73 minute read
Exec Q&A
Executive Q&A
Joshua Cook
Joshua Cook has spent over 20 years in media and public relations, tackling growing markets and feeling the pulse of industries across the state. His current role is Director of Public Relations for Ghidotti Communications, an Arkansas-based public relations and content marketing agency.
AMP: Tell us more about you. COOK: I grew up in Eastern Kentucky and have lived/worked in New York City, Tokyo and Austin, along with brief stints hiking along the Appalachian Trail and backpacking around the world. I recently celebrated four years since moving to Little Rock, my wife’s hometown. In many ways, it’s been more like coming home than anywhere else I’ve traveled. My wife and I also have three incredible little boys, ages 8 and under, who keep us very much on our toes.
AMP: How did you get into public relations work? COOK: I began my career in the newsroom. I moved to New York a week after graduating from college, for an entry-level position with CBS Network Radio News, in 2000. After 15 months, I advanced to become the youngest fulltime newswriter on staff producing and editing national and international breaking news for a weekly audience of 26 million listeners. In all, I spent 10 years with CBS News, but came to a point where I realized I wasn’t continually growing my skill set. I also wanted to return to the South to explore other opportunities, but I wanted to be thoughtful about that transition. Integrity and professionalism are priorities in both my personal and professional life, and I wanted to be sure that any future opportunity aligned with those values. My first role in public relations was at The University of Texas at Austin, in the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs. It was a whirlwind transition, but another for-
By Katie Zakrzewski
mer journalist recognized my experience and potential in the field and immediately brought me on board. Even with my newsroom experience, there was a lot more to learn about working in public relations, and I like to think of my experience at the university as my very practical master’s degree in the field. After that, I transitioned to a Director of Public Relations role with a geopolitical analysis and forecasting firm in Austin that had global media reach, but, with a growing family, decided to look more closely at Little Rock. An out-of-the-blue call to get advice about public relations opportunities in the market turned into an interview and invitation to join the Ghidotti team here in Arkansas.
AMP: What is unique about the PR and marketing industry inArkansas? COOK: Excellent work stands out and sets you apart. That’s especially true about the communications field here in Arkansas. The state has several growing markets, but savvy leaders can still keep their pulse on what’s happening across industries and across the region. That’s where reputations matter. Those of us in the communications field have a responsibility to consistently deliver quality results with integrity and professionalism if we wish to continue growing. Arkansas also offers opportunities for a mix of both traditional and more modern communications strategies to best serve the state’s diverse businesses. That also makes it a great place to work and expand the field.
AMP: What are some challenges you face in the public relations and marketing industry? COOK: This is certainly an evolving field. In many organizations, the lines between public relations and marketing have significantly blurred over the past few decades, thanks in large part to the transition to online/digital communications and advertising. It is important that communicators continue to focus on their strengths, as they adopt new tactics or skills and implement new strategies. One of the strengths of public relations has always been storytelling and – as much change as we experience with technology, new platforms and how consumers engage with information – nothing communicates value better than a good story. As professionals, we must never lose sight of that. We also must continually adapt to changes impacting the news media industry. Arkansans have benefitted from a strong and diverse local media landscape, but that industry overall faces challenges with consolidation and competition for ad revenue. We always need to explore new ways to work with one another to serve our clients and communities better while also expanding services. The growing value of content marketing services is a good example of that. A good story goes a long way.
AMP: What is a piece of advice that you wish you could go back in time and tell yourself about the marketing and public relations industry? COOK: I was fortunate to receive some good advice from other journalists who made the transition to public relations and marketing before me, and I have since been fortunate to share that advice with others interested in making the same transition: Your newsroom and storytelling skills are incredibly valuable, and they will set you apart, but they’re only one piece of the job. You will have a lot to learn in this field, and that never goes away. That’s part of what I love about it. Public relations and marketing offer so much room to learn and grow, and eventually begin to shape how the industry as a whole moves forward, regardless of where you are.
AMP: What is one thing you’ve learned throughout your career? COOK: One of the things I’ve learned throughout my career is the importance of surrounding yourself with good people and good leaders who share your values. I’ve certainly been blessed throughout my career to work with people I respect more and more each day. That includes both my communications colleagues and my clients. I realize this applies to all fields, but it really cannot be understated. My respect for those I work with and alongside motivates me to work harder to deliver results for them each and every day. I recognized that from the beginning of my career, observing different leadership styles in the newsroom, and it remains an underlying truth today.
Executive Q&A
Mary Bogie
Mary Bogie is the Senior Brand Manager with GWL Advertising, Inc. Over the last 13 years, Bogie’s experience as a copywriter has allowed her the opportunity to inject humor and feminist flair into her day-to-day work. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma Bogie attended University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where she earned her degree in marketing. Bogie considers her sister as her biggest role model, loves rescuing pups, and her favorite sport is brunch.
AMP: How did you get into copywriting? BOGIE: I wish I could say it was something really cool and glamorous, but, believe it or not, I did not grow up with “Mad Men” posters all over my room. I was actually stuck doing temp work at an ad agency in Houston after Hurricane Ike. Originally, the plan was for me to work my way into the accounts department, but a position opened up in the creative department, and I immediately fell in love with copywriting. Fast forward, and I’ve been at GWL Advertising for over a decade and have grown that passion – building brands and bringing concepts to life – into a career that I love.
By Katie Zakrzewski
AMP: What is unique about the copywriting industry? Is there anything unique to the industry in Arkansas? BOGIE: Copywriting, in general, can be such an ambiguous term. We do so much more than write. That’s how my position evolved from copywriter to brand manager — we make sure that all visuals and messaging stay on brand and consistent across all mediums. We’re hands-on from conception to completion. It’s the entire creative process wrapped into one title.
AMP: What are some challenges you face in the advertising industry as a copywriter? BOGIE: Advertising as a whole is still a very male-dominated industry, which has its own obstacles women have been pushing back on for years (I’m looking at you, Don Draper). Because of this, I’m even more proud to work for a company run by two very talented women. However, even before GWL transitioned from a male- to female-owned business, our work has always spoken for itself, and we’ve been able to consistently hang our hat on having one of the strongest creative departments in the region. While difficult, it’s also imperative for people to understand the importance and value of advertising, especially in a dicey economy. We’ve had to prove over and over again that advertising does work and is beyond lucrative. That is usually the first thing that clients want to cut out of their budgets, but maintaining the momentum of brand awareness that’s been built is invaluable: People cannot forget your name, your message. Advertising is not simply the icing on the cake; it’s a main ingredient.
AMP: What is a piece of advice that you wish you could go back in time and tell yourself about the copywriting industry? BOGIE: When it comes to concepting and brainstorming, there are no bad ideas. Some of my worst input has led to our best concepts. Don’t overthink it. Speak up, and don’t
be afraid to push the envelope.
AMP: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? BOGIE: Working in an industry that can, at times, have a negative stigma, I love being able to show people that GWL is different. No matter how cliché it sounds, we really do care about giving back. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for nonprofit work. It’s important to me to help people (and animals) that need it. We do pro-bono work for nonprofit organizations year-round, and it’s one of the many things that makes this agency great.
AMP: Reflecting back on your career so far, do you have any thoughts about how far you’ve come? BOGIE: I’m very excited, and proud, of how my career has evolved and flourished. Growing up, I constantly got in trouble for being the class clown, suggesting what I thought were much better ideas, completely disregarding instructions – generally, your basic smartass. Fast-forward 30 years, and there’s days I wake up and just write jokes. It’s a dream come true. (In your face, Miss Jones.) All jokes aside, I’m proud of my career and the company I work for, and I’m grateful to be able to say that I really do love what I do.
Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation’s Annual Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet
Arkansas is well-deserving of its title of The Natural State. Yet, were it not for the efforts of dedicated Arkansans who want to protect and conserve the state’s natural beauty, it would not have remained that way. Human intervention has done a great deal of damage to habitats and wilderness, but human intervention is also what is allowing the wilderness to bounce back. Where once the elk were driven entirely from the state and the black bears nearly all killed, reintroduction programs and careful protection have seen these populations return to levels where responsible hunting is possible. As the amount of conserved land has increased, so has the public’s access to that land.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) stands at the forefront of those conservation efforts, and every year, the AGFC Foundation honors those who have worked to do the same, at the Foundation’s Hall of Fame Banquet. This year’s banquet, held on Aug. 27, was a rousing success. The main event was, of course, the induction of five new conservationists into the Hall of Fame, as well as the presentation of a Legacy Award – but the banquet was also a record-breaking fundraiser with a fruitful auction, the proceeds of which go towards supporting the year-round work of the Foundation. Though the average turnout for the banquet is about 1,500 attendants, this year was packed to the gills, at around 1,700.
