Meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month.

Members read a single book for discussion at the meeting. Contact Ginann at gswindle@cals.org for more information.

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

Learn a thing or two or just enjoy the company

Come and read to a therapy dog at Tail Waggin’ Tutors the first Tuesday of every month at the Thompson Library from 4 to 5 pm.

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

Discover, build, and create using various materials.

Join Teens 4 InQlusion as we welcome local artist Kennedy Parks (they/them). Kennedy will teach you how to screen print a design onto a piece of clothing that you get to take home. Ages 12-19.

Bring your creativity to the library to build cool creations. Legos will be provided.

Teddy bears and other stuffed animals are invited to camp out at the library overnight. What kind of mischief will they get into?

Drop off: 10 am – 4 pm, Friday, September 9

Pick Up: 10 am – 4 pm, Saturday, September 10

Enjoy listening to stories, singing songs, and making a craft. Ages 3-5.

Opening Kick-off celebration. Participants will learn about Hispanic cultures through music, performance, crafts, and games.

Celebración del Kick-off de apertura. Los participantes aprenderán sobre las culturas hispanas a través de la música, presentaciones, manualidades y juegos.

Come to Terry Library in your pajamas for a teddy bear program! Enjoy story time, singing songs, dancing, and doing a fun craft project. Your teddy bear/stuffed animal are invited to stick around for a sleepover at the library.

Space is limited – registration is required.

Pick up your stuffed animal on Monday, September 12 along with a goodie bag.

Share your love of plants and share your seeds!  Full plants, rooted cuttings, and fresh cuts are all acceptable to bring for trade. Commercial seeds and items from the McMath seed library will be provided. Call 501-225-0066 to reserve a table.

Join us every first Saturday of the months for Teens 4 InQlusion, a community space centering on LGBTAIA+ teens. Teens of all sexualities and gender identities, ages 12-18, are welcome! Find us on Level 4 or email Jet at jbutler@cals.org to join us virtually on Discord.

Express yourself with Teens 4 InQlusion! Decorate and make your own pronoun pins to wear proudly. Tweens and teens of all genders and sexualities are welcome.

DIY your own scented candles. Ages 12-19.

Make unique decorations to personalize your locker.

InQlusive Reading Lounge program. Featuring and giving away free copies of Lakelore by Anna-Maria McLemore, a nonbinary Latine author.

Open to teens of all genders and sexualities, 12-19 years old.

Programa InQlusive Reading Lounge. Presentando y regalando copias gratuitas de Lakelore de Anna-Maria McLemore, una autora latina no binaria.

Abierto a adolescentes de todos los géneros y sexualidades, de 12 a 19 años.

Read our InQlusive manga of the month or bring your own book while we read alone, together. A limited number of free copies of each title is available. Snacks provided, open to all teens, ages 12-19.

The featured title for August is Boys Run the Riot (Vol. 1)

The featured title for September is Lakelore.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by creating a kaleidoscopic painting guided by artist Jake Jackson. The program is limited to 10 participants and registration is required. Call 501-225-0066 to reserve your spot.

Central AR Nature Center is an expansive nature center showcasing the fish & wildlife in Arkansas through exhibits, trails & programs. On Thursday, September 15 @ 4:30pm, kids (grades 3rd-6th) are welcome to learn all about the bears in Arkansas in this fun and informative presentation!

Join Anne in the Maumelle Library meeting room to create your very own book of spells!

Heather Zbinden, programs and website coordinator, and Danielle Afsordeh, community outreach archivist, will give an overview of the Roberts Library Memory Lab, personal archiving programming, and oral history toolkits, as well as genealogy resources available through CALS. Afsordeh will also share some tips on conducting oral history interviews with family members who have immigrated to the United States from Mexico and Latin America.

Register for Webinar

“Change the Painting” We’ll be painting over already painted canvases to see what creations we can manifest. Let your imagination fly! Limited space, registration required.

The Central Arkansas Library System and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services have once again teamed up to offer Lawyers in the Library! Come listen to legal presentations and an opportunity to ask a lawyer your civil legal question. Topics include Criminal Record Sealing and Public Benefits like SNAP and SSI, and will end with a record-sealing clinic.

Record Sealing – Come see us to learn about getting your criminal record sealed. An attorney from the Center for Arkansas Legal Services will be speaking about the kinds of criminal charges that can be sealed,

Practice your reading with a certified therapy dog.

At Socrates Café, participants propose questions and vote to decide the evening’s topic to explore questions from their lives through public non-academic dialog.

