2023 Events

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Jimmy Cunningham, Jr. is the Executive Director of the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance (DRBA), a non-profit organization dedicated to building a national travel corridor between Pine Bluff, AR, and Greenville, MS. He is also the Director of Tourism Development for the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission.

Cunningham has worked extensively with communities in the Lower Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi in identifying and developing unique cultural assets related to music, the visual arts, and natural resources. His work led to the designation of portions of U.S. Highway 65 South in Arkansas (2017) and U.S. Highway 82 in Mississippi (2018) as the “Delta Rhythm & Bayous Highway” by the legislatures in these respective states. This is the only multi-state music highway designated by two state legislatures in the nation. It also led to the designation by the Pine Bluff, Arkansas City Council of the “Delta Rhythm & Bayous Cultural District” in the downtown area. The recently (2022) completed plans for this arts-intensive district led to a $2 million dollar allocation by the Pine Bluff City Council for seed money to develop the district’s unique narratives related to blues, civil rights, the Civil War, cotton, cinema, and other assorted topics. Cunningham was  the brainchild of the Delta Music Trail Commission passed by the Arkansas Legislature in 2019 which created tax breaks on Arkansas Delta music highways for the creation of large scale murals and other visible placemaking projects. By partnering with Winrock International in 2022, he was able to help secure funding for four cities on the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Highway to enhance placemaking and broadband service. His most recent curated art exhibits include the DRB Freedom and Blues (2018), the DRB Runaway Blues (2020), and the DRB Chitlin’ Circuit  (2021). Cunningham’s workshops related to the Delta music and African American culture have been presented throughout the Mid-South and Delta regions while his online digital vignettes (2020) have garnered national awards from the National Association of Interpreters.  The author of two Delta regional books, African Americans of Pine Bluff and Jefferson County (Arcadia Publishing, 2012) and Delta Music and Film: Jefferson County and the Lowlands (Arcadia Publishing 2015), along with contributions to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas Music (University of Arkansas, 2013), Cunningham is also a voiceover artists, program consultant, and grant writer.  He holds a Master of Arts degree in public administration (Grambling State University) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and is married to Alicia Cunningham.

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Jennifer O’Brien encourages compassionate, real conversation about caregiving, legacy planning, and grief.

After years of caring for people with serious illness as a physician, Jennifer’s husband, Bob Lehmberg, was diagnosed with a stage IV, metastatic cancer. But caregiving for the man who had made a 40-year career of caregiving as a physician was not easy. When Jennifer’s husband was diagnosed and later after he died, she turned to what had brought her comfort for years—art journaling. She documented and depicted the raw, honest, beautiful and exhausting reality of caregiving through collage, tableaus, notes and observations.  She included much of the wisdom and perspective she learned from her husband in his years as a physician. Jennifer kept the journal during the 22 months she cared for Bob and for about a year and a half after he died.

Later, in a role as interim CEO of a large medical practice, Jennifer shared her journal with a neurologist who was in the process of diagnosing three patients with ALS, a terminal disease. The physician took the journal home, read it and returned the next morning to tell her, “You’re not getting your journal back, I will be loaning it to these three patients and their spouses. You need to figure out how to get that published because it helps close the gap between what I can do for the patient and what the family caregiver really needs.” Jennifer found that local, independent publisher Et Alia Press was willing to take a chance on this odd book. The book was published in February 2020 as The Hospice Doctor’s Widow: A Journal and has won four awards – a Nautilus silver award in the Death & Dying/Grief & Loss category, a Next Gen Indie Book gold for Relationships, an Independent Publishers (IPPY) bronze for Gift, and an International Impact Award for its Design. Perhaps most importantly, knowing her story has helped thousands is what drives Jennifer to continue to share it, support family caregivers, and encourage people to take a more active role in discussing and preparing for end of life. As she describes it, “Encouraging people to put #FamilyFirst even beyond their own last breath.”

For 35 years she has been a practice management educator of physicians and served as CEO for two large medical practices. She has authored over 55 articles and made hundreds of presentations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree in organization development from Loyola University – Chicago.

Ben is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. He received a BFA in Regional Theatre from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University and has appeared in stage productions in regional theaters across the country. Ben is passionate about developing new voices and work in theatre and was a founding member of Moment to Moment Productions in Little Rock, Arkansas and also served as the co-artistic director of Drove Theater Company in New York City.

