in the workforce, it is good. It helps you identify with the needs of the different populations that we serve.” Anda said diversity not only benefits patients, but the work environment itself as teams learn from many different perspectives at work. “You can’t say that there are no differences, because even in your family, people have different perspectives,” she said. “As a team, we learn from our different backgrounds and we provide better care and are more sensitive about people as a result. We also have a culture of mutual respect and admiration for one another because of the supportive climate that Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
UAMS has provided. I think that’s what makes it really a great career and a really great place to work.” 3. You’re Needed Now, More Than Ever We get it; headlines today are scary. Tales from the hospital ward are enough to make anyone think twice about entering the health care field. There’s no way to sugar-coat the demands of the job, but there’s also no way to overstate the personal and professional satisfaction that being a healer and a comfort to the sick gives you. Nursing will demand your best and pull out of you a courage and heroism that you may not know is there. And that, says Marcie Trice with CHI St. Vincent, is a journey worth taking. “I never thought that I would be able to do something like nursing because growing up, blood grossed me out, needles grossed me out,” she said. “But after taking care of my grandmother, I gave myself a pat on the back and I was like, ‘You know what, Marcie? You can do this.’” Trice’s path was a long one, especially after she failed her first semester of nursing school. The grit that made her try again, this time succeeding, is something she’s drawn on often in her career. “I think of it like ‘Finding Nemo,’” she said. “When I feel myself drowning, and we can drown a lot here at the hospital, I just think about Dory. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. I find myself saying that every week, just keep swimming, because things can get hectic here in the nursing world. “If this is something that you are certain you want to do, if you care about others around you, nursing is for you. Especially right now during the pandemic, you have to be very compassionate, you have to make sure your heart is truly there. And if your heart is truly there, I say go for it.”
HERO SPOTLIGHT
TOSHA APPLEGATE
Nurse Practitioner Baxter Regional Medical Center
The Mountain Home native has become a COVID specialist over the past 18 months. In the early days of the pandemic, she volunteered to assist in New York City, and today she works in the infusion department at BRMC, treating COVID patients with a life-saving procedure. What made you want to go to New York last year? I was feeling a calling and an urge to do something more than what I was doing. One night, I was on Facebook and it was late. I just happened to see a post someone shared in one of the nurse practitioner groups about these opportunities in New York. The next day, I talked to my husband and it all went from there. It all happened really fast. What was the experience like? None of us really knew what to expect. We walked in and the chief nurse came in and said, “OK, we’re going to have a crash-course orientation.” It was quick and dirty and we
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were off. Things were definitely shocking. They had five ICU units opened at that time, where they would normally have just one. People are dying left and right. They had trailer trucks outside that were makeshift morgues. I remember some of the night shifters were getting off and one guy walked by and said, “Good luck. It’s hell in there.” How did it change you as a nurse? When I came back to Arkansas, everybody already knew the treatments in theory. But because I’d seen it first-person how to do this and how not to do that, I could come in and say, “Well here, this is what we were doing there.” I saw every part of what was going on and so I could offer my expertise. As far as personally, I knew I’d lived through a war-zone situation. That definitely made me more confident that I could step out into any situation and I could go do anything that I put my mind to.
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HOW TO BE THE MVP
The Nurse’s Guide to Crushing It at School and Work.
MOVING FROM JOB TO CAREER In an emotionally charged industry such as nursing, it can be hard to keep one’s eye on the big picture. Despite best efforts, outcomes are sometimes not positive ones. Diagnoses are sometimes bad, patients sometimes die, families always grieve. Nurses are often the only health care workers who are in the mid60 OCTOBER 2021
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Collaboration is a big part of UCA nursing students’ education.
UCA/ SETH FOLEY, UCA PHOTOGRAPHER
I
t’s not easy being the best at something, especially something with as many moving parts as nursing. From the classroom to the clinic and the first job through your dream job, nurses have to exercise many muscles to be successful. Arkansas Times Nurses Guide asked nursing professionals for their best advice for nurses at every stage of their education and career, on how to be a Most Valuable Player in the field. Whether you are just starting your journey or have been in the game for some time, this is the information you need to make the most of an exciting and rewarding career. , THE STUDENT Nursing school is one of the most rigorous and challenging academic fields there is, demanding your best in the classroom and other learning environments. Standing out takes dedication, time management and the perseverance to see things through. And nurses can begin to develop these good habits before they ever set foot inside a college classroom. In fact, as Pamela Ashcraft, professor at the University of Central Arkansas notes, high school is the ideal time to lay the groundwork for later success. “Being organized, taking care of yourself and learning how to study are all important to your future success in college and nursing school,” she said. “It is also important to start exploring the requirements for nursing school. Meet with an academic adviser to make sure that you take the right courses. Talk to friends or family members who are health care professionals. Ask them about their experiences and for tips on how to be successful. Hearing from others about their own personal experiences can oftentimes provide immeasurable pearls of wisdom.” Ashcraft said at every level of higher education it’s useful to develop a relationship with a mentor to help head off missteps and keep the process moving in the right direction. “Think about your career goals and seek out a professor who has worked in the same area you are interested in or who has expertise in that area,” she said. “Schedule a meeting and ask if they would be interested in mentoring you. You might be surprised at how many faculty members are actually happy to mentor students. Mentoring is beneficial to both the mentor and the mentee, so go ahead and ask.”
SUCCESS STRATEGY FOR STUDENTS
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Learning is the responsibility of the learner. Faculty can guide learners in the right direction, but they cannot force anyone to put in the work necessary for success. Come to class prepared for the content at hand. MANAGE YOUR TIME. Learn how to manage study time with work, family and other personal agenda items. Allocate daily study time and start studying in advance versus holding cram sessions the night before exams. EVOLVE AS A STUDENT. Forget memorization study habits and embrace learning how to apply content. Get to know your classmates early on as collaboration presents different perspectives and knowledge bases that can facilitate deeper understanding of the subject matter. EYES ON THE PRIZE. Nursing school is challenging, so keep dreams and goals at the forefront of your thoughts. It is easy to lose motivation or make poor decisions in the moment that can permanently alter your life’s path. EMULATE SUCCESS. Having a strong support system will help a student overcome many obstacles. Find a mentor in the health care field — be it family, friends or professors — as this can provide realistic expectations and understanding of the process. —Ashley York, Nursing faculty, National Park College dle of such experiences from beginning to end. As important as it is to focus on what’s in front of you, it is equally important to take opportunities to look to the future. Not having a goal is something like dog paddling: Sure, the water feels nice at first, but eventually you want to move to another shore. Moving forward with new assignments, different skills or advanced schooling is what separates a mere job from a rewarding career. “There are times in nursing where we may have our life goals in mind, but we pursue those goals without careful planning,” said Angela Anderson, clinical instructor with UAMS College of Nursing. “I was this nurse, and I had to learn that while having goals is great, having a plan is what makes those goals a reality.” Anderson suggested a multistep approach for Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
moving from dreaming to doing when it comes to one’s career. “Determine what is required to obtain your goal,” she said. “This is your career and you should do what brings you pleasure versus always thinking about the money. Money is great, but doing a job that you love to do is more rewarding and easier to go to every day.” “Once you’ve identified where you want to go, seek out certification courses, attend continuing education and obtain as much on-thejob training as you can. These things will help you become proficient in your area of interest. Anderson also said nurses should understand that things that look interesting from the outside may not be a good fit in the day-to-day. In a profession as varied as health care, there’s always room and time to change one’s career path.
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THE NURSING FACTS OF LIFE
Nurses have to remember our everyday, routine workday is, for most patients, the worst time of their lives. Learn to give patients grace and understanding even when they are difficult to handle. There will be times the patient is dying and does not have a family support system. In these times, it is so important for the nurse to be with the patient as they pass. Death can be sad, but no one deserves to die alone. Being a nurse does not make you superhuman. Nurses will make mistakes because we are human. Nurses are natural caregivers and we tend to take care of everyone else and forget ourselves. Taking time for self-care, no matter what that looks like, is important to prevent burnout. Invest in caring for yourself so that you can continue to care for others. Nursing is the best and the worst. The hours are long, the work is hard and sometimes it feels like no one appreciates you. But we are also privileged to share in life’s happiest moments with our patients, loving on them, crying with them, fighting with time. That makes being a nurse one of the most rewarding professions. —Britt Beasley, clinical instructor, UAMS College of Nursing
Brandon Haley
“It is all right to change your focus or area of interest once you start practicing,” she said. “This is your career, not just a job; embrace each learning opportunity and try not to get in a rush to complete everything at one time. Plan things out and take new opportunities one day at a time.”
DO’S AND DON’TS FOR JOB INTERVIEWS
DON’T be unprepared. You never want to go on an interview unprepared with no knowledge about the institution or position you are applying for. That energy can be easily spotted out by employers and jeopardize your opportunity to land the job. DO conduct research. Websites are a great means of learning about an institution and its programs. Understand the opportunities that are open to you going in so that you can make the most of them later. DON’T second-guess yourself. Interviewing can be intimidating, but you must show confidence in your abilities and what you bring to the table. Listen to the questions and take a few moments before providing your response. Enter and exit the interview with a positive attitude and your head held high. DO ask questions. Having questions is normal and expected. Potential points to ask hiring committees include new graduate RN training/orientation schedules, job responsibilities and expectations, nurse-patient ratios and day-to-day operations on your unit. DON’T forget to dress for success. With COVID-19, many interviews shifted from in-person to over the phone or on Zoom. Nevertheless, make sure to dress for the part in business-casual attire. Leave the scrubs in your closet. DO follow up after the interview. Thank the nurse manager or hiring committee for taking the time to interview you. This shows gratitude for the interview and also maintains an open line of communication between you and the employer for the future. —Brandon Haley, RN Hospital Medicine, UAMS Medical Center
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THE NEW NURSE Once you’ve cleared the baseline formal education, the next hurdle is landing and excelling at your first job. Given the demand for nurses, this isn’t as daunting a task as in previous eras, because everyone is hiring! However, like any job, it is important to make the right first impression and get off to a solid start. Success in your first job, as with most things in nursing, turns on your ability to work as part of a team. It is natural to feel some intimidation and even some hesitancy when you are new on the ward, and no one expects you to be perfect. But what will be expected by your supervisors and your teammates alike is that you show a willingness to learn and pull your weight, treating others with respect and always upholding the dignity and reputation of the nursing profession. “Any new graduate should go into their new role with confidence and an attitude to soak up as much information as possible,” said Brandon Haley, a nurse with UAMS Medical Center. “Your co-workers can be a wonderful resource of knowledge as you establish your independent nursing practice. As a new graduate you should focus on creating a healthy environment for teamwork and collaboration. “Events can take place fast in nursing and no one person can do it all by themselves, which makes it even more vital to have a strong team behind you and also to be able to function as a strong team member when you are needed.” One of the worst things a new graduate nurse can do is enter the profession or a new work space thinking they know it all.” Shannon Nachtigal, vice president and chief nursing officer of Baxter Regional Medical Center, said soft skills have increased in importance over the years. “The attitude used to be — and this was across the nation — if you were highly skilled, that equated to being a good nurse,” she said. “As time has transitioned over the last 25 years, Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
that alone is not the definition of a good nurse. A good nurse is someone who is highly skilled, but is more than that, to me. “A good nurse also has empathy and compassion and makes you feel like you have been taken care of by an angel, really.” Nachtigal said the hospital reinforces this belief by its internal culture that stresses compassion and servant leadership in all things. “The fact is, if you’re not nice, then you’re not meeting the definition of a good nurse,” she said. “Being caring, empathetic and helpful, not just to your patients but to your nursing assistants, physicians, the lab tech or the food service person bringing the tray, that’s what sets someone apart. Good nurses are no longer defined by medical skills alone.”
FIVE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD TEAMMATE
COMMUNICATION. The saying “silence is golden” doesn’t apply when something is wrong or a patient’s life or health is being compromised. If there is a strong urge to speak up because something seems wrong, speak up. FLEXIBILITY. An attribute that is beyond price. Don’t be so set in your own ideas you don’t allow others to pour into you and your nursing career. Each nurse has a positive attribute to be learned, so take advantage of the opportunity to draw from them. POSITIVITY. Avoid getting on the negativity wagon; all jobs come with negative aspects, but remain positive, see the glass half full and make the best out of difficult situations. Understanding there are going to be stressful times, it helps to practice stress-reducing activities daily. LIFELONG LEARNER. Never be afraid of asking questions, never be afraid to demonstrate a willingness to learn, never fail to admit you are not perfect and mistakes will happen. Own them, learn from them and move on to provide better care. EMPATHIC. Being able to understand and share the feelings of another, particularly when the person is having a difficult time, is a vital skill for any nurse. Rather than judge, be empathic; it will help you see the person and not necessarily the situation they’ve created, leading to better patient outcomes. —Veneine Cuningkin, clinical assistant professor, UAMS College of Nursing
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NURSING NEWS
What’s Happening in Arkansas Nursing. UA Little Rock students train on the most advanced medical manikins available.
Baxter Regional Medical Center was also selected by Modern Healthcare magazine as a 2021 Best Place to Work in Healthcare.
Baptist Health College Baptist Health College Little Rock has three program options for individuals wishing to pursue a career in nursing. Our Practical Nursing program is a two-semester program with prerequisites. Upon success of the program, students will graduate with a diploma and be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN. Our Traditional Nursing program is a three-semester associates degree program that requires nine prerequisite courses. Upon successful completion of this program, students will graduate with an associate of applied science in nursing and be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN. Our accelerated program is a two-semester program with nine prerequisites for current LPNs and certified paramedics with an unencumbered license wishing to transition into a career as a registered nurse. Upon successful completion of this program, students graduate with an associate of applied science in nursing and are eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN. For more information on the nursing and allied health programs that BHCLR offers, please visit our website at www.bhclr.edu. etitive pay as the basis for the 4.2-star rating from 92 percent of more than 700 nurses surveyed. Baxter Regional Medical Center Baxter Regional Behavioral Health is a proud sponsor of the annual Project Semicolon Suicide Prevention and Awareness Art Contest in partnership with the Viola High School Art Department. Students compete for prizes via their artistic creations around the theme of suicide awareness. Nurse.org, the web’s leading career site for nurses, has recognized Baxter Regional Medical Center as one of the top hospital workplaces for nurses in Arkansas. Reviewers cited supportive co-workers, flexible scheduling and competitive pay as the basis for the 4.2-star rating from 92 percent of more than 700 nurses surveyed. 64 OCTOBER 2021
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CHI St. Vincent CHI St. Vincent Infirmary ranks first in cardiology, heart surgery and orthopedics among Arkansas hospitals according to the latest Best Regional Hospital rankings released by U.S. News & World Report. The 2020–2021 Best Hospitals rankings were based on independent analysis of multiple data categories, including patient outcomes, volume of high-risk patients, patient experience, nurse staffing and advanced clinical technologies. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs has received national Magnet designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for its continued commitment to nursing excellence and compassionate patient care. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs becomes the fourth hospital in Arkansas to receive Magnet designation and one of only 530 hospitals nationwide to receive that recognition. Methodist Family Health Methodist Behavioral Hospital in Maumelle, the only nonprofit behavioral hospital for children in Arkansas, is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the hospital. The Methodist Family Health Foundation Scholarship Fund provides a scholarship for anyone who has spent at least one night in its residential treatment facilities, including psychiatric residential treatment centers, qualified residential treatment programs or Arkansas Centers for Addictions Research, Education and Services. Eligible individuals pursuing a nursing degree may apply at methodistfamily. org/docs/ScholarshipApplication.pdf. Ouachita Baptist University The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) recently affirmed accreditation for Ouachita Baptist University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program. The peer-review process involves program assessment planning and evaluation by the Department of Nursing and staff team with oversight by ACEN peer experts to assess mastery of six ACEN accreditation categories: administration, student resources, nursing faculty excellence, curriculum, program resources and program outcomes. The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program (BSN), introduced in Fall 2019, is an innovative, RN-to-BSN dual enrollment completion Special Advertising the Arkansas Times SpecialSupplement AdvertisingofSection
program in partnership with Baptist Health College Little Rock. The Department of Nursing has since added a fully online RN-to-BSN degree program option for students who already have a valid registered nurse license, and who seek to earn a BSN degree. Ouachita Baptist University nursing students Cassie Lackey and Jacob Moreno were awarded scholarships by the Foundation of the National Student Nurses’ Association (FNSNA) for their involvement in Ouachita’s NSNA student chapter and upon recommendation from their professors in the Department of Nursing. Lackey is a junior nursing major from Wylie, Texas, while Moreno is a junior nursing major from Little Rock. University of Arkansas Little Rock The UA Little Rock School of Nursing is now home to a state-of-the-art augmented reality simulation training experience. The school procured CAE LucinaAR with Microsoft HoloLens 2, the world’s first augmented reality childbirth simulator. A breakthrough in health care simulation, LucinaAR offers an unprecedented shared training experience for nursing students in which they can see the anatomy inside the physical LucinaAR manikin or a completely stand-alone holographic manikin. The school’s new technology was made possible in part by the support of the Walker Foundation. UA Little Rock Nursing also recently added “Todd” to its simulation inventory, purchasing the latest Laerdal SimBaby manikin. The purchase was made possible thanks to $70,000 in CARES funding. UAMS Medical Center Nurses in the COVID-19 Triage Team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences were honored by the national DAISY Foundation and the California-based HealthImpact nonprofit organization for devising a screening process for patients who are homeless or rely on public transportation. The UAMS team, along with five individual nurses from across the country, were chosen as the inaugural recipients of the HealthImpact DAISY Nurse Leader Award in Policy. The American Nurses Association extended the 2020 Year of the Nurse and Nurse Midwife into 2021 to build upon the increased visibility of nurses’ contributions affecting the health and well-being of our communities during the pandemic. UAMS dedicated an entire month to
honor its nurses and staff Lance Lindow, registered nurse in the UAMS Medical Center emergency department is the current president of the Arkansas State Board of Nursing’s Board of Directors. Lindow joined the ASBN Board in 2019 as vice president and took over the president’s duties in 2020. His focus in this role is on educating and combating violence again nurses and health care workers, incidents of which have increased during the pandemic, in addition to mentoring and inspiring future nurses. UAMS College of Nursing The UAMS College of Nursing is starting a new accelerated, bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program at the UAMS Northwest Campus in Fayetteville. This program, which will admit 24 students annually, enables students who already hold a bachelors degree in another subject to secure a nursing degree with eligibility for licensure as a registered nurse in just 15 months. The College of Nursing awards over $300,000 in scholarships annually, predominantly through endowments. Other sources of funding include the Hearst Foundation for Ph.D. and doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students and the Jonas Foundation to help support doctoral students who are addressing some of the nation’s most pressing health care needs in underrepresented and underserved populations. UAMS, with its five colleges (Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, Health Professions and Pharmacy) and Graduate School, have been named by Forbes Magazine one of the 10 best workplaces in the United States in terms of diversity.
