ArkansasLife January2018

A F IR ST-T IMER’S M A RT IN HIP A ND HUNGRY
GUIDE TO DUCK LU T HER K ING JR. IN DA L L A S’ LOW EST

HUN T ING, ETC. GETS HIS DAY GR EEN V IL L E
New
Heights
Vintage meets
modern in a
thoughtful Little
Rock renovation
NATURALLY CURIOUS | January 2018 | VOLUME 10, NO. 5

JANUARY 2018 ii Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 1 Arkansas Life
January
FEATURES
This
Heights
home was
renovated
with family
in mind.
Photo
and cover
photo
by
matthew
williams
40 50
A FRESH START MLK G ET S H IS DAY
( O R THE PASSIO N O F KEL LY D UDA)
Five years ago, when Izabella and Brandon Simmons first
got a glimpse of their 1940s-era home, it took more than a This year, for the first time, the state of Arkansas will
little imagination to picture what the rundown place could be. celebrate the third Monday in January as a holiday dedicated
Nowadays, it takes considerably less effort—but there’s still solely to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and not
more than meets the eye Robert E. Lee. The story of how that came to be, however,
goes far beyond those two men
By Katie Bridges
Photography by Matthew Williams By Jordan P. Hickey
Portraits by Arshia Khan
JANUARY 2018 2 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 3 Arkansas Life

January
VOLUME 10, NO. 5
Front Porch Dispatches

15 FIVE THINGS FIRST 37 FROM SOUTHERN
A modern master at the MISSOURI The people you
Arkansas Arts Center, a hike meet along the way
a week, a photo a day, a din-
ner and a show, and a chance
at Family Feud glory
22 BIG DAM PHOTO
Table
Highway to Helena
59 FIRST TASTE Why Three
Fold Noodles and Dumpling
Life/Style Co. is the breakfast and lunch
and dinner of champions
64 CRAVINGS New year, new
26 EYE SPY Curling up with
obsession: foodie podcasts
a good book, a cozy throw and
a hot cuppa 66 THE FEED Bourbon
marshmallows and giving
32 WHAT’S IN STORE Find- merlot a chance
ing bliss at Fayetteville’s Mom
& Pop Shoppe
35 WELLNESS The key to
Venture
longevity might be a standing
desk away
70 AFIELD: THE “I TRIED
IT” EDITION Taking to the
blind, the river and the rock
in the name of learning a new
(very Arkansan) skill
76 CULTURALIST A Tony
66
winner, Tall, Tall Trees and
Tchaikovsky
78 TRAVELER In Dallas’
Lowest Greenville, come for
the cochinita tacos, stay for
the maple gelato
-
88 ONE TAKE On empathy A lot of times there are things that we don’t want
and intimacy
to do, but the outcome is so much greater than just
doing it. In the beginning, I didn’t realize it would
bring me all of the things that it did.
72 page 20
-

Editor’s Letter
< Reeling in a big

one on the White River.
Sort of.
NEVER HAVE
WE EVER ...
“M
y wife, she was Edition (page 69). We’d pair a usually deskbound writer (including
born and raised yours truly) with an expert in an iconically Arkansan outdoor
(ARKANSAS STYLE)
in Huntsville, venture—a duck hunter, a fly fisher and a rock climber, to be
specific—and have said writer tell the tale of their first time in the ... seen the sunset at
and she’s never floated the
Buffalo,” Brock tells me, and blind, on the river or attached to a rope. And while the office banter White Rock Mountain
my mouth drops in awe. upon our collective return ranged from I want to do that every day to I
can hardly feel my arms, a commanality emerged: We could now check
“Like, never?” I say. something off our I’m an Arkansan checklist. We felt a little more ... chowed on a Hubcap Burger
at one with The Natural State. We felt … new, if that makes sense. at Cotham’s Mercantile (RIP)
“Never.”
It’s the right time of year to feel new, which is why you’ll see “fresh
Huh, I think to myself. That’s start” as a theme throughout this issue. Our cover story takes you
... ridden a hog
odd. I’m watching the teensy inside a fully rehabbed Heights home, one that escaped the wrecking
along the Pig Trail
indicator attached to my fly ball and found a second life in the capable hands of Izabella and
rod bob in a drift on the White Brandon Simmons. Our senior editor Jordan Hickey’s feature,
River, and then it hits me: This “MLK Gets His Day,” tells the backstory of Senate Bill 519, which
is something I’ve never—like, disjoined the state observations of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and ... attended the Hope
never—done, even though I’ve Robert E. Lee Day, a decision that goes into effect on the 15th of Watermelon Festival
been an Arkansan since 1988. this month. You’ll find “new” popping up elsewhere, too—new digs
And as I stand there in Brock for a downtown Little Rock favorite, Three Fold (page 59); a new
Dixon’s boat, gently rocking in healthy life hack to consider (page 35); a corner of Dallas to explore
the current and listening as the next time you're in town (page 78). ... eaten biscuits and mustard,
waves lap against the hull, I’m because apparently that’s a
wondering why it’s taken me Welcome to 2018, folks. May the new year bring you much love and thing (page 19).
so long to give fly fishing a go. success, and may it bring me more trout on the end of my fly line.
Because … I love it. Feedback? We’d love to hear from you!
Email us at katie@arkansaslife.com, tweet us
That was the idea behind this @ArkansasLife or send us some snail mail to
month’s Afield: “I Tried It” P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR, 72203.

Ark ans a s Lif e
NATURALLY CURIOUS
EDITORIAL
EDITOR KATIE BRIDGES
CREATIVE DIRECTOR EMMA DEVINE
SENIOR EDITOR JORDAN P. HICKEY

EEBBBBBFD
ASSOCIATE EDITOR WYNDHAM WYETH “I’ve been a longtime
PHOTOGRAPHER ARSHIA KHAN listener of WTF with
COPY EDITOR KAREN LASKEY Marc Maron, and I’m
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
continuously super jealous
SETH ELI BARLOW of his interviewing skills.
“Call Your Girlfriend: EEEBBBBC BONNIE BAUMAN
GUY CHOATE But I’ve recently started
Two besties—one in L.A., the MARIAM MAKATSARIA
listening to a true-crime
other in Brooklyn—chat each CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
podcast called Sword &
JOSHUA ASANTE
week on the phone about pop BROCK DIXON
Scale, as well.”
culture and political goings ELISA FISHER
JAKE HALBERT —Wyndham Wyeth
on, and we all get to listen!” WESLEY HITT
JOHN DAVID PITTMAN
—Bonnie Bauman MATTHEW WILLIAMS
CONTRIBUTING ARTIST
NIKKI DAWES
CONTRIBUTING STYLIST
KIMBERLY CYR CALHOUN
ADVERTISING “Lore! Its spooky nonfiction

SPECIAL SECTIONS MANAGER WENDY MILLER appeals to my love of horror
DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER KRISTIN BROWN and history, and it kept me
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE TWEEDIE MAYS entertained during a long road
ADVERTORIAL WRITERS
trip back from Santa Fe.”
SARAH DECLERK
EMILY EDMISTEN
HBBBBBBBBBe —Sarah DeClerk
LINDA GARNER-BUNCH
“All Time Favorite: EEBBBBBBBBFD CODY GRAVES
Arkansas-native singer/ ADVERTORIAL DESIGNER LEANNE HUNTER

songwriter Nick Flora geeks
out with his guests, chatting
ADVERTISING DESIGNER WESS DANIELS -
everything from books and
ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER WILLIAM HARVEY
Arkansas Life is published 12 times yearly

We’ve been
movies to music and food.”
—Cody Graves
by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
PUBLISHER WALTER E. HUSSMAN JR.

feasting
PRESIDENT/GENERAL MANAGER LYNN HAMILTON our ears on
V.P./ADVERTISING
V.P./CIRCULATION
SCOTT STINE
LARRY GRAHAM
foodie-focused
NICHE PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR STACI MILLER FRANKLIN podcasts
RETAIL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
NICHE SALES DIRECTOR

ASHLEY FRAZIER
SLOANE GRELEN
(page 64).
“Manic Rambling Spiral: EEEBBFg M ARKETING & EVENTS DIRECTOR AMANDA COPLEY What podcast’s
It’s two parents talking about
travel, politics, religion—all
CIRCULATION MANAGER JOHN BURNETT
121 East Capitol Ave., Little Rock, AR 72201

currently got
aspects of life, basically, while 501.918.4505 | www.arkansaslife.com
you hooked?
also being a parent. I mean, For subscription inquiries, please call 501.918.4555
isn’t parenting a manic,

For advertising inquiries, please call 501.244.4334
Price per issue: $4.95 -
rambling spiral for everyone?
No? Just me? Cool.”
—Amanda Copley

Contributors
JOSHUA ASANTE JORDAN P. HICKEY MATTHEW WILLIAMS

Little Rock-based musician and Senior editor of this magazine who NYC-based photographer who shot this
photographer who shot this month’s wrote “MLK Gets His Day” (page 50) month’s cover story (page 40)
One Take (page 88) and “Blind Luck” (page 70)
Website:
Twitter: @jordanphickey matthewwilliamsphotographer.com
When did you first have the idea for First impression of Arkansas?
the story? The people are wonderfully
When I watched a live-stream friendly. I took four cab rides
of Kelly Duda’s testimony and made four new friends.
in January 2015. I’ve since
watched it many, many times. Favorite room in the Simmons’ home?
The living room, if I had to
choose. It’s a perfect balance ELISA FISHER
of form and palette.
Dallas-based freelance photographer
Favorite room in your own place? who shot “The Highs of Lowest
I live in a loft in Brooklyn. Greenville” (page 78)
So it’s one big room! But as
Instagram: @joshua_asante a rule, any room my wife and Instagram: @elisafisherphotography
daughter are in.
What makes for a good portrait? Other favorite Dallas neighborhoods?
I believe an empathetic eye You travel, like, a lot for work. What Oak Cliff! It’s a mix of trendy,
solidifies a good portrait, even do you miss most about home when artsy places and traditional
if it’s not technically sound. you’re far from it? Hispanic culture.
A home-cooked meal with the
What does a given day look like for family and the the embracing Any insider tips for people visiting?
you when it comes to music and art? chaos of New York. Dallas, perhaps surprisingly,
Divine chaos. I’m up early Interesting tidbit that didn’t make the has a myriad of top-notch
most days working on article? independent coffee shops. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
whichever mediums have the The speech that Judge Wendell
pressing deadlines. Griffen gave at Philander Any must-sees for visitors?
Smith College this past Casual: The Cidercade, an
Is it difficult to find time for artistic Martin Luther King Day. I arcade and cider bar. Fancy:
pursuits? still get chills listening to the Reunion Tower, a rotating
Finding time is a mirage. We, recording. restaurant in downtown.
the loving, have to fashion
time for our art. Also: Duck hunting, huh? Any new favorites/discoveries
Yep. Let’s just say those were from this assignment?
Any photographers/artists whose work two very different experiences. I tried the Campfire Old
you regularly turn to? Fashioned that I shot at The
Roy DeCarava is a visual Libertine. It’s fantastic!
beacon. Musically, there is
the gift Shabazz Palaces—ever Epic Bike Trails Historic Downtowns Local Flavors Outdoor Adventures Farmers Markets
inspiring.
JANUARY 2018 12 Arkansas Life This adJANUARY

