Month: June 2020

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 shut everything down, 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.

On June 30, the CALS Ron Robinson Theater will host a cool virtual screening and visit from filmmaker Dave Campfield and his comedy collaborator Paul Chomicki. The two partners are responsible for the comedy-horror series that begins with Caesar and Otto’s Summer Camp Massacre, which will screen that night along with Dave and Paul’s commentary about indie filmmaking and the making of this particular series.

Sign Up Now for Fun, Virtual Activities, and Prizes

Summer Reading Club is back! Kids, teens, and adults can sign up for our fun reading program and earn badges and prizes for reading and activities.

Kids can keep up their reading over the summer, so when they go back to school they’re all bright-eyed and ready to learn.