BAPTIST HEALTH COLLEGE ROLLS OUT NEW PROGRAM
Baptist Health College Little Rock’s new PCT program will have its first class in January 2022 upon Accrediting Bureau of Heath Education Schools and Arkansas Department of Higher Education approval. Upon completion, the program will offer graduates the opportunity to sit for testing in national certificates for patient care technician, electrocardiogram technician and phlebotomy technician. The need in this field is great. As of July 2021, within the five major hospitals in the Little Rock area alone there were 93 PCT job listings. In a recent survey conducted by BHCLR, 87.5 percent of the responses said they would like to see this program come to the area and a like number stated the triple certificate would strongly benefit the health care team. Having a self-motivated, well-trained PCT on your unit is absolutely priceless. PCTs lift a lot of burden off of nursing staff and are often the first person to catch a change in patient status due to the ability to spend more face-to-face time with the patients. Having a more strenuous training program will mold a more confident PCT. This confidence will help in job satisfaction and should increase their time in the field.
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SPECIALTIES IN DEMAND Oh, the Places You’ll Go.
I
f your only image of a nurse is someone at the bedside, listen up: The nursing profession is one of the most diverse and multifaceted careers you can have. In addition to patient-facing positions in hospitals and clinics, nurses can be found in the research lab, in corporate America, in the classroom. They report for duty in schools, retirement homes, prisons and military bases. They serve police investigators and testify in court; they keep job sites safe and workers healthy. Nurses specialize in a wide range of physical medicine as well as behavioral and psych roles. Nurses have the opportunity to continue their education through the highest levels of academia, where some become entrepreneurs, building a solid and profitable business on their base of knowledge. The sky’s the limit for the ambitious and motivated. Read on for just a few of the areas that highlight this ever-changing and dynamic profession. Note: Salary figures are representative of the specialty nationwide; your actual pay scale will vary depending on job experience, education and region of the country.
National Park College students enjoy state-ofthe-art lab facilities.
NURSING INFORMATICS Meljoelyn Gardner began her journey to nursing informatics by joining the U.S. Air Force at age 17. After six years of military training and service, Gardner enrolled in Cebu Doctors’ University, Cebu City, Philippines, earning a bachelors degree in 2012. Gardner began her career at UAMS Medical Center with six years as an operating room nurse before changing to nurse informatics in 2019. What experience was most impactful for you as a nurse? I studied nursing in the Philippines, which is a developing country with a high level of poverty. Health care, education and other basic services are grossly insufficient. The humbling education and experience I gained by providing care to the poorest of the poor helped me harness the skills to be able to adapt and improvise care depending on the available facilities and environment. What made you choose nursing informatics? Nursing informatics professionals are unique and are hybrid heroes of health care. We improve workflows for health care staff and are guided by best practices to effectively manage information structures, processes and technology. I enjoy being an advocate for impactful innovation and my work keeps patients safe and at the center. Summary of Duties: Nursing informatics leverage information technology and nursing education to optimize various computer systems, back-office and patient-facing processes, such as improved management of health records, streamlined workflow and improved patient care. Average Salary or Salary Range: $70,000$117,120 Job Outlook: 9 percent growth through 2028 Source: waldenu.edu
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NURSING ADMINISTRATION As an instructor and nursing administration specialty coordinator at UAMS College of Nursing in Little Rock, Neal Reeves prepares the next generation of nursing administrators for the challenges of a dynamic workplace. It’s a role he takes seriously and one that has come into sharper focus during the COVID pandemic. How do your graduates fit into the health care ecosystem? The Nursing Administration program in the College of Nursing at UAMS prepares future nursing executives, administrators and leaders to fill middle- to top-level leadership roles in their health care systems. Our graduates are trained with the skills to be effective in communication, conflict management, personnel development, team building, systems thinking and other specialties to meet the challenges faced by these organizations. How has this role changed over time? Our health care system is often seen as a complex social system. This leads many to think that it is chaotic and unpredictable. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us many areas where we may not have been as prepared as we thought we were and, in many cases, added more complexity to how we conduct and manage our health care, outreach and supply chains. As nursing leaders, we must develop a complexity leadership approach, which is a continual process routed in collaboration, systems thinking and innovation. Summary of Duties: Tasks vary by specialty; may include overseeing nursing staff, managing finances, creating budgets, ensuring workplace meets regulatory requirements and/or implementing necessary nursing procedures in a health care facility. Average Salary or Salary Range: $58,500$122,000 Job Outlook: 20 percent growth through 2026 Source: nursepractitionerschools.com
Ranked #1
2nd year in a row!
Now accepting applications.
SCHOOL OF NURSING
The Arkansas Center for Nursing is excited to
CONGRATULATE
these six UA Little Rock 40 Nurse Leaders Under 40
Anna Williams Crystal Rose Fairah Solomon
Farren Moore Joanna Rostad-Hall Lakeisha Falls
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE, SERVICE AND OUTREACH. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 67
Nurses work as a life-saving team at Baxter Regional in Mountain Home.
NURSE ANESTHETIST Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) are key members of the medical team in some of the most critical medical situations in health care. Chase Watson is a second-year student at UAMS College of Nursing, studying to take his place in this most vital role. What does the education process include in this medical specialty? There is a plethora of information that we are expected to learn and understand, in such a short time span. My day-to-day is at least 3.5 hours of independent studying when attending lectures/lab full time or more if attending online. My independent study involves creating and memorizing flashcards, reading textbooks and PowerPoint presentations. On top of that, I have life to juggle to ensure my family does not feel neglected. What advice do you have for someone entering this field? From a student’s perspective, time management is the heaviest burden. Going back to school can feel overwhelming in the beginning, but once you start to understand and apply the new information you are learning, studying no longer becomes a dreaded task, but an enjoyable exercise. I often start on a simple topic, then I start to read or listen to lectures and a whole new perspective is opened up to me. I have learned so much about what it means to practice anesthesia and how the operating room functions. Summary of Duties: CRNAs usually work in hospital operating rooms, emergency rooms, intensive care units, cardiac care units or outpatient surgical clinics. They work with surgical teams to assess patient response to anesthesia, identify possible risks, including allergies, and administering precise dosages. Average Salary or Salary Range: $167,000 (Arkansas average) Job Outlook: 26 percent growth through 2028 Source: nursepractitionerschools.com, nurse.org 68 OCTOBER 2021
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NURSE EDUCATOR One area that has been in particularly short supply of employees in recent years are nurse educators. These individuals are indispensable in the creation of new nurses at colleges, universities and nursing schools and the shortage of educators limits the number of new nurses these institutions can serve at one time. Therefore, growing this field of teaching professionals, such as Colton McCance, clinical instructor at UAMS College of Nursing, is critical to meeting demand in the future. Why did you choose to go into nursing education? I chose nursing education because I remember how challenging and rewarding nursing school can be. The support I received, the knowledge of the faculty and, most of all, how they all had a passion for nursing made me want to help others discover the vast opportunities that nursing offers. In addition to subject matter, what do you communicate to your students? Just that the opportunities in nursing are endless. That is one of the greatest parts of being a nurse. You can be an integral part of bringing life into this world or holding someone’s hand as they take their last breath. You can improve the health of the patients you are assigned that day or address the needs of an entire population. As an educator, you get to lead others to experience that. Summary of Duties: Nurse educators provide education and training for nurses at all levels, from students in their first year of nursing school to experienced nurses seeking professional development. Educators combine clinical expertise and experience to serve as guides and mentors to aspiring nurses. In addition to traditional classrooms, educators also work in health care settings from hospitals to public health centers. Average Salary or Salary Range: $41,130$133,460 Job Outlook: 9 percent growth through 2029 Source: nursejournal.org, allnursingschools.com Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
BEST OF THE REST Registered Nurses — Bedrock of the profession in the acute care setting. RNs provide care to patients in hospitals, outpatient settings, home care, schools and industry with the biggest need right now in acute care hospitals. Salary range: $60,000-$65,000 Registered Respiratory Therapists — Assist in the diagnosis, treatment and management of patients with pulmonary disorders. The vital role of these medical professionals has become much more visible in the era of COVID-19. Salary range: $58,000-$65,000 Radiologic Technologists — Perform medical exams using X-rays to create images of specific parts of the body, images that are interpreted by a doctor for diagnosis and monitoring of disease. RT’s typically work in hospitals and outpatient clinics. Salary range: $45,000$50,000 EMS workers — Emergency medical personnel consisting of two job titles. EMTs ($26,000$30,000) care for patients at the scene of an incident and while taking patients by ambulance to a hospital. Paramedics ($33,000$39,000) respond to 911 calls for emergency medical assistance, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or bandaging a wound, then assess a patient’s condition and determine a course of treatment or life support, including during transport. Medical Laboratory Technicians — Assist physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases by performing tests on tissue, blood, and other body fluids in a laboratory setting. Salary range: $21,000-$34,000. —Janice Ivers, dean of nursing and health science, National Park College
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OCTOBER 2021 69
HIGH TOUCH MEETS HIGH TECH Nursing Field Demands Technology Skills.
EVAN LEWIS/ UAMS
Medical tech is front and center at UAMS College of Nursing.
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ursing is one of the most demanding and rewarding professions there is. To be the best at it, nurses have to demonstrate a number of attributes, from excellence in the classroom, to communication and empathy skills, to physical strength and endurance. And to that list of talents, you can also add technical aptitude, as technology is everywhere in today’s health care environment. “Technology is ever-evolving and expanding,” said Pamela de Gravelles, clinical assistant professor and IPC/simulation coordinator for UAMS College of Nursing. “All nurses must be well-versed with certain equipment, such as Vital Sign machines, heart monitors and IV machines, and from there, the more advanced the unit, the more advanced the equipment. “For example, ICU nurses need to be familiar with more complex patient monitors and IV pumps running a variety of medications simultaneously. Operating room nurses may need to know everything from cautery machines to the robotics equipment being used. eICU nurses must direct patient care remotely from eICU computer stations.” As a result of all this, nurses have to be able to grasp tech tools, and quickly, in order to do their jobs in a safer and more efficient way. This even applies to the humble patient chart. “The biggest change I have seen in the last 15-plus years at the bedside is the fact that 95 percent of the patient’s record is now electronic,” said Jacob Baker, instructor and simulation center manager for the University of Central Arkansas. “The nurse must be able to navigate the electronic health record to find labs, progress
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reports, interdisciplinary reports, demographic information, etc. “When nurses pass the NCLEX, they understand and know how to perform the skills to take care of a patient, and that is the same skill set in Searcy, Arkansas, or Chicago, Illinois. The electronic health record, however, can be extremely different and specific to an area of nursing. The new nurse must be comfortable and adaptive to new software programs.” Stacy Petty, APRN coordinator and director of HealthNow for UAMS Medical Center, said technology is rapidly expanding across every department of a typical hospital. “While nurses still have to have the same strong core knowledge base, I have seen rapid expansion and technology expertise since I started my career,” she said. “That may look like more advanced ventilators, specialty beds to prevent skin breakdown, cooling helmets for neonatal patients, or very specialized post-operative equipment which allow nurses to monitor tissue that has just been reimplanted to a new area of the body. “There has also been a whole new field of nursing related to telemedicine and remote patient monitoring devices that requires you to interact with patients in a slightly different way than when you are face-to-face. These technologies sometimes challenge you to think with a different perspective than what many people think of as ‘nursing.’ “Today’s nurse must be quick on their feet, competent at troubleshooting and assessing, and the calm in a storm when things are not going as expected, all the while utilizing technolSpecial Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
ogy to connect warmly and compassionately.” The COVID pandemic has introduced its own new categories of technology, from PPE to clinical tools and testing to new ways to communicate with patients. “In the wake of the COVID pandemic, an important feature of the nursing landscape is telehealth, also known as remote care,” said Dr. Patricia Cowan, dean and professor at the UAMS College of Nursing. “Students in the College of Nursing are now routinely trained on the use of telehealth devices and the associated care protocols, which will enable health care professionals to connect with rural and underserved communities in a faster, more efficient way than ever before. “This new technology, combined with our commitment to rural clinics and preventative care, will give UAMS a greater capacity to serve the state of Arkansas.” Technology has also taken a quantum leap forward in the classroom, Cowan said. “Simulation has become integral to nursing education and practice, supplementing learning outside of the classroom and clinical settings,” she said. “UAMS is building a new 5,100-square-foot simulation center for the Northwest campus. Students will begin simulation experiences in their first semester and actively participate in simulation throughout their nursing education. “Use of standardized patients, patient simulator manikins and other high-fidelity simulation offers interactive, challenging experiences in a safe, nonthreatening environment that support development of teamwork and decision-making skills.”
RISE OF THE MACHINES
Technology hasn’t replaced human nurses, but the technologically savvy nurse will find himself or herself in high demand across a number of rewarding careers, according to Stacy Petty of UAMS Medical Center. These include: Nursing Informatics and Education: These professionals design, maintain and train others on hospital IT systems specific to patient information and integrated data that keeps all departments connected to a patient’s medical history at a glance. Nursing Forensics: Forensics RN’s or APRN’s deal with the aftermath of violence, be it mass disasters, domestic abuse, sexual assault or death investigations. These nurses determine if someone has been victimized or how they died and may assist outside agencies in gathering evidence. Flight Nurse: Highly skilled nurses who accompany critically ill patients, from preemies to elders, being transported on med flights. These nurses must be extremely well-versed in technology, as well as work in environments with limited resources. They are true jack-of-all-trades professionals. Nursing Researcher: A clinical research nurse helps develop and implement scientific studies to investigate and provide new-evidence-based information for medications, process improvement, medical procedures and safe/quality nursing care. They may also oversee a research staff and run clinical trials, the results of which may be published in medical journals and other periodicals.
I am a St. Vincent Nurse. Alexa provides care for orthopedic and spine surgery patients. “Nursing is the most rewarding profession. We have the privilege of stepping into the lives of strangers to make a difference. I love getting to know my patients, forming a relationship to gain their trust. Nurses share victories big and small with patients, and that is the best feeling!”
Join Alexa and become part of our work family. Sign-on bonuses and NEW higher pay for all RNs + increased pay for clinical ladder! chistvincent.com/nurses
UCA UNVEILS INTEGRATED HEALTH SCIENCES BUILDING
The University of Central Arkansas’s new Integrated Health Sciences Building was completed in May 2021. The 80,000-squarefoot facility is home to the School of Nursing, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the Nabholz Center for Healthcare Simulation and an Interprofessional Teaching Center. The building provides space for cutting edge instruction, producing health professionals well-equipped to meet the challenges of the future. Among the four-story building’s features are one entire floor designated for health care simulation; flexible classroom space; faculty offices and multiple flex spaces for group study. The first floor is home to an Interprofessional Teaching Center which features multiple clinics, an audiology lab, therapy gym, a kitchen for cooking classes and spaces for counseling and psychology students to meet with clients. In addition to serving the needs of the university today, the new center also provides additional capacity for the future. UCA currently has 150 nursing students, and the Health Sciences Building provides the space to expand that number significantly, preparing new generations of students to take their place providing quality health care throughout Arkansas.
