Events in Little Rock April 2016

Eggshibition 

     Eggshibition will be held 7 p.m. April 8 at the Jack Stephens Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

     Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, Eggshibition has been Youth Home’s most recognizable and popular fundraising event. The evening centers around a silent auction of original works of egg art created by artists and fantastic gift basket items, a live auction of premier items, as well as hors d’oeuvres, libations, and live music.  For more information, call Larry Betz at 821-5500, ext. 209.

Pilgrimage For Peace

    The third annual Pilgrimage for Peace will be held 2 p.m. April 3 starting at Heifer International downtown.

    It is being organized by local faith and activist communities in Central Arkansas, to “mourn the violence committed in our community and the world and to walk together as active peacemakers.” Peacemakers will walk from Heifer International through the River Market and over the Junction bridge to the “Beacon of Peace and Hope,” 110 Riverfront Drive at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum on the north shore of the Arkansas River. 

    An interfaith service will be held at the Beacon site at 3 p.m., consisting of prayers, brief reflections from scripture and literature, and the reading of the names of the homicide victims in Pulaski Country from the past year. Organizers believe the event is a special and timely occasion to recall those who were murdered and have suffered from violence during the year and to offer prayers of peace and reconciliation.

      The Jewish Federation of Arkansas' annual Jewish Food and Cultural Festival will be held 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 10 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Admission is free. 

      The festival will include traditional Jewish foods: corned beef sandwiches, kosher hot dogs, cabbage rolls, blintzes, kugel and more, as well as homemade Jewish treats including rugelach, babka, challah, and chocolate-covered matzo. Israeli dishes will include falafel, hummus and Israeli salad.

       The festival will also feature booths on Jewish and Israeli culture.  At the ever-popular Ask-the-Rabbi booth, visitors can learn about Judaism itself, from Jewish holidays to life-cycle customs. At a replica of the Western Wall, visitors can leave a note of prayer, just as people do at the actual wall in Jerusalem. Judaica, jewelry, and other gift items created by local Jewish artists will be on display and for sale. Inflatables and other activities will be available for kids. 

       Entertainment throughout the day will include contemporary and traditional Jewish music by local and regional musicians. Visitors are invited to bring a bag of non-perishable food items to donate to the Arkansas Foodbank. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Jewish Federation's work in the community, which includes allocations to Jewish and non-Jewish charitable organizations, financial assistance to Jews in need, scholarships and other resources for Jewish children and families, and funds to support charitable work in Israel. Tzedakah Boxes (boxes for charity) will be located throughout the stadium for people to deposit tickets they purchased but did not use; proceeds from the boxes will be divided among local charities that Jewish Federation of Arkansas supports.

        For information, contact Marianne Tettlebaum at 663-3571 or director@jewisharkansas.org.

                                                                 Gail Robertson 
                                                                                               Israel Getzov

                                                                                                                                                                   

Little Rock Wind Symphony
      The Little Rock Wind Symphony will present Overtures to a Premier 7:30 - 9 p.m. April 21 at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive.

      The cost is $10, $8 for seniors and free for students.  Israel Getzov will conduct.  Gail Robertson will be featured on the euphonium.

  Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture

            Dimitri Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon Overture

            Aaron Copland: El Salón México

            Paul Hindemith: “March” from Symphonic Metamorphoses

            Matthew Nunes: Concerto for Euphonium   World Premiere     Gail Robertson, euphonium
            Johann Strauss, Jr: Thunder and Lightning Polka

Arkansas Literary Festival
   

      The Arkansas Literary Festival will be held April 14 - 17 at various locations across the city.

      This year's presenters have won an impressive number of distinguished awards and fellowships including a Pulitzer Prize, a James Beard Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, a Hugo Award, a Coretta Scott King Award, a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a Dashiell Hammett Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Houghton Mifflen Literary Fellowship and an Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship.
     Special events include a cocktail reception with the authors, a tour of the Governor's Mansion gardens with a wine and cheese reception, an escape room, and Readers' Map launch party. Panels and sessions include topics such as barbecue, Monopoly, female rocket scientists, travel, graphic novels, science fiction, classic literature and a story told in playing cards.

      Children's special events include a session by Nikki Grimes, an activity hour, a concert by the Kinders and a play based on How the Camel Got His Hump. Festival sessions for children will take place at both the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library and Learning Center, 4800 10th Street, and the Youth Services Department at the Main Library, 100 Rock Street. There will be special events for teens, including a poetry competition, and Writers In The Schools will provide presentations by students in Pulaski County elementary, middle, and senior high schools and from area colleges.