Following introductions by emcees Steve “Wildman” Wilson and Trey Reid, and a welcome from the two co-chairs of the event, Randy and Amber Milligan, videos were shown to honor each of the new inductees, interviewing them about their story and achievements.
First was Duane Hada, a great fly-fisher and internationally known artist – primarily a watercolor painter – who has long done incredible work in capturing the beauty of his native Ozark Moun- Photos courtesy of ADPHT
Jeff Lawrence Duane Hada
Brad Wimberly
tains. Growing up in the Ozarks, Hada explained in his video, “Hunting and fishing were just part of my livelihood. We had access to all kinds of woods and waters.” His family also had a bicycle and horse, which he could use to go far beyond their property and down to the Buffalo River. “The Bob Butler creeks and streams are just what made me who I am,” he said. Combined with his love of art, it was only natural that he became one of the state’s finest wildlife painters. In 1987, the AGFC commissioned Hada to create a trout stamp, which got his name out and jump-started his following. In 1998, he got a very different opportunity – to be the coach of the first U.S. youth team for an international fly fishing tournament held in Wales. Hada’s team won silver out of a lineup J.D. Simpson III of 18 countries. In 2014, he joined Cross Trail Outfitters, where he continues to help children experience the outdoors and tries to shape them into future conservationists.
“When I guide on smallmouth streams, I’m fishing on waters I fished as a kid, so that takes me back. That’s why I’m so passionate about it, I want to see this preserved,” Hada explained. “I want to take my grandsons and granddaughters and wade the same stretches and catch fish and know that it’s still in good health and quality.”
Bob Butler and Jeff Lawrence were both leading figures and organizers at Arkansas Ducks Unlimited, with Butler currently serving as Arkansas Senior Regional director. Both started out as young outdoorsmen, with fishing and squirrel hunting, before graduating to duck and deer. Lawrence got involved with Ducks Unlimited in high school, selling tickets to DU events in North Little Rock. Butler first became involved after college by running the silent auction at a DU banquet. Both rose through the ranks and have seen great changes come to Ducks Unlimited, such as a program that began in 1984 called, “Matching Aid to Restore State’s Habitat,” or the MARSH program.
Over the years, those early investments by Ducks Unlimited have blossomed into a strong and enduring partnership with the AGFC. “In fact, we’ve got some huge projects going on right now,” said Lawrence in his video with Butler, “in I think three different WMAs (Wildlife Management Areas) in the state. Since that initial project in ‘84, I think we’ve conserved 360,000 acres, just in Arkansas.”
“The work that Ducks Unlimited does impacts entire ecosystems,
from a bug to a tadpole to a songbird, all the way up to whitetail deer and beyond,” said Butler. “So even if someone doesn’t hunt, they benefit. If they like to go out to bird watch, they benefit.”
Brad Wimberly, a native of Louisiana, vividly remembers childhood experiences of hunting frogs at night in the swamp with his father. He made a trip to Arkansas, where he fell in love with the Mulberry River and the Ozark National Forest. He purchased, restored and expanded the iconic Turner Bend Store, preserving it as a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts.
To help protect his beloved Mulberry River, Wimberly organized a cleanup day. “I was hoping to get maybe a dozen people. I would say there were 80 people who showed up.” This was the beginning of the Mulberry River Society, which to this day works to keep the area clean and accessible by building landings on the Mulberry River and at Indian Creek. Throughout his conservation career, the AGFC has been there to assist.
Lastly was J.D. Simpson III, winner of the 2022 Legacy Award. A former AGFF board member, and current trustee of the Arkansas chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Simpson has made great contributions of time and treasure throughout his lifetime to support conservation efforts. A native of Little Rock, he spent much of his free time in his youth at a family camp called the “Tuf-Nut Hunting Club,” where he still spends time with his prized black labs.
“I knew some of the [AGFC] directors,” said Simpson. “I knew they did good work, so I gave them a little money every year. If we didn’t have a good Game and Fish, we’d be a burned-out state.”
The Banquet also celebrated 40 years of the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation’s work in supporting and augmenting the work of the AGFC. For example, the Foundation was instrumental in the passing of Amendment 75, which created a 0.125% sales tax that has provided millions of dollars in funding to the AGFC. Through events like the Hall of Fame Banquet, it secures yet more funding and helps to put that money to good use on nature centers, shooting complexes and programs to educate new generations of Arkansans on our great outdoors.
Another award, the new Steve Smith Spirit of Giving Award, was presented to Bennie Westphal in recognition of his years of support and willingness to be leader in the AGFF’s new “Leaving a Legacy” program. This was followed by a speech from Austin Booth, director of the AGFC. He listed a few of the AGFC’s accomplishments over the past year, made possible by the support of the Foundation, including stocking over 12.5 million fish and adding over 1,000 acres to WMAs. Booth also discussed some of the Commission’s major plans going forward, called “Natural State Tomorrow,” such as creating a private lands division, a recreational shooting division, improving transparency and accountability within the commission and adding 5,000 acres to the WMAs.
“So that’s The Natural State, tomorrow,” Booth said. “And the reason we’re doing it is because we have many challenges. We’re losing habitat at an unprecedented rate. Our agency infrastructure and business processes are often behind the times. And there is waning participation in the outdoors by Arkansans.” The work of the AGFC, and the assistance provided by the Foundation, are more important now than they have ever been.
And the requested support was not long in arriving. Between donations, a raffle and a silent auction, a record amount of money was raised at nearly $600,000. The auction included everything, from a knife set to a $7500 Sissy’s Log Cabin gift card to a duck hunting blind and even entire boats, like an XPRESS HD16DBX Boat with motor and trailer included. Fun experiences were also up for action, such as a stay at Rusty’s Roost Cabin at Fat Possum Hollow, a chance to join AGFC biologists on a black bear den visit to see how they collect data on the state’s black bears, a Halls Quail Preserve hunt in Damascus, and even a 5-day hunting trip in New Zealand.
In all ways – from honoring conservationists to raising funds to a delicious meal of catfish and chicken – this year’s Hall of Fame Banquet was a success. Most importantly, it has ensured that the following year will be another successful one for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and by extension, all Arkansans who love the outdoors.
LUCKY DUCKS:
AGFC Wins Prestigious Award For Flooded Timber Outreach Campaign
At the 112th annual meeting of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) this September, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) was awarded the prestigious Ernest Thompson Seton Award for its campaign to promote and preserve The Natural State’s waterfowl hunting areas.
The award, given at the association’s annual banquet, recognizes the efforts of a state agency to raise public awareness of scientific wildlife management. Judges evaluate agencies based on the quality and effectiveness of their public promotion efforts, the breadth of public interest and new information in the science of wildlife management. The Game and Fish Commission checked all of these boxes with “flying” colors with their presentation on the state’s flooded timber forests and waterfowl hunting.
The annual AFWA meeting is a “who’s who” of fish and wildlife management, bringing together more than 700 leaders from agencies and conservation groups from all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. Needless to say, AGFC was up against tough competition across the continent. Attendees are key decision-makers in the field of fish and wildlife, including directors, assistant directors, program managers and others involved in fisheries, wildlife habitat, law enforcement, legal affairs, industry and public affairs.
The AGFC’s award-winning submission was titled “Public Outreach to Conserve Arkansas’s Flooded Timber Legacy,” and begins with poetic and poignant description of the state as “one of the only places in the world where hunters can experience the thrill of mallards dropping and weaving through mature forests on land owned and managed by the state for public use.” Duck hunting, as a cornerstone of Arkansas culture, is a key feature of the commission’s report on the preservation of flooded timber forestlands. AGFC understands the importance of threading together the needs of humans and wildlife, in order to better protect the wild places that keep The Natural State true to its name.
The report minces no words as it highlights the threats facing Arkansas’s waterfowl hunting havens: Increased and repeated flooding before the trees become dormant is damaging the forests that wintering mallards depend on for shelter and food. To combat this existential threat to the so-called greentree reservoirs – one of Arkansas’s most important wild areas – AGFC has created a multifaceted, ongoing public outreach campaign, and this standout effort was the focus of the agency’s award application.