paid for with2018
state and private regional association funds 13 Arkansas Life
JANUARY 2018
14
Arkansas Life
JOHN MARIN, AMERICAN, (RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1870 - 1953, CAPE SPLIT, MAINE), WOOLWORTH
BUILDING, NO. 28, 1912, WATERCOLOR AND GRAPHITE ON PAPER, 18 ½ X 15 9/16 INCHES, NATIONAL
GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, D.C., GIFT OF EUGENE AND AGNES E. MEYER, 1967.13.8, SR.12.66
JANUARY 2018
15
WHAT YOU’LL BE TALKING ABOUT THIS MONTH
FIVE THINGS FIRST
Canvassing the
THE MAKING
Becoming John Marin

newest exhibition,
MODERNIST IN
Arkansas Arts Center’s
Arkansas Life
BIG DAM PHOTO
22
FIVE THINGS FIRST
16
FIVE THINGS FIRST
h Becoming John Marin: Modernist

at Work will be on view from
Jan. 26 through April 22. The
exhibition will be accompanied by
an in-depth website and a catalog
printed in conjunction with the UA
Press. For more information, visit
arkansasartscenter.org.
BECOMING BECOMING
JOHN MARIN
The Arkansas Arts Center’s newest exhibition, which opens
on Jan. 26, has been in the works for years, largely under
the watchful eye of curator Ann Prentice Wagner. Here’s
what you need to know about the show before you enter the
gallery this month
YOU’LL GET A GLIMPSE
OVER THE ARTIST’S
SHOULDER IN THIS
EXHIBITION
MARIN WAS AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN MODERNIST Of the 270 works in the

AAC’s collection, 79 pieces
Born in New Jersey, John Marin (1870-1953) was a key part of will be mounted for Becoming
the “Stieglitz Circle,” a group of American modernists who were John Marin, along with 33
championed by Alfred Stieglitz (husband of Georgia O’Keeffe) and loans from other institutions.
shown in his New York galleries. Marin’s known for his gestural, “ We’re bringing in major
abstract watercolors of rural Maine, where he spent summers, and finished works—etchings from
New York City. Philadelphia, oils from the
“Marin was very interested in motion—that’s really what’s in a Metropolitan Museum, Crystal
lot of his drawings,” curator Ann Prentice Wagner says. “Even if Bridges—to hang alongside the
what he was drawing was technically sitting very still, or physically sketches, so you can really see
actually moving, he would feel an energy in it. As he said, ‘It is this his process," Ann says. "You’re
moving of me that I’m trying to express.’” getting a chance to see what his
experience was like with things
MARIN’S ROOTS ARE IN NEW ENGLAND, BUT THESE that would not normally be seen
WORKS ARE … HERE? outside of the studio, but you
also get to see the completed
The largest collection, some 970 pieces, of Marin’s work was given work.”
to the National Gallery of Art by the artist’s family. But back in
2014, John Marin’s daughter-in-law gave another large chunk of ANN WENT THE
his work—290 watercolors and drawings—to the Arkansas Arts DISTANCE FOR THIS
Center. “When Norma Marin was looking for a place for another big RESEARCH—LITERALLY
deposit, she was looking for a place that wasn’t right next to where
things were already,” Ann says. Combine that with the fact that the Back in fall 2016, she traveled CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JOHN MARIN (AMERICAN, RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1870 – 1953, CAPE SPLIT, MAINE), LANDSCAPE, RAMAPO
MOUNTAINS, NEW JERSEY, 1942, WATERCOLOR AND CHARCOAL ON TEXTURED WATERCOLOR PAPER, 14 3/4 X 17 1/8 IN., ARKANSAS ARTS
AAC already had a sizable collection of Stieglitz Circle artists, an to Maine to meet with the CENTER FOUNDATION COLLECTION: GIFT OF NORMA B. MARIN, NEW YORK, NEW YORK. 2013.018.139 (CATALOG 70); JOHN MARIN (AMERI-
CAN, RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1870 – 1953, CAPE SPLIT, MAINE), ON MOUNT DESERT, MAINE, 1920, WATERCOLOR AND CHARCOAL
established collection of works on paper and a good relationship Marin family, and to spend WITH GRAPHITE ON TEXTURED WATERCOLOR PAPER, 14 X 16 ¾ IN., ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER FOUNDATION COLLECTION: GIFT OF NORMA B.
MARIN, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 2013.018.142 (CATALOG 50); JOHN MARIN (AMERICAN, RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1870 – 1953, CAPE
with the National Gallery of Art, and you start to see why the gift time in the places the artist SPLIT, MAINE), MANHATTAN SKYLINE FROM THE RIVER, 1909-1912, WATERCOLOR OVER GRAPHITE ON TEXTURED WATERCOLOR PAPER, 11
1/2 X 12 3/4 IN., ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER FOUNDATION COLLECTION: GIFT OF NORMA B. MARIN, NEW YORK, NEW YORK. 2013.018.152
made sense. To most, anyway. painted. “I was able, sometimes, (CATALOG 115); JOHN MARIN (AMERICAN, RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY, 1870 – 1953, CAPE SPLIT, MAINE), THE THREE PINES, BLUEBERRY
BARRENS, WASHINGTON COUNTY, MAINE, 1952, GRAPHITE AND PASTEL ON TRACING PAPER, 8 11/16 X 11 1/2 IN., ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER
“Let me tell you, there are a lot of people in Maine who are to just practically stand in his FOUNDATION COLLECTION: GIFT OF NORMA B. MARIN, NEW YORK, NEW YORK. 2013.018.222 (CATALOG 60)
jealous,” Ann says. “One in particular—there’s this one guy who footsteps,” she says. “There are
writes and blogs up there, an interesting fellow, and he’s made it things that explain themselves
known that he would like to have had the collection there. We when you’re on site in a way that
would love to take this exhibition up there, if there’s a venue that’s nothing else is going to do that
interested!” for you.” —kb

FIVE THINGS FIRST
6TH DAY HIKE

BELL SLOUGH
NATURE TRAIL
Near Mayflower
You’ve likely driven by this

wildlife management area (it’s
just off Interstate 40) and not
realized that it’s prime bird-
watching land—or that there’s
a lovely 2.25-mile loop that
meanders its way through it
all. (agfc.com)
13TH DAY HIKE LET'S PLAY

TRAILING ALONG
RIM TRAIL AT MOUNT
NEBO STATE PARK THE FEUD!
Near Dardanelle
H Think you have what it takes?
If it’s a clear a day, you’ll be Or at least tryout to play. The Make an audition appointment at
We love the idea of starting the year off on the right, um, able to see upwards of 100 Family Feud producers come familyfeud.com/audition.
foot care of a “First Day Hike,” better known as those miles of rolling River Valley to Little Rock (location TBD)
ranger-led romps that’ll be offered by many of our lovely terrain from the birdseye-view on Jan. 27-28, scouting for
state parks this January 1. In fact, we love it so much we afforded by this 3.5-mile loop. teams of five family members
think it should be an all-month thing. Time to dust off (arkansasstateparks.com/ who, according to the audition
those hiking boots. —kb mountnebo) website, “smile, clap, high-five, CHEESE DIP (22) FRIED OKRA (3)
cheer for each other, say Good
Answer!, and have FUN!” To get
20TH DAY HIKE in the spirit, we decided to try
DELTA VIEW TRAIL AT our hand at playing Steve Har-
vey, posing a question to 100
FRIED CATFISH (13) DUCK GUMBO (3)
CANE CREEK STATE PARK
Arkansas folks on our social
Near Star City media. Survey says ...
Venture south for a change of BEANS AND CORNBREAD (8) DEER CHILI (3)
scenery—this 2.4-mile low-
land loop is populated by eery,
knobby bald cypresses that are
an amateur photographer’s WHAT FRIED CHICKEN/ PURPLE-HULL PEAS (3)
dream. (arkansasstateparks.
DISH BEST CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK (7)
com/canecreek)
REPRESENTS
27TH DAY HIKE
ARKANSAS? BISCUITS AND GRAVY (6) SQUIRREL DUMPLINGS (2)
CADDO BEND TRAIL AT
LAKE OUACHITA STATE
PARK
PULLED PORK BARBECUE (6) BISCUITS AND MUSTARD (2)
Near Hot Springs
Glittering quartz and glimmer-

CAPTURE ARKANSAS | JEREMY WALTER
ing lake views are abundant CHOCOLATE GRAVY (5) RICE (2)
ILLUSTRATION BY NIKKI DAWES
on this 4-mile loop. It’s consid-

ered “strenuous,” but you can
reward your efforts later with a
plate of McClard’s chili-smoth- OTHER (ONE-VOTES, INCLUDING THE LIKES OF “PICKLED
ered tamales. (arkansasstate-
parks.com/lakeouachita)
PIGS FEET” AND “GRILLED PIMIENTO CHEESE”) (17)
FIVE THINGS FIRST
A YEAR IN THE LIFE bit stalker-ish, but I kept capturing these people in the fog. Their
silhouettes with the streetlights and the fog. I took several pictures,
and they’re all in black and white.
You’ve likely come across the hashtag #365project
No_4
on social media. Here’s what it means—and why, for Did it ever become a burden? Was it easy to forget and skip
one Little Rock photographer, it meant even more a day? Hw did you keep up with it?
In the beginning, I kept up with it every day. I started planning my