Alexa, BSN, RN Orthopedics and Spine Surgery
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A PLACE FOR ALL
Diversity Growing, Needed in Nursing Profession. Dr. Josuanne Nduku oversees nursing students at UA Little Rock.
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f you haven’t noticed, the face of nursing is changing. For generations, the profession has been dominated by women, but no more. The number of men in the profession is growing, as is diversity of race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, religious backgrounds, languages and just about any other category you can think of, which puts nursing at the forefront of growing opportunity and equality in the workplace. “Our human nature gravitates us toward others like us,” said Janice Ivers, dean of Nursing and Health Sciences at National Park College in Hot Springs. “Since we live in a melting pot of cultures, we need nurses to come from that same melting pot of people. We promote diversity and encourage exploration and collaboration in the classroom, highlighting the importance of awareness of this diversity, in order to break down stereotypes and barriers.” Part of the reason why the nursing profession has worked so hard to diversify is pure market demand. Nursing has been a short-handed profession for years as many have stepped into retirement without enough students coming up to take their place. As health care has grown as an industry, this has made the situation even worse. As if that weren’t challenging enough, COVID is squeezing existing nurses even tighter, and the stress and fatigue of the pandemic is causing many to drop out of the profession altogether. An August 2021 survey by Vivian, a health care worker marketplace, reported what hospitals and chief nursing officers across the nation already knew: 43 percent of nurse respondents (and nearly half of ICU nurses) were considering quitting. This shows a growing problem, as surveys earlier in the pandemic placed the num72 OCTOBER 2021
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ber at around 20-30 percent. But beyond the sheer need for numbers, Ivers said diversity in the workforce is equally important, as it directly affects the quality of care being delivered. “Having a diverse population of nurses improves the possibility of reaching and teaching a patient more easily,” she said. “In the profession, diversity includes gender, veteran status, race, disability, age, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, education, nationality and physical characteristics. Every day, nurses everywhere encounter people from every race, religion, ethnicity, cultural background, gender and sexual orientation to care for, so it is important that as we teach the next generation of nurses, we help them understand these differences and embrace them. “If the nurse looks and speaks the same language as a patient does, for example, this helps to reduce fear, increase trust and hopefully improve the performance and compliance of that patient and ultimately the outcome. Having diversity within the nursing workforce generates a variety of perspectives from all different people, which facilitates improvement. It truly takes all shapes, sizes and colors to care for the sick and infirm.” Yolanda Shaw, second-year student in the registered nurse anesthetist program at UAMS College of Nursing, sees the positive impact her school has had on the diversity of the student body. “UAMS promotes diversity in every way,” she said. “I am currently in graduate school for nurse anesthesia. We are the inaugural cohort, and it is comprised of 18 students. Of those 18 Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
students, seven students are minorities, seven students are women and our program director is a Hispanic woman. As far as the workplace, UAMS is very diverse, employing people from all cultures and abilities.” That said, Shaw notes the industry still has a ways to go before it fully realizes acceptance of diversity in all areas of nursing. “Males are still under-represented due to the stigma of nursing being a female profession,” she said. “Allowing the community to see more males in nursing practice, especially pediatric nursing and intensive care units, has aided in bringing more men into the profession. “That’s important because having diverse perspectives in the health care industry leads to better outcomes for patients. It also fosters understanding and effective communication, which improves the patient-provider relationship.” Dr. Josuanne Nduku, assistant professor with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Nursing and a native of Camaroon, said diversity also comes into play in the classroom. “I am reminded of a melting pot and shared experiences when I think about diversity,” she said. “I am fortunate to work at the University of Arkansas School of Nursing with a diverse group of faculty and staff with different cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, nationality, gender, race, age, nursing specialty, clinical background, educational background and interests. “We also serve a diverse student population between all programs. Our differences are what make us unique because we can learn from each other, and students can relate to us and see different facets of our profession.”
HERO SPOTLIGHT
ANSWER YOUR CALLING. Learn how to meet the needs in your community from nurse educators who are not only committed to academic excellence but also to your spiritual growth. T H R E E T R AC K S :
TABITHA KAMAU
Emergency Department, CHI St. Vincent Infirmary How did you get interested in nursing? After completing high school, I wanted to study medicine but didn’t know what I wanted to do. My aunt was a nurse educator and she wanted me to go into nursing. She told me positive things about nursing, and I have never regretted following her advice. Why the emergency room? I worked the emergency department at a hospital in Kenya and I liked the challenge and using my critical thinking. We never know what will come into the ER; in Kenya, I saw a lot of trauma cases. I learned how to treat patients not only physically, but also emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Having come from another country, what do you bring to your team? We work in a world that is comprised of different cultures, races, ethnicities, religions/beliefs and genders. Patients express their health needs better when their cultures and beliefs are observed. Observing these cultural differences, the health care team can provide patient-centered care where patients have trust in the care that is delivered. This improves patient outcomes and satisfaction. How does maintaining diversity benefit the organization? A diverse workforce has better work relations, effective communication and good interprofessional collaboration. An organization that embraces diversity has a conducive working environment and high retention rate. My facility is an equal opportunity employer and diversity is on the forefront. As patients and co-workers walk through the door, they feel valued and welcomed, regardless of background.
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CARING FOR THE CAREGIVER Survival Skills 101: Mind Your Own Health
A Baxter Regional nurse provides the caring touch.
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ursing is one of the few jobs where you can say you were the difference between life or death. Ask any longtime nurse and he or she will tell you, that’s one of the most intense and awe-inspiring parts of the career. But at the same time, it’s an enormous responsibility that carries with it stress and anxiety that can lead to burnout over time. Throw in the unrelenting pressure of COVID surges and the occasional natural disaster that overwhelms short-staffed emergency rooms and bursting-atthe-seams hospitals, and you have one of the toughest jobs on the planet. New nurses should know exactly what they are getting into and not kid themselves about the need for self-preservation and care, say nursing experts. “There are normal daily stressors associated with being a health care worker providing care to patients of all ages,” said Barbara McDonald, lead ARPN, COVID Triage and Immunization with UAMS Medical Center. “These stressors can include monitoring changes in health care status, observing patients who have suffered trauma, dealing with patients who are combative or verbally abusive, and having to tell patients and their family members that they have a terminal illness. “These stressors are usually transient with periods of respite in between. When the pandemic occurred, however, the stress increased tremendously for various reasons. We were not 100 percent sure how the disease was transmitted or exactly how it could affect those who acquired it. There was the fear of taking this new disease home to loved ones. There were facilities and locations that did not have the recommended PPE for health care workers providing care for the patients with COVID.” As exhausted as today’s nurses are, the problem of burnout was a major issue in the industry before anyone had ever heard of COVID. Emory School of Medicine found one-third of the nurses who left their job in 2017 cited burnout
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as the reason, pointing to understaffed working conditions and long hours as contributing factors. But the situation was also made worse by nurses’ tendency to put off their own health in service to others. An American Nurses Association survey found in December 2020 that 75 percent of nurses reported feeling exhausted in the past two weeks, yet almost 70 percent in another ANA survey simultaneously said they regularly put their patients’ health and safety ahead of their own. “Nurses are always the caregiver!” said Janice Ivers, dean of Nursing and Health Sciences for National Park College. “Nurses really feel that level of responsibility of being a nurse 24/7, of accepting the fact that you live in a fish bowl. That what you do as a nurse, on- and off-duty, matters as someone is watching you. What you post on social media matters, what you do when driving matters, what you do at a party matters. And that definitely take a toll over time.” For many nurses, the unrelenting pressure and self-sacrifice of the past 18 months is finally catching up with them. Depending on which recent study you consult, between 20-40 percent of front-line U.S. health care workers (and half of ICU workers) say they are considering leaving the profession. Ivers said in Arkansas, even nursing students are not immune to this, which prompted the nursing school to take action. “Some nursing students decided to postpone their education, verbalizing the inability to learn in a virtual environment. Others postponed as they had to go find a job to support their families,” she said. “The college continued to offer a drive-by food pantry and awarded federal CARES funds to help with the struggling financial situations of many of our students. “For those students affected by COVID-19, we offered an opportunity to take a COVID-WITHDRAWAL and return to the withdrawn class the next time it was offered, at no charge. That Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
demonstrated a lot of compassion by the college administration.” Such gestures by hospitals and colleges have not gone unnoticed by nurses and nursing students. “I am grateful UAMS appreciates the work of our nurses and the challenges they face,” said Trenda Ray, chief nursing officer for UAMS Medical Center. “Our leadership team recognizes and appreciates the hardships and challenges nurses face and is working to provide, resources to help our team cope and manage. “We received a UAMS wellness grant for nursing mini-retreats, and the first of the monthly retreats was held in October 2020. Feedback has been very positive. The retreat starts with stretching and simple yoga moves, and even the most cynical participant reluctantly admitted afterwards that she actually enjoyed it. UAMS Wellness Director Natalie Cannady has also created a wide variety of wellness resources available for our nurses to use.” Experts admit the problem of nurse burnout will not go away overnight. However, because of the events of the past 18 months, health care organizations are much more sensitive to the issue of nurse burnout at the physical and mental level. “COVID-19 challenged us to provide patient-centered care in extreme situations, such as when dying patients were not allowed to see loved ones due to social distancing restrictions,” said Elizabeth Riley, clinical assistant professor with UAMS College of Nursing. “Nurses were on these front lines and faced extreme situations. This experience has taught us that mentorship of new nurses and nursing students is vital. Collaboration has always been important, but we must continue to do more mentorship and maintain self-care programs for all nurses. “It was certainly not the Year of the Nurse that we ever expected, but health care organizations are now seeing the value of recruitment strategies that place a value on nurse retention as well as bringing in new graduates.”
HERO SPOTLIGHT
ALEXA CASH
Every day, Alexa Cash delivers the most informed, cutting-edge care to her patients. But, she says, the secret to this work is having the heart to care for others. What are some of the day-to-day things you do in your work? Working on an orthopedic surgical floor we do a lot of post-op admissions and discharges. Post-op care consists of continuous patient assessment, treatment and education for things like dressing changes and pain management. Our team works closely with physical therapy, teaching the patients proper precautions for getting out of bed and walking. Another huge part of this job is to motivate the patient and family to follow discharge instructions to help optimize the recovery. What’s it like to work in your department? We work like a machine. We’re very team-based, very fast-paced. You’ve got to be efficient, practice really good
time-management skills and be ready to roll with the punches. Most of these patients are coming in for scheduled elective surgery to fix something they’ve been dealing with for a long time. These difficulties have limited daily activities for the patient and can be very hard on families. So, when they get this surgery it’s an exciting time to know that they’re going to have a better future. What’s the key to succeeding in nursing? You absolutely have to have the heart for it. If you are not a people person or lack compassion to help somebody every day, this is not the job for you. Going through any surgery is painful and challenging. People can be difficult and easily upset when they don’t feel well. As a nurse you have to be understanding to what they’re going through and provide the best care possible. It is extremely rewarding to see the smiles and hear thank you as they leave our unit to return home.
Orthopedics and Spine Surgery CHI St. Vincent
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Potential bonuses of $4k-$8k. Contact Nursing Recruiter Gigi Flory at 870-541-7774 or florygi@jrmc.org. Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
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TWO ARKANSAS HOSPITALS RECEIVE GLOBAL NURSING DISTINCTION
BAPTIST HEALTH CELEBRATES CENTENNIAL
Baxter Regional Medical Center, an ANCC Magnet hospital.
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wo Arkansas hospitals have attained ANCC Magnet Recognition®, one of the highest distinctions on the planet for nursing. Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home and CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs joined the exclusive roster of hospitals, numbering only about 500 worldwide. “As our healing ministry works to build healthier communities here in Arkansas, we have long realized that our nurses are the key to that ongoing success and consistent improvement in patient outcomes,” said CHI St. Vincent Market CEO Chad Aduddell in a press release. “This recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center provides independent verification of the inspirational work taking place at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and the ongoing dedication to its nurses and to the patients and families they serve.” “I’m so proud of the nurses, nursing leaders and all involved in making this journey to Magnet excellence possible,” said Shannon Nachtigal, vice president and chief nursing officer of Baxter Regional in a statement. “Although Magnet status is a nursing designation, it’s also recognition of the outstanding efforts of our entire health system.” Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and is a factor when the public judges health care organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “America’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient 76 OCTOBER 2021
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care. The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, ANCC evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence. “The nurses at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs are some of the most committed and professional health care professionals in our state,” said Bryan Williams, chief nursing executive at CHI St. Vincent via a statement. “As we move forward, we remain committed to supporting our nurses through education, development and collaborative practice as we work to continually attract the very best nurses to CHI St. Vincent hospitals so they can deliver the highest quality care to our patients.” Less than 9 percent of all U.S. hospitals have received this designation. Baxter Regional, which was recognized in June and CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, which was awarded in October 2020, are two of only five hospitals in Arkansas to achieve the status. “Magnet recognition provides our community with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of patient care,” said Ron Peterson, president and CEO of Baxter Regional in a press release. “Achieving Magnet recognition reinforces the culture of excellence that is a cornerstone of how we serve our community. It’s also tangible evidence of our nurses’ commitment to providing excellent care to every patient, every time.” Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
In late 1920, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention purchased the former Little Rock Sanitarium property in downtown Little Rock to build a new hospital serving the state of Arkansas and began temporary operations in the sanitarium building. On Feb. 16, 1921, the Pulaski County Circuit Court incorporated the Baptist State Hospital, giving the hospital official standing as a legal entity. Although the original hospital opened its doors with less than 100 beds, the building served 1,315 patients during its first year of operation. From the humble beginnings of Baptist State Hospital through the 100 years it has taken to become the Baptist Health system we know today, the purpose has remained the same — to create a healthier community through Christian compassion and innovative services. Today, Baptist Health is Arkansas’s most comprehensive health care organization, with more than 250 points of access including 11 hospitals, urgent care centers, a senior living community and more than 100 primary and specialty care clinics in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The system additionally offers a college with studies in nursing and allied health, a graduate residency program and access to virtual care through a mobile app. Baptist Health, as the largest not-for-profit health care organization based in Arkansas, provides care to patients through the support and expertise of about 11,000 employees, groundbreaking treatments, renowned physicians and community outreach programs.
HERO SPOTLIGHT
JESSIE DANIEL
Advanced Practice Registered Nurse UAMS Cardiovascular Service Line
As a nurse, Jessie Daniel always knew there would be life and death situations she would have to face. But it wasn’t until she was directly responsible for saving a life that she felt the full measure of her awesome job responsibility. A little over two years ago, you saved a life. What happened? A patient entered my trauma bay from another hospital. I was the primary nurse responsible and I noticed this really sick patient, who they were concerned might actually be brain dead, had a tear rolling down their face. I saw that, it didn’t feel right and I mentioned it to the physician. Long story short, we realized that this patient had a medication, a paralytic, that was lingering for much longer than it should have been. We gave a reversal agent and the patient woke up. What emotions did you feel after that? A little bit of everything. It was really great to work together as a team and pick up on this thing that was very impactful for the patient. At
the same time, you have this fear that, “Oh my gosh, how many times has something like this happened and people just didn’t notice it?” How has the experience impacted your confidence and willingness to speak up? The longer you do this, you learn to trust your gut a little bit when you have that voice saying something’s off. You have to listen to that and reach out to people around you and say, “This doesn’t feel right; maybe I don’t know what it is, but something’s off. Let’s dig into this a little further.” What advice do you have for the nursing student or someone in their first job after graduation? Nothing ever fully prepares you to enter into this field. You have to be a really dedicated, motivated, self-driven kind of learner, because you never know everything there is to know. Realizing there is always room to grow, I think, is one of the most important things that people who go into this profession know and understand.
Choose the Best. Choose UAMS. Whether you’re looking for the right place to further your education or the right place to start your nursing career, UAMS is the best choice for you.