AGFC also successfully emphasized the wide-ranging repercussions of its work. Since Stuttgart is known as “the duck hunting capital of the world,” AGFC’s work in creating a “paradigm shift” is just the beginning of decades of on-the-ground research and work that will affect generations of hunters and visitors to the state. According to the presentation, “the changing landscape of waterfowl management in The Natural State has the potential to affect Arkansas’s outdoors legacy on a national level.”
The campaign itself began in 2017 and has consisted of various education and communication efforts. The goal of the commission is to not only inform hunters of the problem, but “to ask for understanding, patience and support of the actions that will be required to ensure Arkansas maintains this rich heritage for which it is known.”
The first step in the yearslong process was a simple booklet mailed out to anyone who purchased an Arkansas Duck Stamp from 2012 to 2017. This mailer, built to communicate scientific research about the reservoirs to the duck-loving public, was just the beginning of the agency’s efforts. From there, the commission started in on a series of public meetings, newsletters and social media posts that would engage hunters and stakeholders in meaningful conversations as well as keep them up to date on AGFC’s efforts to preserve and manage the lands.
As with any effort of this magnitude – and with the future of waterfowl habitats and hunting ranges on the line – AGFC officials have had to make tough calls in order to do what’s best for the conservation of the state’s natural resources. One of those hard decisions came from AGFC Director Austin Booth, who, just a few months into his role at the top of the agency, called for a change in water management for George H. Dunklin Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area.
Described by the agency as “the crown jewel of public land duck hunting” and “a bucket-list destination for waterfowlers throughout the country,” time was of the essence when it came to taking action and preventing a deadening event similar to what occurred at Henry Gray Hurricane Lake in 2018. The AGFC’s commitment to not just reacting, but acting in the face of these threats ensures the best outcomes for these areas and the wildlife that inhabit them.
With this decision came the need to shift the agency’s communication approach. AGFC adapted swiftly and made itself even more open to discussion and input from those most affected by the change. Press conferences were coupled with “open-house” style meetings, where the public was invited to sit down and talk one-onone with biologists, administrators and the commissioners themselves. People are at the heart of any conservation effort, and AGFC made sure that those people felt listened to and informed.
According to the agency’s report, this leg of the campaign was a massive success: “Not only was this effort successful in spreading the continued message of conservation and actions that needed to be taken, but it created much buzz in social media from those who attended, promoting the AGFC’s message for the agency through grassroots communication.”
This was only one facet of the agency’s plans. Another crucial front in the battle for the greentree reservoirs revolved around partnerships with other organizations. AGFC biologists spread the word about conditions in flooded timber areas by appearing on programs like the “Ducks Unlimited,” “Bear Grease” and “Blood Origins” podcasts. The commission also poured energy into printed publications, putting out scientific pieces and feature articles to draw attention to the areas of concern. From digital to print, from public meetings to calling on legislators, the Game and Fish Commission has made and continues to make outreach and action its driving force. Of course, this campaign and the conservation of the state’s most precious areas is an ongoing struggle, and the agency acknowledged as much in its report to the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. The work will continue “well into the next decade,” the agency said, and “it may be multiple decades before the effects of the restoration work reach the point that hunters once again see the mallards flock to the timber like they have seen during the last 40 years.”
As restoration and conservation work continues throughout the state’s wetland habitats, AGFC never fails to make communication and public engagement a priority.
“It is our responsibility,” the report continued, “not only to make these tough calls for the benefit of the habitat, but also to keep the people whose lives are entrenched in the silt of our flooded timber waterfowl-hunting heritage informed about the progress and results of our efforts.”
Both the people and the wildlife of Arkansas are lucky to have such a dedicated agency exemplifying the best in conservation and ensuring the legacy of the state and its resources. Scientific communication requires a researcher’s eye and a public speaker’s acuity, and AGFC takes to it – pun intended – like a duck to water. The recognition of AFWA and the Ernest Thompson Seton Award come as no surprise to anyone who has worked in or alongside the commission. Committed, passionate people make up the heart of AGFC, to the benefit of hunters and naturelovers across the country and around the world. Thanks to the agency’s ongoing efforts to inform, educate and serve the people of Arkansas and its visitors, The Natural State will stay natural for decades to come.
It took a major leap of faith for Larry Billing to leave the West Coast, where he taught high school, and open a coffee store in northeast Arkansas in 2004.
But, Billing, who had no business experience starting out, has seen his Shadrachs Coffee franchise become a successful venture. He has six shops in Jonesboro, one in Paragould and plans to open four more across Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The name of the business, after all, comes from a Bible story of faith, in the book of Daniel.
In the story, Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego refused to worship a golden idol created by Babylon king, Nebuchadnezzar. The king threw the three men in a furnace for their refusal to bow to the idol, but then saw them walking among the blaze unharmed because of their faith. Nebuchadnezzar, reads Daniel 6, brought the three out and claimed that the God of Israel be worshipped instead of his idol.
“We’ve infused faith in this business,” Billing said.
Billing, 48, who grew up near Sacramento, had planned to be a high school math teacher. He moved to Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas, with his family after completing high school in Elk Grove, California, and attended Harding University in Searcy. He graduated in 1997 and taught two years at a West Memphis junior high before returning to California to teach at his home school district.
Billing met his wife in Medford, Oregon, and, because she didn’t want to move four hours to California, Billing moved to Oregon instead. The couple married in 2002.
It was tough finding a teaching job in Oregon, Billing said. He did substitute teaching, but there were no full-time jobs available in Medford.
“My childhood friend had just started his own coffee business in California, and we decided to make the jump into the coffee world,” Billing said.
In 2004, Billing and his wife moved to Jonesboro to open Shadrachs. His sister and family lived in the Craighead County town, and he was familiar with the area.
“If in 2002 you told me I would move 2,000 miles and be selling coffee in Jonesboro, I’d have thought you were crazy,” he said. “I had no intention of owning a business.”
The first five years were “painful,” Billing admitted. He said he had no business experience, but felt led by God to continue selling coffee.
His wife began teaching in Jonesboro schools which, he said, “was a good thing.” “We lived off of her work,” he said. “At that time, coffee was a hobby. If I wasn’t making anything, it was a just a hobby.” Billing worked long hours, going to his store on East Nettleton Avenue next to a Sonic Drive-In from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. There were long days, long weeks, and at times, he wondered what he was doing. But, his faith helped him through. In 2007, he and Risa were expecting their first child. “It was a make-or-break season,” Billing said of that year. “I said if we can’t make this work in six months, I’ll go back to teaching.” He slowly began seeing success. Shadrachs Coffee opened a second shop on Southwest Drive in western Jonesboro in 2010, and in 2016, Billing opened Larry Billing his third shop on Red Wolf Drive, a major thoroughfare in the city. Three years later, Billing opened a shop on Caraway Road, near its intersection with Interstate 555, and one in Paragould. In 2020, he refurbished the basement of a downtown Jonesboro building on Union and Washington avenues – across from the Craighead County Courthouse – and opened a walk-in coffee store.
The downtown shop may be his crowning achievement. The three-story building formerly housed a farming operation, an architect’s office and a lawyer. The basement was used for storing old furniture and desks and was used by the building’s ten-
ants as a storm shelter. Because of the dust, cobwebs, spiders and its dank, dark recesses, some thought it was safer to brave the storm rather than go to the basement.
Architects designed the basement and visitors are now treated to a cheery atmosphere with a mosaic tiled floor, featuring the Shadrachs logo. Tables line one wall and are frequented by downtown businesspeople and students,” Billing said.
The shop opened in March 2021. Then, the second COVID wave hit, causing confusion and concern.
“We had multiple employees in a confined area,” Billing said. “With the first incident [of an employee infected by the virus], we had to quarantine for 10 days.
Billing said he had to shut down four times between all his locations in town because of the virus. He was one of the first business owners to close his doors because of the pandemic and because of city recommendations.
“We had to reconfigure our shops then,” he said. “You can’t make a small shop bigger. We dealt with a lot of stresses.”
While many restaurants in the state went out of business because of the pandemic, Shadrachs Coffee ended up thriving overall. All but the downtown shop were drive-thru businesses, so the required social distancing mandates were easily met.