By Mariam Makatsaria | Photography by Heather Canterbury
days around photography time. I would leave work earlier while it
was still light outside. So a lot of my early pictures are a little dark and
kind of gloomy. They had to do a lot with seasonal affective disorder.
The winter kind of depresses me, so I started to see a trend in the
photos. As spring came around, I had more time to photograph, so
I’d have more photos from one day. As the month went on, I realized
I wasn’t taking a photo a day—I was posting a photo a day. I had to
reign myself in, and think: Am I really doing this? I had to stay on top
of [the project], even though it got a little overwhelming. A lot of
times there are things that we don’t want to do, but the outcome is
so much greater than just doing it. In the beginning, I didn’t realize
No_5
it would bring me all of the things that it did.
On your website, you mention that the series “advanced

into a study of the social environments of neighborhoods
in the South.” Can you tell me more about that?
Before I did this, I’d always been very interested in historic

neighborhoods in the central Arkansas area and also where I’m
from in El Dorado. I rode the school bus when I was younger, and
SUPPER AND A STORY
it would take us through these neighborhoods. I remember just
looking out and observing all of the houses. I carried that interest
with me into my adulthood—my interest in how people live. I was
going to lunch one day with someone, and as we drove by that
“I
neighborhood, I said, “I’ve always wondered about that area.” The ’ll tell you what—I don’t know if I’m a storyteller, but
person told me, “Don’t. I would not drive over there. Absolutely not. my family would probably call me an exaggerator,” says
It’s not safe.” That particular neighborhood ended up being one of Melissa Thoma, her eyes darting from one side of the
the focal points of my whole series. That’s where I met and made Argenta Arts District’s The Joint to the other. “My story begins
friends with several people, and they were just exceptionally kind in the big bend of the Ouachita River,” she continues, her hands
and nice to me. One of the photographs that got into the Delta tracing an invisible curve, like that of a vase or a waistline, “on a
ended up being the house of a woman I’d befriended. It sparked a stretch of ground that runs between Mount Ida and Pencil Bluff
lot of … I don’t know, the way people perceive these neighborhoods in Arkansas …”
versus what they really are. As she recounts the story, her voice dipping and rising as if she
were spinning a tale to a passel of wide-eyed children, one thing be-
What was the most rewarding thing you got out of the comes obvious: Exaggerator or not, Melissa is a darn fine storyteller.
experience? She’s taken the stage as part of the Potluck & Poison Ivy series, and
the audience is rapt. What they’ve gathered for—you could call it a
A lot of times, I would have a stressful day, so I would drive around live dinner, a performance served up with a side of enchiladas, or just
W
ith endeavors like the 365 Project—which challenges What prompted you to start the project? and lose track of time. It almost became meditative for me. There a night out with some good friends and family—is sort of a second
photographers to upload one photo captured that day, are times, especially when I would talk to people, when I’d feel such coming of Paula Martin’s Tales From the South, which showcased
every day for a whole year—there’s an order to things. A I was looking for a personal project, backed by some passion and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for having met that person and good ol’ fashioned Southern storytelling from 2005 until it wrapped
commitment. A chunk of time devoted to slowing things down. To desire to do a little bit more than commercial photography. I was talked to them. It ended up giving me so much, having these small in 2016. Now, every fourth Thursday of the month, both raconteurs
rekindling a passion. For newly minted photographers, it’s about photographing a lot of weddings and families, and that’s not really interactions with people. and listeners again find refuge in Argenta, settling into the cozy,
building up confidence behind the lens, plying their craft and what I want to do with my photography. I decided to give the 365 intimate space of The Joint, a cabaret theater-slash-coffeehouse, for
tracking progress, photo by photo. For seasoned creatives, it’s about Project a try just to see where it would take me. dinner and a show.
more than that. Will you be tackling a #365project of your own in 2018? Tag your photos Anyone can apply for a spot behind the microphone. (Melissa
Take Heather Canterbury, a Little Rock-based photographer What was the first picture you took? using the hashtag #myarkansaslife, and we'll follow along. Thoma? She’s a local advertising executive.) All it takes is a good
who’s been snapping photos for over a decade. For Heather, a series story with some personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout. (A little
of varied and unexpected results developed out of her efforts—a body It was obviously in January. It would get dark right after work, so I bit of acting talent doesn’t hurt, either.) Singers and musicians are
of work that took a life of its own, and subsequently, earned her her was a little bit concerned about what I was going to take a picture welcome, too, as bands like The Salty Dogs have previously hopped
first solo exhibit and two entries into the 2017 Delta Exhibition. of. I lived in North Little Rock, and I just started driving around. on stage for a few jams. The second season was just announced—take
Here, we chat with Heather on what it took to see her 365 Project It was extremely foggy that night. I stayed in my car the whole a peek at the 2018 schedule at potluckandpoisonivy.org. And take
through, and what she was left with at the end. time, watching people walk up and down the road. I felt a little note: They tend to sell out fast. —mm

BIG DAM PHOTO
TAKING
FLIGHT
Photography by
Jake Halbert
Jake wasn’t far f rom his

hometown of Lexa when he
pulled off the highway to
get a better look. He’d seen
them arrive in droves from
late January to mid-February,
year after year, and this time it
seemed as if he’d stumbled upon
the snow geese just as they were
settling in for the season. “As
I pulled my car to the side of
the road, hundreds immediately
took flight, suspecting danger,”
the Fa y e t t e v i l l e - b a s e d
photographer says. “It felt as
if I’d conjured up a beautiful
storm and was witnessing it
from the very center.” The life
meant to grow in those fields
might’ve gone dormant, but
now it had been replaced by
new and vibrant life. That too
would pass, he knew. Soon,
even the birds would be gone.
They’d leave just as fast as they’d
arrived, as they’d done many
times before. —ww

l
25
EYE SPY
32
WHAT'S IN STORE
LIVING WELL IN THE NATURAL STATE 35
WELLNESS
EYE SPY
TURNING
INWARD
Curling up with a
snuggly blanket, a
strong cuppa and a
good read sure sounds
good right about now,
doesn’t it?
By Kimberly Cyr Calhoun
Photography by JOHN DAVID PITTMAN
That fringe-y one on

top? Yep, our eye’s on
that one, too.

EYE SPY
1.
2.
4.
5.
3. 6.
DOUBLE DUTY
A beautiful, textural 1. Faux Chinchilla throw, $308 at Cynthia East.
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AFIELD
EYE SPY
BOOK CLUB
Recommendations
OUR CUPS from a few of
RUNNETH OVER our favorite local

literary folks on THEIR BRILLIANT CAREERS:
good winter- THE FANTASTIC LIVES OF
Trust us: That Blue Sail weather reads SIXTEEN EXTRAORDINARY
Coffee pourover (or 2. LOU REED: A LIFE FIRE SERMON THE TALENTED RIBKINS AUSTRALIAN WRITERS
that Savoy Tea earl grey)
will taste even better in By Anthony DeCurtis by Jamie Quatro by Ladee Hubbard by Ryan O’Neill
one of these vessels. “Travel down the dirty “I can think of no “Inspired by W. E. B. “For the sheer seductive
boulevard of Lou Reed’s greater pleasure than Dubois’s essay “The pleasure of it, this odd
life, past electroshock spending an evening Talented Tenth,” Ladee comic novel meant
treatments, sexual at home engrossed in Hubbard’s sparkling as much to me as
trysts, experiments with a novel, especially one debut novel tells the anything I read last
drugs, and around a that makes my mind story of the irascible year. It purports to be
trippy mixture of pop-in whirl as it challenges my and intriguing Johnny a collection of linked
characters like Andy thinking about big ideas Ribkins, born into a literary biographies, but
Warhol, Nico, Morrissey, like love, devotion, and Florida family where each the authors it examines
Laurie Anderson, and intimacy. Jamie Quatro’s member is gifted—or are wholly imaginary,
Lars Ulrich. What novel Fire Sermon is a cursed—with some highly and the portraits of
1. emerges is a shimmering
vision of a perfectionist
brilliant meditation on
infidelity and faith from
unusual gift.” —Padma
Viswanathan, winner of
them O’Neill offers are
by turns lacerating,
6. SOUTH AND WEST: with a ‘refusal to conform the point of view of poet the 2017 Porter Fund affectionate, absurd,
to aesthetic expectations in Nashville. Quatro is a Literary Prize and author embittered, tender and
FROM A NOTEBOOK of any kind.’” —Brad longtime Oxford American of the novels The Toss of self-incriminating. From
Mooy, Arkansas Literary contributor, and I read a Lemon and The Ever a few paces back, the
By Joan Didion Festival Coordinator her new book in one gulp. After of Ashwin Rao book becomes a sort of
It’s short and intense and Spirograph-novel, one
“It’s far more South beautiful—the perfect whose revelations and
EDITOR’S NOTE: DeCurtis will
than West. Didion’s companion for a cold cross-revelations keep
speak about his book
trademark California night or a bright winter spinning and overlapping
at the 2018 Arkansas
makes an appearance, morning.” —Eliza Borné, right down to the index.”
Literary Festival in April.
but this book is primarily editor of Oxford American —Kevin Brockmeier,
composed of the author’s author of the memoir A
observations as she Few Seconds of Radiant
explores a 1970s Filmstrip
South that would be
4. another planet to most
Americans. To Arkansans,
7. though, she’s describing
something more memory
3. than dream.” —Bryan
Borland, Publisher, Sibling
Rivalry Press
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A TOAST TO
SUCCESS
Arkansas Life magazine won 10 awards at the 37th annual International Regional Magazine Association awards.
IRMA members include 32 state, province and regional publications from across the U.S. and Canada.
The awards were granted for work published in 2016 and judged by an independent panel of experts.
GOLD
Nature and Environment Feature: “Pathﬁnder”
— JUDGE’S COMMENT —
“Outstanding collection paints a broad picture. Very engaging.”
Profile: “The First Steps”

“The mix of everyday minutia and larger-than-life grief along with her
imaginative writing make this proﬁle unique and memorable.”
Reader Service Article: “Day Tripper”

“Love the varied presentation of information: graphs, quizzes, etc. It’s all there,
interesting, and easy-to-read and easy on the eyes”
Magazine Writer of the Year, 30,000 or more circulation:

Mariam Makatsaria
“Incredibly astute at evoking both feelings and a sense of place, Makatsaria
has the ability to get to the heart of the matter. Not only that, she’s an inventive
and imaginative writer. With her unique turns of phrase, reading Makatsaria’s
work keeps me glued to the page.”
SILVER
Department: “First Taste”
Food Feature: “Worthy Craws”
BRONZE
Historic Feature, 30,000 or more APR: “Making History”
Photo Series, 30,000 or more circulation: “Right on ’Cue”
Magazine Photographer of the Year, 30,000 or more
circulation: Arshia Khan
AWARD OF MERIT
Profiles: “Learning Arkansas”
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION BY CALLING 501-918-4555 OR VISITING ARKANSASLIFE.COM.

