CALS Blogs

Kids getting bored during the summer? No worries–we have kids’ programming online, so kids can learn how to make pizza toast while they hear a great story about a dragon pizzeria!

Tui O’Baugh taught second grade for ten years before joining CALS to teach programs at our children’s library. Her know-how, enthusiasm, and warmth have been inspiring kids for two years as she teaches the cooking and storybook class called “Little Kids in the Kitchen.” This hands-on learning experience teaches kids in a dynamic way how they can turn ingredients into delicious foods.

Juliana Flinn is a professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas – Little Rock. She has lived here for 35 years.  Her pastimes include acting in community theater, hiking, practicing yoga, and playing with grandchildren. 

 

I’m a cultural anthropologist, and I’m convinced that the reading I did as a child set me on that path. 

Conjure Women is a Spellbinding Novel of Midwives in Slavery and Reconstruction

Afia Atakora’s debut novel Conjure Women is a rich quilt-work of stories based on a large cast of characters who live through the end of slavery and into the Reconstruction period. An African American mother and daughter,

Beekeeping and Sustainability Education for Young People

If you’ve never visited our Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library, you need to know about this unique treasure in the heart of Little Rock. The CALS Children’s Library was designed in a six-acre natural setting to help young people learn about the natural world and sustainable living.

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) has added Juneteenth to the organization’s paid holiday schedule for employees effective in 2021. The library system notes this is an important step toward building a more equitable community by acknowledging the experiences and obstacles affecting people of color, particularly those in the African American community.

“I can start by imagining how the public library can help us find ways to move our country’s policies closer to her creeds,” wrote CALS Executive Director Nate Coulter in a statement released on June 3 following the killing of George Floyd by an officer in the Minneapolis Police Department.

I teach English, and I’m also a model for conceptual art. I’ve appeared in a few plays at The Weekend Theater and the Arkansas Theatre Festival, and was cast in Lysistrata at The Studio Theater pre-COVID. A couple of years ago, I rediscovered my interest in art, specifically watercolor.

Why We Swim Takes a Luxurious Dive into the Joy, Terror, and Pleasures of the Water

What Bonnie Tsui missed most, when quarantine began, was swimming.

But that wouldn’t surprise anyone who has read her entrancing, elegant fusion of journalism and memoir, Why We Swim.

CALS Staffer Susie Sward likes books, but she wants to recommend a television series as her pick. Humans is a British television show about—what else?—robots. There are some humans in it as well.