“It was a challenge,” Billing said. “When it was reasonable to be open, we followed guidelines. You don’t want to cheat. You want to do it right. That’s all you can do.
“When the next [variant] came, I thought, ‘What? This again?’”
The company survived, and now, Billing has 125 employees at his various shops.
He plans to open one in Oxford, Mississippi, by the end of the year and another on Prince Street in Conway. He also intends to put in a Shadrachs Coffee in Lakeland, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis.
Billing said he also wants to help his employees if they eventually want to manage a Shadrachs Coffee shop.
“We want to give people a chance,” he said. “We want to give them an opportunity that they may not have had.”
One of the attractions for customers is that Billing roasts his own coffee beans. Called “green beans,” the beans arrive in 150 pound sacks and are roasted in 25 and 50 pound roasters at the East Nettleton shop. It takes between 10 and 16 minutes to roast the beans, and he has about 15 different types of roasting flavors.
“There’s so much science to coffee,” Billing noted.
Only a small percentage of coffee shops roast their own beans, he said. A unique aspect of Shadrachs, Billing explained, is that they create their own flavor profile and roast beans darker than most shops.
In addition to coffees, Shadrachs offers fruit smoothies, pastries, milkshakes, Red Bull-infused iced drinks, muffins and other breakfast foods.
The most popular drink is the White Mocha, but the downtown Jonesboro shop manager, Kelli Vining, says she sells a lot of the White Snickers drink.
Vining, like Billing, taught school before getting into the coffee business. She was raised in North Carolina and taught English in Memphis schools before moving to Jonesboro and becoming the manager of the East Nettleton shop five years ago.
Faith plays a big part in her life, too. Vining encourages customers to send prayer requests to their business website and,
while not really touting “religion” to her customers, she does present an atmosphere of kindness and love.
“Our customers are like family,” she said. “We try to be kind; we don’t have many angry customers.”
Vining and other managers are urged to help employees learn about conflict resolution when dealing with customers.
“We deal with people of all [walks of] life,” she said. “You don’t know what they’re going through. We want to help them.”
“Faith is a big thing for us,” Vining added. “We have the ability to talk to people about our faith if they want to hear it.”
Since the COVID pandemic abated some, customers have returned to the downtown location. Vining said a group of four Jonesboro high school students hold 6:30 a.m. bible study sessions there weekly before going to school. Others flock in for lunch, sitting at the row of tables inside, or at the tables set up outside on Union Avenue.
“I hate coffee, but there are so many other options,” said Ashlyne Carner, a Craighead County Treasurer’s office deputy clerk who frequents the shop. Her office is less than half a block away.
She prefers the iced chai with caramel drizzle that Shadrachs makes.
“They know how to do it,” she said. “I get a Shadrachs gift card every birthday, and I spend it quickly. I used to go to the one on Southwest Drive when I worked there. They knew my order every time I came in.”
When he first opened his shops, Billing said he was worried about the number of customers he’d see daily. In the summer months, he may have gone two or three hours before someone bought a drink.
He was also first concerned about going up against Starbucks, the coffee empire, which has a shop in Jonesboro.
“I thought, ‘Oh, no, Starbucks would hurt me,’” Billing said. “But instead, it brought awareness to coffee. The coffee culture was still new then. I think they helped us.”
Now, he said, people “drink coffee all year round.”
Looking back, Billing still finds it hard to believe he left his teaching job to grind coffee beans. He is humble, maintaining that he has little business sense and credits those around him for “filling in the gaps” and making Shadrachs Coffee successful.
“There’s always going to be fine-tuning franchise developments,” he said. “There’s always going to be the next level of growth.
“Am I content where I am? “Yes. But do I want to open more stores? Yes.
“This has been exciting. Patience has been a theme through the years. Our growth strategies probably do not follow conventional wisdom. Whenever faith is involved, the word ‘conventional’ goes out the door.”
Last spring, C3 Presents – a concert promotion, event production and artist management company out of Austin, Texas (that happens to be responsible for several well-established festivals such as Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo) – announced the firstever FORMAT Festival would be hosted in Arkansas this fall. The inaugural event took place from Sept. 23-25 on private property located along Sugar Creek Airstrip in Bentonville. While it can be difficult to picture what a first-ever festival will look like, the festival came together seamlessly, with international, national, state and local talent showcased in all of the areas that FORMAT brought together.
Elizabeth Edelman – one of FORMAT Festival’s producers, and the founder and producer for TRIADIC, a creative house and cultural engine with locations in New York City, London and Vienna – explained how the festival has actually been a work in progress for much longer than the public was initially aware.
“When I started TRIADIC, with Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs, there were gaps, in this area, between art, music and technology. So we wanted to partner with C3 Presents to create an equal stage that supported the original vision of the company,” Edelman said.
“When you go to Coachella or ACL, you’re starting to see more art installations, but we felt there was still a large opportunity to create a space and an opportunity to merge all of these things – music, art and technology – together in one space.”
Edelman and her team were only recently introduced to Northwest Arkansas, specifically Bentonville – which is known for being the birthplace of major global retailer, Walmart, and claims to be mountain biking capital of the world.
“We had a huge interest in the Ozarks, and we went as a team to check it out,” Edelman recalled. “Not only did we fall in love with the sights and sounds, but we wanted to be part of what was happening there, and to help build upon it organically.”
FORMAT Festival was built to be an immersive artistic experience, one that is unlike any other in the country.
“Pretty much all of our stages are commissioned art stages and were built specifically for FORMAT. The concept of the commissions was for the art to live on in NWA, and for the community to be able to enjoy the beauti- The Cube (Photo by Grant Hodgeon/ FORMAT Festival)
Aerial (Photo by Charles Reagan/ FORMAT Festival)
ful work 10-20 years down the line.”
The lineup of the festival included many popular and upcoming names of both visual and musical artists, from bands such as The Flaming Lips and The War on Drugs to Phoenix, Jungle, Thundercat, Elle King and Rüfüs De Sol, to groups such as Honey Collective and their opening act, BAANG – both of which have strong ties to NWA.
The setup also placed well-known local artists such as Kat Wilson next to internationally respected names like Nick Cave. With the work of TRIADIC and C3 Presents, local and international talent were showcased all together, making for a unique range of names and performances.
“A big goal of FORMAT was to be able to give a voice to some of the younger and up-and-coming artists, and we blended this line. We gave them an opportunity to perform and show their art,” Edelman said.
According to Edelman, this original concept started almost four years ago, back in 2018.
“We found this site about two years ago, and we started reaching out to artists and musicians around a year later. The fact is that this has been a long time coming, and it has allowed us to be considerate about being able to work on this,” Edelman explained.
“The whole process was really exciting – we worked with the C3 booking team, and we watched what was happening. We were able to bring some eclectic people together through an eclectic lineup.”
FORMAT Festival allowed guests to hear the smooth tunes of Herbie Hancock and the bluesy notes from Elle King and in the same weekend, sing along to dream pop powerhouses like Beach House and The Flaming Lips.
“There were different genres of music from different times. We had jazz musicians, new musicians and incredible DJs from all over the world,” Edelman said. “The dream for us was that people might come to the festival because of the bigger names, but leave the festival being totally obsessed with the work of newer musicians. We wanted to fuel curiosity and exploration of new art.”
The attendee experience remained on the forefront of planning FORMAT Festival, according to Edelman.
“I wanted people to be blown away by what they were just able to experience. I am looking forward to collaborating with locals to build this festival, and I’m really proud of all of the surprise elements that happened over the weekend,” Edelman said.
“One of the things we are most proud of is that it feels very local. We have a huge market – the Bizarre Bazaar – for guests to walk through and engage with little activities and very cool things made locally.”
About 10,000 people attended the inaugural festival, according to FORMAT, and according to Edelman, the intention is to keep the festival pretty small in comparison to others of its kind, which can stretch into the 100,000 range in number of attendees.
“I think that we will grow the festival every year, but in the right way for the community. We want attendees to have space to
Bizarre Bazaar (Photo by Pooneh Ghana/ FORMAT Festival)
enjoy the site, experience and everything FORMAT offers,” Edelman said. “We are excited about where it will grow. We want to keep engaging the community; we want to commission great pieces and continue with a great collaborative effort.”
