On View ~ January 13, 2023–April 1, 2023, regular Gallery hours
Landing Gallery, Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, CALS Roberts Library

Spam enthusiast, U.S. Air Force veteran, and photo-collage artist the Right Reverend Sternodox wages holy war on inter-dimensional reptiles, killer klowns, and the soul-sucking blandness of daily life. His fascinating collages are a reflection of what happens if you stay up too late, drink only air, and consume highly charged free radicals. Masquerading during the day as mild-mannered media editor Michael Keckhaver for the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas,

Central Arkansas Library System and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services have once again teamed up to bring you Lawyers in the Library! Come listen to legal presentations and an opportunity to ask a lawyer your civil legal question.

Monday, February 6, at the McMath Library, lawyers from the Center for Arkansas Legal Services will make a presentation about all things housing. We will be discussing landlord tenant issues, HUD vouchers, and beneficiary deeds. After the presentation will be a short Q&A where we will answer your questions.

Have fun with process art and come dressed to make a mess!

Teens learn to use Microsoft Office, image editing, and more! Please bring your own laptop if possible.

Drop in puzzle club for adults.  Work alone or with others and chat about puzzles, books, and more.  All levels of puzzling skills welcome—a great way to relax!

Stop by the library and enjoy a variety of board games. Ages 12-18.

Practice your reading with a certified therapy dog. For Kindergarten- 12th graders.

English as a second language course.

Community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh will give an overview of Little Rock’s historically Black communities and their enduring significance, while highlighting related materials from the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas and the collections of the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. 

Join Miss Kathy at the Maumelle Library for stories, songs, and a simple craft.

Stories and activities designed for elementary aged kids. A great opportunity to meet local homeschool families.

Teens and tweens work on STEM projects, creative crafts, tech skills, and more.

Teens and tweens can meet after school to enjoy lemonade, do homework, color, listen to music, and socialize.

Science, technology, engineering, art, math, and you.

Ages 5-11

Stop by the library after school and have book chats, create crafts, play games, and nerd out.

Enjoy a fun filled morning of books, music, and fingerplays.

Join local artist Drien Thompson (they/them) for our Black Out art workshops! Engage with poetry, Black history, and art through a variety of creative practices, activities, and mediums. Teens, ages 12 -19, are welcome to attend.

February 1: Poetry

February 8: Collaging Black History

February 15: Illustrating Black Poetry

February 22: DIY Bookmarks

Free play with blocks, magna tiles, marble runs, and more.

Bring your needles or hooks. Any kind of craft is welcome.

Learn a thing or two or just enjoy the company.

Teens can join Stefanie at the Maumelle Library for video games, board games, and music in the meeting room.

Join us to make festive Valentine cards for people you care about! For K-6th graders.

Book – South to America by Imani Perry

Register to Attend Virtually

WHAT?

This six-month book club will explore issues around the history of race relations and our collective memory of the South in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

WHEN?

Each session, on the second Thursday of the month, will include a brief presentation by a local scholar followed by a discussion of the book.

Join Anne for a spirited discussion of The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens.

Sit down and enjoy G- or PG-rated family friendly movies.

Featured artist: Soyoon Ahn, a potter from Russellville. More about her here: https://cals.org/galleries/soyoon-ahn/

Featured Author: Janis F. Kearney, who will have several of her books for sale, including her most recent book, Only on Sundays: Mahalia Jackson’s Long Journey. More about Kearney here: https://www.janisfkearney.com/

Featured Music: Kami Renee (R&B and pop keyboards and bass)

OPENING EXHIBITION

Sulac and SLUGKNIVES: Super Crush
Loft Gallery,

Friday, February 10, to Saturday, May 27
Loft Gallery, CALS Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library
Regular Galleries Hours

Unveiling new artworks by local artists Sulac and SLUGKNIVES, this exhibition presents a split-screen reality check featuring works that prowl the edges of the art world like candy-colored heartworms. This is the perfect event to celebrate with your best Valentine friend or nemesis.

Knit and crochet for beginners or experts. Yarn and hook will be provided or you can bring your own projects to work on.

Come learn about the activism of rural Black women in Arkansas that centered around Home Demonstration Clubs in the early twentieth century. Community Outreach Archivist Danielle Afsordeh will give the historical overview, and Adult Programmer Fabio Delgado will give an introduction to water bath canning.   

Join us for a Valentine’s Day celebration. Kids of all ages are invited to join.

Activities include decorating rude conversation heart cookies, blackout anti-love poetry from recycled paperback books, and other loveless art with miscellaneous art supplies. For 7th-12th graders.

