Category: News Features

Believing in Second Chances at Record-Sealing Day

It’s hard to say what’s more moving about a record-sealing clinic: the faces of those people who just got a fresh chance, or the kindness of the crowd of volunteers and staffers who showed up to help them start over.

This fall, the CALS Dee Brown Library hosted a record-sealing day coordinated by the Center for Arkansas Legal Services with the help of the Pulaski County Clerk’s Office,


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Getting Spicy at Ladies’ Salsa Night

A cheerful group of women listened to peppy salsa music while teacher Courtney Frazier Jones showed them how to put some extra style in their moves. It was salsa dance class—at the CALS Terry Library!

“Make it curvy as you bring that hip around!” Courtney said.

Everybody smiled a curvy kind of smile.


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Fearless at the Fringes: DebiLynn Fendley

Circus of the Imaginings Opens December 13

DebiLynn Fendley makes artwork that is profound and existential in theme, and often classical in technique. In person, she is playfully effervescent, a great conversationalist, and inclined to a sardonic sense of humor.

There’s no contradiction between her serious work and her humorous character.


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Ways to Give to Your Central Arkansas Library System

Your donation helps us keep thousands of programs and millions of free resources available to everyone in our communities. Whether you can give $10 or a larger donation, every contribution makes a difference.

Community support ensures continuing high quality for vital offerings such as collection acquisitions, which are challenging today’s public library budgets as publishers charge libraries higher prices for popular digital items such as audiobooks and e-books.


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Symbols and Shamans: Experience the Art of Matthew Castellano

Matthew Castellano talks fast. He has to keep up with the speed at which his creative ideas are tumbling through his thoughts. Talking to him is a lightning-quick trip through evocative phrases. He’ll mention a powerful folklore archetype in his work, but without elaborating, trusts the listener to get the full meaning from his quick riff,


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Last Days to See the Dazzle and Glamour of Byron Werner’s Art

Shiny. Mysterious. Opulent. Old Hollywood. Intriguing. These are just a few words that may come to mind when you walk through the Bookstore at Library Square, where Byron Werner’s art exhibition is in its closing days. The show will close at 5:00 p.m. on Halloween night, this Thursday, October 31. Don’t miss this last chance to see it!


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Why to Write a Novel in a Month

National Novel Writing Month is upon us, as of November 1st! And while the internet is full of advice on how to write a novel in a month, it’s also worth considering why you might want to do it.

In 2011, I wrote a novel in November, though that’s putting it a bit loosely.


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Dee Brown’s Typewriter: Rewriting Native American History

Stained, a little battered, but still working—the typewriter of famed Arkansas author Dee Brown has emerged from our archives. The machine now reposes grimy and authentic under glass at the CALS Dee Brown Library. It may even be the typewriter Brown used to write his shattering, iconic history of the American West, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.


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