Local Notes

Chain saw safety workshop topic

The Benton County Conservation District is hosting a free chain saw safety workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. April 7 at the Gentry Fire Station, primarily aimed at emergency responders and road crews plus anyone who operates a chainsaw. Lunch will be provided.

This program has been approved by the Arkansas Fire Academy to count as eight certified training hours.

Registration: (479) 273-2622, Ext. 3 or email [email protected] by April 1.

Flex 'n Stretch starts session

A new session of the Flex 'n Stretch exercise program is scheduled to begin March 31 at Highlands Church, 371 Glasgow Road in Bella Vista.

Flex 'n Stretch is a program of exercises designed to help maintain flexibility and control in muscles and joints. It's low-impact exercise that many people find very helpful. The class is appropriate for both men and women. Trained instructors teach this 10-week program, with classes starting at 7:30 a.m. each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The class is open to everyone. The fee is $45. Persons interested may attend the first week of the session at no cost to sample the class.

Information: (479) 855-2277.

Poetry celebrated in month of April

Fayetteville will be officially celebrating National Poetry Month for the first time this April with poetry events for all ages, thanks to a joint effort from the Fayetteville Public Library, KUAF, and local poet Houston Hughes. Over 15 poetry-related activities such as performances, film screenings, and writing workshops are planned over the course of the just 30 days. Special performances will include the FPL Author Series: An Evening with Maya Angelou and later in the month a performance by two time World Poetry Slam champion Buddy Wakefield.

National Poetry Month carries deep Arkansas roots, having been first officially proclaimed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996. While Fayetteville has hosted poetry related events in celebration before, this will be the first time there has been a concerted effort to celebrate the entire month.

The co-ordination began with Hughes, who took up the reins when he found out there was no celebration officially planned; the Fayetteville Public Library had already scheduled Maya Angelou for April 11.

The library will play host to most of the month's events, starting with a parade to the square on April 3 for First Thursday. The public are encouraged to dress as characters from a favorite poem or rhyme (or their favorite poet) and parade from the library to the Fayetteville square, where a mayoral proclamation will be presented. The proclamation will be followed by a special children's performance, "Blues Funs" presented by the Ozark Blues Society, and readings from select local poets.

The rest of the month will be packed with activities, including a performance by two-time World Poetry Slam champion Buddy Wakefield, free poetry writing and performance workshops for young children, teens and adults, and a screening of poetry-related documentaries, including the award-winning film "Louder than a Bomb."

Additionally, a number of monthly poetry events around the city will be having special activities, such as a lyric writing panel discussing with Candy Lee and other local musicians, Ozark Poets and Writers Collective hosting a reading from Fayetteville HIgh School's Connotations and the Burning Chair Poetry Reading Series hosting a release of new collections from two local authors. The capstone for the official celebration will be Last Saturday, which will have a number of special guests and double its monthly poetry slam prize to $100 for whoever performs the two best poems, as judged by the audience.

Schedule: www.faylib.com/poetrymonthfayetteville.

College Art Club discusses heroines

The Art Club at NorthWest Arkansas Community College will host a film screening of "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines" from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on April 14.

The screening of the 2012 documentary film by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan will be in Room 108 of the Becky Paneitz Student Center on the College's Bentonville campus. The presentation was originally scheduled for early March, but the event was postponed to April because of inclement weather.

The event is being held in conjunction with the college's Spring Arts Festival and Women's History Month. The public is invited.

A panel discussion will follow the screening. Panelists include William Allred, Joseph Askins, Bethany Hollis and Susan M. Marren. The audience will be invited to participate in the discussion, and Lindsay Hutton of the NWACC English department will moderate.

Admission to the event is free to the public, but donations in any amount to the Art Club are appreciated. Donations help fund Art Club events, programming and the club's annual field trip.

There will be a display of graphic novels featuring strong female protagonists and a slide show of noteworthy superheroines on the television in the college library for the entire month of March.

Information: Email Stephanie Lewis at [email protected].

Affordable care topic at library

Bentonville Public Library will host Brandie Cooper, an in-person guide with Friendship Community Care, to discuss how to enroll in healthcare coverage from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Rotary Conference Room.

The Arkansas Insurance Department is partnering with the federal government to establish the insurance marketplace where individuals, families and small businesses can compare qualified health insurance plans in Arkansas and choose the plan that best meets their needs.

Registration is not required, and the event is free. The public is encouraged to attend.

Information: (479) 271-3192 or visit www.bentonvillelibrary.org.

Designer speaks on workplaces

Verda Alexander will present a lecture titled "The Invisible Workplace: Design for How We Work (and Think)" at 5:30 p.m. March 31 in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture lecture series.

Alexander is the co-founder and principal of Studio O+A, an interiors firm in San Francisco that specializes in workplace design. From its beginnings more than 23 years ago O+A has been at the forefront of new thinking about how design shapes the way we all work and live. Alexander's experience as a visual artist has been a big part of that new thinking. In both fine art and design, her work emphasizes experimentation and narrative as it relates to architecture. Her projects include unique work environments at PayPal, Facebook and MTV, as well as experimental pop-up installations in San Francisco and Charleston, S.C.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

Information: (479) 575-4704 or architecture.uark.edu.

Blood Center seeks donors

Community Blood Center of the Ozarks will hold blood drives at the following locations:

mBella Vista: 2-6 p.m. Wednesday, Bella Vista Assembly of God, 1771 Forest Hills Boulevard

mBerryville: 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Bethel AM Church & School, 879 County Road 601

mEureka Springs: 1:30-6:30 p.m. Friday, Eureka Springs High School, 2 Lake Lucerne Road

mFayetteville: 1-5 p.m. Tuesday, Ozarks Electric, 3641 Wedington Drive

mFayetteville: 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Washington County Courthouse, 280 N. College Ave.

mFayetteville: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, 1100 N. College Ave.

mFayetteville: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Airways Freight Corporation, 3849 W. Wedington Road

Information: www.cbco.org or (800) 280-5337.

Send news about local events, charity fundraisers and family or class reunions to [email protected]. Deadline is 4 p.m. Tuesday for Sunday publication.