     For information about buying tickets for special events, visit ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org.

     Pictured above is Gregory Pardlo, an American poet whose book, Digest, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.  His first volume of poems, Totem, won the 2007 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize and was a semifinalist for the Walt Whitman Award. 

Turkish Food Festival

      The Turkish Food Festival will be held 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. April 30 at the Raindrop Turkish House, 1501 Market Street.

    This year there will be food and culture booths, dancing, music, a children's area, crafts and more. The festival is organized by Raindrop Turkish House of Little Rock, a non-profit educational, charitable and social organization with a mission of introducing Turkish culture into American society and cultivating friendship and understanding.  

    For more information, call 223-2155 or visit turkishfoodfest.com.

Jazz in the Park
      Jazz in the Park will kick off 6 p.m. April 6 at History Pavilion in Riverfront Park.  It is presented by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and Art Porter Music Education, Inc., which offers scholarships to talented Arkansas music students who wish to further their education while promoting community service and volunteering.

     This free, family-friendly event is open to the public, with performances every Wednesday night in April.

April 06 – Acoustix with Rod P

April 13 – Bijoux Pighee & Band

April 20 – Off the Cuff

April 27 – SynRG

                                                                                               

Little Readers Rock
      Little Readers Rock will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 9 at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center, 4800 West 10th Street.

     The event is free and open to the public. It is hosted by the Junior League of Little Rock and the Head Start State Collaboration Office. The event will include professional storytellers, puppeteers, snacks, music, crafts, make your own book station, greenhouse tours, pet therapy pups, and more. Children ages 3 to 5 will receive free books.

The Kinsey Collection at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center 

     The impressive Kinsey Collection will be shown until July 2 at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West Ninth Street.  The collection includes authentic and rare art, original artifacts, books and documents that help add to a more complete story of the black experience in America. The collection has been featured at the DuSable Museum of African American History, the American Pavilion of Epcot Center at Walt Disney World and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. For more information, visit mosaictemplarscenter.com. 

Sculpture at the River Market 

    Sculpture At The River Market will present its 9th annual Show & Sale April 22-24 in the River Market Pavilions.   Hundreds of sculptures, from internationally recognized artists will be displayed. Tickets for the preview party, 6:30 p.m. April 22, are $100.  The evening will feature food, libations, live entertainment and more, will allow party guests to meet and visit with the artists.  Additionally all patrons at the Preview Party will vote for their favorite proposal from the semi-finalists works for the up to $60,000 Public Art Commission Competition.

     On Saturday and Sunday admission will be free. The sculptures will be on display throughout the weekend in the River Market Pavilions and in the adjacent area of Riverfront Park. For more information, visit sculpureattherivermarket.com.

Wild Wines of the World 

     The Little Rock Zoo will celebrate its 90th birthday 7 - 10 p.m. April 30 with its Wild Wines of the World, one of the state's largest food events with 50 restaurants participating.  There will be more than 200 high-quality wines to sample; the wines will be donated by O'Looney's Wine & Liquor. There will be five live music areas and a chance to meet some of the animals.

    The cost is $75 in advance or $90 a the door.  There is a Reserve Wine Room that costs $150 in advance or $200 at the door.  There will be bulk ticket discounts and sponsor opportunities.  To buy tickets, call 661-7208.

    Proceeds from Wild Wines benefit the Arkansas Zoological Foundation for the Little Rock Zoo to help carry-out its mission of providing engaging experiences that inspire people to value and conserve the natural world. The Foundation has helped build the new Laura P. Nichols Penguin Pointe exhibit, the new Cheetah Outpost, purchase a new train, and open a new Arkansas Farm exhibit.

Supper and Soul 

     Arkansas Baptist College will host its annual cocktail gala, Supper and  Soul, 6 - 10 p.m. April 21 at the Metroplex Event Center in west Little Rock.

    A 6 p.m. reception and silent auction will be followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and then concluding live entertainment from the Bar-Kays and Lakeside. 

     Individual tickets are $250. To purchase tickets or for information on sponsorships, contact Devae’ Lucas at 420-1206 or devae.lucas@arkansasbaptist.edu. Founded in 1884, Arkansas Baptist College is the only historically black institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River.

Paul McCartney 

      Paul McCartney will perform 8 p.m. April 30 at Verizon Arena.

      Unfortunately, almost all of the lower-priced tickets have been sold out.

     This is McCartney’s One on One tour, featuring music from his entire career - as a solo artist, a member of Wings and as a Beatle.

       Sincerely hope you can find tickets.  verizonarena.com.