h You’d never
know this cute-
1.
WHAT
as-a-button
storefront was
once a radiator
shop. WE
LEFT
WITH
EBBBBBBBBBBD 2.
WHAT’S IN STORE
3.
MOM & POP
SHOPPE
5.
Ascots, incense and Imogene
+ Willie denim, oh my! 4.
By Bonnie Bauman | Photography by Arshia Khan
Owners Sadie McDonald and Bill Harris
handpick each item during their travels— 7.
they particularly love the Southwest.
teaches yoga at Trail Side Yoga, and Bill owns The Path, a skateboard
shop on Dickson Street—they opened the shop in April of 2016
as a joint endeavor. 6.
“It’s just such a perfect location for a retail space,” Sadie says of
I
’m barely past the threshold of the Mom & Pop Shoppe, a the store, which was built back in the 1940s and has housed Carter’s
teensy yellow-brick emporium devoted to chic self-care-slash- Radiator Shop, a bike shop, the Fayetteville Flyer and a thrift store
planet-care goods, and already I can feel my shoulders dropping. or two. “It’s got character, so much natural light, is near the square
It could be the incense-y scent wafting through the door as I pull and has a parking lot out front.”
it open, or the ethereal glow emanating from the space, what with Back when they decided to open the shop, the couple had just
all the natural light pouring through the windows and reflecting finished a spate of traveling throughout California, New Mexico and
off the gilded pressed-tin ceiling overhead. Whatever the reason, Colorado, where they’d connected with several makers and artisans
I’m starting to feel pretty blissed out. I let out an audible sigh as who’d gotten them thinking about how their own purchases impact
all my budgetary inhibitions begin to melt away like the wax of so society and the planet. Opening a shop, Bill and Sadie reasoned, 9.
many $34 beeswax candles. This is not going to end well for my wallet, would allow them to support these artisans they’d discovered,
I think, given my serious weakness for right-living products with while at the same time giving themselves and their neighbors an
the word “organic” on the packaging. opportunity to make more eco-friendly, socially conscious decisions.
“Mom” and “Pop,” aka Sadie McDonald and her sig-other, Bill And indeed, each product on display in the shop aligns with the
8.
Harris, are waiting for me. Tall, fit, tan and good-looking, the couple couple’s worldview, from that scarf made from scraps of fashion-
are a walking advertisement for the products they sell. I spy a jar industry waste to the incense and soap made by indigenous
of something called “Beauty Dust” behind Bill as I shake his hand, Americans. Bill and Sadie handpick each item during their sojourns:
and I drop the product into my mental shopping cart. 1. Moon Juice herbal supplements The power, brain, spirit and beauty dust that we all
to California, New Mexico and the like, as well as farther-flung
To distract myself from the siren song of meditation guides and need right now. $35 2. The Meditation Bath Bundle Kit from Incausa Incense, palo
locales such as Puerto Rico and Central America.
cruelty-free footwear, I ask Sadie and Bill how they got here. For santo stick and soap handcrafted by indigenous Americans. $22 3. Fineasslines cards Why
“The folks behind the items we sell are such a cool group of
his part, Bill, a Texas native, decided to settle in his college town people,” Bill says. “Now with the shop, we get to evolve with them. not send a laugh? $5 4. Imogene + Willie jeans We no longer have to go all the way to
of Fayetteville after a decade-long stint in Southern California. He And they inspire us. It’s really fun to be around a person who lights Nashville to try on our favorite American-made denim. $278 5. Revolve Ceramic Earth-in
had family in Jonesboro and had decided, as so many do, that living up and is passionate about what they do.” Canteen For H2O that’s free of that we’re-destroying-the-planet-and-starving-all-
in SoCal was just too damn expensive. As for Sadie, after earning Yes it is, I think, as I fully lean into the tranquility of the space the-polar-bears taste. $34 6. CA Makes handmade bun pins Perfect for topknots,
her master’s degree in sociology seven years ago, she’d decided to and ask questions that have been gnawing at me all morning: Can too! $40 7. Boys Smells candle We went for the fruity one with notes of oakmoss. $29
leave her home state of Louisiana for greener (and hillier) pastures. I get that Revolve Ceramic Earth-in Canteen in charcoal, and do 8. Mohinders leather slides Be eco-friendly, and look super-cute doing it. $160 9. Late
While they were both busy with their individual pursuits—Sadie you have those leather slides in a 6? Sunday Afternoon ascot Heads up: Ascots are the new pocket square. $60

WELLNESS
TAKING A STAND
Is sitting the new smoking?
The answer might surprise you
By Mariam Makatsaria
remember when the treadmill

desk first became a thing among
health nuts. Treadmill desks,
however, come with a hefty
price tag—not to mention that
all that thump, thump, thump-
ing is a surefire way to annoy
your co-workers. But even
standing desks, which sell for
a much humbler price, get the
job done. And if that’s even out
of the question, you can simply
elevate your computer with a
cheap and portable monitor
riser, or even boxes. For me, the
solution was much simpler than
that. It involved moving a perky
poinsettia from my kitchen
breakfast bar to another well-
lit surface. Boom. Hello, new
working space.
A few days into it, the
only downside I’m noticing
is that my dog, who takes her
H
ere’s the thing: I sit a have a point. 18-hour shut-eye time very
lot. As someone who A vast majority of Americans, including yours truly, spend their seriously, is constantly on edge,
works from home, I working hours glued to their seats. It’s easy to see why: Emails since she assumes I’m on the
can get away with sitting cross- need to be sent; meetings need to be had; social-media statuses verge of leaving any minute
legged, reclined, sidesaddle about what we need to be doing but aren’t doing need to be written. (my breakfast bar is right by
like a Victorian lady on a horse Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t get any better when I get off work— the front door). The upside?
and sometimes in less graceful which is really just a simple migration from my “office area” to the Significantly less tension in my
positions on the carpet. I’ve couch. It’s peak TV season, and Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are doling shoulders and neck, a surge in
always known that sitting out hard-to-turn-down shows, and the pressure of catching up energy and, hopefully, a longer
is bad for me, but I had no sometimes feels like work, too. I can see how I might be an easy target life, though I won’t be able to
idea just how bad until I for murderous, villainous chairs and couches. You might be, too. confirm that part for a while.
came across a book with the That might seem extreme, but here’s the deal: The consequences of There are other things so subtle
provocative and somewhat a sedentary lifestyle are serious. Read them out loud, and you’ll sound I hardly even notice them.
dramatic title Get Up!: Why Your like the narrator in one of those prescription-drug advertisements, Like the fact that the electrical
Chair Is Killing You And What hurriedly listing the terrifying side effects as beautiful people romp activity in my muscles and my
You Can Do About It, penned in through the wilderness in slow motion. In other words, the cons body’s calorie-burning rate
2014 by esteemed Mayo Clinic are scary, but we tend to gloss over them. According to Levine, don’t drop to dangerous levels,
professor James A. Levine, an sitting hunched over a keyboard for prolonged periods of time—a as they would if I were sitting.
ardent hater of chairs. position that slows down metabolic reactions, ramps up cholesterol I’ve learned that my hour-
“The sitting disease is about and blood sugar, and builds up toxins—can be linked to 34 chronic long boxing class, though very
sentencing the modern soul diseases, including cancer, depression and obesity. He even goes so invigorating, doesn’t make up
to sedentariness,” Levine writes far as to say that squeezing in an hour-long gym sesh a couple of for the absurd amount of time
in Get Up!. “Together we are times a week does little to offset the harm from all the sitting we I used to spend sitting.
all dying a slow death—body, do for close to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. All of which is to say,
mind and soul—glued to our Within the past decade—as more and more studies have looked there’s a lot that can be done
chairs.” His slow-death-by- at death rates of active-versus-sedentary men and women, and to conquer the sitting disease.
chair theory is surely depressing, folks like Levine have pushed to get people off their chairs—there And as Levine puts it, it starts
but that’s not to say he doesn’t has been a movement toward, well, movement in the workplace. I by getting up.

DISPATCHES
DISPATCH FROM SOUTHERN MISSOURI the back seat.

“Les gitchu the hell outta here,” the girl said.
“Let’s do it,” Guy said before warning the girl that Kaia might
Steve, with shed in her immaculate car.

“Jes git in—quick,” she said. “How long you been sittin’ there?”
“I’m not sure, probably about an hour and a half or so.”
the Bicycle “Not no cops come to see you?”

“Nope.”
“Boy, you got lucky. Cops came t’see my uncle right ’round there,
and not nobody seen ’im since. They’s all corrupt. Killed him and
my grandmamma both.”
Lessons from a walk Guy studied the girl for drugs, but she gave no indication of
being high.
across the country “I know s’ard to believe, but they’ll jack you up,” she said, trying
By Guy Choate to gain some poise. “What’s yer name?”
“Guy.”
“Hi, Guy.” She turned and looked at him, sizing up the man she
had picked up. “I’m Michelle. I live down that road there,” nodding
In 2005, at the age of 23, the writer Guy Choate set out with a childhood her head toward a small paved outlet as they sped by in her Cadillac.
friend to walk every step across the country and write a book about the “We’re not out far enough yet, though. I’m gonna take ya a little
experience. The trip did not go as planned—his friend flew home from further ’fore I go home.”
Arizona, and Choate hitchhiked a decent portion of the remaining She dropped him at a filling station in Mansfield, a few miles
distance—but a dozen years later, he says, he does have a manuscript down the road, where Arkansas Highway 5 met 60 East. Michelle
about the experience. This excerpt, written in the third person, comes said the cops weren’t as bad there and that they’d be able to get a
from 70 days into the trip, when he and his newly adopted dog were in ride quickly.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GUY CHOATE
southern Missouri. Guy was still watching Michelle pull out of the parking lot when
a woman who reminded Guy of his third-grade teacher pulled up
A
brand-new Cadillac slid into the gravel a few feet from next to him in a minivan. She was middle-aged, had a practical
where Guy sat with his thumb still out. A pretty girl in haircut and looked like she knew where every loop in the cursive
her early 20s frantically waved him toward the car. Guy lexicon belonged.
put Kaia—his 60-pound husky/shepherd mix—and his pack in “Where ya going?” she asked through the window.