CALS is celebrating National Voter Registration Day on September 20! You can register to vote at any CALS location. Just ask for a form, fill it out while you’re there, and we’ll send it in for you.

Have your voice heard!

Learn how to make kombucha and take home a SCOBY starter to make kombucha at home for years to come.

Space is limited – registration is required.

Join us for a conversation with prolific British-American writer, journalist, and consummate adventurer Simon Winchester. This author talk will cover many aspects of his work across myriad fields of history, technology, and geology as well as the author’s personal expeditions, including his path to becoming the acclaimed best selling author he is today. A master storyteller, Winchester’s narrative is like a journey through time. His keen intellect and ability to precisely and expertly weave everyday life into historical examination leaves his readers feeling awestruck at the world surrounding them.

Watch anime and eat themed snacks.

Envision your true self, discover your won gender euphoria, and create the masterpiece that is you! The workshop centers on trans experiences and joy-but artists of all genders, sexualities, and skill levels are welcome. Supplies are provided, but limited. Email Jet at jbutler@cals.org to sign up. Ages 8-18.

Celebrate National Honey Month by examining an observation bee hive and sampling honey.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month as this duet performs music from Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain, Mexico, and more. All ages welcome.

As you age, changes affect your lung tissue, muscles and bones, which all impact your breathing, and this is even more of an issue for those who smoke. Sierra Whitbey of the American Lung Association will present information on the importance of lung cancer screenings for Arkansans aged 50 and older, the criteria to get screened, and what a lung cancer screening looks like. This presentation will be through the American Lung Association and the Arkansas Tobacco Education Initiative.

Register Now

ON VIEW Friday, June 10–Saturday, September 24
Landing Gallery, Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library

Many of the places that inspired these simple abstract landscapes of land, water, and sky are in Arkansas and Alabama, especially in the wetlands area of upper Mobile Bay. Artist Allen Jarvis uses objects like yardsticks, rulers, and brightly colored protractors—affixed to reclaimed wood—to build the playful bridges and manmade structures from memory, creating joyful paintings that remind him of the journeys that inspired them.

Join Nick Dial, Botanist at ARDOT, as he presents a program on the importance of pollinators and the benefits of growing your own food.

Have fun with friends as you figure out puzzles & riddles to escape the library.  Afterwards, enjoy ooey gooey snacks that go perfect with creepy campout tales!  Ages 12-18.

Calm, quiet time with soft music and low lighting. Coloring pages and jigsaw puzzles provided.

Performance by Ballet Quetzalli and taste of traditional food.

Actuación del Ballet Quetzalli y degustación de comida tradicional.

Join us for an afternoon with Pulitzer Prize finalist and PEN/Faulkner Award winner Hernan Diaz, author of In the Distance and Trust. Diaz holds a Ph.D. from NYU and edits, the Spanish-language journal Revista Hispánica Moderna, at Columbia University.

Diaz’s new book, Trust, is set during the roar of the 1920s around the Wall Street tycoon Benjamin Rask and his wife, Helen. Together, they have risen to the top of the world of seemingly endless wealth–all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end.

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

August 23

September 27

October 25

November 22

December 27

Let’s make art with paint! Each week we will use different techniques to paint amazing art to display. Ages 5-12.

This program is for our home-schooled.

We explore ideas and lean into STEAM fun.

Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m.

Sip punch while you complete a guided painting.

Hang out with Teens 4 InQlusion’s delightfully queer craft circle! Ages 12-19

Series of crafts celebrating Latinx cultures. Learn how to create sugar skulls. This is an tween/teen program.

Serie de manualidades que celebran las culturas latinas. Aprende a crear calaveras de azúcar. Este es un programa para preadolescentes/adolescentes.

We craft with all kinds of materials!

For school ages K-12

Thursdays after school at 4:15 p.m.

Join us in a 5-week series to study and create works in the style of famous Hispanic artists. We will learn about Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Diego Rivers, Jean-Michael Basquiat, and Frida Kahlo. Children of all ages and their families are welcome to attend.

Program for ages 6-12. Space is limited Space is limited so registration is required. Contact Terry Library at 501-228-0129 for more details.

Grab-n-go goody bag for the kids to make feathered Carnaval.

Programa para edades de 6 a 12 años. El espacio es limitado El espacio es limitado, por lo que es necesario registrarse. Comuníquese con Terry Library al 501-228-0129 para obtener más detalles.

Bolsa de regalos para llevar para que los niños hagan un Carnaval emplumado.