INTERNATIONAL SENSATIONS
The “Drag Me To The Disco” art installation at FORMAT featured a barn transformed into the perfect disco location. The barn was decked out in pages from Maurizio Cattelan’s TOILETPAPER, a picture-heavy magazine based in Milan, Italy. Artist Stefania Biliato explained how the vision of Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari were brought to light in this installation.
“TOILETPAPER magazine loves any opportunity to do something different, and FORMAT is a first-time event, a first edition and first everything,” Biliato said.
All of the photos plastered on the walls of “Drag me to the Disco” featured real objects. Archivio Personale, the set department of TOILETPAPER magazine, helped with the project as well.
“It is so cool that we get to be part of something new, not just for ourselves, but for everybody,” Biliato said, explaining that this part of the world and this part of the country is very new for TOILETPAPER magazine. “This is not a typical city for us, but it has been a beautiful adventure, with beautiful nature and a really pretty location. It’s been great to share cool ideas here.”
TOILETPAPER magazine is known for its photographs of real objects, those of which have been translated into a collection that goes beyond home design to a beauty line that covers every corner of the body, called TOILETPAPER Beauty. The
Disko Cowboy (Photo by Ismael Quintanilla III / FORMAT Festival)
TOILETPAPER brand also has a pajama line that, according to Biliato, is perfect for endless naps and even makes for great dancing attire.
As a tribute to the first-ever FORMAT festival, TOILETPAPER magazine recently announced a special 15% discount on pajamas on its website.
“We hope that people who visited Drag Me to The Disco felt the free creativity of the art and were able to think about it,” Biliato added. “The photos are for everybody, and are meant to be an inspiration to anyone who sees it.”
Musicians like Seun Kuti – who is from Lagos, Nigeria – also appeared at FORMAT Festival, bringing Afrobeats to the stage. Kuti is known for being the son of legendary Afrobeat godfather, Fela Kuti.
For Kuti, performing at FORMAT was not only a new experience, but also his first time performing in the area.
“I mainly have done shows on the West Coast and East Coast in the United States, but I haven’t done a lot of shows in this part of the country,” Kuti remarked. “It is really cool how art, technology and music are combined in this.”
Kuti said one of the most exciting things for him was getting to work in collaboration with artists such as [Nick] Cave.
“My goal in music is to be able to bring people together in very divisive times, expand views and stress humanity,” Kuti said. “There is so much impact we can have on each other through art and in bringing issues to light through art, for the people who can’t express themselves.”
Kuti also explained that everywhere he goes – and he has traveled to a lot of places – he tries to experience the culture through the people in the cities he is in. “I go to a lot of places, and I tend to see very little of the areas I’m in, but I do see a lot of people.”
Afrobeats as a genre has become increasingly popular over the years, and Kuti was able to share this with the FORMAT Festival crowd on the second day of the festival.
NATIONAL NAMES
Disko Cowboy/Vinyl Ranch made an appearance at this year’s festival, performing in “Drag Me to The Disco.”
While FORMAT Festival prides itself on blending the lines between music, art and technology, Disko Cowboy/Vinyl Ranch is a converging concept in its own right. Vinyl Ranch, the brand connected to Disko Cowboy, is largely responsible for redefining the urban cowboy culture movement – which converges streetwear, country music and disco. Disko Cowboy – also known as David “Dave” Wrangler– has made a name for himself in performing and producing events, and collaborating with global brands such as Wrangler, Tom Ford, Chanel, CMA Fest, Sundance Film Fest, the Super Bowl and more, according to the Disko Cowboy website.
“It’s always a cool experience to be invited to perform at a first-time festival, and this festival has been pretty cool in all ways, visually and collaboratively,” Wrangler said.
Originally from Houston, Texas, FORMAT Festival was Wrangler’s first time bringing Disko Cowboy to NWA. Though, as he lived in nearby Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a period of time, this was not Wrangler’s first rodeo in the area.
“I really love the area. I love the venue of this; it’s a great place to hang out, and I love being a part of anything that is geared toward the guest experience,” Wrangler said.
Vinyl Ranch started in 2007, and according to Wrangler, came out of a really niche idea.
“I was kind of the first cowboy DJ to mix club music with country music, and this all really started when country music wasn’t widely enjoyed by a broad range of people,” Wrangler said. “I really leaned into the modern country and cool vibes, and Vinyl Ranch is about a lifestyle – a culture of the two, converging.”
Disko Cowboy is known for a lot of things, but performing at festivals has especially shaped what he does.
“I don’t have any records or any singles, and I’m not like a lot of other DJs, so having opportunities like [performing at FORMAT] is something that is really cool, and something I am very grateful for,” he said.
For Disko Cowboy, “Drag Me to The Disco,” was a perfect venue for his performance.
Nick Cave Soundsuits (Photo byPooneh Ghana / FORMAT Festival)
Nick Cave Soundsuits (Photo by Charles Reagan / FORMAT Festival)
New Breed Brass Band (Photo byCharles Reagan / FORMAT Festival)
“The space really shaped what I played, and I think it fit the vibe of Disko Cowboy/Vinyl Ranch very well,” Wrangler said.
As a frequent festival performing act, Disko Cowboy will find himself at another C3 Presents festival later this year – Austin City Limits – where he will perform both weekends.
“I loved getting to see Phoenix perform live, watching the drone shows and seeing some of my favorite groups all in one place,” he added.
IN THE LOCAL LIMELIGHT
Locally, NWA has become a hub for the arts, and a home to many artists of different rankings – visual and musical.
Honey Collective, a band that has merged raw jazz, funk and hip-hop, opened the festival. Now, the group is based in Brooklyn, New York, but the group is no stranger to NWA. Aricka Lewis, the group’s vocal talent, grew up in Fayetteville. Jordan Strickland, who plays keys and guitar, is from Rogers and Walter Ferguson, who plays drums, is also from Fayetteville. Matt Magerkurth, who plays cello and bass for the group, is the only nonNWA native, but is familiar with the area as he grew up nearby in Kansas City, by way of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“Being back in NWA has been great, and getting to come back for a festival like this is incredible,” Lewis said. “By opening the festival, we really were able to set the scene for the weekend.”
“Seeing our idols in the same space has been insane. We’re right next to Robert Glasper’s trailer, and Thundercat will perform on the same stage,” Strickland said. “I don’t know how many times we’ve been creating music and thought, ‘What would Robert Glasper do if he was writing this?’ It’s incredible to be in the same space as these great artists.”
The group opened the festival on the “North of OZ” stage, one of the two full-size stages at the venue.
“It was our first time playing on such a big stage, and it’s a huge stage, in NWA,” Ferguson said. “We’re always going to have a really special place in our heart for NWA. The emphasis on the technological side of music making is something that is not often omnipresent in the NWA music community. So, I love seeing all of the things that the other musicians have that are combined. It’s a great time.”
As the group has long been part of the music scene in NWA, Strickland said he expected a festival like FORMAT would one day be in NWA. “It just makes sense that with all of the art and the music and all the talent in NWA, that FORMAT would take
place here,” he said.
“The art experience as a whole is really exciting. There’s Doug Inkin work and Nick Cave work, and I’ve always loved the idea of art and sculpture mixed in with music,” Magerkurth said.
BAANG, a NWA rapper, has been seen in a multitude of ways around the NWA music scene, opening for artists such as Big Boi and performing at Bentonville Film Fest. At FORMAT Festival, BAANG had the opportunity to open for Honey Collective, which he called a one-ofa-kind opportunity. As part of the local music scene, BAANG advises other musicians and artists to keep finetuning their craft.
“Whether you’re playing in front of a crowd of 10 people or 10,000 people, just play your best, because someone out there needs to hear what you’re performing about,” he said.
Nick Cave is a well-known visual artist responsible for a unique blending of fashion and sculpture into “soundsuits,” which are objects that have combined the two artistic disciplines together. While several of the performing artists noted their excitement of his involvement in FORMAT Festival, Cave was also able to get involved in the Arkansas community in a different way.
The drumline for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff band and Jlin (a Chicago composer) partnered with Cave to march with specially made soundsuits, following the festivalgoers of FORMAT on the final day of the festival, which created a visual and musical experience for guests to enjoy.
Kat Wilson, a Fayetteville-based photographer, said being in the same space as notable artists was incredibly exciting.
“I was really excited to see my name on a poster with Nick Cave and The Flaming Lips,” she said. “I wanted my selfie booth to be very Arkansas kitsch, which is why I added the camo and antlers to this selfie throne.”