 Blue Tie Blue Jean Ball 

     The Blue Tie Blue Jean Ball will be held 6:30 - 9 p.m. April 28 at Noah’s Event Venue, 21 Rahling Circle.

    The event includes hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine, music and an auction. It benefits Autism Speaks Arkansas.  Tickets are $45 or $80 a couple. The cost is $400 for a table of 10.  For information or tickets, call Dawn Itzkowitz at 951-0115.

 Downtown Dash

    The 3rd annual Downtown Dash, a 5K/10K running event, will be held 8 a.m. April 23 starting at the Junior League Building on Scott Street. It will feature downtown Little Rock landmarks, such as the River Market, Clinton Library, and Arkansas Arts Center. The race is also handicap and stroller accessible. In addition to the 5K/10K, this year’s event will include a Kids’ 1K event, “Downtown Dash, Jr.” Downtown Dash, Jr. will begin at 10:15 a.m.

     The price is $35.  For more information, visit jllr.org/downtowndash. 

South Main Vintage Market

      April's South Main Vintage Market will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 9 in The Bernice Garden, 1401 South Main downtown.
      The market features only items 20 years old or older, with many mid-century modern pieces, from furniture to kitchenware to clothing.  But some items are newly crafted from vintage components.  The event will include a community piano furnished by McGehee Piano Service.

Arkansas Literary Festival

Arkansas Literary Festival 

      Arkansas Literary Festival 2013 will be held April 18 - 21 in Little Rock and North Little Rock.

      This is the tenth year for the Festival, which features workshops, performances, readings, opportunities to meet authors, book signings and special events. More than 80 presenters will participate. Most of the events are free and will be held in the Central Arkansas Library System's Main Library campus and other venues in the River Market and Argenta. 

      This year's Festival authors have won an impressive number and variety of distinguished awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Newbery Honor, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Coretta Scott King Honor, the PEN/O. Henry Prize; the Pushcart Prize, the Barnes &amp, Noble Discover Prize for Fiction, the Pura Belpré Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. Many of the presenters' works have been translated into multiple languages and made into films.

      Special events include a cocktail reception with the authors, wine workshops, films, a play, and Spoken Word LIVE!, which is a city-wide poetry competition. 

       Children's events include a story time on the lawn of the Governor's Mansion, a book fiesta, The Artmobile, plays, outdoor activities, and Super Hero Activity Afternoon. Some Festival sessions for children will take place at the new Children’s Library, 4800 W. 10th Street, and the Youth Services Department at the Main Library, 100 Rock Street.

       At the Main Library’s teen center, there will be "zombie survival" activities, a video game tournament, and a writing workshop.  Teens will have the opportunity to meet authors and illustrators. 

       Through the Writers In The Schools initiative, the Festival will provide presentations by  authors in Pulaski county elementary, middle, and senior high schools and area colleges.

       The Festival is a project of the Central Arkansas Library System.  Brad Mooy is Festival Coordinator. Jay Jennings is the 2013 Festival Chair.   For more information, email Mr. Mooy at litfest@cals.org, call 918-3098 or visit arkansasliteraryfestival.org.  

      

 Kevin Brockmeier is the author of the novels The Illumination, The Brief History of the Dead, and The Truth About Celia, as well as the story collections Things That Fall from the Sky and The View from the Seventh Layer.  Mr. Brockmeier was born and raised in Little Rock, and he taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he received his MFA. He has won three O. Henry Prizes, along with the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, the Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, the Booker Worthen Literary Prize, and the Porter Fund Literary Prize.  He lives in Little Rock.

Jay Jennings is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has worked at Sports Illustrated and Tennis Magazine, and his work has been recognized in The Best American Sports Writing.   Mr. Jennings has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford American, and Travel + Leisure.  He wrote Carry the Rock: Race, Football, and the Soul of an American City and edited the recent collection Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.

Tim Gallagher is an award-winning author, wildlife photographer, magazine editor, and currently editor-in-chief of Living Bird. Gallagher spent several years traveling across the South, and then had a sighting of the legendary ivory-billed woodpecker. This sighting quickly led to the largest search ever launched to find a rare bird and ultimately to the announcement of the rediscovery of the species. His new book is Imperial Dreams: Tracking the Imperial Woodpecker through the Wild Sierra Madre.

Paula J. Giddings is the Elizabeth A. Woodson Professor of Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Her fourth book, Ida: A Sword Among Lions, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award and was deemed a best book of the year by The  Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.

