PORTIS PARTY

Arkansas' True Grit author celebrated

Jay Jennings, Harrison Scott Key, Maggie Maye, Roy Blount Jr., Calvin Trillin
Jay Jennings, Harrison Scott Key, Maggie Maye, Roy Blount Jr., Calvin Trillin

It was an evening celebrating Charles Portis and the 50th anniversary of his novel True Grit at Music, Voices & Double-Rectified Busthead: A True Grit Variety Show. The April 21 event was held at Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater.

Guests were welcomed to the variety show by Ryan Harris, executive director of Oxford American magazine. The show was hosted by writer Harrison Scott Key and included music by Iris Dement, and Jay Jennings reading his essay "Ten High" about Jennings' friendship with Portis. There was also comedy by Maggie Maye, a reading by Roy Blount Jr. from his book Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story and Calvin Trillin, who read an essay about a tic-tac-toe playing chicken in homage to the "intellectual chicken" in Portis' novel Norwood.

The show ended with all the entertainers joining Dement on stage and singing "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" which Dement sang for the 2010 True Grit movie.

The evening was the last of three days of activities hosted by Oxford American commemorating True Grit.

High Profile on 04/29/2018

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