After more than a decade working professionally on stage and feeling disconnected and lost, Ben joined the US Army in 2006. As an Airborne Ranger in the 82^nd Airborne Division, he deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. In 2017, he again deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. After his last deployment, Ben began to reintegrate back into theatre to heal from the stress of combat. He found a deeper connection to the material and that working in an ensemble environment helped to elevate his feelings of isolation and depression. These discoveries led Ben to enroll in the Clinton School of Public Service where he received his Master’s in Public Service.  Ben’s research and studies in theatre practiced as a public service inspired him to launch Riverside Actors Theatre, a theatre company that uses the vehicle of theatre and storytelling to address trauma and the struggles that veterans and other at-risk populations commonly face.

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Monica Potts is a senior politics reporter for the website FiveThirtyEight. Her previous work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Republic, among other publications, and on NPR. She was a 2015–16 New America Fellow and is a former senior writer with The American Prospect. She lives in Clinton, Arkansas. monicapotts.com

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Rachel is a folklorist, fiddler, community-based organizer, and pie champion living in the magical forest in Stone County, Arkansas. She is the head Project Steward at Meadowcreek, a 1600-acre nature preserve, where she leads programmatic efforts with an emphasis on creating and supporting the sustainable and equitable development of rural futures through the lenses of art and culture. She is Co-founder of The People’s Library and Founder and Principal of Cultural Continuum Consulting. She is a Curator for the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the feature of which is Ozark culture, and stories by or about Rachel and her work have been published in Mother Earth News, Upworthy, Acres U.S.A., and University of Georgia Press among others.

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Chef Margie Raimondo’s roots in her culinary career were planted at a young age. Both parents’ families immigrated from Italy to an urban community in south Los Angeles, where most of the source of their food were the rabbits and chickens they raised and the vegetables they grew in the yard of their urban house.

As an adult, she always planted a seasonal garden with herbs and vegetables for her kitchen. In 2014 after a 20-year marketing career in Silicon Valley, she moved to Italy to broaden her culinary skills by living on farms and learning more about farming, food preservation and production.

When she returned home to Little Rock, she planted her first seeds at Urbana Farmstead, a one-acre urban farm that grows seasonal vegetables, fruits, and herbs to sell in her market and to make fresh, prepared meals and preserves. Her menu is inspired by the ever changing seasons which gives her healthy and nutrient-dense whole food to transform into delicious food.

Urbana Farmstead Market is more than a market for farm produce. It offers specialty foods from Italy and other artisan producers, extra virgin olive oils, and freshly baked bread. Visiting Urbana Farmstead is reminiscent of Chef Margie’s childhood days, filled with artisanal ingredients, seasonal farmer’s market produce and authentic Italian hospitality.

When she is not in the kitchen or the garden, she writes about the intersection of food, agriculture and farming. Her genre is heritage food and farm storytelling through film and cookbooks.

www.urbanafarmstead.net

www.raimondostudio.com

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.

Paula Martin was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and spent her formative years in Little Rock. After extensive traveling, she received her MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans before going on to create and produce Arkansas’ internationally-syndicated “Tales from the South” radio show. Her poetry, short stories and creative nonfiction have won multiple national and international awards and been published in anthologies, collections, literary magazines and journals. Paula has two published novels, four poetry collections, and has recently collaborated with musicians as a song lyricist and songwriter.  A recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Governor’s Arts Award, and the 2017 Inductee into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame, Paula is a writer, teacher and healer who has been helping people tap into their own divine essence for over 25 years. Her first songwriting album, Highway 300 Ride, is slated to be released in December 2022.

Brad Williams was born and raised in the Arkansas Delta, only 18 miles from Johnny Cash’s home and 39 miles from Elvis Presley’s Graceland. The gumbo-laden farmland formed his appreciation for all types of music including the Sun Studio era, Bluegrass, Gospel and the Blues. Brad has combined all of his influences into a 25-year career in music. Brad’s tunes have been heard in motion pictures (Valley Inn), on television (Sundance’s – Rectify, Tyler Perry’s series – If Loving You Is Wrong, TLC’s Trading Spaces), and on various other advertising spots including Arkansas State Parks and Tourism. The Salty Dogs have been and continue to be Brad’s main project. Over the last 20 years, The Salty Dogs have achieved numerous awards such as the 2003 Arkansas Times Musician’s Showcase Winner for Best Original Band in Arkansas, 2018 Central Arkansas Music Awards for Best Country Artist, and the Country Music Association’s 2021 Vocal Band of the Year. Brad has just released his first solo album, The Greatest Is Love, on November 25^th via Hymnal House Recordings.

With musical guest The Salty Dogs

Started as a lark retro-country act, the quartet immediately found chemistry, along with a lot of joy, as they dug into their craft. Their sound has expanded over a decade and a half, from uber-twang and purist classic country to equal parts 1954 Nashville, 1961 Bakersfield, and 1972 Everywhere.