*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239
“Legacies and Lunch with Bobby Roberts”
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 12:00 Noon (CALS Ron Robinson Theater) *In Partnership with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
– Bobby Roberts has been the director of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) since 1989. During his tenure at CALS, it has been recognized as one of the premier library systems in the United States, noted for outstanding public service and innovative programming. Roberts is retiring from CALS on March 4. On March 2, he will talk with Clinton School of Public Service Dean Skip Rutherford at the Butler Center’s monthly Legacies & Lunch presentation series. A native of Helena, Ark., Roberts became a historian and archivist, a writer of Civil War history, a university faculty member, and a member of Governor Bill Clinton’s staff before taking leadership at CALS. At Legacies & Lunch, Rutherford will interview Roberts about his interest in history and politics, the transformation of CALS, and what he sees for the future of the library system, the city of Little Rock, and the state of Arkansas. This special program is co-hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council.
“Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works,” Jay Newton-Small
Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall) *Book signing to follow
– As Washington correspondent for TIME, journalist Jay Newton-Small writes about everything from Washington politics to foreign policy and national trends. In her new book, Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works, Newton-Small takes readers through the offices and hallways of Capital Hill to demonstrate how women are reaching across the aisles, coalescing, and affecting lasting change. With deep interviews, including conversations with Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Mikulski, Kirsten Gillibrand, Valerie Jarrett, Sarah Palin, Kelly Ayotte, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and dozens of other former and current public figures, Broad Influence is an insightful look at how women are transforming government, politics, and the workforce, and how they are using that power shift to effect change throughout America.
“Rightsizing Cities Initiative and the Relocal Tool,” Donovan Rypkema and Emilie Evans
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 12:00 Noon (Sturgis Hall)
– Donovan Rypkema is principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development consulting firm. The firm specializes in services to public and nonprofit-sector clients who are dealing with downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization and the reuse of historic structures. Emilie Evans is the director of the Rightsizing Cities Initiative with PlaceEconomics and leads projects using Relocal, their data-based tool, and a community priority survey to develop tailored, parcel-level recommendations for incorporating vacant buildings and lots into neighborhood revitalization strategies. They will be discussing their Rightsizing Cities Initiative and the Relocal tool, which will be unveiled at the Little Rock City Board’s agenda meeting that evening.
“Marketing the Movement,” founder and creative director of The Voices and Faces Project, Anne Ream
Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
– In this interactive 90-minute workshop, Anne Ream of The Voices and Faces Project will use their award-winning “Ugly Truth” campaign, a multi-media advertising campaign to fight and end trafficking and exploitation in Illinois. This campaign seeks to show that while legal advocacy and direct services are critical to the fight for gender justice, they are not enough. The critical third leg of any social justice movement must be strategic communications — the ability to tell a story and speak in a language that sparks the public’s imagination. In “Marketing a Movement,” Ream considers historical and contemporary examples of social justice movements that used messaging and media to great effect. She explores how legal advocacy efforts can be energized by strategic communications and new media, and unpacks the idea that “the medium is the message” when creating change campaigns.
“New Rules for Radicals: How Storytellers, Opinion Shapers and Subversives Are Changing the Movement to End Gender-based Violence,” founder and creative director of The Voices and Faces Project, Anne Ream
Friday, March 11, 2016 at 12:00 Noon (Sturgis Hall)
– Anne Ream, founder and creative director of The Voices and Faces Project, introduces the audience to a series of stories about gender-justice activists (almost all of them survivors of such violence themselves) who are creating measurable social change. The talk will include the story of a pastor who has developed a ministry focused on sexual violence; a group of survivors in South Africa who are challenging the African National Congress to take gender justice as seriously as they did Apartheid; and a trifecta of online activists who effectively used Facebook to drive a boycott of Facebook — an action that ultimately led the company to change its policies on addressing anti-woman hate speech. “New Rules for Radicals” is a lecture and photography program that defies conventional wisdom about what it means to be a survivor of rape or abuse, showcasing the storytellers, opinion shapers and subversives who are radically changing the movement to end gender-based violence.
Dan MacCombie, co-founder of RUNA Tea
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
– Dan MacCombie, along with Tyler Gage, cofounded RUNA Tea, a tea company centered around the guayusa leaf, which is grown Ecuador, contains caffeine, and has about twice as many antioxidants as green tea leaves. With RUNA Tea, MacCombie demonstrated how to find the balance between purpose-driven missions and business. A recipient of Forbes Top 30 under 30, MacCombie has forged lifelong relationships in some of the world’s most unlikely of places and created a business that thrives and respects local cultural traditions, supports small farmers, and maintains the integrity of the Amazon rainforest.
“How to Decimate a City,” Alana Semuels
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
– Alana Semuels is a journalist for The Atlantic and previously a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. In November of 2015, Semuels wrote “How To Decimate a City,” which explored the history and impact of an elevated highway through Syracuse, New York.
“Farming in Arkansas: Crops, Costs and Challenges in 2016,” Randy Veach, president of Arkansas Farm Bureau
Monday, March 28, 2016 at 12:00 Noon (Sturgis Hall)
– Randy Veach is in his eighth term as president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, and is the 10th president since its creation in 1935. Veach farms cotton, soybeans, rice, wheat, corn, and milo in and around the community of Lost Cane near Manila, Ark. Veach, a third-generation farmer, is a member of the boards of the American Farm Bureau, the Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Co., the Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co., American Ag Insurance Corp. and the Farm Bureau BanCorp, where he serves as a member of the bank’s Executive Committee.
“Working Across Sectors for Downtown Revitalization,” a panel discussion
Monday, March 28, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
– Join us for a panel discussion on efforts in Arkansas and the nation to revitalize downtowns. Panelists include: Karen Minkel, director of the Walton Family Foundation’s Home Region, responsible for work with grantees focused on quality of life initiatives in Northwest Arkansas and the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi; Gabe Holmstrom, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership; Victor Dover, a charter member and former board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism who has worked for many public agencies, developers, and citizen groups to create appropriate methods of land development regulations and served on the LEED for Neighborhood Development Core Committee; and Stacy Hurst, director of Department of Arkansas Heritage.
Nick Schifrin, Journalist
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall)
– Nick Schifrin is an American foreign correspondent that has reported from more than 30 countries since 2007. For more than four years he covered every major story in south and southwest Asia, from Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December, 2007, through a surge of violence in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the spring of 2012. From 2007-2012, Schifrin served as a correspondent for ABC News in London, New Delhi, and Afghanistan/Pakistan. In 2011 Schifrin was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan after Osama bin Laden’s death. He delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. Currently a Special Correspondent at PBS NewsHour, Schifrin’s series, “Nigeria: Pain and Promise” covered the country’s corruption, economy, anti-gay laws and fight against Boko Haram.
“Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865,” James Conroy
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. (Sturgis Hall) *Book signing to follow
– James Conroy has been a trial lawyer in Boston for over 30 years, having first pursued a public affairs career in Washington, D.C. as a House and Senate press secretary, speechwriter, and chief of staff. In his first book, Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865, Conroy explores the most critical meeting of the Civil War. He describes in great detail what happened when leaders from both sides came together in the only presidential peace mission in America’s wartime history to try and end the hostilities. Ultimately failing to come to an agreement, the War would drag on for two more months. Conroy argues that the failure of the Hampton Roads Conference shaped the course of American history and the future of America’s wars to come.
*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239.
*If you are unable to attend a public program in person, you can watch most programs live online for free here.
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