Arkansas’ most comprehensive nursing college with new program options: ■ Accelerated BSN (located on Northwest Arkansas campus) ■ MNSc in Case Management ■ DNP Nurse Anesthesia Visit nursing.UAMS.edu for Student Recruitment
Already a nurse and looking for the best place to work? Nurses are the heart of UAMS. ■ Statewide opportunities for growth in many areas ■ Market competitive salaries at the only academic medical center in the state ■ Tuition discounts at U of A System colleges for you and your family Visit nurses.UAMS.edu for Nurse Recruitment
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WHAT I’VE LEARNED For new nurse graduates getting through the first year, you must have an excellent mentor, not specifically your preceptor, but someone who will take you under his or her wing and help you navigate a complicated system. Also, my best advice after a stressful and difficult day is to try to leave it at the door when you clock out. I know this is not always possible as it takes time to process and reflect on those difficult shifts. Laura Hall, assistant professor University of Central Arkansas
Nursing is a gift. Everyone doesn’t have the gift to provide care or show empathy towards someone they don’t know. Whether you want to get into nursing, are new to nursing or are a seasoned nurse, you must come into the profession with a purpose. As long as your purpose continues to exist, the difficulties and stress of nursing will all be worth it. Marcie Trice CHI St. Vincent
In nursing school, paying attention in class and being present for lectures is vital; you will build strong relationships by taking initiative and interacting in class. DON’T be late to clinical days. Treat clinicals as if you were already a hired nurse working on the floor. Come early, come equipped and be ready to work. Caitlin Youngman, student UAMS College of Nursing
Take time to take care of yourself; you can’t take care of others well if you don’t take care of yourself first. If you are in a high-stress area, intermittent vacations help. Take a mindfulness and compassion course or class to help be more aware of your circumstances and bring more compassion if you are feeling burned out. Brenda Ramsey, RN Dermatology Oncology UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute
As an experienced online educator, I found that students needed me more than in previous semesters. They needed more support, more flexibility and sometimes they just needed someone to listen. Working in a pandemic full time with mandatory overtime is something they never expected. Kimberly Porter, faculty UA Little Rock
Time management is the biggest struggle I had with nursing school. I figured out that if I set an extra hour aside, more than what I originally thought was needed, it helped me out a lot. In high school, I was also the person who just remembered everything in my head for school. In nursing school, that’s not possible; you have to have a planner. As soon as I get my schedules. I put them in my planner for the entire semester. Ryan Glenn, student UAMS College of Nursing
Most nurses experience the loss of a patient at some point in their career. As nurse faculty specializing in obstetrical nursing, I am asked frequently about coping with fetal or infant loss. Often students want to know how I hold it together or not cry while in the moment. My answer is always the same: I don’t. I am human. I feel. Ashley York, nurse educator National Park College The simplest act you perform can mean the world to a patient. The patient and their family may never thank you, but you will know that you made things a little easier or better for them. The relationships we build with our patients and families may slip our minds from time to time, but I guarantee they will never forget your kindness and care. This is why I come to work every day. Cathy Buzbee, RN Case Manager UAMS Medical Center Find the one nurse you know that you can trust — the one you can lean on for knowledge, guidance and one you know will stand with you in the face of adversity. They do exist. There are nurses who want to help the young and build them into successful, seasoned nurses. Sarah Overbey, associate degree nursing faculty National Park College I loved nursing from start. After 30 years I still think that it’s rewarding being able to help someone in need. That said, I am not perfect and I still make mistakes, and you will, too. Just try to learn from them. Shirley Jones, RN Labor and Delivery UAMS Medical Center Mental health plays a huge part in our profession. To properly channel our exuberant energy, we must first pour love and positivity into ourselves. Flexibility, creativity, compassion, kindness, excellent communication and assertiveness are displayed daily by our awesome nursing faculty. Shelia Brooks, faculty UA Little Rock
78 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
You are often meeting patients at their worst moments, whether they are acutely ill, dealing with a new diagnosis, facing a devastating loss or in their own emergent situation. It is important to remember that you can always have compassion for another person’s situation. Handle each situation with grace and the same compassion you would want shown to your family and yourself. Chasey Dibble, simulation and lab coordinator National Park College You need to have a passion for nursing. Be prepared to give it your all. It’s hard but worth it. Gina Clements, student UA Little Rock Being a nurse is hard. It’s 24/7/365. You are a nurse at the ball field, at family gatherings, at church, on mission trips; everywhere you go you are “the nurse.” And while it is a job of difficulty and stress, it is also one of great joy. I don’t stop being a nurse when I leave the job. It is who I have become after all these years. Sandra Bennett, RN case manager UAMS Childhood Post-Infectious Autoimmune Encephalopathy Clinic When interviewing for that first job, the best advice I can give is be yourself! There’s no need to come into your interview sounding like a robot and answering questions because they sound good. Remember why you’re doing this in the first place. Authenticity is better than having the “right” answers. Aundria Webber, student UAMS College of Nursing
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
The AHA Quality Team works with hospital quality improvement teams, raising the bar on patient safety and quality statewide. From left: Cindy Harris, administrative assistant; Cindy Crump, quality specialist; Nikki Wallace, quality specialist; and Pamela Brown, vice president of Quality and Patient Safety.
MEET THE AHA QUALITY TEAM!
The Arkansas Hospital Association’s Quality Team works with hospitals every week, helping health care workers throughout the state put the latest, best practices into service. “We work with hospital quality leaders on specific improvement areas, such as early sepsis identification, avoidance of ventilator-acquired pneumonia, C. difficile containment, etc., and on the year’s overall improvement goals,” explained Pamela Brown, vice president of quality and patient safety. “These deal with reducing inpatient harm by a certain percentage or lowering the number of readmissions within 30 days of discharge. No matter how many improvements we make, we will always have new conditions and concerns to address.” When working with AHA member hospitals, Brown says she enjoys seeing Arkansas hospital clinicians, professionals and quality team members learning from and sharing experiences with one another. They also gain access to national best practices and make important networking contacts through AHA initiatives. “When I look back at how far health care quality improvement has come, I feel a great sense of connection,” she said. “Quality improvement work and the fellowship of a team’s commitment to positive outcomes … gives people a sense of personal worth.” Looking forward, Brown said she’d like to see more alignment of leadership, processes, core measures and delivery of care. The more those in positions of hospital governance and administration are involved in the work of quality and patient safety, she said, the more successful they will be. “With experience, we improve safety and quality,” she says. “But ‘quality’ is really a part of the whole patient experience. It’s not only a question of ‘How can we improve this procedure,’ but also, ‘How can we improve the care experience for each patient, family and caregiver?’ and ‘How can we sustain improvements we have worked so hard to achieve?’ “I’d like to see a reduction in the burden of more required measures. At the hospital level, we are moving toward more automated processes for data management, which will help in identifying opportunities for improved care delivery. I’d also like to see a more vigorous focus on support of hospital quality and the professionals who deliver care every day. A nationwide effort to show how to apply and align our quality work — and ways to embed strategies that are cross-cutting — would be very effective. A version of this article first appeared in the Spring 2020 edition of Arkansas Hospitals magazine, a print and digital publication of the Arkansas Hospital Association.
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
subscribe today arktimes.com ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 79
Arkansas College/University
Yrs/Public Private
Calendar
Degree Offered
Length Of Program
Living Arrangements
Aid Deadline
Arkansas State University - Jonesboro • 870-9723074 (nursing) • 870-972-3024 (admissions)
4 yr public
Semester
Traditional A.A.S.N. LPN-to-AASN LPN - AASN (Online) RN-to-BSN (Online Program - must have an RN license) 2nd Degree Accelerated, B.S.N. Traditional B.S.N.
varies
on campus housing for Jonesboro; off campus for online RN-BSN
July 1st; Online students pay apply year around
Arkansas Tech University, Russellville • 479968-0383
4 yr public
Semester
BSN, LPN to BSN, RN to BSN, MSN, RN to MSN
BSN-4yrs, RN to BSN-1yr, MSN-2yrs
on campus housing
varies
Harding University, Searcy • 1-800-477-4407, 501-279-4682
4 yr private
Semester
BSN, MSN FNP, Post Graduate
BSN 4 yrs; MSN FN - 2yrs, PG - 2yrs
on campus housing
February 1st
Henderson State University, Arkadelphia • 870-230-5015
4 yr public
Semester
BSN (traditional); RN to BSN online; RN to BSN online enrollment both fall and spring; LPN to BSN on campus; MSN online,Online HSU Nursing Education Certificate
4 yrs for the Traditional BSN and LPN to BSN on Campus; RN-BSN Online in 1 year (3 semesters)Online MSN has two different tracks: Family Nurse Practitioner and Nursing Administration, both take 2 years to complete. Online HSU Nursing Education Certificate take 1 summer or 2 summer options.
on/off campus
June
Ouachita Baptist Univeristy, Arkadelphia • 870-245-5000
4 yr private, faithbased
Semester
Dual Enrolled RN to BSN Completion (Ouachita Baptist University and Baptist Health College Little Rock), RN-BSN Online
Dual Enrolled RN-BSN 4 yrs, BSN Online Full or Part-time: 9-12 months
Dual Enrolled RN to BSN: On campus housing at Ouachita first 4 semesters; commuter campus while attending BHCLR; off campus for final semester online, RN to BSN Online, off campus
Priority Dec. 1
Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia • 870-235-4040
4 yr public
Semester
BSN, Online RN-BSN Completion
4 yrs BSN, 1-4 yrs online RNBSN Completion program
on campus housing
July 1st
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville • 479-5753904
4 yr public
Semester
BSN, RN-BSN (online program), MSN (online program), DNP (online program)LPN-BSN (online program)
4 years for BSN, 3-5 semesters RN to BSN, 2 years part-time MSN, 3 years full-time / 4 years part-time post-BSN-DNP, 2 years part-time post-MSNDNP
on campus housing for BSN students
March 15th
Univeristy of Arkansas, Little Rock, School of Nursing, Little Rock • 501-569-8081
4 yr public
Semester
AAS, BSN, RN-BSN Completion
AAS program 18 to 24 months, RN-BSN online 12 or 18 month track
on/off campus housing
April 1st, Contact Financial Aid Office 501-916-3035
University of Central Arkansas, Conway • 501-450-3119
4 yr public
Semester
BSN, RN TO BSN, MSN (Nurse Educatior with Clinical Specialty), Post-Master’s DNP and BSN to DNP (Family Nurse Practitioner)
BSN 4 yrs, RN to BSN 12 mos 100% online, MSN 5 semesters, 100% online, PMC varies, DNP 2yrs, BSN to DNP (FNP) 4 yrs part-time
on campus housing available
July 1st
University of Arkansas - Fort Smith • 479-7887841, 1-888-512-LION
4 yr public
Semester
BSN
4 yrs for BSN/Varies for RN-BSN
on campus housing
Priority Oct. 1st
University of Arkansas at Monticello • 870460-1069
4 yr public
Semester
AASN (LPN-RN), BSN, RN-BSN, LPN-BSN
2 to 4 yrs
on campus housing
contact financial aid (870) 460-1050
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Nursing, Little Rock • 501-686-5224
4 yr public
Semester
RN to BSN, BSN, MSNc (APRN and Admin), BSN to DNP (APRN), DNP (Leadership), and PhD. Post Masters options available.
BSN generic: 2 full calendar years/ RN to BSN: 1 yr full time/ MNSc, DNP & PhD: students have up to 6 yrs to complete degree requirements.
on campus housing
varies, visit nursing.uams.edu. Click on Financial Assistance under Future Students
Arkansas Northeastern College, Blytheville • 870-780-1228
2 yr public
Semester
AAS Nursing
2 year
commuter campus
Priority April 15
Arkansas State University - Jonesboro • 870-9723074 (nursing) • 870-972-3024 (admissions)
4 yr public
Semester
D.N.P., M.S.N., B.S.N., AASN (LPN to AASN and Online LPN to AASN offered at A-State Jonesboro;Traditional and LPN to AASN offered at ASU MidSouth, and ASU-Mountain Home)
varies
on campus housing for Jonesboro
July 1st
Arkansas State University - Mountain Home • 870-508-6266
2 yr public
Semester
AAS in RN- LPN/Paramedic to RN
30 hrs pre-req courses, plus 1 yr LPN/Paramedic, Plus 1 yr RN
commuter campus
Nov. 1
Arkansas Tech University - Ozark Campus, Ozark • 479-667-2117
public
Semester
AAS in Allied Health-Practical Nursing and AAS in Registered Nursing
3 semesters-PN; 2 semesters - RN
commuter campus
Priority April 15
College of the Ouachitas, Malvern • 800-3370266 ext 1200
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing (PN), Associate of Applied Science in Nursing (LPN/Paramedic to RN), Certified Nursing Assistant, Medication Administration Program
12 months
commuter campus
open
East Arkansas Community College, Forrest City • 870-633-4480
2 yr public
Semester
AASN
2 yrs
commuter campus
April 15th
Mississippi County Community College, Blytheville • 870-762-1020
2 yr public
Semester
AAS in Nursing
2 yrs
commuter campus
Priority April 15 - Rolling
National Park College, Hot Springs • 501-7604290
2 yr public
Semester
Associate of Science in Nursing (RN) traditional & LPN to RN, Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing (PN)
2 yrs RN, 1 yr PN
commuter campus
open
North Arkansas College, Harrison • 870-7433000
2 yr public
Semester
AAS in Nursing-traditional. LPN, RN Bridge
RN-2 yr; RN Bridge-1yr; PN-1yr
commuter campus
Pell Grant June 30
Northwest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville • 479-636-9222, 800-995-6922
2 yr public
Semester
AAS, RN
68 credit hours
commuter campus
June 1st and November 1st
Ozarka College, Melbourne • 870-368-2024 (Admissions) 870-368-2077 (Nursing)
2 yr public
Semester
Associate of Applied Science in Registered Nursing
12 mos
commuter campus; limited housing units available on campus
none
Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, Helena-West Helena, Stuttgart • HWH 870-338-6474 x1254; Stuttgart 1-870-6734201 x1809
2 yr public
Semester
AAS
63 credit hrs, 5 semesters
commuter campus
Federal and state deadlines observed.
Southeast Arkansas College, Pine Bluff • 870543-5917
2 yr public
Semester
AAS: RN, Generic RN & LPN/Paramedic to RN. Technical Certificate: PN
PN-1 yr, Generic RN-5 Semesters
commuter campus
open
University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Department of Nursing, Little Rock • 501-569-8081
4 yr public
Semester
AAS/LPN to RN/BSN
4 semesters
on/off campus housing
April 1st
BACCALAUREATE
ASSOCIATE DEGREE
80 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
Scholarship Deadline
Required Exams
Application Deadline
Comments/Home Page Address
February 15th
ACT, SAT, COMPASS, or ASSET; HESI A2 Nursing Admission Exam or HESI LPN to ADN Mobility Exam
varies
Nursing programs are accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc. www.astate.edu
varies
BSN-ACT or COMPASS, TEAS, RN to BSNNone, MSN-GRE or MAT
BSN: Mar 1, Oct 1; RN to BSN: Mar 1, Aug 1, Oct 1; MSN: Ongoing
RN to BSN and MSN online, ACEN accredited, www.atu.edu/nursing
Rolling
ACT or SAT
Rolling
Quality nursing education with a focus on Christian service and professionalism. www.harding.edu
varies
ACT, SAT, or COMPASS
August ( August 1) and January ( apply by January 1)
The school with a heart. Small classes. CCNE Accredited. www.hsu.edu
Priority Dec 1
ACT or TEAS (BHCLR)
Dual Enrolled RN to BSN: Priority Dec 1 (OBU); November 30 (OBU & BHCLR), RN to BSN Online, Ongoing,
Dual Enrolled RN to BSN: Earn two degress in four years in this innovative, affordable program (AAS from BHCLR, BSN from OBU).RN to BSN Online: Small classes, Can be completed in 9-12 months, Entry into program 5 times per year.
Priority March 15, Final August
ACT, TEAS at least 60%
BSN Spring: Jan. 15-Mar. 1 for Fall Admission, Sep. 10 - Oct. 31 for Spring Admission; RN-BSN Completion Program Aug. (prior to classes beginning for Fall Admission, Jan. (prior to classes beginning for Spring Admission)
www.saumag.edu/nursing
November 15th
SAT, ACT, and BSN-DNP
Varies
We offer generalist and advanced nursing degree programs to prepare nurses to meet the health needs of the public in an ever-changing health care environment. The DNP offers two options: family nurse practitioner and acute-geriatric nurse practitioner. nurs.uark.edu
February 1st
ACT/SAT for students with less than 12 credits.
AAS application Jan 5-February 28 classes start during the summer semester, RN-BSN online program rolling admissions
BSN completion for current RNs or recent graduates of an accredited nursing program. UA-Little Rock students can earn an AAS and ladder into the online BSN and graduate within 4 years. www.ualr.edu/nursing.
February 15 - University Scholarships | March 9 Foundation Scholarships
No entrance exam required for nursing major.
varies by program, see website for dates
Student-centered, NCLEX-RN 1st time pass rates are consistently above state and national average. All programs are CCNE Accredited. www.uca.edu/nursing
June 1st
ACT/Accuplacer
Oct 1st for Spring/ March 1st for Fall
RN-BSN is an Online Completion Program. Http://health.uafs.edu/programs/rnto-bsn; health.uafs.edu
March 1st
Entrance
March 1st
Achieve your nursing goals with us. http://www.uamont.edu/pages/school-of-nursing/degree-programs/
varies, visit nursing.uams. edu. click on Financial Assistance under Future Students.
TOEFL for int’l students, ATI TEAS V for BSN applicants.