Wilson has long-been a photographer in the area, but around 2014 – when the popularity of selfies continued to rise – she decided to evolve with the times, creating a unique photo experience.
“I still set the stage, and I still take care of the lighting, but I wanted to be able to do more outside of behind the camera, and now I’m getting to bring the selfie throne to a music festival,” Wilson said.
The Bizarre Bazaar, which stood directly next to Wilson’s Selfie Throne, housed several local curators and creators, including Onyx Coffee Lab, Little Rock’s La Rosa Antigua and NWA Girl Gang, to name a few.
Fatboy Slim performs at Drag Me To The Disco (Photo by Roger Ho / FORMAT Festival)
La Rosa Antigua, which is run by Maximiliano Dominguez, was present at the festival for all three days, and by the end of day one, the thrift and screen-printing booth had sold out half of its inventory.
“My team and I originally brought about 450 unique pieces from the Little Rock store to Bentonville. By the end of the day Friday, we had sold half of our inventory and actually had to be innovative and arrange a drop-off of more inventory from our store,” Dominguez said.
For Dominguez, this festival was not just a great way to get the word out about his store, but also to be able to experience a music festival for the first time.
“This is actually my first time at a music festival. The most exciting thing about getting to be here is just being able to attend and be uplifted by a festival that was developed in Arkansas,” he said, adding that seeing the support for small businesses was incredibly encouraging. “My goal has always been to bring more light to projects like FORMAT while also uplifting local artists and creatives.”
NWA Girl Gang (NWAGG) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on serving marginalized communities. Rachel Fox, the founder and executive director of NWAGG, explained that the nonprofit is involved in several aspects of the community – including hosting the NWAGG Market, which showcases local woman-owned businesses and brands.
The NWAGG booth featured handmade earrings, buttons, stickers and other merchandise. Harlow and Sage Company contributed polymer clay earrings and The Sacred Cocoon was also at the booth for tarot readings.
From the standpoint of many artists involved in the festival, FORMAT has had an impact on not only NWA creatives, artists and musicians, but also on national and international creatives, artists and musicians. And with the success of the first year of the festival, there is little doubt that the festival will only continue to improve over time.
Tuxedo Time SUIT UP hether it’s your old pal from high school’s second wedding or your new pal from accounts payable’s Christmas party or even (Heaven forbid) your great aunt Melba’s funeral – it helps to know how to dress for the occasion. And unless you’re Timothée Chalamet, for men, the choice ultimately comes down to a tuxedo or a suit. So, what exactly is the difference?W The biggest difference between a tuxedo and a suit is the presence of satin.
Tuxedos have satin details such as satin-faced lapels, satin buttons and/or a satin sidestripe down the pant leg. Suits typically do not have any of these features.They are both suits, but they will, and should, look quite different because the two aren’t meant to be worn to the same types of events and venues.
Of course, a “black-tie” affair should always be attended in a tuxedo. If the invitation doesn’t specify black tie, then it’s presumed to be black tie optional, and a suit will work just fine.
So, suit up or black-tie – you make the call. Either way, let’s take a look at some of your most conventional options.
By Ryan Parker
The Tuxedo
Sometimes it’s the best choice. If this is the last time, or perhaps the first time, you are planning to wear this type of get-up, it makes sense. If we don’t have to, we don’t want to invest, I get it. However, I will say that if you’re the ambitious type and five of your closest friends you’re having dinner with are political figures, entertainers and/or c-level executives, then you need to consider owning at least one tuxedo.
When it comes to choosing a tux, how do you know if you’ve made the right decision? I always lean on the side of, “It’s better for me to be overdressed, than underdressed.” I do have to say, I’m guilty of sporting the tux to an event that wasn’t actually listed as black tie. Sometimes, to be the best dressed man in the room, you have to step it up. I prefer to be the one wearing what will be remembered over what is required. On one hand, the best advice is to always over dress. On the other hand, never be the most underdressed. Either way, I would never show up to a black tie event dressed in anything other than a gorgeous tuxedo – with the special tuxedo shirt and the black onyx button links – the whole nine. Not even my best suit can replace a classic tuxedo for a black-tie event.
I do own tuxedos and actually enjoy wearing them. Granted, I only own two or three, whereas when it comes to non-tuxedo suits, I have more than I’m willing to admit. (I did donate a few recently.) But, that’s
where a solid suit or tux becomes a great investment: You’ll wear The Suit this for the rest of your life. You might even be buried in your Tux or suit, I recommend getting fitted by a professional. finest, which, if we want to adhere to always dressing our best, is This will ensure the garment is designed to fit you perfectly, and something to consider. Don’t wait on a tuxedo sale. The same tux- can even grow with you. Tailored suits can be let out or taken edos that are required for a black tie can also be donned elsewhere in as weight fluctuates. I have been a competitive bodybuilding – or maybe you’re simply a baller and wear your tux to all events. champion with off-season weights over 200 pounds to weights
Regardless, once that were closer to 170, so you’ve committed to during competition seawearing the tux, it’s son, there’s a big differimportant to know the proper way to wear it. I do not wear Remember, a great tuxedo can be worn over and over, so choose a good quality material from a reence between suit sizes. I sometimes need my jackets adjusted for room or a cuff in my pant if it’s a straight leg and the spected brand. And while it’s always a sure bet to my slacks to have more room in the waist. hem has no break. Ultimately, you can decide on the pant stick with traditional white and black for jacket and slacks, there are certainly some wild colors if Having your suit designed to fit your size is important, and that’s length and styling as it fits your current you want to venture outside of your comfort zone. where the magic happens. Suit jackets are available comfort level and in one, two and three-butlifestyle, of course. ton designs, with single
If, like me, you’re or dual jacket vents in the going with no cuff and no break in your slacks, then you must back. Spending time in front of a mirror with two and threeconsider choice in socks and of course, the shoes. The pants in- button jackets may be required to decide what you prefer. I can seam length will be a call you need to make with your buddies or help with the basics, but ultimately, you must own whatever you a girlfriend: This comes and goes with fashion trends. Remember, choose. Once you’ve committed to a style and a great suit, pronot too long ago, MJ wore “high waters” and one shiny glove. The fessionally tailored and pressed, it will make you feel like you other MJ wore high-tops, which became Jordans, with his suits can accomplish anything. and tuxedos. Many men are still going short on the inseam. Either From my high school weight of around 130 to deciding I wantway, choose your level of comfort, and own it. ed muscles and adding 70 pounds to my frame, it’s taken time
So, if we’re talking tuxedo, and we are doing traditional black to find out what fits and what doesn’t in the suit department. I and white, then it has to be paired with a black shoe with a great started early in my 20s and began shopping with a local mensshine: Chukka boots, Derby, monk straps, Oxfords, even a pair wear store and, man, did I really enjoy the service and support of Air Jordans, if you’re of the sporty persuasion. That’s not re- they provided. ally my space jam, but I know it looks good for some –I just can’t In the beginning, when I first realized I needed better quality pull it off. clothes, I would invest a few hundred for a tie, a few hundred for a
If you’re donning a black slack paired with wingtips and no shirt and a few thousand for a great handmade suit – and it made break in your slacks, a great pair of socks is important. Think me feel incredibly stylish. Yes, these were investments, and you bold colors, stripes, prints, or if you aren’t planning on upping may want to discuss any potential for clothing deductions with your sock game and even losing the socks altogether, you better your tax preparer for anything that can be considered a write-off. have an attractive set of ankles under there. Even when it comes to a beautiful, custom-designed Ital-
Alternatively, If you own a great pair of black slacks (and I ian fabric suit or shirt from designers like Ermenegildo Zegna, don’t mean khakis), you could get away with wearing those with Canali, Brioni, Armani – if it isn’t your size, the suit will not a tuxedo jacket. Remember, the tuxedo pant has a strip of satin look exactly right on your frame. We know the saying “fits like material running down the outside of both legs. Now, the regular a glove” and even an inexpensive suit that is a good fit and has slacks can work if you’re in a dimly-lit room for the evening, but been professionally pressed will look far better than a high-end if you’re outside, sun shining and you’re taking pictures, you’ll designer suit in the wrong size. really want a tuxedo pant and jacket to match. Overall, stick with Don’t be sloppy. And remember to have your suits measured the classics: A one-button jacket with a nice satin lapel to match and fitted with shoes that will be worn with the suit and a shirt the stripe down the pant legs, and a black bow tie. (If you don’t that will accompany it. All these pieces work synergistically to know how to tie it, then YouTube can help you learn.) give you that dapper gentleman look.