DISPATCHES
He didn’t know what the next town was, doing it forever,” he said. “You mind keeping an eye on my stuff?” Guy asked him.
or what a good checkpoint east was—he “But …?” “I can do that,” he said.
hadn’t had time to orient himself on the “But time’s going to pass over you. It’s going to pass over your Guy walked in and bought two chicken sandwiches and two
map—so he told the woman he was headed bones. And your face. You’re young right now, and you can walk all double cheeseburgers from the dollar menu. He put one of each
to the Atlantic. day. People see your face, and they want to help you with food or sandwich on the table next to Steve.
“I’m going in that direction, but I can money. Girls can still look at your face and see something big going “What’s wrong with your bike?”
only get you to Mountain Grove.” on inside of you. But if you do this forever, you won’t be what you “Nothing.”
“Every little bit helps.” think you’ll be.” “Are you souping it up or something?”
The woman didn’t seem nervous or put “Oh yeah?” Guy was an arrogant 23-year-old because he couldn’t “No,” he said. He looked down at the bike, sheepishly. “I was sitting
out. She had no sales pitch on Jesus or help it. Because life had given him too much not to be. But still, he out here this morning, and the lady working the drive-thru brought
anything like that. She didn’t talk much listened to Steve. “What will I be then?” he asked. me a cup of coffee. I thought I might stick around awhile, see if I
at all, just drove Guy to the McDonald’s “You’ll be me.” might get a refill, so I’ve been pretending to work on my bike all day.”
in Mountain Grove. Guy looked at the dirt under Steve’s fingernails. The plastic sacks Steve ate only half the chicken sandwich and stowed the rest for
A weathered man sat fiddling with the full of aluminum cans on the ground beside the upturned bicycle. later in some make-shift saddle bags on his bicycle. Guy finished
greasy gears on an upside-down bicycle at “Girls don’t look at my face anymore,” Steve said. “People don’t his sandwiches and lifted his pack onto his back.
one of the three picnic tables across the want to help me. They all think I’ve had my chance, and I didn’t do “If you don’t get a ride, come back, and I’ll show you a safe place
parking lot from the fast-food restaurant. anything with it. You’ve still got the look of potential. People look to sleep,” Steve said.
Guy offloaded his heavy pack onto another at you, and they see their son. They’ll forgive you for sittin’ out here They shook hands, and Guy and Kaia walked around a commuter
of the tables and nodded respectfully at the with your dog. You make people curious. I make people scared.” lot to an on-ramp. He sat down on his pack, Kaia beside him, waved
man, who nodded back. He looked to be There was no sorrow in his voice, only sincerity. He didn’t seem back to Steve at the picnic tables, then stuck out his thumb.
in his late 40s, too skinny, dirty. He had a to mourn his own potential as much as he would mourn Guy’s if he He lowered it as the police car approached, lights flashing. Guy
wrench in his hand. didn’t make something more of his life than tramping around the and Kaia stood, but when the officer didn’t emerge, Guy retook his
“Where you and that pretty dog headed?” country. The people in the drive-thru line stared at them. seat. He looked toward Steve, who turned his bicycle right-side up,
he asked, pointing to Kaia with his wrench. “Your bones will get tired. You won’t be able to walk every and loaded up his things.
“East. You?” day because your body won’t let you. And so you’ll get a bike or
“Just …” he looked around. “... Around, something. And then you’ve got sh*t. The whole point of being out Guy Choate earned an MFA in creative nonfiction writing at the
I guess.” here is to not have sh*t. When you got sh*t, you gotta worry about University of New Orleans. His recent essays have appeared in Cream
Without prompt, the man told Guy it. You don’t want to be out here worried about sh*t.” City Review, Tupelo Quarterly and Cobalt Review, among others.
about a place to sleep not far away. He said Steve put his wrench to the nut holding his wheel on the bicycle He’s the founder and director of the Argenta Reading Series in North
there was a motel a couple of miles away and pretended to turn it. He spun the wheel, which rotated perfectly. Little Rock, where he lives with his wife, Liz, and their son, Gus, to
that would let Guy use one of the rooms to He put his wrench back to the nut and again pretended to turn it. whom Guy addresses his photo-a-day blog, getoutofthisplace.tumblr.com.
shower and clean himself up. When Guy
didn’t ask for directions to either location,
the man paused. He eyed Guy’s hiking
boots, his name-brand backpack. And Guy
saw himself as the man saw him. He felt
like a fraud in front of a man who had
clearly made a life out of what Guy had
only been given a taste of.
“What’s east for you?” the man asked.
“Nothing,” Guy said as a way to belong.
As a way to experience some kind of
camaraderie between men who tramp
the country. But the answer didn’t make
sense. “The end of a journey, I guess,” Guy
followed up, vaguely, before coming clean
and telling the man, whose name was
Steve, that he had originally been trying
to walk across the country, but that the trip
had become something else.
“What do you think about it all? You
learned anything? You getting what you
wanted to get out of it?”
“And more,” Guy said, pointing to his
dog.
“Good.”
“I think I could do this forever,” Guy
said. And he meant it.
Steve smiled, knowingly.
“What? You don’t think I could do it
forever?”
“I’m sure you could do it forever. You
look like you might have already started

A
Fresh
Start
Walking through
Izabella and Bran-
don Simmons’
Heights home is a
lesson in history
and restraint—and
thoughtful, almost
reverent design
B Y K AT I E B R I D G E S
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
M AT T H E W W I L L I A M S

It’s all a balance
of new and old:
The lady over
the mantle came
from a Swedish
auction, but
the couches are
Maybe it’s because

slipcovered Ikea
buys. The brass
my Netflix has
vitrine, below, is
Parisian, but was
more recently
been co-opted by
used at a toy shop
in the Heights
a Beauty and the

to showcase
porcelain dolls.
Beast-obsessed
Izabella and
Brandon lined
it with antique
3-year-old, but
Swedish orchid
prints.
In the couple’s library, a
to me, there’s a
settee found at a local estate
sale—stripped down and
smidge of Beast’s-
reupholstered in antique
Danish fabric—shares space
with a Knoll butterfly chair
castle magic on
and stumps from a mill near
Heber Springs.
display in Izabella “I’m always drawn to the Scandinavian feel, but at the
and Brandon
same time, I feel it’s very cold—it’s very new,” Izabella
says. “I’m not into that. I wouldn’t go and order $20,000
Simmons’ place.
of furniture from Design Within Reach. We’re the kind of
Let’s start with That Mirror—that gilded, French-salon-worthy people who prefer to redo something ourselves.”
antique beauty on the wall in the dining room? “That was bequeathed That might be a pair of antique milk-glass pendants or a
to us by a wealthy couple whom we don’t know,” Brandon will tell Craigslist four-poster bed. Or it might be a vacant, rodent-
you, “because they just threw it out. Once a year, in the Kenilworth infested, 1940s-era house on Country Club Boulevard in the
O
neighborhood of Chicago’s North Shore, the upper echelon get Heights, as was the case in the summer of 2012.
rid of their stuff after their basements flood, and that’s where we
And here’s why: When you found this.” n either side of the Simmons’ third floor, which is
walk in, you see it for what “See that part at the bottom? It was rotten, completely,” Izabella divided into Brandon’s office and a playroom for
it is—an open, minimalist, will pipe up. “Brandon’s mom helped me glue it back together and their kiddos, there are floor-to-ceiling windows
Scandinavian-inspired haven regild it.” built into the pitch of what was once an attic. From these
that’s full of light and white and There are plenty of other stories, too—the Royal Copenhagen windows, it’s possible to look out over the neighboring
gorgeous furniture. But if you china sourced at loppis (the equivalent of garage sales in Izabella’s homes, and here’s what you see: a whole lot of new.
linger a while, and especially if native Sweden), the table they uncovered while scouring the attic I ask if they’ve seen any houses on their street demolished
you get the nickel tour from the of a Chicago-area Masonic lodge, the settee stripped raw and and then rebuilt, which is a common practice in the Heights.
couple themselves, the objects reupholstered in 200-year-old Danish fabric, the prayer rug bought “Oh, gosh, yes,” Brandon says looking out over a sprawling
filling the rooms will start to at a Brooklyn auction. While you or I might have a few special red-brick home next door. “There were two houses there.
emerge from the fray. They’ll treasures speckled around our places, almost every single thing in the And the house directly behind us was torn down, too.” Five
start to take on a life of their Simmons house has been searched out and hand-selected, pondered years ago, that’s likely what would’ve happened to this house,
own, because they’re not just and carefully considered. (There’s a relatively short list of off-the- had Izabella and Brandon’s names not ended up on the deed.
objects. Not to Izabella and shelf pieces, like the Hans Wegner fishbone chairs and a handful They were house-hunting in Chicago at the time, and
Brandon. of items from Ikea.) It’s all here because it means something to the had realized it was time to pull the plug on finding a
They’re stories. couple. Because it’s had a life. house they could afford in the mainline of Chicago. Little

“I’m drawn
to the Open shelves on the
Scandinavian
back wall of the kitchen
display Izabella’s
collection of ceramics
feel, but at the

and stoneware.
same time, I
feel it’s very
cold—it’s very
new. We’re the
kind of people
who prefer to
redo something
here. It was really bad. Most people who had looked at it were
contractors that were going to tear it down.”
A few months later, she and Brandon tell me, the family arrived in
ourselves.”
Little Rock with a U-Haul and some big-picture ideas: They wanted
it light and bright. They’d move some walls, reconfigure the space
to make it more open and family-friendly. They’d paint and refinish
the floors and enlarge the kitchen. They’d turn what was the formal
dining room into a garage, and they’d make up for losing that square
Rock, where they had family, footage by finishing out the third-floor attic. They were ready for a
seemed a logical place to land. remodel, but what they got was a full-on renovation. “Do you want
They had careers that allowed to see the before pictures?” Brandon asks.
them to work from anywhere— I do. And looking over his shoulder as he pulls them up on his
Brandon’s a wind-energy exec, laptop, I’m shocked. The original home was boxy and choppy, with
and Izabella’s a contributing labyrinthine rooms you had to maze your way through. The light
editor for interior-design site from the back of the house had no chance of reaching the front, and
Remodelista—and they had the windows were small, the mouldings heavy. It’s unrecognizable
a 4-year-old and a newborn. as the place I’m standing in today.
While home in Arkansas for “Our contingency fund was depleted probably three times,”
a holiday, they fell for the Brandon says. “We weren’t anticipating some of the scope. We
Heights. It wasn’t long before didn’t realize we were going to have to rewire the entire house. All
Izabella had her eye on a place: the insulation, HVAC, moving of walls, sewer, plumbing, everything
a 1940s two-story that was still was replaced.” He stops on a photo of the kitchen. “Ugh, I can feel
quite stuck in the 1940s. But it my blood pressure rising just looking at these!”
had bones, she could tell. She They were “green,” as they say, and they weren’t working with an
could see what others, like their architect or a designer, something they caution me against, should
realtor, couldn’t. I ever care to renovate. But they knew what they wanted, and they
“She insisted that we not knew the devil was in the details.
The kitchen opens “Oh, the floors. We bleached them three times,” Izabella says,
buy it,” Izabella says, handing
to the living room looking down at her feet. “They were red oak, and I wanted them to
me a ceramic mug of coffee.
and the dining be lighter. We played with all these stains—it was horrible.” Other
It’s a winter morning in their
area. “We wanted things were done on the fly. “We changed the kitchen layout at the
marble-and-white kitchen, and
to move away from
the orchids on the windowsill last minute,” Brandon says. “I fell in love with this stove, and I came
formal areas,”
are throwing shadows on the home with it, and I was like, OK, now we’re putting a gas line here.”
Brandon says. “We
silestone counters. “She was But whether it was a last-minute call or a laborious trial-and-error
wanted it to feel
like, You’re biting off more than effort, it was all done in the name of getting it right—of surrounding
open and light.”
you can chew. You need to walk themselves and their family in a place and in objects that spoke to
away. Bad idea. It had been on them. That told their story.
the market for a long time. I And walking through the house that, five years later, Izabella
mean, there were rodents living can finally call “finished,” it’s easy to get a sense of that story. In

“People will go in
Taking subway tile from
floor to ceiling punched
up the downstairs bath.
and gut a place and

everything’s brand
new. And we’re at their
garage sales going, Oh
look at all these things
we found! Rusty old
metal bins—this is
great!”
The master is small but serene, and
filled with pieces that hold meaning for
the couple: a painting by local artist
Laura Raborn, an antique Russian rug
sourced in Sweden, linen curtains and
pillows handsewn by Izabella’s mother.