RN to BSN: Jan. 1, Mar. 1, Jun. 1, Sept. 1, Nov. 1/ BSN generic: Mar. 1/ MNSc: Sept. 1 & Feb. 1/BSN to DNP: Feb 1/ PhD: Mar.1, Jun. 15, Nov. 15
conadmissions@uams.edu • www.nursing.uams.edu
Priority April 15
ACT, SAT, COMPASS, or ACCUPLACER and PAX-RN
RN- March 31
ANC offers the RN, LPN, and LPN to RN programs of study. www.anc.edu
February 15th
ACT or SAT or COMPASS or ASSET; HESI A2 Nursing Admission Exam or HESI LPN to ADN Mobility Exam
varies
The mission of the School of Nursing is to educate, enhance and enrich students for evolving professoinal nursing practice. Nursing programs are accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc. www.astate.edu
varies
ACT, ACCUPLACER plus HESI LPN-ADN or HESI EMS-ADN
Oct. 15, March 15 (ASUMH starts a second cohort in Summer 2020)
Application packet and program requirements online. www.asumh.edu
varies
PN: TEAS, RN: HESI
March 15th, October 1st-PN; March 15-RN
Clinical experience in hospitals of varying size, physicians’ offices and geriatric facilities. www.atu.edu/ozark
Fall-May1, Spring-Dec 1
COMPASS/ACCUPLACER for the PN Program & Kaplan for RN Program
2nd Friday in Sept. for Jan. admitance; 2nd Friday in Feb. for May admittance to RN program
www.coto.edu for additional information.
varies
ACT, ACCUPLACER / Nursing Pre-entrance exams
varies
Allied health program offering RN-Nursing degree (basic students, LPN completion). www.eacc.edu
Priority April 15
PAX-RN
March 31st
www.mccc.cc.ar.us
open
ACT, SAT or College Entry Exam & TEAS
First Monday in March
Options for LPN and new High School seniors. www.np.edu
June 15th
ACT, ACCUPLACER
varies with program
Northark’s students receive excellent healthcare education leading to rewarding careers in nursing. www.northark.edu/academics/areas-of-study/health-and-medical/index
April 1st
HESI A2
Track I: May 1st, Track II: Dec. 1st, LPN to RN: Nov. 1st
The college of the NWA community, member of Northwest Arkansas Nursing Education Consortium. www.nwacc.edu/academics/nursing. The NWACC Nursing program is ARSBN approved and ACEN accredited
April 1st
NACE test
Aug. 31/Spring entry (application window: Jan 1- Aug 31)
Providing life-changing experiences through education. www.ozarka.edu
none
Nelson Denny Reading Test 10th grade level and 55 on the ATI Critical Thinking Exam
June 1st
ACEN accredited. www.pccua.edu
none
ACT, COMPASS, PAX for PN,KAPLAN Admission Exam
Second Friday in March
Changing lives…one student at a time! www.seark.edu
February 1st
ACT/SAT/Compass for students with less than 12 credits.
Priority Application Deadline Feb 28/ Applications accepted until class full.
LPN/Paramedic to RN (1 year). Traditional AAS (2 years). Accelerated AAS (18 months). See above for BSN information. www.ualr.edu/nursing
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 81
University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville • 870-612-2000, 800-508-7878
2 yr public
Semester
AAS-Generic RN, AAS-LPN-to-RN Online or Traditional, TC-Practical Nursing
AAS-Generic RN 16mos, ASS-LPN-to-RN 12 mos, TC-Practical Nursing 11mos
commuter campus
varies
University of Arkansas at Hope-Texarkana • 870-777-5722
2 yr public
Semester
Associate/RN; LPN (Hope); LPN (Texarkana)
12 months (excludes prerequisites)
commuter campus
July 15th
Baptist Health College Little Rock • 501-2026200, 800-345-3046
private, faith-based
Semester
diploma/PN, Associate of Applied Science in Nursing/RN
RN traditonal track 3 semesters + general education courses PN 1yr. RN Accelerated 1yr (LPNs or Paramedics).
commuter campus
March 1st priority
Jefferson Reg. Med. Center School of Nursing, Pine Bluff • 870-541-7858
private
Semester
Associate of Applied Science in Nursing
79 weeks
off campus only
none
Arkansas Northeastern College, Blytheville • 870-780-1228
public
Semester
Technical Certificate of Practical Nursing
13 months
commuter campus
Priority April 15th
Arkansas State University - Beebe • 501-2076255
public
Semester
Certificate LPN
11 mos
commuter campus
varies
Arkansas State University - Mountain Home • 870-508-6266
public
Semester
Technical certificate in PN
11 mos
commuter campus
varies
Arkansas State University - Newport • 870680-8710
public
Semester
Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing
11 mos
commuter campus
contact financial aid
Arkansas Tech University - Ozark Campus, Ozark • 479-667-2117
public
Semester
AAS in Allied Health-Practical Nursing
3 semesters
commuter campus
Priority April 15
ASU Technical Center, Jonesboro • 870-932-2176
public
Semester
LPN
11 mos
commuter campus
none
Baptist Health College Little Rock • 501-2026200, 800-345-3046
private
Semester
diploma/PN, Associate of Applied Science in Nursing/RN
2 semester PN
commuter campus
Priority March 1st
Black River Technical College, Pocahontas • 870248-4000 ext. 4150
2 yr public
Semester
AAS/RN, Certificate/PN, Certificate of Proficiency/Nursing Assistant
AAS/RN 3 semesters, Certificate/PN 3semesters, Certificate of Proficiency/Nursing Assistant 5 weeks.
commuter campus
contact financial aid office
College of the Ouachitas, Malvern • 800-3370266 ext 1200
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing
12 months
commuter campus
Spring-November;Summer-April
University of Arkansas - Cossatot, DeQueen and Nashville • 870-584-4471, 800-844-4471
2 yr public
Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters
LPN Technical Certificate, RN Associate of Applied Science
LPN DeQueen Day Program 11 mos, LPN Nashville Evening Program 18 mos, RN (transition from LPN) Nashville Evening Program 11 mos.
commuter campus
varies
Crowley’s Ridge Technical Institute • Forrest City • 870-633-5411
public
Semester
LPN
LPN: 40 wks
commuter campus
Please call 870.633.5411 for more information
National Park College, Hot Springs • 501-7604160
Public
Semester
Certificate in Practical Nursing
11 mos FT
commuter campus
none
Northwest Technical Institute, Springdale • 479-751-8824
public
Semester
diploma/PN
3 sem. & 1 Summer session (includes Pre-Reqs)
commuter campus
July 1/Fall, December 1/Spring
Ozarka College, Melbourne • 870-368-2024 (Admissions) 870-368-2077 (Nursing)
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate in LPN, LPN-RN track offered
11 mos. track or 18 mos. track
commuter campus with limited housing units available on campus
none
Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, Helena-West Helena, DeWitt • HWH 870-338-6474 x1254; DeWitt 1-870-946-3506 x 1511
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate
42 credit hrs; 3 semesters
commuter campus
Federal and state deadlines observed.
University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College, North Little Rock • 501-812-2200
2 yr public
Begins in early August and ends in mid-June of each school year
Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing/PN
11-month traditional track/22month non-traditional track
commuter campus
April 15 for upcoming fall semester
University of Arkansas Rich Mountain, Mena • 479-394-7622
2 yr public
Semester
Associate of Applied Science in Registered Nursing, Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing, CP in Nursing Assistant
11-12 mos
commuter or on-campus housing available in 2020
varies, contact financial aid office
SAU Tech, Camden • 870-574-4500
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate
11 mos
commuter campus and on-campus
N/A
South Arkansas Community College, El Dorado • 870-864-7142, 870-864-7137
2 yr public
Semester
ADN,LPN
11 mos
commuter campus
June 1, November 1, April 1
University of Arkansas at Monticello College of Technology, McGeHee • 870-222-5360
2 yr public
Semester
Technical Certificate in Practical Nursing
January to December
commuter campus
varies
University of Arkansas Comm. College at Morrilton • 501-977-2000
2 yr public
Semester
Practical Nursing (PN) Technical Certificate; Registered Nursing (RN) Associate of Applied Science degree
PN is 12 months; RN is 12 months after prerequisites are met
commuter campus
prior to semester
University of Arkansas at Hope-Texarkana • 870-777-5722
2 yr public
Semester
certificate/PN
10.5 or 12 months (excludes prerequisites)
commuter campus
July 15th
PRACTICAL NURSING
*** for Basic nursing education; Varies with previous coursework or nursing license; MSN program = 2 yrs
82 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
March 1- High school Academic; July 15- Others; Nursing Scholarship- Dec. 1
ASSET, ACT, SAT or ACCUPLACER, and KAPLAN Nurse Entrance Test
TC-PN and AAS-Generic RN May 1; AAS-LPN-to-RN July 15
Prerequisite courses and KAPLAN entrance testing must be completed prior to entry into a nursing program. www.uaccb.edu
April 15 and November 15
ACT or ACCUPLACER or LPN license
August 31st
www.arnec.org, www.uacch.edu
varies
ACT or SAT; TEAS
RN traditional track/PN program: July 1st & December 1st , RN Accelerated: December 1st
www.bhclr.edu
none
ACT
Oct. 15 for Jan. class; Apr. 15 for June class. $35 application fee.
www.jrmc.org/schoolofnursing
Priority April 15th
ACT, SAT, COMPASS, or ACCUPLACER and PAX-PN
PN-March 31st
Variety of clinical experiences. www.anc.edu
June 15th
ACCUPLACER and WONDERLIC
April 15 and November 15
Application packet and program requirements are online. www.asub.edu
varies
ACT, ACCUPLACER plus HESI A2
Oct. 15, March 15
Application packet and program requirements online. www.asumh.edu
varies
Accuplacer, ATI TEAS
August class (Newport/Jonesboro)-June 1, January class (Marked Tree)- Oct 15
Application packet and program requirements online. www.asun.edu
varies
TEAS
March 15th, October 1st
Clinical experience in hospitals of varying size, physicians’ offices and geriatric facilities. www.atu.edu/ozark
none
ASSET, NET
June 1 & November 1
Combines classroom instruction with clinical experience. Graduates eligible to take NCLEX.
varies
ACT or SAT; TEAS
Dec 1st & June 1st
www.bhclr.edu
April 15th
ACT or Accuplacer for BRTC Admission and NA Applicants; TEAS for PN Applicants, NACE for RN Applicants.
NA - Contact Nursing department, PN April 1 for following fall acceptance and October 31 for following spring acceptance, August 31 annually for following Spring RN acceptance.
BRTC: A college of vision. BRTC has a 95% plus boards pass rate. www.blackrivertech.org
Spring-November;Summer-May
HESI Entrance Exam
2nd Friday in Oct. for Jan. admittance; 2nd Friday in March for May admittance to PN program
www.coto.edu
April 1st
ACCUPLACER or ACT; TEAS for LPN; NACE for RN
LPN Day Program-De Queen: March 1st, LPN and RN Evening Program-Nashville: August 31st
Prerequisites required prior to admission. www.cccua.edu/MedEd
varies
ACCUPLACER
CRTI is currently in the process of merging with East Arkansas Community College. Call for more information.
www.crti.ar.tec.us
none
College Entry Exam, TEAS
First Monday in March
Do you want to make a difference? Then nursing is for you! www.np.edu
June 1/Fall, December 1/ Spring
NET, COMPASS
November 1st
Bilingual scholarships available- www.nwansged.org
April 1st
PAX Test
April 1/Fall entry, November 1/Spring entry
Providing life-changing experiences through education. www.ozarka.edu
none
Nelson-Denny Reading Test 9th grade level and 47 on ATI Critical Thinking Exam
June 1st for fall admission and Oct. 1st for spring admission
www.pccua.edu
varies
ACT or ACCUPLACER and Kaplan Admission Test
April 15th
Call the Allied Health Advisor to discuss eligibility requirements. www.uaptc. edu/programs_of_study/nursing/practical_nursing.asp. Allied Health Advisor: 501-812-2745. Allied Health Administrative Specialist: 501-812-2834. INTERNET HOME PAGE ADDRESS - www.uaptc.edu
Nov. 15 - Priority; Apr. 1 - Pending funds available; Foundation Scholarship Deadlines: Fall - Apr. 1 & Jul. 30; Spring - Dec. 1
RN: NACE; LPN: PSB and ACT or Accuplacer
LPN-March, RN-August
www.uarichmountain.edu
March 1st
ASSET. TEAS. Practical Nursing
March 31st
Two Applications required: admissions and nursing. www.sautech.edu
Priority April 1st
ACT, ASSET, or COMPASS
open
SouthArk: Where students come first. www.southark.edu
March 1st
ACT, Accuplacer, ASSET, COMPASS, or SAT - TABE and TEAS
Early October
Approved by Arkansas State Board of Nursing, Accredited by the Higher Learning commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
April 1st
TEAS, NACE
PN deadlines are Oct. 1 & Mar. 1; RN dealine is Aug. 31
Enrollment in PN program on Morrilton campus limited to 24 in spring semester and summer. Enrollment in RN program limited to 48 for classes beginning each January. www.uaccm.edu
April 15 and November 15
ACT or ACCUPLACER
May 1st and November 1st
www.uacch.edu
Special Advertising Supplement of the Arkansas Times
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Now In Passport
P. ALLEN SMITH’S GARDEN HOME
THE BEST OF THE JOY OF PAINTING
J SCHWANKE’S LIFE IN BLOOM
CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL’S MILK STREET
LIDIA’S KITCHEN
COOK’S COUNTRY
SIMPLY MING
PATI’S MEXICAN TABLE
KEVIN BELTON’S COOKIN’ LOUISIANA
AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN
CURIOUS TRAVLER
RICK STEVES EUROPE AWAITS
REAL RAIL ADVENTURES
URBAN CONVERSION
FAUCI: THE VIRUS HUNTER
CONNECTED: A SEARCH FOR UNITY
STEP IT UP WITH STEPH
D-DAY AT POINTE-DU-HOC
Nearly 3,000 episodes of content offerings from the American Public Television catalog will be made accessible to stream with PBS Passport on PBS.org and the free PBS Video app over the next 18 months. These episodes consist of stand-alone specials and seasons of longstanding series. Arkansas PBS Passport offers members extended on-demand access to a rich library of public television programming. Arkansas PBS Passport is available to Arkansas PBS members who contribute at least $60 annually or $5 or more monthly. Sign up for Arkansas PBS Passport today!
myarpbs.org/passport
PBS VIDEO APP
CULTURE
BIG OL’ BOOK PARTY
THE SIX BRIDGES BOOK FESTIVAL IS AS EXPANSIVE AS EVER THIS YEAR, AND ACCESSIBLE FROM THE COMFORTS OF YOUR COUCH. BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE
A
n updated collection of comics that meditates on “occult economics” and “demographic demons,” all framed by world-bending architecture (“Beta Testing the Ongoing Apocalypse”). A chapbook that puts itself in conversation with “The Wizard of Oz” (“A Homegrown Fairytale”). A community contest that asks young readers to create “edible books.” A conversation about desire and consent through the lens of science and the #MeToo movement (“Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again”), followed immediately by a look at the life of a Black woman who hid her identity to become J.P. Morgan’s librarian (“The Personal Librarian”). These are a few of the discussions happening at the 2021 Six Bridges Book Festival from the Central Arkansas Library System, which runs from Thursday, Oct. 21, to Sunday, Oct. 31. This year, the fest is almost fully virtual, but no less ambitious in scope. If you’re venturing out, join the Arkansas Times for drinks at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack for Pub or Perish at 7 p.m. Oct. 23, where host Chris James will lead a lineup of readings from local writers and poets. Otherwise, grab the printable schedule at cals. org/six-bridges-book-festival, make your picks, mark your calendars. Meanwhile, we’ve included some brief interviews conducted over email with a few of the Arkansas-connected authors featured on the Six Bridges lineup this year. 86 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
AYANA GRAY Ayana Gray is a Little Rock resident, a “lover of all things monsters and magic,” and author of the forthcoming work of fantasy, “Beasts of Prey.” Your book, which comes out shortly before the Six Bridges fest begins, is described as a Pan-African fantasy that combines three things you love — “monsters, mythos and #MelaninMagic” — and I understand some of the beasts in the story were based on creatures from folklore from across the African continent. Can you tell us about one or two of the creatures you adapted from lore? Yes! Nearly all of the mythical creatures referenced in “Beasts of Prey” draw from various lores across the African continent, which was a deliberate choice. I don’t want to spoil too much for readers, but there is at least one creature in the story that is a terrifying combination of two normal animals smashed together. There is also a creature that takes several forms, and is not at first what it appears to be. What, if anything, can speculative fiction and fantasy help us with in the real world? What does it do that nonfiction doesn’t do for us? I think that speculative fiction and particularly
fantasy often offers fresh perspective, and allows us to suspend our beliefs temporarily and really lean into our inner child. When we figuratively step into someone’s shoes and follow along their journey, we develop not only an empathy for them, but also for people who are like them. Certainly nonfiction can do this in a different way, but the act of storytelling (fiction) is as old as time, sewn into the very fabric of everything that makes us human, so as we examine the world and our distinct place within it, fantastical stories feel like a very natural go-to. Readers will get to experience those folklore beasts in this forthcoming trilogy; meanwhile, you live with a very real beast of your own, an adopted baby black rhino named Apollo. How did you come to adopt Apollo, and what happens when Apollo gets bigger? Thankfully, I don’t quite live with Apollo (though the writer in me thinks that would make a very intriguing story in and of itself). Apollo the black rhino actually lives on a preserve in Kenya, where he is looked after and cared for by the experienced team at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The organization has a decades-long history of supporting animals orphaned by poaching and other natural disasters, and I am delighted to lend my support to them in such a fun way!
