Local notes

Courtesy photo "RENT" -- In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway -- and forever changed the landscape of American theater. And now, this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece returns to the stage in a vibrant 20th anniversary touring production March 2-4 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. Information: (479) 443-5600.
Courtesy photo "RENT" -- In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway -- and forever changed the landscape of American theater. And now, this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece returns to the stage in a vibrant 20th anniversary touring production March 2-4 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. Information: (479) 443-5600.

Kjer speaks on LA parks

Tori Kjer will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday 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 and Design lecture series.

Kjer is the program director for The Trust for Public Land's Los Angeles Program. She guides the organization's diverse work across Los Angeles County, improving the quality of life for Angelenos through new and improved green alleys, urban parks and open spaces.

She is the 2018 Verna C. Garvan Distinguished Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture in the Fay Jones School.

In her lecture, titled "Parks for People: Stories of Park Design and Landscape Architecture Advocacy from Los Angeles," Kjer will discuss how high-quality parks and close-to-home open spaces provide a wide range of benefits to urban residents and cities themselves, including economic, physical and mental health, community-building and environmental benefits. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) works to ensure everyone has access to a great park within a 10-minute walk of their home and easy access to green spaces and wilderness. In urban areas, TPL works in low-income, park-poor neighborhoods to create and improve parks and remake unused, polluted alleys into green public spaces.

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

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

Author talks Feb. 4 at FPL

Guy Lancaster, editor of Bullets and Fire: Lynching and Authority in Arkansas, 1840--1950, will speak at 2 p.m. Feb. 4 the Fayetteville Public Library.

The book features chapters by 10 contributors from across Arkansas and the United States who cover various aspects of lynching in Arkansas, from the little-studied lynching of slaves to the role the state's congressional representatives and senators played in forestalling anti-lynching legislation at the national level.

"These last few years have seen much debate regarding America's history of race relations, most notably the meaning of slavery and the Civil War," said Lancaster. "Our vision of the future always affects what lessons we take from the past, but any analysis of our shared past must be unflinching. We must acknowledge those stories and those events which have, for far too long, been pushed into darkened corners and forgotten."

Lancaster believes that his new book marks only the beginning of the study of racial violence in Arkansas. "Many other scholars are currently investigating specific events or trying to broaden our perspective with wider analyses," he said. "The more we study, the more we'll realize needs further research."

The signing will is free and open to the public.

Lancaster serves as the editor of the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System. His previous book, Racial Cleansing in Arkansas, 1883--1924: Politics, Land, Labor, and Criminality, received the Booker Worthen Literary Prize and two awards from the Arkansas Historical Association.

All royalties from the sale of Bullets and Fire will go to the Arkansas Historical Association to endow a scholarship in the name of the late C. Calvin Smith, a professor of history at Arkansas State University and the first African American faculty member hired by the university.

Information: (479) 575-3583.

Blood center seeks donors

Winter weather and frigidly cold temperatures in mid-January severely impacted the area's blood supply. Community Blood Center of the Ozarks' blood reserves are low for virtually all blood types. Donations are needed now in order to restore three-day reserves for use by area patients.

You can help by giving blood at these upcoming blood drives:

•Green Forest: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday, Green Forest High School, 800 Phillips Ave.

•Siloam Springs: Noon-6 p.m. Monday, John Brown University, 2000 W. University

•Eureka Springs: 1-6 p.m. Tuesday, Inn of the Ozarks, Highway 62 West

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

Baseball around the stove

The Bella Vista Historical Museum will be hosting a Hot Stove League meeting at 2 p.m. today. All baseball fans are welcome to share their favorite stories “around the hot stove.”

Special guest will be Elwin Roe, son of “Preacher Roe” who was a major league pitcher with the Cardinals, Pirates and Dodgers in the 1938-1954 years. Moderator will be Steve Morrow. The museum is located at 1885 Bella Vista Way, next door to the American Legion.

Information: (479) 644-9769.

NAN Profiles on 01/28/2018

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