And The Rest
Now, once all of the major details are ironed out, you must consider: Are you a belt or suspenders guy? If you’ve never tried suspenders, it may be time, as this can add a bit of sophistication and style. Consider starting with a simple pair of black suspenders. Check your waist band for the buttons for suspenders. If not equipped, you will need the fasteners that pinch your waist band. Don’t worry: Only two types of fasteners. Either button holes and your slacks have suspender buttons built inside the waistline, or if there aren’t buttons then you’ll just use the pinch fasteners that come with the suspenders. A cummerbund is a broad, waist sash, usually pleated, and often worn with a single-breasted dinner jacket or tuxedo. The cummerbund was adopted by British military officers in colonial India as an alternative to the waistcoat, and later spread to civilian use. Now let’s talk about the pocket square, or you may refer to it (like my Papaw) as a handkerchief. These small pieces of material aren’t actually functional in the sense of the black-and-white films, where the gentleman pulls his handkerchief from his pocket to hand to the damsel to wipe her eye. Today’s dapper gents can use a bold silk pocket square to make the whole ensemble really pop. One popular theory often espoused is that King Richard II of England was the first person to wear a handkerchief as a fashion accessory while on the throne, between 1377 to 1399. You can play with the pocket square in many different ways – solids or stripes, patterns, prints, polka dots. The fabric can be silk, cotton, even linen. Either way, it’s best to choose a pocket square that is similar to the colors of your tie (or your shirt if you’re going without a tie) but never use an identical pocket square to tie pattern. They should not match. A bold, multi-color pattern will add flair to your suits and ties, so you really should invest in a few very nice silk pocket squares, and thank me later when you get tons of compliments. Overall, the key takeaway is: get fitted. A professional seamstress or tailor can help you know your sizes for shirts, slacks, jackets and more. Remember, a great tuxedo can be worn over and over, so choose a good quality material from a respected brand. And while it’s always a sure bet to stick with traditional white and black for jacket and slacks, there are certainly some wild colors if you want to venture outside of your comfort zone. But unless you host your own game show, in my opinion, traditional B&W is best. Don’t forget to find a reliable dry cleaner service as well, as the pressing of the suit is crucial and can make all the difference.
Tux or suit – how good you will look is all about size, color and the fit – and hopefully with these tips, you can find the style that works for you and own it with confidence.
Since 2006, Big Dam Bridge 100 showcases LR cycling community
Once the Big Dam Bridge over Murray Lock and Dam was opened in 2006, connecting the Little Rock and North Little Rock riverfronts, the cycling community in Central Arkansas knew it had a unique opportunity on its hands.
Bruce Dunn, race director for the Big Dam Bridge 100 Cycling Tour, said as soon as then-Gov. Mike Huckabee cut the ribbon, “the cyclists took off.” They haven’t looked back since.
“They had such a great time that they decided there was a demand for this ride in the future,” Dunn said. “One hundred local riders all chipped in and became our founding group, who got free rides for life. Of those 100, 36 are still riding with us in 2022. This helped seed money to start.”
The founders formed the Big Dam Bridge Foundation, and with the help of Fred Phillips’ DLT Events in Arkadelphia, began growing the event by leaps and bounds. With a temporary hiccup for COVID in 2020, the ride has grown from a 5K and bike ride on the Arkansas River Trail that first year, into a massive event, both family-friendly and competitive.
Before the pandemic hit, it attracted as many as 3,500 riders from all over Arkansas, the nation, even the globe. The BDB 100 has grown into one of the largest events of its kind in the country and is popular with out-of-state cycling clubs supported by local, regional and national sponsors.
This year’s event, which took place in September, included more than 2,900 riders.
“We hit 2,911 this year,” said Jana Cohen, who handles communications for the event. “That’s 500 more than last year but still not up to pre-pandemic levels just yet.”
Race officials expect to get there. Cohen said the race grew by about 10% to 15% a year from 2006 to 2019, allowing officials to slowly make changes to the route, finish line, expo and related events. The BDB 100 includes a 15-
mile, family-friendly ride as well as 26-mile, 50-mile, 75-mile and 105-mile rides for more experienced cyclists. All courses cross the Big Dam Bridge and the Broadway Bridge downtown and finish in Riverfront Park.
The 26-miler incudes the BDB-Broadway loop and extends to Two Rivers Park in west Little Rock. The 50-mile route stretches
out west, to the Roland-Pinnacle Mountain area; the 75-miler loops around Lake Maumelle; and the 105-mile ride reaches as far as Wye Mountain and traverses much of the Ouachita Mountain wilderness in western Pulaski and Perry counties.
Stacy Tierny of Little Rock is the past president and current treasurer for the Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas, a local riding advocacy group. She’s participated in each BDB 100 since 2013 and has taken on each of the ride’s four courses.
Tierny knows how important events like the BDB 100 can be for a community.
“The ride is so well-organized, and it’s amazing to see so many people in our city,” she said. “These people come from all over the country. Three thousand people rode this year, and I would be confident in saying the majority traveled from outside of Little Rock and spent money in our stores, our restaurants and our hotels.”
Dunn said Central Arkansas has embraced the event. Though the region may sit in the shadow of Northwest Arkansas’ cycling reputation, built mostly off world-class mountain biking, it remains a cycling destination in its own right.
“This is one of the largest cycling events in the country, and Central Arkansas is proud to be part of it,” he said. “The cycling community definitely supports the event, as over one-third of our riders are from Arkansas. Each year, we have dozens of local sponsors who are enthusiastic cyclists or just people who understand the impact a successful cycling event has on a community.”
Dunn said the Arkansas River Trail is a great setting for the event and “serves as a wonderful example of different municipalities working together to have a seamless experience while viewing the gorgeous scenery of the mountains, rivers and city views along the trail.”
The cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, as well as Pulaski County, maintain sections of the trail. Dunn believes the shared commitment of local municipalities and corporate sponsors has helped the sport continue to grow in the region. Arvest Bank was the 2022 presenting sponsor, and the event’s sponsorship roster is filled with other big-name Arkansas companies.
“Fortunately, some of our early riders were also people with businesses and business connections in the Little Rock area,” he said. “That has been very helpful from a sponsorship standpoint. We continue to be good caretakers of those relationships by making sure our sponsors see our ride as a good value, and that their organization supports health and fitness in our community.”
The BDB rides outgrew their original starting point and now begin on the north side of the river, where more room affords the ability to use corrals for the starts. The “Finale Fest” finish
line was moved from Argenta, or downtown North Little Rock, for the same reason.
The courses themselves were chosen for their natural beauty, accessibility and safety for riders where traffic is concerned, Dunn noted.
“Crossing the Big Dam Bridge is the most important part of the course, and it fans out from there.”
The nonprofit Big Dam Bridge Foundation uses race proceeds to promote cycling, walking and running on the Big Dam Bridge and throughout the Arkansas River Trail. But it provides other benefits as well.
“The foundation is a steward of the money we raise each year, bringing programming and brick-and-mortar projects to our area,” Dunn said. “We built permanent restrooms on the Little Rock side of the bridge, and recently, a new plaza opened on the North Little Rock side. This wouldn’t be possible without the money we raise from the Big Dam Bridge 100.”
The BDB 100 checks several boxes. It provides local riders with a unique and potentially challenging outdoor recreation opportunity; it attracts thousands of visitors to the state, who, as Tierny noted, spend money at hotels and restaurants; and it showcases the beauty of The Natural State.
“I think it’s also important for our city leadership to see how many people are willing to spend money in our community when they are given the opportunity to enjoy an event or our trails,” Tierny said.
If These Walls Could Talk:
BARTON COLISEUM
By Katie Zakrzewski
On the Arkansas State Fairgrounds in Little Rock stands a building as iconic as its Roman namesake. The Barton Coliseum was a trendsetter for Natural State entertainment venues. The Barton Coliseum walked so that the Simmons Bank Arena and Walmart AMP could run.
Since its inception, the Barton Coliseum has seen many varied and historical events. From monster trucks to music, from rodeos to basketball, it has been the center of Little Rock’s entertainment culture for seven decades.