KELLI MARKS Kelli Marks is a selftaught cake decorator-turned-pastry chef, and author of “Easy One-Bowl Baking.” You’re a wedding cake professional, and onebowl baking might be about as far away from the elaborate world of custom tiered wedding cakes as it gets. Why, for you, is it important to uncomplicate baking for your readers? This was so hard! But really, I’ve spent years working on figuring out how to bend or break rules to maximize my output without disrupting the integrity of a baked good. I’ve seen many people say that you can’t double a pecan pie recipe. That it won’t work; your pie won’t set. But while helping in the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Center bakeshop I made a single batch of pecan pie filling to make 800 mini pecan pies. So that rule simply isn’t true. By knowing what something is trying to accomplish and knowing how ingredients play together, I was able to create recipes that accomplished the same result but took a much shorter way to get there. A lot of people think baking is hard. It’s really not. You just need to follow the steps and measure. And remember, in most cases, something underbaked is better than something overbaked; once a baked good comes out of the oven, it will continue to cook from residual heat, so less is usually better. What’s your biscuit philosophy — butter or shortening? Neither? Both? I’m both, but butter and lard! I like the oldschool traditional flavor and texture that lard provides, but you just can’t beat the flavor that butter provides. Here’s my big secret to a great biscuit: Mix all your ingredients together (flour, leavening, butter and lard) and put that dry mix into the fridge (or freezer). When you’re ready for biscuits, just add in your buttermilk and — BOOM — biscuits, quickly. Plus your butter is still very cold, which helps prevent your biscuits from spreading as much. I understand you learned baking, in part, from your grandmother. Is there a particular recipe or memory you associate with her? I spent a few summers with my grandmother. We baked, but we also tended her garden, and I learned about eating fresh and working with seasonal ingredients. I remember the year I turned 10 that we canned green beans. She let me follow along with my one jar; I snapped them to length and did the whole canning process. My jar won a grand champion ribbon at the Grant County Fair. More than just the “how to do things,” she taught me the care that can (and should) be put into food.
NOW ON DISPLAY
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OCTOBER 2021 87
JENNIFER OGLE AND THEO WITSELL Theo Witsell is an ecologist and chief of research for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, and Jennifer Ogle is a botany consultant and the collections manager at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s herbarium. Witsell and Ogle are co-authors of “Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Arkansas.” Unless otherwise indicated, they answered questions jointly over email.
What does a typical day in the life of a botanist look like? OGLE: I oversee the university’s collection of roughly 125,000 preserved plant specimens, some of which were collected in the 1850s. Most were collected in Arkansas, but a good number are from other states and even other countries. A typical day may involve many different types of activities, including the preparation and filing of specimens, managing the specimen database, conducting field work and collecting new specimens to help expand our understanding of the diversity and distribution of Arkansas’s flora, and writing grants to support the herbarium’s mission. WITSELL: I oversee a smaller collection (20,000-plus specimens) at the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission Herbarium, which focuses on inventory of the state’s rare and high-quality remnant natural habitats as part of the conservation mission of the ANHC. This collection is heavy on rare species and specimens from the unique and declining habitats where our agency works. OK, you’re charged with picking the most fascinating or unusual native plant species in Arkansas. What are they and why? Dutchman’s-pipe (Isotrema tomentosa) is a woody vine that grows in bottomland and streamside forests throughout much of the state. Largely hidden under its large, heartshaped leaves are beautiful, yellowish-green and maroon flowers that are shaped like a miniature tobacco smoking pipe. This unusual plant also makes aristolochic acid, a chemical that is toxic to humans but which can be eaten by pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) caterpillars. As they eat the leaves, they also ingest the chemical, which makes them revolting to most birds and protects them from being eaten. American barberry (Berberis canadensis) is a native shrub that has not been seen in Arkansas in more than 130 years. The only reason we know it once occurred here is because Benjamin Franklin Bush collected it somewhere in the Arkansas Ozarks in 1888 and preserved a specimen that is now housed at the Smithsonian’s herbarium. A few years ago, Theo discovered that specimen while visiting the Smithsonian. This native species is fascinating because it was the subject of a prolonged and targeted eradication campaign by the U.S. government between 1918 and the 1970s due to its role in the life cycle of wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis), and today it is rare throughout most of its range. Although American barberry hasn’t been documented in Arkansas in well over 100 years, we believe it is still growing somewhere in North-Central
88 OCTOBER 2021
ARKANSAS TIMES
Arkansas, likely on a bluff, bluff ledge, in a glade or in a rocky woodland. Certain trees produce unusual structures that don’t seem necessary today, but which make perfect sense when you consider that during the Pleistocene epoch (about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago), giant herbivores known as megafauna roamed this region. Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) trunks, stems and branches are armed with large, stout thorns. Ever wonder why a tree would need to produce such strong defensive structures? We believe it was a protection against browsing by giant ground sloths and other megafauna that are now extinct but were once common in North and South America. Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is another oddity today. It is uncommon in Arkansas’s forests today but was probably much more common when megafauna lived in the region. The ground sloth was able to eat and digest the tree’s thick, leathery fruits and its seeds would be softened as they passed through the animal’s digestive system. Once the seeds were deposited into the soil, they were ready for germination. None of today’s native herbivores can digest these large, tough fruits, which may help explain why the tree is now uncommon. Part of your work involves the protection of native plants. What are the foremost threats to native plant species in Arkansas? 1) Widespread land use changes (conversion of natural landscapes to human-centered uses) that destroy and fragment important native plant habitats, 2) The introduction and spread of invasive plants that successfully compete against and displace native plants, 3) Over-harvest by humans and sometimes domestic livestock, 4) Introduced pathogens, pests or predators that can cause widespread decline in native species, and 5) Changes or declines in natural ecosystem processes that many species depend on either for some part of their life cycle or for maintenance of their habitat. These processes, such as natural flooding, widespread fires and grazing and browsing by native herbivores like bison and elk, used to occur across large parts of the landscape but no longer play a widespread active role.
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CRYSTAL C. MERCER Crystal C. Mercer is a fiber artist, activist, poet and author of “From Cotton to Silk: The Magic of Black Hair.” The level of sensory detail in this book’s imagery is so crisp; every page is hand-stitched, and the whole stitching/”illustrating” effort alone took nearly 500 hours to complete. How did you do this, technique-wise? Did you draw it first and then transfer to the cloth? It took 467 hours, so nearly 500 hours. That was just the stitching. And that was in between me doing a fellowship with the Winrock International I-Fund, running Mercer Textile Mercantile, holding down two contract jobs, recovering from surgery, surviving the pandemic. I didn’t sleep for four months! All I did was work on my fellowship and stitch. I took over the dining room. There was fabric everywhere. I probably napped, and there were days when I slept, like, two hours, three hours. Erin Wood of Et Alia Press was a joy to work with, as we allowed each other to operate in our lanes with complete freedom. Your late grandmother figures prominently in the story. What was she like? Why was it important to get her into the book? My grandmother is, still, as an ancestor, the matriarch of our family. She was one of the oldest of her siblings. She took care of everybody — my mom, my aunts and uncle, her younger siblings, her community between Pelahatchie, Mississippi, and Pine Bluff. Just a very loving, caring, intelligent, compassionate, fun person. ... And her place in the story is: What everybody tried to tell me was demonic or unpresentable or unmanageable or unruly about my hair, she was the one who would reinforce something positive. She would grease my scalp. Or braid my hair so I could go out and play all day and it wouldn’t just be all over my head. I could let it down at night. Or rub my temples, sitting on the porch snapping peas. Those little grandmotherly things where you don’t realize you need to be hugged or you need a word or you need to be touched. How she said things so simply, but they made a big impact. Like: “Have some fun, and help somebody along the way.” That’s how I want to live my life. That’s what I think this is all about.
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ABBY TURNER Abby Turner is a Ouachita Baptist University graduate, food blogger, speaker and author of “The Living Table: Recipes and Devotions for Everyday Get-Togethers.” There’s sort of an interesting phenomenon that happens with food on social media. On the one hand, part of your message is that you shouldn’t wait until your home is perfect before you invite folks over. But on the other hand, you’re a food blogger and a personality on Instagram — worlds where there’s a pressure to make objects/food look perfect so that you get more eyes on them. How do you balance the two? It’s definitely an interesting dichotomy and can be pretty toxic if I don’t have checks and balances set up. My feed and my blog are perfectly curated. I know that, and I have fun with food styling and curating recipes. However, I use tools like my Instagram TV feed with my Sunday night show, “Sunday Supper Club,” my Instagram Stories, and I’ve even been known to feature my own Pinterest fails in my reels to showcase the lack of perfection and humanity behind the feed. It’s super important to me that I build a relationship with my audience that is real and genuine and shows the mess behind the perfectly styled feed. It’s been a hard year for dinner parties. How have you seen people in your circles connect through food during times when it’s not been safe to gather socially? The desire to gather with people and to build relationships is how we were created — the isolation that we have experienced has been hard, but it’s also helped us be more creative in our approach to community. Outdoor gatherings have definitely had an uptick, which is great because I’m a BIG S’mores girl! But I’ve also seen smaller gatherings be so sweet in this season, because with fewer people we are able to go deeper in conversation and drive more intimate relationships. When you look at it from that lens, this has been a time for connection and driving closer community.
Here are a few of our must-see picks from the Six Bridges lineup, with descriptions from Central Arkansas Library System’s festival guide. Find a full schedule and other details at sixbridgesbookfestival.org. Sessions marked with an asterisk below will be translated into Spanish. Kaitlyn Greenidge
THURSDAY 10/21 Kaitlyn Greenidge and Michael Farris Smith, 6:30 p.m. “Libertie” was inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States. In their free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson’s mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie is hungry for something more. In “Nick,” The Great Gatsby’s narrator Nick Carraway is pulled out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this masterful look into his life before Gatsby. Mary Roach, 8 p.m. Roach offers her latest exploration of how humans interact with the natural world: “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law,” in which she tags along with animal attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers and more, revealing as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. FRIDAY 10/22 Helen Oyeyemi, noon In “Peaces,” when Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment — and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier soon deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. SATURDAY 10/23 Christopher Brown, Juan Cavia, Tom Kaczynski and Filipe Melo, 11:30 a.m.* The new, expanded edition of “Beta Testing the Ongoing Apocalypse” — whose graphic short stories trace a complex space-time trajectory from the smallest corporate cubicle out to farthest fathoms of the multiverse — resonates more than ever with our contemporary times. The graphic novel “Ballad for Sophie” is a sweep-
SEPT 14 – OCT 9
ing tale that spans the 20th century, packed with all the drama of a rock ‘n’ roll biopic and more twists than a night at the opera. Lisa Wells, 11:30 a.m. “Believers” introduces trailblazers and outliers from across the globe who have found radically new ways to live and reconnect to the earth in the face of climate change. Kevin Brockmeier and Lauren Groff, 1 p.m. “The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories” encourages readers to confront the timeless question: What comes after death? In “Matrix,” 17-year-old Marie de France is cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine. After she is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey whose nuns are on the brink of starvation and beset by disease, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, and for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters and a conviction in her own divine visions. Lauren Groff
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Carolyn Ferrell and Lauren Oyler, 4 p.m. In the fictional “Dear Miss Metropolitan,” Boss Man is a monster who abducts three high school students, Fern, Gwin and Jesenia, and holds them captive in a dilapidated house on Amity Lane in Queens. “Fake Accounts” features a young woman who learns that her boyfriend is an anonymous (and popular) internet conspiracy theorist. Set in New York and Berlin, the novel challenges the way current conversations about the self and community, delusions and gaslighting, and fiction and reality play out in the internet age. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, 6:30 p.m.* Part memoir, part journalism, part testimonio, “The Undocumented Americans” looks well beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the Dreamers to allow the individuals profiled to be seen more fully as vibrant, complex and dignified human beings. In her relentlessly probing voice, the author combines sensitive reporting with her own experiences as an undocumented writer.
Our booksellers are ready to help you pick your next great read. Shop in-store, by phone or online. We also offer curbside pick-up, home delivery in Little Rock and shipping nationwide. Open 10 AM - 6 PM Monday - Saturday, 12-5 PM Sunday 5920 R St, Little Rock • 501-663-9198 • www.wordsworthbookstore.com
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Pub or Perish, 7 p.m. Come to Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack to hear locals, including Mara Leveritt (“All Quiet at Mena”), comedian Nate Williams and more in this in-person, socially distanced event. Limited open-mic slots are available. Charles Yu, 8 p.m. “Interior Chinatown” is a satirical novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Author Emily St. John Mandel calls it “wrenching, hilarious, sharp, surreal, and above all, original.” SUNDAY 10/24 Katherine Angel, 1 p.m. The elegant, searching book “Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again” spans science and popular culture, pornography and literature, debates on #MeToo, and consent and feminism, challenging our assumptions about female desire. Kyle Beachy, 6:30 p.m. “The Most Fun Thing,” the author’s memoir in essays, explores the hidden meaning of skateboarding, leading to insights on marriage, love, loss and American invention. Zakiya Dalila Harris
MONDAY 10/25 Zakiya Dalila Harris and Nana Nkweti, noon In “The Other Black Girl,” a whip-smart and dynamic thriller coupled with sly social commentary, two young Black women navigate working together in the stark white world of New York City book publishing. “Walking on Cowrie Shells” is a “boisterous and high-spirited debut,” Kirkus said in a starred review, which focuses on the lives of “hyphenated-Americans” with a multicultural heritage in the United States and Africa. Herman Pontzer, 6:30 p.m. “Burn” examines groundbreaking work with hunter-gatherers, with our great ape cousins, and with populations around the globe to explore the way our bodies use energy. TUESDAY 10/26 Ash Davidson and Suzanne Simard, 8 p.m. “Damnation Spring” is the story of a logger obsessed with a redwood tree. He mortgages
everything to buy a parcel of giant trees he aims to harvest, but his wife begins to suspect that herbicides the logging company uses may be behind a troubling pattern of birth defects and miscarriages in the community. In “Finding the Mother Tree,” Simard argues that only through collaboration can we face the global challenges of the environmental crisis, global warming and the deforestation boom we are currently living in. WEDNESDAY 10/27 Adrian Miller, 8 p.m. “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue,” which features 22 recipes, chronicles how Black barbecuers, pitmasters and restaurateurs helped develop this cornerstone of American foodways and how they are coming into their own today. THURSDAY 10/28 Leana Wen, noon In “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health,” the author lays bare the lifesaving work of public health and its innovative approach to social ills, treating gun violence as a contagious disease, for example, and racism as a threat to health. FRIDAY 10/29 TJ Klune, noon “Under the Whispering Door” is a stand-alone adult novel and delightful queer love story filled with comedy, grief and healing. SATURDAY 10/30 Jacqueline Woodson, 2:30 p.m. Jacqueline Woodson is the author of more than two dozen award-winning books for young adults, middle-graders and children. Her two most recent books are ”Red at the Bone,” for adults, and ”Before the Ever After,” for youth. ”Red at the Bone” was an NAACP finalist for outstanding literary work in fiction. Nate Powell, 8 p.m. Arkansas native Nate Powell is the first cartoonist ever to win the National Book Award. His work includes civil rights icon John Lewis’ historic “March” trilogy, “Come Again,” and “Two Dead.” “Save It For Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest,” a memoir/essay hybrid, documents Powell’s experience as a parent helping his children process an ongoing struggle for the survival of democracy. SUNDAY 10/31 Dawnie Walton, 2:30 p.m. “The Final Revival of Opal & Nev” is a fictional oral history about an interracial rock ’n’ roll duo on the early 1970s New York scene. The novel follows their rise, their fall and the dark secret that comes to light when they consider reuniting for a tour.
OPENING NIGHT GALA:
CITIZEN ASHE
Directed By Sam Pollard and Rex Miller Friday, Oct. 8, 7 PM at Horner Hall, Presented by Quapaw Bathhouse Arthur Ashe is remembered as a pioneer and important human rights activist, but he didn’t start out that way. In the beginning of director Sam Pollard’s new film, Citizen Ashe, the titular subject makes it clear that while he wants to be the “Jackie Robinson of tennis,” he’s plenty happy to just leave it there. Though obviously aware of the difference between himself and the “symphony of white” as he called it, Ashe initially wasn’t interested in being anything other than a successful tennis player. As his star rose, it became clear that being the first comes at a cost regardless of one’s personal desire to keep the focus on the game. Ashe was soon seen as only out for himself compared to other major Black athletes of the day, including the likes of Muhammad Ali and John Carlos. So, despite the additional burden that being a famous and outspoken Black person in the spotlight carries, his evolution as an activist became his defining characteristic. Though his life was tragically cut short, Ashe would move beyond his status as a star athlete and become a hero to more people that he could’ve ever imagined.