Ben Fountain has won many awards for his fiction, including a PEN/Hemingway Award for Brief Encounters with Che Guevara.  He has been honored with a Whiting Writer's Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and an O. Henry Award.  His Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction, and a Good Reads Choice Award.  He lives in Dallas.

Ben Katchor is a cartoonist best known for the strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He is the author of the graphic novels Hand-Drying in America: And Other Stories, The Jew of New York, and The Cardboard Valise.   Mr. Katchor teaches at Parsons The New School for Design and has contributed to The New Yorker, The Forward, and Metropolis Magazine. He was the first cartoonist to receive a MacArthur Fellowship and is the subject of the offbeat film Pleasures of Urban Decay. He lives in New York.

Domingo Martinez has worked as a journalist and a designer in Texas and Seattle.  His work has appeared in Epiphany, and he has contributed to The  New Republic.  His book The Boy Kings of Texas was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award in the nonfiction category, and an excerpt from that book has been nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize.  Mr. Martinez lives in Seattle. 

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and grew up in Little Rock. He is the author of more than ten works of fiction, including Rock Springs, Independence Day, and A Multitude of Sins. Independence Day was the first novel to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He has won the Rea Award for Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction. Mr. Ford's  2012 novel, Canada, was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in Boothbay, Maine, and is Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University.

C. D. Wright has published a dozen poetry collections, most recently One With Others, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, winner of the Lenore Marshall Award, and finalist for the National Book Award. Rising, Falling, Hovering won the International Griffin Prize for Poetry. One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, her collaboration with photographer Deborah Luster, was awarded the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize.  Steal Away was on the international shortlist of the Griffin Trust Award, and String Light won the Poetry Center Book Award.  Ms. Wright was born in Mountain Home.  She lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Brown University.  Earlier this year, she was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.







Rita Williams-Garcia is a bestselling author of books for teens and younger readers. Her most recent novel, One Crazy Summer, was named a Newbery Honor Book, a National Book Award Finalist, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and a Scott O'Dell Award winner for Historical Fiction. The sequel, P.S. Be Eleven, will be released in June.  Ms. Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York and teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.










Dennis Vannatta has published four collections of stories and a novel.  He is winner of a Pushcart Prize and the Porter Fund Literary Prize.  His story collections are This Time, This Place, Prayers for the Dead, Lives of the Artists, and Rockaway Children – and a novel, Around Centralia Square. He is a professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Lydia Millet has written nine books and was awarded the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction for her 2002 novel, My Happy Life.  Known for her dark humor and wit, Ms. Millet's first novel, Omnivores, was published in 1996.  She was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Love in Infant Monkeys and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Magnificence.   She was a 2012 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellow.  She lives in Tucson. 

Kevin Moffett is the author of two books, Permanent Visitors, which won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, and Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events. He is a frequent contributor to McSweeney's, and his stories have received the National Magazine Award, the Nelson Algren Award and the Pushcart Prize.  He was awarded a literature fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. The Silent History, a serialized digital novel he wrote with Matthew Derby, Russell Quinn and Eli Horowitz, was released as an app for mobile devices in the fall of 2012.

Darcy Pattison is an Arkansas children's book an author writing teacher.  Her work has been published in eight languages. Her nature book for children Wisdom; The Midway Albatross, was first-place winner in the 2013 Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, Children's Picture Books. Desert Baths, which was a National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book in 2013.  She created the Novel Revision Retreat in 1999 and has written two books on revision.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald and the author of the novels Freeman and Before I Forget.  Nonfiction work includes Becoming Dad: Blackmen and the Journey to Fatherhood  and Forward from This Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2009.  Mr. Pitts is a five- time recipient of the Atlantic City Press Club's National Headliners Award. He has received the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for Commentary Writing and has been named Feature of the Year Columnist by Editor & Publisher.   His nationally syndicated column is published twice weekly.  He lives in Washington, D.C.

Lori Perkins is president of L. Perkins Agency, a New York literary agency, an author, and the publisher of Riverdale Avenue Books, a digital and audio book publisher. She is the editor of Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, as well as twenty erotica anthologies, including Hungry for Your Love, a zombie romance anthology.  She lives in New York City. 

Karen Russell was named a National Book Foundation "5 under 35" young writer honoree and won the Bard Fiction Prize for her story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.  Her novel,  Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was named one of The New York Times' Ten Best Fiction Books of 2011, and won the New York Public Library's  2012 Young Lions Fiction Award. Her newest work is Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a group of stories.  She is writer in residence at Bard College in Red Hook, New York.




For additional profiles, please visit arkansasliteraryfestival.org.