Barton Coliseum was built in 1952 as an entertainment venue for the Central Arkansas area. At the time, the Coliseum was Arkansas’s largest public building, containing over 6,750 permanent seats, with 3,000 portable floor seats. The Coliseum was dedicated and named after Thomas Harry Barton, a colonel, philanthropist and, most notably, a pioneer oilman who oversaw Lion Oil Company. Originally from Texas, Barton dropped out of Texas A & M College when funds became limited and entered the U.S. Army. In 1906, he moved to Arkansas, where he was assigned the rank of captain in the Arkansas National Guard. With the arrival of World War I, Barton began to assist in organizing and training cavalry regiments. He remained in the Army Reserve for 16 years, until 1936. Days after oil was discovered in El Dorado, Arkansas, in January of 1901, Barton organized the Natural Gas Company before becoming the principal stockholder of the Lion Oil Refining Company. When the company was on the brink of collapse, Barton took over the company and turned it around with incredible success. His reputation as a successful oilman spread. Around the same time, the Arkansas Livestock Show
T.H. Barton
Association was struggling to find a new location for the Arkansas State Fair. The Fair had been held at various locations throughout the state since 1868, and the Great Depression had taken its toll on the annual pastime. The Arkansas Livestock Show Association saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: They could promote diversified agricultural and animal development in Arkansas if given the right platform, and Arkansans could have a stable and reliable state fair.
The Association asked Barton to be their leader, and Barton accepted. Barton held the position from 1937 until 1959 – just a year before his death – spending over 20 years working in tandem with the Arkansas Livestock Show Association and the Arkansas State Fair.
A huge blow was dealt to Barton and the Association when, during the 1941 state fair, a a fire destroyed the large rodeo stadium and cattle barn on the fairgrounds, which were in North Little Rock at that time, where the Sherman Park Recreation Center is today.
But when one door closes, another one opens, and the rodeo fire of 1941 was no exception.
“Originally referred to as the rodeo arena and then as the rodeo coliseum, the structure that would rise at the center of the new state fairgrounds was an echo of the old rodeo stadium that was lost to fire at the North Little Rock fair location in 1941,” explained Callie Williams, education and outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
“The rodeo was an early major draw for crowds at the fair, and the ticket sales helped to underpin the livestock shows. However, the early rodeos and livestock shows were constantly plagued by rain and general bad weather. Creating a space that could be shielded from the elements was seen as a desperate need for the growing fairgrounds,” Williams said.
“Also, the memory of a disastrous rain in 1938, that almost destroyed the fair’s future before it had a chance to get off the ground, was surely a factor in the decision to build what would become Barton Coliseum,” she added.
In the late 1940s, the state legislature and other investors designated money to build six new structures – two cattle barns, two dairy cow barns, a pig barn and the rodeo venue. Cement shortages led to some final construction delays, but Arkansans were already in awe of the structure, which echoed Little Rock’s existing War Memorial Stadium on Fair Park.
Heavy rain in 1949 reinforced the importance of continuing the construction of the Coliseum. A roof structure was placed under the guidance of the Baldwin Construction Company, which was the parent firm of today’s better-known Baldwin and Shell. Several construction accidents delayed completion, but finally, in the early 1950s, the Barton Coliseum was completed.
The fully aluminum clad roof (using only Arkansas aluminum) was completed just days before the 1950 state fair, making the Coliseum the largest aluminum-roofed building in the U.S.
At the 1950 state fair rodeo, Gov. Sid McMath noted during a speech that, “We’re going to complete this big structure.” While the Coliseum itself was finished, the location still needed an exterior, paved concourse behind the stands, the outside walls and all of the amenities, such as restrooms and air conditioning. Plans to complete the exterior brick and tile walls were laid in 1951. The State Livestock Association voted to name the building in honor of Barton, for his
years of hard work in leading and promoting the Association and the annual state fair and livestock show.
When the Barton Coliseum was formally dedicated in 1952, it was noted by local newspapers as being “the finest arena in the South,” with only four arenas in the nation being larger – those in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco.
“The final cost in 1952 was set at just over $750,000 with an additional $500,000 noted as being needed to finish out the building will all the necessary amenities. By 1953, it was noted in local newspaper reports that Col. Barton had again invested his own money and installed flooring for the arena, that would allow basketball games to be played in the building,” Williams said.
Barton Coliseum would soon become an iconic location for Arkansas sports – serving as the home court for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Trojans basketball team, the defunct Arkansas GlacierCats of the Western Professional Hockey League, and the defunct Arkansas Impact of the Premier Basketball League. Barton Coliseum also hosted several Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball tournaments.
After nearly a decade of consistent use by rodeos, basketball teams, local and state animal shows and various other events, the Barton Coliseum began hosting headliner concerts throughout the year.
“When you look at the list of concerts held there, realize that
all the acts listed from the 1950s and 1960s were state fair acts. But through the 1970s and 1980s — definitely Barton’s glory days — the pace quickened, and the popularity of the acts increased,” said Arkansas Money and Politics contributor Kelley Bass. “Many of us who’ve lived in Little Rock most of our lives have come to realize the fact our hometown sits at the confluence of Interstates 30 and 40 has its benefits (other than super heavy 18-wheeler traffic).” In November of 1963, the first largescale concert was held at the Coliseim, featuring the Sam and Dave Review and Dance. The African American R&B duo wrote the song “Soul Man,” which would go on to be a popular single for The Blues Brothers. Barton Coliseum, in all its glory, became the happening place for music throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
The Barton Coliseum hosted performances that didn’t rely on the state fair, including Jimmy Buffett, KISS, Loretta Lynn, Black Sabbath, Tina Turner, The Monkees, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Elton John, Van Halen, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, George Strait, The Eagles and many others.
“One famous Arkansas rock groupie known to frequent Barton
Coliseum was ‘Sweet Sweet Connie,’ or Connie Hamzy Parente, of Little Rock. Her adventures as a groupie during the 1970s were featured in the song ‘We’re an American Band’ by Grand Funk Railroad, who played Barton Coliseum in 1973 and 1975,” said Williams. “The song was written in July of 1973, and features the line, ‘Last night in Little Rock, put me in a haze / Sweet, sweet Connie doin’ her act / She had the whole show, and that’s a natural fact’ in reference to their show in Little Rock in February of 1973. She was later profiled in Cosmopolitan in 1974, after the song rose to No. 1 on the U.S. charts.”
Eventually, one musical tragedy, in particular, would lead to an interesting historical exhibit about Barton Coliseum at the Old State House Museum.
On Oct. 20, 1977, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, were killed in a plane crash in Mississippi. They were on their way to Baton Rouge to perform at Louisiana State University, before traveling to Little Rock for a concert at Barton Coliseum on Oct. 23. Lynyrd Skynyrd had played before at Barton Coliseum to a sell-out crowd. The concert was canceled, and many who had purchased tickets returned them for a refund. A 2019 search through Barton Coliseum for historical items revealed a stash of original tickets from the canceled concert. Those tickets went on to be part of the Old State House Museum’s “Play It Loud: Concerts at Barton Coliseum” exhibit.
Bass noted that 63 Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famers and 37 Country Music Hall of Famers played at Barton. Only three artists who played there were in both halls of fame: The Everly Brothers, John Cash and Elvis Presley. More than 1,700 bands have performed on the Barton stage in its nearly 60-year history.
“In 1999, with the opening of the larger Alltel Arena (now known as the Simmons Bank Arena), many concerts and sporting events were moved to the newer and larger arena across the river in North Little Rock,” Williams said. “By 2012, Barton Coliseum had been the venue for over 525 major concerts, from bands ranging from country western to rap, to R&B, to soul, to heavy metal, to beach rock.”
The Coliseum’s influence is undeniable, as Ralph S. Wilcox, national register and survey coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, said: “The Arkansas State Fairgrounds Historic District has played an important part in the entertainment and recreational history of Little Rock and the surrounding area. Since the completion of the Barton Coliseum, it has been the premiere concert venue in Little Rock, hosting hundreds of concerts and other events.”
The Barton Coliseum was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the spring of 2022. And while not as busy as the Simmons Bank Arena when it comes to hosting shows these days, the Barton Coliseum still hosts knife and gun shoes, flower shows, circus performers and robotics competitions.