Community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh will give an overview of Little Rock’s historically Black communities and their enduring significance, while highlighting related materials from the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas and the collections of the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. 

Let your imagination fly as you build with Terry’s Lego collection. What will you build? For K-6th graders.

Join Anne in the Maumelle Library meeting room to make alcohol-ink tile coasters. Registration is required.

Share your love of plants and share your seeds! Seeds, rooted cuttings, fresh cuts, and full plants from both indoor and outdoor plants are welcome. Seeds from the McMath seed library will also be available.

Trades only, no sales.

A representative of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service that seeks to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own, will be at the McMath Library from 9AM to 12PM on Wednesday, February 22. They will be there to offer free assistance or advice with your federal tax problems.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS. TAS is here to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own.

Join us for this cozy, virtual book club centered on the stories and experience of immigration.

To register for this event, click here.

Questions? Contact Bekah Smith at 501.918.3000 or rasmith@cals.org

Check out this month’s book, American Street by Ibi Zoboi

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life.

A representative of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service that seeks to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own, will be at the Terry Library from 2PM to 5PM on Wednesday, February 22. They will be there to offer free assistance or advice with your federal tax problems.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS. TAS is here to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own.

A representative of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service that seeks to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own, will be at the East Room of Main Library from 9AM to 12PM on Thursday, February 23. They will be there to offer free assistance or advice with your federal tax problems.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS.

A representative of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service that seeks to protect your rights as a taxpayer and help you with tax problems you can’t resolve on your own, will be at the Dee Brown Library from 2PM to 5PM. on Thursday, February 23. They will be there to offer free assistance or advice with your federal tax problems.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS.

Join us for a Black History Month craft where we will learn to paint in the style of Alma Thomas, the first Black female artist to have a solo exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. For K-6th graders.

Let’s learn to make bread together! Ages 5-12

Do you want to learn how to make your own candles from scratch? Come learn the valuable skill of candle making at the Main Library on the 5th floor. This program will introduce patrons to the basics of making hand-poured candles with natural materials. Patrons will get to take their own candle creations home to enjoy.

Registration required. Register online or email lapeters@cals.org

Come have some fun playing tabletop games and/or working a puzzle with friends at the library.

Ages: 6-11

The Game and Puzzle Club meets the fourth Tuesday of each month at 4:00PM

Dates     January 24 |  February 28 |  March 28

Join us for a cup of coffee and a conversation about how we can better understand and empower the unsheltered population. Refreshments will be served.

Learn about the history of women and embroidery in Arkansas from community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh, and create a beginner embroidery piece in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Please register at the Nixon Library check-out desk or by phone at 501-457-5038.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and Opal Mitchell, Assistant Manager and Adult Programmer at CALS Nixon Library, will conduct this program at the Nixon Library.

THIS SESSION FOR FRIENDS OF CALS MEMBERS ONLY

The Friends of CALS Used Book Sale will take place March 9-11!

Used Book Sale hours are:
Thursday, March 9, 5pm – 7pm (Friends of CALS members only)
Friday, March 10, 10am – 6pm
Saturday, March 11, 10am – 4pm

Most books at the Used Book Sale are priced at $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks. Book totes will be available for purchase as well.

Book – The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Register to Attend Virtually

WHAT?

This six-month book club will explore issues around the history of race relations and our collective memory of the South in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

WHEN?

Each session, on the second Thursday of the month,

The Friends of CALS Used Book Sale will take place March 9-11!

Used Book Sale hours are:
Thursday, March 9, 5pm – 7pm (Friends of CALS members only)
Friday, March 10, 10am – 6pm
Saturday, March 11, 10am – 4pm

Most books at the Used Book Sale are priced at $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks. Book totes will be available for purchase as well. Revenue generated will go to the Friends of CALS fund to support the Six Bridges Book Festival,

Learn about how Arkansas women assisted on the home front and abroad during World War I and World War II from community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh while we eat a packed lunch for National Pack Your Lunch Day.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, will conduct this program at the Milam Library.

The Friends of CALS Used Book Sale will take place March 9-11!

Used Book Sale hours are:
Thursday, March 9, 5pm – 7pm (Friends of CALS members only)
Friday, March 10, 10am – 6pm
Saturday, March 11, 10am – 4pm

Most books at the Used Book Sale are priced at $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks. Book totes will be available for purchase as well. Revenue generated will go to the Friends of CALS fund to support the Six Bridges Book Festival,

Learn about the fight for women’s suffrage in Arkansas from community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh, and create reproductions of suffrage pennants in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Registration is required and is limited to 25 attendees. Please register at the Terry Library check-out desk or by phone at 501-228-0129.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and Fabio Delgado, Adult Programmer at CALS Terry Library,

Central Arkansas Library System and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services have once again teamed up to bring you Lawyers in the Library! Come listen to legal presentations and an opportunity to ask a lawyer your civil legal question.