Before buying the home,
a builder made sure the
attic could be turned
into livable space. It now
“The original
houses the playroom and
Brandon’s office, adding
owners have come

450 square feet.
back multiple times—

multiple branches
of the family tree—
to thank us for not
tearing it down.”
Elise’s bed is a 19th

century Swedish day
bed. “During the day, it
served as a sofa, and at
night they’d take off the
top and fill it with hay,”
Izabella says. In Julian’s
room, Playmobil toys
and Legos fill his Ikea
Expedit bookshelf.
the library, which was Brandon’s only must-have, his collection of

antique fly-fishing books fills the floor-to-ceiling shelves. In the
master, linen curtains sewn by Izabella’s mom hang from copper-
pipe fittings the couple fashioned into rods. In Elise’s room, a
mobile made by artist and antiques-maven John Bell, whom the
couple count as a dear friend, hangs above a 19th-century Swedish
daybed. Upstairs, German Playmobil toys share space with a Knoll
butterfly chair. Every inch of their home is known, elevated. And
though there’s no semblance of that 1940s two-story, the soul of
the place remains.
“It’s roughly $10,000 to have a big machine come and make a
house completely disappear,” Brandon says. “That’s staggering. We
spent multiples of that trying to redo things to make it work in
the old environment. The original owners have come back multiple
times—multiple branches of the family tree—to thank us for not
tearing it down.”
“I never thought about tearing it down,” Izabella adds. “We are
searchers. Our generation in Sweden now, they buy everything new.”
“Here, too,” Brandon says. “A lot of times, people will go in and gut
a place and everything’s brand new as if they were going to Pottery
Barn. And we’re at their garage sales going, Oh look at all these things
we found! Rusty old metal bins—this is great!”
For a complete list of resources, visit arkansaslife.com.

Senate Bil 519
MLK Gets
His Day
or
The Passion of
Kelly Duda
On April 16, 1985, then-Gov. Bill Clinton signed House Bill 132,
which declared that both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Robert E.
Lee Day would be celebrated on the third Monday in January. This
past year, more than three decades later, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed
Senate Bill 519, separating the two. To say that many people played
a part in getting the state to that place, both publicly and behind
the curtain, would be to grossly understate the point.
This is the story of one of them.
BY JORDAN P. HICKEY
PORTRAIT BY ARSHIA KHAN

its passage, the Martin Luther
King Commission. But yet,
MARCH 21, 2017 in that moment, Chesterfield

handed him the pen she’d just
W
received from the governor.
She told him that he deserved
hen the governor put pen to paper, it was as if the it.
center of gravity in the governor’s conference room at

the Arkansas State Capitol had subtly shifted to his
wooden desk. Young and old, every person in the room,
silent, listening, breath taken, appeared to lean toward
JAN. 28, 2015
him. The television lights were bright. The shutters of
cameras clicked in anticipation. Screens of every size
A
t one minute past 11 o’clock,
and model were held up to capture the moment. Even if you were too far a man with pale skin,
his blond hair rendered
deep in the crowd to see the moment his pen left the paper and Senate nearly platinum under the
Bill (SB) 519 became law, capping off what was, at the time, one of the fluorescent lights, took a seat
more controversial subjects Arkansas had seen in recent memory, there at the microphone. “My name
is Kelly Duda, like in the song
would be no missing it, because in that moment, released from the stasis, ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’—it’s a
the room burst into applause. Arkansas would no longer celebrate Martin good Southern song,” he said.
“I’m here—for the bill. I’m a
Luther King Jr. Day on the same day as Robert E. Lee Day. ¶ “To be quite proponent, an early proponent
honest,” the governor had said minutes before signing the bill, “I expected
this debate to divide us. Instead, during the debate, we listened to each IF THIS WERE
other and the conversation brought us together. This is an education bill
in which the discussion educated each of us, and we learned that history
A DIFFERENT
needs to be viewed not just from our own lens but through the eyes and STORY, I’D TELL
experiences of others.” ¶ With this monumental step, an education bill YOU THAT THERE
which made the second Saturday in October a state memorial day for ARE MANY WAYS
Robert E. Lee and allowed Martin Luther King Jr. his own day, news
accounts would say, Arkansas had left behind Alabama and Mississippi as
Surrounded by applauding
legislators Gov. Asa Hutchinson
It had been nearly two years since Dylann Roof murdered nine churchgoers at the Emanuel AME TO CHANGE THE
Church in Charleston in June 2015, and the Confederate flag taken down from the South Carolina state
the lone celebrators of a joint holiday celebrating the Confederate general lays his pen down after signing the capitol. In that time, there had been a national debate over the meaning of Confederate iconography, WORLD, AND NOT
CREDIT: STEPHEN B. THORNTON, ARKANSAS

bill to separate the Martin Luther prompting the removal of several statues and flags. It was still several months, however, before a protest
and the Civil Rights leader. (Elsewhere, Florida continues to recognize King Jr. and Robert E. Lee holidays ALL OF THEM
in Charlottesville, Virginia, would turn deadly, sparking a flurry of removals all across the country.
Robert E. Lee’s birthday as a state holiday; in 2016, Georgia stopped on March 21 at the State Capitol in
recognizing the general’s birthday, though state workers still get the day
Little Rock.
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
When signing the bill, the governor had used handsome black pens with his name lettered in gold
along the side. Of these, one had ended up in the hands of Sen. Linda Chesterfield, the former head of
HAPPEN ON THE
off.) Given the events of the past few years, it felt like a step in the right the Legislative Black Caucus. After everything came to a close, she was approached by a man with wild FLOOR OF THE
blond hair. He had not been among the people whom the governor had thanked for their support—the
direction, a day deserving of handshakes and fanfare. bills’ sponsors, the Legislative Black Caucus, the legislators whose words had inspired others to vote for CAPITOL.
January 19, 1807: January 15, 1929:

October 12, 1870:
1800 Robert E. Lee is

born in Stratford
Hall, Va.
Robert E. Lee dies
in Lexington, Va.
1900 Martin Luther
King Jr. is born

for this legislative action.”
For just over an hour, the House Committee on State Agencies and
Governmental Affairs had been hearing testimony from its members
uniter; the other a divider.”
“I’m not trying to tell you that you can’t appreciate Robert E. Lee
and his contribution—I think there’s a good compromise here,” he
HE KNOWS THE R
eally, that could have
been it. But passion is a
contagious thing. It is a
supporter and advocate. Then
there was his film, Factor 8:
The Arkansas Prison Blood
POSITION HE’S IN,

and members of the public who had signed up to speak for or against said in closing, referencing an amended version of the bill, which communicable thing. It can Scandal, which linked tainted
the bill, House Bill (HB) 1113. It was one of two bills submitted had provided for a memorial day to be set aside for Robert E. Lee. make you dogged, it can make blood collected in Arkansas
that year with the same aim—to separate the holidays, setting “You still have that. You still have history. This is not about attacking you nuts and it can instill in your prisons to recipients around
aside a separate memorial day Southern history. This is about heart the seeds of something the globe and traced its roots
for Robert E. Lee—and the first
time that such an attempt had
been made since Rep. Bill Walker
moving forward.”
Sitting two rows behind
him were many of those who’d
THE SKIN HE HAS that won’t let go—and which
over time can bind you to it
irrevocably. And, it has to be
up the political food chain. And
with each, for one reason or
another, there were more than
TO INHABIT—
had made an unsuccessful go of come to speak against the bill. said, Kelly Duda is a passionate a few connections and social
it in 1989. With eight members One older gentleman, white man. Those familiar with his moorings cut away as a result.
of the public speaking against and vaguely academic looking, name, and no doubt there are I know this because, had
the proposed legislation, their seemed especially troubled. many, are probably well aware I recorded all of the phone
moods ranging from reasoned to
outraged, the odds didn’t seem
particularly good. Kelly was the
His hands were quaking as he
put on his glasses, groped for a
pen from inside his jacket and
THOUGH AT TIMES of this fact. They are probably
also well aware that Kelly has
no qualms about making that
calls I received and tallied the
Facebook messages linking
to stories about the fall of
HE SEEMS QUITE
first to speak for it. then occupied himself with the passion known, has chased Confederate iconography,
“I’m a Southerner,” he went contents of a yellow folder, his more than a few causes to the those missives would represent
on to say in an accent that, to face turning deeper shades of point of exhaustion, and, in the a sizable canon and, in their
the untrained ear, did not sound crimson and purple. When called process, has burned more than own way, speak to why there
particularly Southern. “I’m a
proud Southerner, I’m f rom
Arkansas, was raised in the
upon to speak, he introduced
himself as Robert Edwards.
Although he didn’t say as
SURPRISED TO his fair share of bridges.
Although he was born
here—the son of a conservative
are some who’ve allowed their
connections with him to go
slack. This all might seem like
HAVE FOUND
South. I’m hearing comments much that morning—the only Canadian-born Yankee airman something of a nonsequitur, but
about diversity and separate but identifying information he stationed in Little Rock during it’s helpful to understand this
equal. And quite frankly, it’s gave upon sitting down to the the Cuban Missile Crisis, passion on the front end—if
blowing my mind.” microphone was his name and and a mother who was, as only to understand the extent
Over the course of the next
three minutes allotted to him,
he told the committee members
the fact he was from Bryant—
he was the Arkansas division
commander for the Sons of
HIMSELF THERE, Kelly describes her, “a bit of a
wayfarer”—he was raised all
over the South. It was only
to which Kelly was willing,
and aware, of the part that he
needed to play in all of this.
ZIPPED UP IN
that the joint holiday was a jeer Confederate Veterans, and would in the ’90s, when he came I have to admit that I did
to the memory of Dr. Martin become a prominent voice in back to Arkansas after a long not know any of this when I
Luther King Jr., that the South media reports when the matter peripatetic existence, that Kelly reached out to him in October
was playing the victim card, that was again taken up in 2017. He finally settled into something 2016, telling him that I had
the signs posted each year on
the Capitol grounds—“Closed
ended his three minutes by telling
Rep. Nate Bell, the committee
THIS KELLY DUDA like home. He met a woman.
They had a daughter. They
seen the video of the committee
meeting, and immediately
CREDIT: DAVID GOTTSCHALK, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

… for the observed birthdays of chair and the bill’s sponsor, “Sir, I divorced. But then he stayed, received a phone call from
SUIT, FULL OF
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and think your bill is just ass-absurd,” determined to give his daughter him. He told me then, and in a
Robert E. Lee”—cast the state in prompting an applause from the a more stable home than the subsequent email, that he had
a negative light. crowd. one he’d had himself. just spoken before the Little
The argument was not unlike After hearing f rom the In the years that followed, he Rock Board of Directors and
the guest editorial he’d written for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,
which had appeared on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, just a week
and a half before. In the article, entitled “A Wrong Message,” he’d
executive director of the ACLU’s Arkansas chapter (the only other
person to speak in favor of the bill), and the co-sponsor of the bill,
Rep. Charles Blake of Little Rock, Rep. Bell called it to a vote.
IRE, CHANNELING worked primarily as a filmmaker,
finding no shortage of causes
to be passionate about. There
submitted a sample proposal for
the city to “unrecognize Robert
E. Lee Day” in the hopes of the
PASSION.
written, “To attach this to a federal holiday that remembers the “Chair rules the nays have it,” Bell said, drawing another round of was, for example, the matter starting that Sisyphean task of
accomplishments of a black American who gave up his life for civil applause. “With that, with there being no further business to come of the West Memphis Three, nudging the boulder, if only a
rights and equality is simply mind-boggling. One holiday honors a before this committee today, we stand adjourned.” for whom he was a longtime little bit.
November 2, 1983: April 16, 1985:

March 15, 1943: Then-Gov. Bill Clinton January 20, 1986:
March 18, 1947: April 4, 1968: President Reagan
Arkansas Act 211 signs House Bill 132, Martin
Arkansas Act 215 Martin Luther signs House
establishes Robert stating that Robert E. Luther King
establishes Robert King Jr. is Resolution 3706,
E. Lee’s birthday, Lee Day and Martin Jr. Day is
E. Lee Day as assassinated in making Martin Luther
Jan. 19, as a state Luther King Day will be celebrated for the
a legal holiday Memphis, Tenn. King, Jr.’s birthday a
memorial day celebrated on the third first time
federal holiday
Monday in January

Kelly was sitting and given him response, she wrote, “I visited with a few folks to see if there is any his mind. Through the door, you could see
what seemed to be a thumbs support for this. As you know, the climate is very difficult. Long the city directors talking through a proposed
DEC. 6, 2016 down.