CLOSING NIGHT: JULIA
Directed By Julie Cohen & Betsy West Saturday, Oct.16, 7 PM at the Malco Theater, Presented by AY Magazine Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the directing team behind the Oscar-nominated film “RBG” bring another vibrant tale of a woman breaking new ground, not only for her gender, but for her entire industry. Julia Child is known for an array of contributions. Chief among them the creation of the classic cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and the popular TV show, “The French Chef.” Becoming a star at the age of 50 in a male-dominated industry is only one of the biographical details that set Julia Child apart. Her impact on the notion of the celebrity chef cannot be overstated. From her seemingly innate ability to creatively problem solve in the moment, to her infectious joy, it is clear that she was always destined to be a household name. Utilizing television archives, personal correspondence and interviews with her contemporaries and admirers, “Julia” is a worthy deep dive into the life of an icon. ARKANSASTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 2021 93
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SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE:
Fri, Oct.8 4 PM Opening Reception at the Malco Theater with Champagne & Popcorn Toast 7 PM Opening night ceremony and screening of Citizen Ashe at Horner Hall 9 PM Opening night Bridge Street Block Party with Comment start 150th Comment end Anniversary of Mountain Valley Spring Water
Sat, Oct.9 11 AM Mountain Valley “Back to the Source Brunch” at Superior Bathhouse (Open to All-Access passholders) 11AM “Accepted” screening at the Malco 12PM “Captains of Zaatari” screening at the Arlington 2 PM HSDFF WELLNESS SERIES: Mountain Valley “Back to the Source Bike Parade” (free!) 2:30 PM Reel South Hindsight Shorts Block screening at the Malco 3 PM FLEE screening at the Arlington 4 PM HSDFF Screening Committee Appreciation Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “Storm Lake” screening at the Arlington 7 PM Pre-show and screening of “Sock on Fire”at the Malco 9 PM After Party at Whittington Place Sun, Oct.10 9:30 AM HSDFF WELLNESS SERIES: Inspiration Hike & Mimosas Arlington Hotel Lobby (free!) 11 AM “United States vs. Reality Winner”screening at the Arlington 11:30 AM “A Good Campaign” screening at the Malco 1 PM PANEL DISCUSSION: Strategies for building a film career without moving to LA (Malco mini theater) 2 PM “The First Wave”screening at the Arlington 2:30 PM Broken Wings screening at the Malco 4 PM Arkansas Filmmaker Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM Screening Committee Favorites Shorts Block screening at the Arlington 7 PM “THe First Step”screening + Q&A at the Malco 9 PM After Party at Deluca’s Mon, Oct.11 2:30 PM “No Return” Shorts Program screening at the Arlington 3 PM “Who We Are”screening at the Malco 4 PM VIP Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “The 8th” screening at the Arlington 7 PM “Television Event”screening at the Malco 9 PM After Party at Splash Wine Bar Tues, Oct.12 9 AM “The Neutral Ground” student program screening at the Arlington 94 OCTOBER 2021
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CITIZEN ASHE
11 AM “Cow” screening at the Malco 2:30 PM “Keep the Cameras Rolling: The Pedro Zamora Way” screening at the Malco 3 PM “Longing For” Shorts Program screening at the Arlington 4 PM VIP Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “Burning” screening at the Arlington 7 PM “Forever Majestic” screening at the Malco 9 PM After Party at Water’s Rooftop
THE NEUTRAL GROUND
THE 8TH
Wed, Oct.13 9 AM “Try Harder!” student program screening at the Arlington 11 AM “Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution, and Islam screening” at the Malco 2:30 PM “7 Days” screening at the Malco 3 PM “The Return: Life After ISIS” screening at the Arlington 4 PM VIP Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “Live Your Best Life” shorts program screening at the Arlington 7 PM “The Neutral Ground”screening at the Malco 9 PM After Party at Grateful Head Thurs, Oct.14 9 AM STUDENT SCREENING shorts program student program screening at the Arlington 11 AM “Luchadoras” at the Malco 2:30 PM “A Captivating Subject” Shorts Program screening at the Arlington screening 3 PM “When Claude Got Shot” screening at the Malco 4 PM VIP Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “North By Current” screening at the Arlington 7 PM “The Rescue” screening at the Malco 9 PM After Party at The Warehouse (301 Broadway) Fri, Oct.15 11:00 AM “Forever Majestic”screening at the Malco 11:30 AM “Shared Resources” screening at the Arlington 2:30 PM “The Universal Made Personal” Shorts Program screening at the Arlington screening 3:00 PM “On the Divide” screening at the Malco 3:00 PM Fireside chat with Dawn Hudson (CEO of Academy Awards) Malco Mini Theater 4:00 PM Reception for Dawn Hudson VIP Happy Hour at Headquarters (120 Ouachita) 6:30 PM “Soy Cubana” screening at the Arlington 7:00 PM “Boulevard! A Hollywood Story” screening at the Malco 9:00 PM After Party at Trail City E-bikes (150
7 DAYS
A GOOD CAMPAIGN
BLACK ICE
SOCKS ON FIRE
Creek Street) Sat, Oct.16 10:00AM HSDFF Wellness Series - YOGA with Karen Reeves (free) 11:00 AM HSDFF Doc Bootcamp Showcase screening at the Arlington (free) 11:30 AM “Torn” screening at the Malco 2:00 PM TBA Audience Request Encore Screening at the Arlington screening 2:30 PM “Reel Rock: Black Ice” screening at the Malco 4:30 PM Rec Carpet Reception: Elliot’s Nest (Sponsors Only) 7:00 PM CLOSING NIGHT FILM: “Julia” screening at the Malco *If needed, there will be overflow at the Arlington 9:00 PM After Party at Arlington Hotel
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2021 AWARDEES & HONORARY CHAIR 2021 HSDFF Career Achievement Award Winner: Sam Pollard Samuel D Pollard has spent his decorated career documenting the history of Black America. As a producer, editor, and director in both fiction and nonfiction, he is perhaps one of the most versatile and talented filmmakers we have. His collaborations are legendary, having contributed to “4 Little Girls,” “When the Levees Broke,” “Ganja & Hess,” “Mo’ Better Blues,” and “Juice,” just to name a few. Pollard’s work frequently concerns the uglier side of the political and racial divide in this country. It would be impossible to explore what Black Americans have been faced with in this country without considering very difficult moments in the past. Somehow he still finds joy and light in his subjects. Often faced with outrageous obstacles (bombings, government abandonment, cold-blooded murder), Pollard manages to save space for hope. 2021 HSDFF Impact Award Winner: Garrett Bradley Garrett Bradley is perhaps most well known for her Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Time.” Winner of the 2020 Sundance Award for U.S. Documentary Direction, the film and Bradley have made many critics’ “best of” year-end lists. However, she has been crafting captivating and deeply empathic stories her entire career. With a special ability to present her subjects as fully formed individuals, simultaneously unique and relatable, Bradley has cemented her place in the future of the medium. Melding a visually dynamic approach to storytelling with a journalistic sensibility, Bradley is able to connect discrete narratives to a larger ideology about how individ-
uals end up in certain situations. Beginning with her narrative feature debut, “Below Dreams,” Bradley has centered characters who are regularly overlooked. Having spent much of her career creating in the American South, it is clear she understands and respects a region that is frequently maligned in the popular imagination. 2021 Honorary Chair: Dawn Hudson A native of Hot Springs, Dawn Hudson is the CEO, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Dawn oversees the Academy’s staff, operations and outreach, including awards, membership, marketing, communications, finance, technology and the Academy Foundation. The Foundation includes educational initiatives, fellowships and grants, the Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive. Hudson is also integral to the development of the Academy Museum and serves on its Board of Directors. Since joining the Academy in 2011, Hudson has driven significant diversity, inclusion, and representation initiatives across Academy membership and staff. As a result, the Academy has grown into a diverse global community of artists and filmmakers. Under Hudson, the Academy overreached its initial goals for doubling diversity and inclusion in membership by 2020. Today, members live in 68 countries. Following this success, the Academy recently announced Aperture 2025, a multi-phased initiative to increase diversity and inclusion across all areas of the filmmaking industry and provide greater opportunities for aspiring filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Prior to joining the Academy, Hudson spent 20 years as the Executive Director of Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film that she helped build. Under her leadership, Film Independent developed grant programs for independent filmmakers and expanded the annual Spirit Awards event. Before Film Independent, Hudson was editor-in-chief of St. Louis magazine and a freelance writer. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and did graduate work in political science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Grenoble, France, and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
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PARTIES:
Fri, Oct 8 4 -6 PM Opening reception Malco Theater One of the longest standing festival traditions is the champagne and popcorn toast. Join us as we kick off the festival as we acknowledge our past and celebrate our future!
PANELS & TALKS
Meet the HSDFF Career Achievement Winner Sam Pollard (Virtual) Meet the HSDFF Impact Award Winner Garrett Bradley (Virtual) PANEL DISCUSSION: (Live, in person) Building a Thriving Film Career Outside of a Production Hub Sun, Oct.10, 1PM at Malco mini theater While it may not be the path most traveled, many have successfully managed to build a thriving film career while maintaining a home base in Arkansas. Join this discussion to explore strategies for keeping connected to the industry without having to relocate to a major production hub. What am I doing wrong? Dispelling the Mystique of film festivals (Virtual, available entire festival) You did it! You made an amazing film, but now what? Join this discussion to better understand how to maximize your festival experience and avoid common pitfalls many emerging filmmakers fall into. Mountain Valley Spring Water Presents “Back to the Source” Virtual Series Join this virtual series as we explore the life and work of prominent Arkansans and hear how their time in Arkansas informed their personal and professional life. Mae Estes 2 PM CST Tues, Oct. 12. Joey Lauren Adams 3 PM CST Wed, Oct 13th HSDFF Documentary Bootcamp Showcase Sat, Oct.16, 11 AM screening at the Arlington (FREE) Documentary storytelling is in the midst of a renaissance that has been going strong for more than three decades. In partnership with Low Key Arts’ renown filmmaking program Inception to Projection, HSDFF hosted its first ever documentary bootcamp where participants directed, produced and edited their own short documentary film that will showcase at the 30th Annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival October 8-16, 2021. 2021 HSDFF Bootcamp Filmmakers: Paige Reynolds Kristine Artymowski Radha Mehta Stephanie Barlett Rainwater Mason Tabor Gabriel Henk Kat Silva 96 OCTOBER 2021
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9 PM-12 AM HSDFF & Mountain Valley Spring Water Anniversary Celebration Opening Night Block Party (Bridge Street Entertainment District) HSDFF and Mountain Valley Spring Water are teaming up for this monumental anniversary celebration as the festival celebrates it’s 30 year history and Mountain Valley Springs Water commemorates 150 years! The red carpet meets Bridge Street Live at this open air event with live music by Brae Leni and food provided by PorterHouse Steakhouse owners, Penny Gargano & Joseph Gargano
Sat, Oct 9 Mountain Valley Back to the Source Brunch 11 -1 PM Superior Bathhouse Brewery Located on historic Bathhouse Row, Superior Bathhouse Brewery is the nation’s only craft brewery headquartered inside a National Park. Long time Festival supporter and head brewer, Rose Schweikhart, welcomes visiting filmmakers and festival guests to the only brewery in the world that uses thermal spring water as the main ingredient for craft beer. 9 -12 AM Uncle John’s Traveling Salvation Drag Show& Party Sponsored by Arkansas Times Whittington Place 301 Whittington Ave. 9 to 12 AM Hot Springs just got hotter! Step inside this historic church and for Uncle John’s Traveling Salvation Drag Show following the screening of Socks on Fire. Flanked by breathtaking stained glass windows and a church organ of truly Biblical proportions! Open to All Access Passholders, Filmmakers, & Sponsors Sun, Oct 10 9 -11:30PM After Party at the Deluca’s DeLuca’s Pizzeria Napoletana has become a region-wide destination for foodies. Each pie is handcrafted by owner Anthony Valinoti, with locally supplied organic ingredients. Experience Anthony’s authentic New York style pizza for yourself, alongside filmmakers and friends. Discover for yourself why the name DeLuca’s is fixed on everyone’s lips!
Mon, Oct 11 9 -11:30PM After Party at Splash Wine Bar Splash Wine Bar is one of the newest and hottest additions to wonderful Hot Springs! With an outdoor patio and cosy fireside seating, Splash Wine Bar provides a taste of paradise, right in the heart of Hot Springs. Tues, Oct 12 9 -11:30PM After Party at The Water’s Rooftop More than 100 years after it was built in 1913, the Thompson Building has been renovated and reborn as The Waters hotel. Join us at this unforgettable Rooftop Bar and take in the scenic view of bathhouse row while enjoying some of the best this renowned restaurant has to offer! Wed, Oct 13 9 -11:30PM After Party at Grateful Head Hot Springs pizza culture is in the throes of a renaissance and Grateful Head is leading the charge! Occupying a historic building once known as The Exchange, Grateful Head boasts the most spacious and inviting mountainside patio in Hot Springs, only a few steps from Bathhouse Row. Cradled on the steep slope of National Park’s West Mountain, pulsing with the forest’s nighttime buzz, a belly full of warm pizza and cold beer… It doesn’t get much more Arkansas than this. Thurs, Oct 14 9 PM After Party at The Warehouse Sponsored by Blue Monkey Grill Blue Monkey Grill and The Warehouse welcomes filmmakers, special guests and festival-goers to this iconic afterparty. Bring your dancing shoes and get ready to cut loose! Fri, Oct 15 9 PM After Party at Trail City E-bikes Sponsored by SQZBX Welcome our new neighbors at the recently opened Trail City E-Bikes as they embrace the natural beauty of downtown Hot Springs! With catering provided by SQZBX pizza, this party will showcase Hot Springs favorite tastes and scenes at this one of a kind event. Sat, Oct 16 9 PM After Party at Arlington Hotel Sponsored by AY Magazine AY Magazine welcomes filmmakers, special guests, and festival attendees to the historic Arlington Resort Spa & Hotel, for a night of legendary food, music and Southern hospitality.
More details at HSDFI.ORG
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COME JOIN US THE MORNING AFTER THE PARTY!
Entertainer Maxwell Blade celebrated his 25th year of performing in Hot Springs on August 28th; this year the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Celebrates its 30th anniversary. The 2021 Film Festival will be held in the Malco Theatre, as well as other venues in downtown Hot Springs, marking the first time the HSDFF and the Maxwell Blade show have shared a venue since 2008. Maxwell Blade first brought his stage illusion show to Hot Springs in 1996, in the historic Malco Theatre, and was later accompanied by the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. The magic show and film festival shared space in the Malco Theatre until 2008 when the show relocated to its own venue at the other end of the downtown strip. In 2016 Maxwell Blade acquired the Malco Theatre and renovated the building into a 300-seat, state-of-the-art, performance and event venue. He debuted his current illusion show on December 8, 2017. At a young age Blade was inspired by the music of Elton John and the televised magic specials of Mark Wilson. He began practicing magic and taught himself to play the drums and piano. In 1983 he became a member of the rock band Exit Five (later renamed Shark Avenue), and toured with the band until 1991. That same year Maxwell Blade became a full-time illusionist and later began touring in 1994. During the summer The Maxwell Blade Show performs six days per week from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and performs Saturday evening year-round. In 2020 Blade expanded the venue with Malco Lounge & Parlor. The lounge includes a beer and wine bar and a smaller 50 seat theatre, in addition to the 300-seat Malco Auditorium. It is decorated with the art and oddity collection of Maxwell Blade. The Parlor is home to The Close-Up Show featuring Jonathan Erlandson, an intimate sleight of hand magic show. This fall the Malco began offering events for local entertainment kicking off with The Fabulous Freddie Mercury Tribute Show, and continuing with The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. “We are excited to expand our entertainment venue and bring more high quality concerts, festivals, and events to Central Arkansas,” Blade said. You can experience the magic, music, art, comedy, illusion, and mystery of the Maxwell Blade Theatre of Magic year round. More information on Blade and the Malco Theatre can be found at maxwellblade.com
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UPCOMING EVENTS
OCT 3
Oct 2 Dance Call Workshop - Intermediate/ Advanced The Studio Theatre
OCT 3
Cast Party Cabaret The Studio Theatre
Arkansas Times and Fox Trail Distillery Presents Bloodies Bubbles and Brunch Argenta Plaza
OCT 3
OCT 14-17, 21-22 Clue: On Stage The Studio Theatre
Dessert Before Dinner with Bubbles and Bons Fundraiser Garvan Woodland Gardens Pavilion
OCT 23
OCT 29-31, NOV 4-7
Improv for Teens Improv 101 for Adults The Studio Theatre
Macbeth The Studio Theatre
Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase these tickets and more! Arkansas Times local ticketing site! If you’re a non-profit, freestanding venue or business selling tickets thru through eventbrite or another national seller – email us phyllis@arktimes.com or abbiegunther@arktimes.com – we’re local, independent and offer a marketing package! 98 OCTOBER 2021
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LOCAL TICKETS, ONE PLACE
FOOD & DRINK
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN AT-HOME PIZZA CHEF PIZZA MOVIE FRIDAY
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT BRINKLEY
FIRE UP THE GRILL: Brandon Johnston prepares to slide son Jett’s pizza from the pan to the stone on his home grill.