What do native bees need from us? Listen to Leslie Cooper, Arkansas Monarch and Pollinator Coordinator with Quail Forever, and host Lynn Foster discuss what you can do in your yard to provide food and habitat for the many species of native bees in central Arkansas. Did you know that more than 90% of bee species are solitary? That 70% of bee species live in the ground? And that honeybees aren’t native to North America? Get to know our 4000 species of North American native bees and bring your questions!

Speaker: Maria Escobar

Grounded in her own experience growing up as the child of Mexican immigrants in northwest Arkansas, Escobar examines how Hispanic and Latinx young adults in a “new immigrant destination” and “second-generation sundown towns” seek belonging and safety in public spaces and institutional settings that sometimes exclude them.

Register for Webinar

Maria Escobar is a sociology professor at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. She was raised in northwest Arkansas and graduated from Springdale High School in 2014.

Have fun playing, building, experimenting, and discovering using various materials. Ages 3-5.

Ever wanted to do a deep dive into D&D? Now’s your chance! Join Ashley every Friday to craft your character, join a campaign, and build stories together. Ages 12-19

We play different Table-Top Role Playing Games. Spots are limited, so make sure to register by emailing Emery at ejohnson@cals.org. Ages 16 & up.

Do you have the jokes or funny skills to make people laugh? Each Friday you have the opportunity to test your skills and try to win a prize. Take a turn at keeping a straight face, too!

CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies PRESENTS

Annual Genealogy Workshop featuring Lori Thornton

This event will be hybrid. Participants can attend in person or participate virtually via Zoom the day of the event.

THIS EVENT WILL NOT BE RECORDED AND WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE TO VIEW LATER.

How to participate

In-person: This event will be held in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater located at Library Square in downtown Little Rock.

ON VIEW Friday, June 10–Saturday, October 1
Underground Gallery, Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library

In this exhibition featuring four artists who first met each other in the University of Central Arkansas Art Department over a decade ago, Kristen Spickard, Barbara Satterfield, Britynn Davis, and Deborah Kuster have come together again to showcase their artistic responses to nature and backyard experiences.

As an apartment dweller,

Add some fun to your Saturday with a BONUS storytime this week!

Aikido also known as “The Art of Peace” is a modern Japanese martial art system of throwing, joint-locking, striking, and pinning techniques. The class will be led by Brant Collins. He holds a black belt in Aikido as well as a background in Karate and Judo.

No uniform is required. Please wear comfortable workout attire.

Movie Day featuring McFarland USA.

Día de la película con McFarland USA.

Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game using pen, paper, dice, and your imagination. The game is open to anyone 18 or older. Registration is required by emailing Emery at ejohnson@cals.org.

Mosquita y Mari, a film about budding feelings between two Chicana high schoolers.

Mosquita y Mari, una película sobre los sentimientos incipientes entre dos estudiantes de secundaria Chicana.

Join us for storytime with some nursery rhymes, singing and movement followed by some sensory play and socialization.  Every Monday at 1o am at the Thompson Library.

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

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!

*Puzzles provided but donations of complete puzzles in good condition are appreciated*

Otakus, unite! Watch new anime and old favorites with your fellow nerds on Level 4. Join us on October 3rd–Fullmetal Alchemist day! Ages 12-19.

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.

ON VIEW Friday, August 12–Saturday, October 29, 2022
Loft Gallery, CALS Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library

O…Is for Ozarks is made up of large pictures inspired by artist Steven Wise’s study of the Ozark Mountains, the natural surroundings in which he lives and which he considers home. These new works derive from his exploration of the natural world of northwest Arkansas as both naturalist and artist.

Artist Statement:

I believe that the search for beauty is a political act.

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

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

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

Enrichment opportunity for homeschooled teens focusing on science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Tuesdays in October & November| 2:30 PM

Weekly 1-hour program with activities, experiments, or design challenges with monthly themes.

• October’s theme: Electricity
• November’s theme: Chemistry

Registration Required for each month-long series.

To register for the Electricity series in October and/or the Chemistry series in November:

• speak to the circulation desk at Thompson library or
• call 501-821-3060

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

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

Free meals to children ages 1-18 years.

Join us this spooky season as we design and build our own monsters.

We serve daily snack meals at our front desk for ages 18 and under.

M-F 4-5 pm

Sat 12-1 pm

Series of crafts celebrating Latinx cultures. Learn how to create sugar skulls. This is an adult program.

Serie de manualidades que celebran las culturas latinas. Aprende a crear calaveras de azúcar. Este es un programa para adultos.

Enjoy listening to stories and singing songs.

Move to the beat and play with sensory toys.