“I don’t know what the hell
that meant,” Kelly said. He
story short: most don’t think this battle at this time would win OR
would help make an effective statement. Would be happy to visit
further about it, sometimes making a statement is important. But
development and the neighbors who’d shown
up to speak against it. Over time, there were
fewer and fewer people walking by. The
appeared to mull this over, one has to pick and choose one’s fights.” elevator ceased to ding. By the time we finally
resting his head in his hands, For that reason, it wasn’t especially surprising when the city, in left and Kelly had said what he wanted to say,
“T
his room is always pressing his thumbs against effect, ripped the Band-Aid off. it was night.
so hot,” Kelly said his lower lip. When he noticed At 6:47 p.m., the mayor announced they’d be addressing the
as a gust of air came that I was watching him, he resolution.
through the large second-story said that, as a little boy, he used By 6:48 p.m., by a vote of 8 to 1, the resolution had passed and
room at Little Rock’s City Hall.
“Might just be me,” he said after
considering this for a moment.
to chew his nails when he was
nervous. “It’s because I wasn’t
breastfed,” he joked.
the city gone on to other business.
The three cameramen near the door turned to their phones, and
then packed up their things. The people who’d come out for the event
JAN. 16, 2017
“I’m breathing my own hot air As the mayor entered the gradually stood and took their leave. It all felt a little anticlimactic,
all the time.” chamber and the meeting was a little underwhelming. A few minutes later, I met Kelly in the
J
It had been nearly two about to get underway, Kelly ust before noon, on Martin Luther King
years since he’d spoken at the took a photo and posted it to Jr. Day of this past year, the second
committee hearing, and we were
sitting waiting for Little Rock’s
Facebook, tapping out a caption:
“At City Hall before the board “IT’S A SYMBOL. SO, IT floor of the marble rotunda was steadily
being filled with molded plastic chairs. The
Board of Directors meeting to votes on the REL DAY/MLK
get underway. The occasion was
that, after weeks of delays, the
DAY resolution that I proposed.
STAY TUNED.”
SHOWS WHERE IT’S REALLY festivities, which had originally been slated to
be held on the steps of the Capitol building,
had been moved inside owing to the uncertain
Board of Directors, to the extent
it was able, would be taking up
In a way, the events of that
evening seemed to symbolize AT. … BUT THE SAD THING IS state of the weather. A lectern was dragged
creakily into place. People were taking their
the matter of the separation of the broader tension surrounding
the holidays: If the resolution
in question passed, it would ask
the holiday—how few were
anxious to pick up the torch
WE’LL CLAP AND ALL THAT, seats. Looking down from the second floor
to the first, you could see at least one mother
tugging a choir robe over the head of a little
the Little Rock delegation to
the Arkansas General Assembly
of what seemed to be a fairly
volatile political football, both
BUT WE REALLY HAVEN’T boy, simultaneously hustling him toward a
staircase somewhere out of view.
to sponsor legislation that
would split the holidays.
on the local and the national
stage. Just a few weeks before, DONE A WHOLE LOT.” Although many such events had been held
in the past, there was still no doubt that the
Although that message news had broken via a batch of event was politically charged. Just two weeks
would have no actual bearings emails leaked from WikiLeaks before, not far from where the chairs had
on the events of the coming that the Clinton campaign, hall outside the room. Along with Rizelle Aaron, president of the been arranged, the governor had made his
months, there was hope that back in June 2015, had been Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, he’d spoken to one of intentions known in a press conference: Not
the resolution, if it were to trying to decide how best to the television stations. After he’d finished, we met in the hall just only would the separation of the holidays be
pass, would carry some weight address the issue. outside the room. one of his key legislative priorities, as his office
CREDIT: JOHN SYKES JR., ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

coming f rom the directors Perhaps the exchange that “Here’s the meat of it, and let’s get to the point,” Kelly said, had announced on Dec. 20, he made it clear
and the mayor. Although best represented the hesitancy, standing to one side as people left the room. “At the time this that he himself, despite the inherent challenge,
there was every reason to be however, had come from an holiday was created in the late ’40s, what was going on is you had would be making a strong case for the bill: “I
confident the directors would email that Kelly had gotten the Dixiecrats—these are the Southern Democrats who had aligned recognize this is not easy. I recognize this is an
lend their support, there was nearly six years before when he’d with the segregationists—OK—and together, they fought efforts uphill battle. But I believe it is the right thing
still a feeling of tension in the asked then-State Rep. Kathy to integrate, alright? And that was when you saw the Confederate to do for our state. And that’s the reason I’m
room. This hadn’t been helped Webb, who was later elected flag pop up, after all this time after the Civil War. That’s when you asking for that support.”
when, a few minutes before, to the Little Rock City Board saw the symbols and the emblems. Go look it up. It’s there. It’s Rep. Grant Hodges, House sponsor of SB 519, gives Rep. Charles Blake a Sitting beside me in a purple sweater with a
Ken Richardson, one of the city in 2014, about the prospect of history. OK? …” fist bump just before the House votes on the bill. Blake was a co-sponsor of
directors, had walked by where separating the holidays. In her Over the course of the next 45 minutes, I listened as Kelly spoke HB1113, one of the two bills proposed in 2015. CONTINUED ON PAGE 84
January 21, 2015: March 6, 2017

March 22, 2016: December 6, 2016: February 28, 2017:
HB1113, a bill to HB1995, a competing
eliminate dual status The Pulaski County The City of Little Rock
SB519, an March 21, 2017:
bill which would move
education bill
2015 2016 2017

of MLK and REL Quorum Court passes a resolution Robert E. Lee Day to Gov. Asa
passes a resolution that will effect a Hutchinson signs
holidays, is filed. to ask the city’s Feb. 22, President’s
to support proposed separate holiday SB519, separating
Another bill, HB1119, delegation to sponsor Day, is filed. It will
legislation to end the for Dr. Martin the holidays
is also filed for the legislation to split the later be withdrawn by
joint holidays Luther King Jr. is
90th session. Both holidays its author Rep. Jana
filed
die in committee Della Rosa

59
FIRST TASTE
64
CRAVINGS
A GATHERING OF GOOD TASTE 66
THE FEED
FIRST TASTE
THREE FOLD
NOODLES AND
DUMPLING CO.
The new digs at downtown
Little Rock’s go-to spot
for authentic Chinese
food are a slam dunk
By Wyndham Wyeth
Photography by Arshia Khan
Thought the dumplings

couldn’t get any
better? Think again.

FIRST TASTE
H Slaws for applause:
Three Fold offers carrot,
cabbage and cucumber
slaw. Don’t make us pick
a favorite.
Day Two: Lunch

Me, though? Today, I’m
150 percent satisfied. Each
O
riginal regular order checked off the to-do list, I’m feeling
like branching out. My editor’s been talking up the chicken bite is better than the last,
dumplings … Let’s get crazy. and I’m racking my brain—
“Pan-fried chicken dumplings, please.” The cashier reminds me and my taste buds—to figure
the pan-fried options take a little longer to cook. This isn’t my first out whether this is just an
pan-fried rodeo, though. I know they’re worth the wait. I settle into exceptionally good portion or
the booth side of a two-top. if it’s the chicken that’s making
Like its original location, the restaurant is white, bright and the difference. Whatever the
airy—it’s just that now, it’s even more so. The ceilings are higher, reason, I’m OK with it. I begin
the windows larger. The design is minimalist with simple wooden to rethink every decision I’ve
tables and chairs and brass light fixtures. It’s inviting. made in life up to this point.
My dumplings arrive fried-side up. They’re all stuck together,
connected by a fried “net,” as Lisa describes it. I spear the soft Day Three: Lunch
underside of a dumpling with my fork—my chopstick game isn’t
I
the strongest—and separate it from the rest of the fold. As someone t’s steamed bun day,
who’s become a bit of a Three Fold pan-fried dumpling connoisseur, folks, and I have to admit
I know that quality can vary from the good to the OMG-spectacular. I’m trepidatious. For one
Lisa would agree. thing, it’s the only menu item
I
f it’s Wednesday, and it’s lunch, “It’s a challenge training my employees to do a perfect pan fry,” I’ve never tried before. But after
Lisa told me. “Sometimes it comes burned, and we have to do it my first bite, I’m kicking myself
you can probably find me at again. Sometimes it’s not as crispy as it should be. To be honest, I’m for not going for it sooner.
she was striving for. And
Three Fold. Tuesday, too. if you’ve met her, or even still not 100 percent satisfied yet.” Loaded with pickled veggies,
Heck, probably even Friday. glimpsed her restaurant ’s spring greens, pepper sauce
minimalist, white-on-white and pork, the mo, as it’s called
interior, you know those in China, is a soft, doughy,
standards are high. overstuffed bun. It looks not
In fact, ever since Three Fold Noodle & Dumpling Co. relocated right “The dumpling, traditionally, unlike an extra-large English
around the corner from the Arkansas Life offices, my obsession’s become is very much a family gathering muffin, but the bread is
something of a joke around the water cooler. Would I ever eat anything meal,” Lisa tells me when I sit cloudlike and fluffy, and there’s
else again? Would I get tired of it? How much weight would I gain? Would down to chat with her at the a slightly sweet taste, almost
my body literally transform into a pork dumpling? restaurant a couple of months akin to a Hawaiian-style roll.
These were questions that needed answering, obviously, and I was up later. “We make it together, The only downside? Don’t be
to the task. This would require some serious research, and there was only and we eat right away after surprised if you find yourself
one proper way to go about it: I would have to eat at Three Fold for a we cook. So that means the nodding off at your desk after
whole workweek straight—five days, five different meals. texture keeps on changing finishing this bready bundle
Game on. every minute. That’s the unique of deliciousness. Not speaking
cooking method with this food, from experience or anything.
Day One: Lunch which I grew up with. I know That’s just, you know, what I’ve
what is right or how to reheat heard.
I
should probably start simple. or when to reheat or pan fry,
My regular order perhaps, aka pan-fried pork dumplings? I’m and this kitchen gave me Day Four: Breakfast
waiting in line on a Monday during the lunch rush, contemplating that opportunity. Basically, I
O
my first move. Ultimately, I settle on my original regular order, dating designed it as it should be.” h, breakfast.
back to the ol’ Center Street location days: Pork dumplings. Medium Rather than being heaped When I heard Three
dipping sauce. Non-fried. one on top of the other in a Fold was adding a
At the grand opening of Three Fold’s new location back at high-sided to-go bowl, the morning lineup, that’s when
the end of September, owner and chef Lisa Zhang had told the dumplings are now served in my … addiction is strong word.
crowd how excited she was about the opportunities the new space wide white dishes rimmed in Let’s say that’s when my Three
would afford. As much as she appreciated the positive response indigo blue. Before I know it, Fold habit had to the potential
the original location received, she said, the limitations of the restaurant’s bite after perfectly textured bite, to become a thrice-daily affair.
first space meant the food had never quite been able to reach the standards mine is empty. Thus far, I’d managed to stave