Thursday, March 16, at the Millie Brooks Library, lawyers from Center for Arkansas Legal Services will be available to discuss such topics as Criminal Record Sealing, Divorce and Custody, Public Benefits like SNAP and SSI, Contract disputes and Debt Collection,

Join us in the greenhouse to learn about women’s home front work to sow victory gardens in Arkansas during wartime from community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh, and learn how to create a victory garden of your own in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and Patrice O’Donoghue at CALS Children’s Library will conduct this program at the Children’s Library Greenhouse and Garden.

Learn about the fight for the creation and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Arkansas from community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh, and create reproductions of vintage women’s movement campaign buttons from the CALS Butler Center collection in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, will conduct this program with CALS Rooker Library Adult Programmer/Assistant Manager Sarah Turner at Rooker Library.

Join us for this cozy, virtual book club centered on the stories and experience of immigration.

To register for this event, click here.

Questions? Contact Bekah Smith at 501.918.3000 or rasmith@cals.org

Check out this month’s book, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

Who’s really behind America’s appetite for foods from around the globe? This group biography from an electric new voice in food writing honors seven extraordinary women,

Learn some tips and tricks for managing your family’s historic photographs and documents and scan a few using CALS Roberts Library’s Mobile Memory Lab with CALS Roberts Library staff members Heather Register Zbinden and Danielle Afsordeh.

Danielle Afsordeh, Community Outreach Archivist at the CALS Roberts Library/Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, will conduct this program with CALS Roberts Library Website & Programs Coordinator Heather Register Zbinden at Brooks Micro Library.

Las conversaciones sobre la libertad de expresión en el campus a menudo se enmarcan en oposición a la diversidad y la inclusión y han generado controversias, protestas e incluso violencia. En 2017, una encuesta muy citada de más de 3000 estudiantes universitarios realizada por Gallup y la Fundación John S. y James L. Knight presentó la diversidad y la inclusión como algo opuesto a la libertad de expresión. La encuesta preguntó a los estudiantes sobre qué tema creían que era más importante;

Conversations about free speech on campus are often framed in opposition to diversity and inclusion and have spawned controversies, protests, and even violence. In 2017, a much-cited survey of more than 3,000 college students conducted by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation presented diversity and inclusion as directly opposite free speech. The survey asked students which issue they felt was more important; 53% chose inclusion, and 46% chose free speech. In today’s contentious and divided political environment,

Book – Markham Street: The Haunting Truth Behind the Murder of My Brother, Marvin Leonard Williams by Ronnie Williams

Register to Attend Virtually

WHAT?

This six-month book club will explore issues around the history of race relations and our collective memory of the South in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

WHEN?

Each session, on the second Thursday of the month,

Central Arkansas Library System and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services have once again teamed up to bring you Lawyers in the Library! Come listen to legal presentations and an opportunity to ask a lawyer your civil legal question.

Join us for a presentation on Saturday, April 15, at the Milam Library to learn more about legal issues that may affect your family. We will be discussing divorces, orders of protection, custody and visitation, guardianships, and support. After the presentation will be a short Q&A where we will answer your questions.

Conversations about free speech on campus are often framed in opposition to diversity and inclusion and have spawned controversies, protests, and even violence. In 2017, a much-cited survey of more than 3,000 college students conducted by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation presented diversity and inclusion as directly opposite free speech. The survey asked students which issue they felt was more important; 53% chose inclusion, and 46% chose free speech. In today’s contentious and divided political environment,

Book – American Atrocity: The Types of Violence in Lynching by Guy Lancaster

Register to Attend Virtually

WHAT?

This six-month book club will explore issues around the history of race relations and our collective memory of the South in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

WHEN?

Each session, on the second Thursday of the month, will include a brief presentation by a local scholar followed by a discussion of the book.

Central Arkansas Library System and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services have once again teamed up to bring you Lawyers in the Library! Come listen to legal presentations and an opportunity to ask a lawyer your civil legal question.

The Center for Arkansas Legal Services will hold a record sealing clinic from 10AM-3PM on Friday, May 19, at the Dee Brown Library. You MUST bring a copy of your ACIC and disposition documents to have your records sealed.

Book – Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Register to Attend Virtually

WHAT?

This six-month book club will explore issues around the history of race relations and our collective memory of the South in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

WHEN?

Each session,