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ROLLIN’ DOUGH: Brandon Johnston (left) shows sons Jesse (center) and Wyatt (right) the ins and outs of pizza making. At right, Tina Johnston uses her own garden grown tomatoes for a classic Margherita.
W
hen I was a kid growing up, Friday night was pizza night. Rent a VHS tape, pick up a cheese pizza, drink a gallon of soda and cackle at the idea of ever doing homework again. As an adult, for a number of years I’d rather not add together, I spent Fridays serving pizza to families who had similar traditions. The popularity of pizza was never lost on me as a server at a pizza joint in a town with several independently owned pizzerias, but when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, I was reminded again how beloved a family tradition it is to eat flattened bread dough baked in a hot oven with sauce, mozzarella and various toppings. We lost all of our dine-in customers in the spring of 2020, but Friday nights remained just as busy, if not busier. We were actually selling way more pizzas. One of the early narratives of 2020 was how much time people were spending at home in their quarantine kitchens. Many took up baking. Certain flours became hard to find at the grocery store. Through Instagram and conversations with friends, I became aware of people getting dough balls from certain pizzerias around town and baking their own pies at home. It made sense. What’s the rush when you’re just stuck at home with your family anyway? I caught up with a few of my friends who are making pizza at home to find out how they make their pizzas, what they’ve learned and what
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makes a good slice. “Pizza Movie Friday” is a tradition for Brandon and Tina Johnston’s family. “We do it every Friday,” Brandon Johnston said. “We may not necessarily make pizza every Friday night, but I betcha we do it more than half of the Friday nights every month.” Pizza nights are a tradition his family had when he was a kid and one he’s happy to continue. He started making pizzas at home when he was 14 after being gifted a book on the subject. The Johnstons have experimented with different cooking methods and dough balls from pizzerias around town, including Vino’s, Iriana’s and Pizza Cafe. Lately, the Johnstons have been buying individual balls at Trader Joe’s in the refrigerated section for $1.50 each. “We’ll buy 10 at a time and freeze them,” Johnston said. “Most Friday nights for my family we usually just do two [dough balls]. I can get four 13-inch pizzas out of two dough balls. Same thing with the Pizza Cafe dough balls, I always split those in half as well and get two 13-inch pizzas.” The Johnstons’ method is rolling out the dough as flat as possible with a floured rolling pin on a floured surface. They use canned sauce but add their own spices to it, including honey. For the kids’ pies they use low-fat shredded mozzarella. The adult pies might include buffalo mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. They form the dough onto
floured pizza pans purchased from Krebs Brothers restaurant supply store. Each pan is placed directly on a preheated stone on their gas grill. After a couple of minutes, the pizza starts to form and Johnston uses tongs (pliers work, too) to grip the pan and slide the pizza directly onto the stone. Johnston’s tried transferring the pies from a pizza peel directly to the stone, but it’s too much trouble. “All your toppings are going to roll off, I’ve tried and tried with a metal pizza peel and a wooden pizza peel,” he said. Johnston used to cook pizzas in his oven, but after a conversation with Georges Launet, head chef at Hill Station, he changed things up. “Georges told me that real pizza needs to be cooked at 900 degrees and above. I knew my grill could get up to at least 800 degrees if I really cranked it up. We have a pretty nice gas oven, it still will only get to 600 degrees at most. Plus it’ll make your house really hot.” He also finds that he can get pizzas crispier and produce a more restaurant-style quality by using the grill. “Pizza needs to be cooked at a high temperature for a short period of time as opposed to low temp for a long time,” he said. Why go through all the trouble when you could just pick a pie up from any of one of the many local pizzerias in town? “It’s not nearly as fun,” Johnston said. “Two, the kids actually think this tastes better. I do, too.
But also the freedom to make it your own way.” Johnston’s youngest, Wyatt, took full advantage of that freedom, adding crunchy fried potato sticks to his cheese pizza. Johnston made his go-to: ricotta cheese, Italian sausage, mushroom, green pepper, green olive and Tina’s garden-grown jalapenos, and on this particular night he used a $3.99 Pizza Cafe dough ball. Tina made a margherita pizza with her own garden-grown tomatoes and fresh basil with buffalo mozzarella. And they always do what they call a finisher pie, which is like a healthy dessert pie with pears and a fig drizzle. The Johnstons have a large kitchen, so prepandemic they would have friends and neighbors over. That’s one thing they miss about Pizza Movie Friday, Tina said. In the future, Brandon Johnston plans on building a wood-fire pizza oven in the backyard. “It’s definitely something I’ll use,” he said.
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GETTIN’ FIGGY WITH IT: Bartlett pears and a balsamic fig glaze.
THE JOHNSTONS’ FIGGY PIZZA: ½ Trader Joe’s herb dough ball Olive oil Garlic, chopped Basil, chopped 1 Bartlett pear, sliced Shallot, sliced Buffalo mozzarella Ham or prosciutto, chopped Balsamic fig glaze
DIRECTIONS: Roll out pizza dough to desired thickness. Cover dough with olive oil, garlic and basil. Add pear slices, shallots, meat and mozzarella cheese. Grill pizza on pan until cheese begins to melt. Release the pizza onto the stone until it can stand on its own or to desired crispiness. Drizzle the top with balsamic glaze.
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Mike Motley’s been making pizzas at home for years. “It’s fun to do it yourself, and it’s something you can do with your friends and family. You get to control it, have a little bit of control in your life. … The return on how long it takes is well worth it,” he said. Motley typically gets his dough balls and marinara from Vino’s. “I like to buy dough from pizza places. It’s fast and makes the whole process easier. If you make dough, you have to wait a day. I leave that up to the professionals.” A large Vino’s dough ball with a cup of sauce was $5.99. Motley stretches the dough out by hand, using his knuckles to go around the edges, letting gravity do the work. He uses a perforated pizza pan, which he places directly on a PK Grill pizza stone in his home oven set to 450 degrees. On a recent Saturday before the Hogs kicked off against Texas, Motley made a Margherita with buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil from his garden and farmers market tomatoes. He also made a pizza with spicy Italian sausage links he precooked, then added caramelized onions, fresh rosemary, pepperoni and jalapeno. He cooked 102 OCTOBER 2021
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both on the perforated pan on the stone, then transferred to cook directly on the stone to crisp up. Motley’s essential home pizza needs: fresh herbs, a perforated pan, a pizza stone and a cooling rack. Jack Lloyd and Sydney Hunsicker started making pizzas at home together after COVID-19 hit. “This was kind of one of the things I got really into,” Lloyd said. “It just felt safe.” In Lloyd’s early online research he learned the key to cooking pizza is heat. “Your oven’s just gotta be hot as hell — within reason,” Lloyd said. He bought a wooden pizza peel from Eggshells Kitchen Co. in the Heights, and he builds the pizza on the peel, which he covers with flour and cornmeal. Then he slides the pizza off the peel directly onto the pizza stone he preheats in his home oven at 450 degrees. At first, he just used flour and ran into some frustration trying to get the pies to slide off. “Flour and cornmeal is the way to go,” he said. “I know a lot of pizza places do it. There’s a reason they do: It just slides off better.”
THE FLOP TEST: Sydney Hunsicker demonstrates a fail (top) and a winner (bottom). At top left, Mike Motley’s pizza essentials are one display — fresh herbs and a cooling rack.
CONGRATS!
WINNER BEST TEQUILA COCKTAIL Lloyd uses refrigerated dough because he finds it less sticky. On this particular night he used a large dough ball from Damgoode Pies ($4.99), but he typically goes to Vino’s. “And I try to move really fast because if I don’t, it sticks and I have trouble getting it off,” he said. After putting flour and cornmeal on the peel, Lloyd tries to get his dough as flat as possible using his hands and gravity. “I make a little fist and work it all the way around, just barely stretching it,” he said. Their home pie of choice: shredded mozzarella, pepperoni and fresh mushroom. Lloyd tops it with a little cheddar and some dried oregano and basil. He also prepares his own sauce, which I could really taste on the pizza and found delicious. Lloyd said the cooking time for the pizza is 15 to 20 minutes, but he starts the timer at seven minutes. If the pizza bubbles up, he pops the bubbles with a knife. He also rotates the pie 180 degrees halfway through the cooking process for even cooking. The side of the pizza closest to the back of the oven could burn otherwise. Lloyd and Hunsicker also have a test to grade a slice’s crispiness. If you hold a slice and it flops over, it’s a failure. If it stands firm, you’ve done it right. Lloyd said making pizzas at home is “cheaper and it’s fun. I could imagine it being a blast for anybody with kids because kids love pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza?” he said.
JACK LLOYD’S DELICIOUS MARINARA SAUCE
½ onion or 1 shallot, diced Several cloves of garlic, chopped fine 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes (San Marzano are his favorite) 3 tablespoons tomato paste 1 carrot, grated 2 cups chicken stock or 2 bouillon cubes in one cup hot water Dash of cayenne pepper DIRECTIONS: Add a large drizzle of olive oil to a large iron skillet or pot. Saute onions for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and let cook for a couple minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, carrot, stock, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Simmer on low uncovered until liquid is cooked down and sauce is thick. While simmering, use your cooking utensil to break up the whole tomatoes into smaller pieces.
RESULTS AS VOTED BY ATTENDEES!
WINNER BEST TACO
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You ALWAYS have us at pizza, let’s get cooking! Box Turtle, 501-661-1167, shopboxturtle.com. Let’s get LIT! WordsWorth Books has every title you need for the Six Bridges Book Festival. WordsWorth Books, 501-663-9198, wordsworthbookstore.com.
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Great book about dog rescues! Told from the point of view of Bart, a remarkable Staffordshire Terrier, the affable canine tells of his coming to 3 Girls Animal Rescue in southeast Oklahoma, where he finds a home with an assortment of other dogs and cats. Find this book and more at www.PatBeckerBooks. com. Pat Becker, Author and producer/host of DogTalkTV.com.
Yelena Petroukhina / Robin Hazard Art Show. Opening receptions October 1 & 2 from 6-9 p.m. The show will run through Oct. 16. Boswell Mourot Fine Art Gallery in SoMa, 501-664-0030, boswellmourot.com.
Find your topper at Arkansas’s largest Hat Company on Central Avenue in Hot Springs! Hot Springs Hat Company, 501-463-9210. We all like to cuddle up in blankets, but Zestt knew there had to be an easier way to travel in comfort — blanket wraps! The PERFECT thing to wrap yourself up in this fall. And see our fresh accessories, too. Cynthia East Fabrics, 501-299-9199, cynthiaeastfabrics.com. A special advertising section
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THE OBSERVER
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A BIRTHDAY WEEKEND OF HOT SPRINGS TAKEOUT
he Observer’s girlfriend’s birthday fell on a recent weekend. A few months back when we realized that her birthday was on a Friday, it was determined we couldn’t just spend another weekend at home ordering takeout, watching true crime and bitching about how two-day weekends are an outdated concept. My girlfriend’s already had one completely uneventful pandemic birthday, so I blew my paycheck on a plush, modern Airbnb condo in Hot Springs with rooftop access overlooking Bathhouse Row. A bit excessive, perhaps, but necessary on account of how shitty the past 15 months have been. When I booked the condo, I had no idea Arkansas would be in the depths of another COVID-19 disaster. Not that we would be hitting the bars, mingling at lake parties or hugging strangers after winning copious amounts of cash at Oaklawn, but it would’ve been nice to get to relax because constantly planning around a highly transmissible respiratory viral infection is anything but. As far as the trip was concerned, The Observer’s mind was on one thing: food. That’s what tourism has become in my middle age. I had loose plans centered on flavor profiles I thought would please my girlfriend’s palate, which I would say is slightly mature but leans heavily on youthful nostalgia. For example, pizza: pepperoni, but an occasional hankering for fancy sausage and peppadew; burgers: bun, meat and cheese. Steak: well done with ketchup. Just kidding. One of the more hyped burgers I’ve heard about the past year is served the way she likes them at one of the most touted pizza joints in Arkansas, Deluca’s Pizzeria. And while most of the fanfare for Anthony Valinoti’s Brooklynstyle pizza is well-deserved, The Observer would be remiss not to mention that I would’ve chosen something else had this been after the beloved pizza joint posted an Instagram story meme of Dr. Rachel Levine — the first openly transgender government official confirmed by the Senate — with a caption that read “Andrew
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Cuomo touched my balls.” That’s something I would imagine a pimple-faced teenage boy watching “Beavis And Butt-Head” episodes on his PlayStation 5 reposting, not an actual business that depends on people of all types as customers and employees. Deluca’s was filled to capacity, which wasn’t surprising given the traffic on Central Avenue. Walking through a completely full shotgun-style restaurant is always a bit awkward, but being the only masked person in the crowded, loud (I forgot how loud restaurants can be) dining room during the delta surge felt bewildering. Yes, you cannot eat while wearing a mask, but you can space out, you can take your food to go, you can mask up while you wait for your food to come out. The staff was friendly despite how slammed they were and had me in and out in just a few minutes. The burgers were simple but great. Maybe the “proprietary blend of aged beef exclusively for Deluca’s” is the reason. Maybe simple burgers with an absurd amount of cheese are just good. Regardless, my girlfriend was happy and that was the goal. We got drunk and watched true crime. I read a couple of old 2019 Arkansas Times issues that were stacked on the entry table of the condo. Every article pre-2020 felt like a time capsule into a world we all used to know that doesn’t exist anymore and will only exist in memories and indelible artifacts. Even if this shit ends, we’ll never be the same. For dinner the following night I envisioned us eating pizza on the rooftop like Jim and Pam did in one of those early seasons of “The Office.” They were trying to avoid their crazy office workers who’d kidnapped the pizza delivery driver. We were trying to avoid the plague. The Observer was looking forward to trying the pizza at SQZBX and was crushed to learn that the restaurant was so busy it quit taking togo orders. So we picked up a pie from Rocky’s Corner across the street from Oaklawn. In another capacity crowd with very little spacing, I spotted one mask around a guy’s neck at the bar and made a mental note that this pandemic
was never going to end. The next morning I got up early and walked in the rain to Will’s Cinnamon Shop. The parking lot was crowded, but I was relieved to see a sign on the door requiring masks. That relief turned to despair when I saw that more than half of the crowd were not abiding by the shop’s rule. The line grew long enough to bump into tables in the dining room and the manager had to direct incoming customers to wait outside. Please tip well at restaurants. They are dealing with people high on horse dewormer and misinformation. I took comfort that the two paramedics in line in front of me were strongly masked, but they got called away before they could place their order. “Every time,” one of them said and left me wondering if that response would’ve been the same pre-delta variant. Reaching the head of the line lands you face to face with a masked person taking orders (a good reason to be courteous and mask the fuck up) and you get to watch another employee douse your fresh roll (I saw them bring in a fresh batch from the oven) in either original cinnamon glaze icing, cream cheese, orange, lemon or maple coffee. It being the first visit, I got a couple of classics. The verdict: delightful. We probably could’ve split one. Girlfriend was happy. I plan on returning to try additional icing flavors, just not on a weekend. On the rainy drive home we found ourselves confused, yet again. We know now that people don’t care, but seeing so many people in indoor public places without a care in the world is still discombobulating. What will future generations think of us? Surely that we’re a collective nation of proud assholes that were as selfish and dumb as ever in a time when science was as bold as ever. But, hey, the food in the crowded restaurant was pure ecstasy despite the long wait and those crabby masked servers. We saw a long row of legs dangling from the sky attached to a roller coaster soaring through the air at Magic Springs, pouring rain be damned. Looked about right.
EAT, DRINK & BE LITERARY
or PUB- -PERISH
It’s time for
Presented annually by Arkansas Times in conjunction with the CALS Six Bridges Book Festival
WITH:
Leveritt, author TheBoys Boyson on the the Tracks, Knot, andand her newest: MaraMara Leveritt, author of ofThe Tracks,Devil’s Devil’s Knot, her newest: All Quiet at Mena and more; along with Tasha Moore, Tru Poet, Caleb Washington, All Quiet at Mena and more; plus several local writers and poets from the Ron Mc, and comedian Nate Williams plus several other local writers and poets Sixthe Bridges BookBook Festival from Six Bridges Festival Come Come and and enjoy enjoy the the company company of of others others who who value value writing writing and and expression. expression.
Saturday, Oct. 23
Stickyz Rock-n-Roll Chicken Shack 107 River Market Avenue Doors Doors open open atat 6,6, performance performance 6:30-9 7-9
HOSTED BY
CHRIS JAMES Poet and writer extraordinaire, and entertainer.
STICKYZ HAS A GREAT FOOD AND DRINK MENU TO ENJOY DURING THE PERFORMANCE. Casual, fun, entertaining and time to get outta the house. All social distancing rules apply including wearing a mask. Stickyz dining room is abiding by all social distancing rules
CHECK WWW.ARKTIMES.COM FOR EVENT UPDATES! RSVP VIA FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR PUB OR PERISH.
arktimes.com Arkansas Times Pub or Perish is a related free event of the Six Bridges Book Festival, hosted by Central Arkansas Library System and presented October 21-31, author panels and special events: www.sixbridgesbookfestival.org ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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