T FIRST TASTE
THREE FOLD NOODLES

AND DUMPLING CO.
611 S MAIN ST., LITTLE ROCK
(501) 372-1739 | EAT3FOLD.COM
BEST DISHES
Soup noodle bowl, pan-fried
dumplings and steamed bun.
KID-FRIENDLY?
Yep! All the signature bowls
and buns are available in a small
option for the little ones or those
with little tums.
PRICE RANGE
Entrees $6.50-$10.80; the
breakfast baozi is $4.30 h In China, you typically
won’t find noodles and
HOURS
dumplings in the same
Breakfast, Monday through
restaurant, says Lisa,
Friday, 7-10:30 a.m.; lunch
and dinner, Monday through at right. But Three Fold
Friday, 10:30 am to 9 p.m., combines three traditional
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. staples: noodles, dumplings
and steamed buns.
off its siren song, but as I walk over on a crisp December morning,
I know I’m in for it. I’m opening Pandora’s box.
Like the rest of the menu, the breakfast list is fairly short. The
primary option is a baozi—similar to the steamed bun, but less of
a sandwich and more of a a giant dumpling, as if it’d taken a direct
hit from Rick Moranis’ size-manipulating ray gun. I decide on the
pork filling, and then fully commit to authenticity by ordering a it—hot and flavorful, packed with pickled veggies, slaw, pork and
housemade soy milk. housemade noodles. Don’t quote me on this, but that broth might
“There’s a balance to give you something new, but not give you too actually be medicinal. (Pro tip: Add the tea-scented egg. I’m not
much of a foreign thing,” Lisa had told me about the breakfast menu sure what makes it tea-scented, but it’s seasoned and soft boiled
when we’d chatted. “It’s challenging for me, every item I develop. and oh-so-delicious, whatever it is.) As is usually the case, I’m not
Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes not. When people see that able to finish it all in one sitting. But you better believe I’m taking
big [baozi], they stop. They say, It’s too foreign for me. I’m still used to my leftovers to go.
American breakfast. It’s purely dough, and it’s not bread. But actually, This five-day plan just became a six-day venture. This stuff is way
it’s very similar to bread. It’s a very traditional breakfast for us.” too special to waste.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but one bite and I’m all in. And that’s the thing about Three Fold, the thing that keeps me
coming back, even six-days-in-row-back: It’s special.
Day 5: Dinner The food—like the people who prepare it—is authentic, genuine.
There’s a level of care in every dish that’s elsewhere hard to come
B
eer. that’s what’s on my mind this Friday, the final day of my by. There’s love in it. “I realized that especially people from the east
five-day experiment. Forget breakfast, forget lunch—we’re coast, west coast, they always want to know, What are you doing here
The soup noodle bowl is
one of our favorite new going for dinner. to Little Rock?” Lisa told me. “And I say, Because of love of Little Rock
entrees, but you must It’s busy, but not too crowded for comfort. Before I know it I’m and Arkansas.”
add the tea-scented seated with a Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale in hand—poured from And honestly, even after five days straight, I still love it, too. And
egg. Trust us.
the restaurant’s new lineup of beers on tap—and my dinner’s in front I think Little Rock feels the same. So next time you stop in for
of me: the soup noodle bowl. It’s comfort food if I’ve ever tasted dumplings, be sure to say hello. I’m sure I’ll be there.

CHERRY BOMBE RADIO
Who’s talking: Brooklyn- GRAVY
based Kerry Diamond, co-
CRAVINGS founder and editorial director Who’s talking: The folks
of one of our favorite indie behind the Southern
mags, Cherry Bombe, which
PASS THE PODCAST celebrates women and food.
Foodways Alliance, a New
Orleans-based institution
that “documents, studies
What they’re talking about: and explore the diverse food
Forget politics and talking heads—that’s so Each week, Kerry interviews cultures of the changing
2017. This year, we’re filling our earbuds with culinary trendsetters, from American South.”
episodes of a more appetizing variety. Listen cookbook authors to chefs,
on for four of our favorite foodie podcasts stylists to wine gurus, What they’re talking about:
entrepreneurs to activists. Every other week, Gravy
by katie bridges | PHOTOGRAPHY By Arshia Khan It’s like listening to your girl digs deep into the stories
crush chat with your other behind the foods we eat as
girl crush. And there’s usually Southerners, exposing the
pizza. rich diversity that ends up
on our plates. One week
Episode to listen to first: they’re eating corned beef
Episode 123, in which the sandwiches in a Mississippi
hilarious comedy-writer- Delta Jewish deli, the next
turned-wine-blogger Marissa they’re making traditional
Ross stops by for an Mexican tortillas from
irreverent chat about her Kentucky corn at a Lexington
irreverent wine reviews. Just tortilleria.
make sure you have a glass
of gamay handy. Episode to listen to first:
Episode 32, entitled
“Mexican-ish: How Arkansas
THE DINNER PARTY DOWNLOAD Came to Love Cheese Dip,”
which features more than a
Who’s talking: Public radio few familiar voices. (Hi, Kat
show veterans Rico Gagliano Robinson and Rex Nelson!)
and Brendan Francis
Newman, whom you’ve
probably heard on the likes SPILLED MILK
of “Fresh Air” and “All Things
Considered.” Who’s talking: A dream-team
duo of author-slash-blogger-
What they’re talking slash-restaurateur Molly
about: Each week, the one- Wizenberg and comedian-
hour show is divided into slash-food writer Matthew
“courses” devoted to music, Amster-Burton.
food trends (beer porridge,
anyone?), pop culture and What they’re talking about:
the arts, all under the guise Each week, Molly and
of giving you fodder for your Matthew take one foodie-
next dinner party. Recent centric topic and blab about
guests have included Greta it ’til they just can’t blab
Gerwig, Mel Brooks, Sterling no more. We’re talking 24
K. Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda minutes on frozen pot pie,
and the Fleet Foxes. 29 minutes on baby snacks,
37 minutes on applesauce,
Episode to listen to first: 19 rollicking minutes on
It doesn’t exactly follow Icelandic junk food, and the
their typical episode outline, like. Hilarity ensues.
but “Look Up and Listen!,”
a trippy “audio odyssey” Episode to listen to first:
featuring the likes of Neil Episode 308, in which Molly
deGrasse Tyson, Feist and delivers her treatise on
Nick Offerman (playing the Pop Tarts, and you learn
role of a talking wolf), will everything you never needed
definitely endear you to the to know about toaster
DPD. pastries.

THE FEED CORK DORK
IN DEFENSE
WHAT’S COOKING
OF MERLOT growers cause to rip out their bad merlot vines and replace them
with (often equally bad) pinot noir.
Even now, more than 12 years later, this change in consumer taste
Somewhere along the way, merlot got still makes merlot a hard sell for a lot of drinkers. I’ve had winery
a less-than-stellar reputation. Here’s representatives tell me they often market their merlot as a “red
why that needs to change blend,” a term that, for whatever reason, people are more comfortable
THE FLUFF with when they see it on a label. Pouring wine for guests, I often
find that people will say they even prefer a merlot-based wine, so
DREAMS ARE By SETH ELI BARLOW
Photography By Arshia Khan long, of course, as they don’t know it’s merlot. What they also don’t
MADE OF know: Even those lush California cabernet sauvignons that are
always so popular typically have a healthy dose of merlot blended
in. (In California, a wine only requires 75 percent of the wine to be
Just the thing you need to made from the grape on the label.)
up your hot-cocoa game in It’s a disappointing trend, as merlot, in the hands of a capable
time for that first snowfall winemaker, can produce incredible wines that run the gamut from
(er, ice storm): Loblolly delicate and feminine to dark and brooding. I like to think of merlot
Creamery’s housemade as something of a chameleon, able to change its profile dramatically
marshmallows, which— based both on where it’s grown and what other grapes it’s blended
with. In its native France, the wine is often soft and delicate, with
tested and confirmed—
notes of violets, tobacco leaves and leather, while sun-drenched
make even the powdered California produces wines that are rich and fruity, bursting with
Nestle stuff taste like plum, raspberry and spice.
something straight out of
Serendipity Cafe. Go with H With notes of berries,
cocoa and vanilla, this
vanilla or peppermint bottle is our new go-to
for the kiddos, but slip a merlot.
square of the Rock-Town
collab into your own mug 2014 Broadside Margarita Vineyard Merlot, $16
for a subtle bourbon-y Hailing from Paso Robles in California’s Central Coast, this merlot
bite. (1423 S. Main St.; manages to balance ripe fruit notes of plum, blueberry and black cherry
loblollycreamery.com) with the more subtle aromas of cocoa powder and vanilla. The perfect
weeknight wine, it’s light enough to pair with steak, salmon and every-
thing in between.
RUM’S THE WORD GREEN (CORNER) TEA 2013 Robert Keenan Winery Napa Valley Merlot, $29
The Robert Keenan Winery is in the mountains above Napa Valley, so

When Loblolly moved high, in fact, that the vineyards escape the valley’s notorious fog. This
“I
f anybody orders merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking allows the grapes to get even more exposure to the sun and to produce
next door, the gorgeous complex and fascinating wine. There are heavy fruit notes, but it’s the
It might not be patio weather, but we can still wooden bar they vacated any f*cking merlot!”
wine’s savory hints of mint, eucalyptus and smoke that make it a win-
It’s a throwaway line in Alexander Payne’s 2004 film ner.
drink like it’s summertime at La Terraza’s at The Green Corner Store Sideways, but many claim it’s had an outsized effect on the way
was in need of something Americans drink wine ever since. The film follows two friends on
inaugural Mojito Mania fête on Jan. 16. Sip special. Enter The Tea
2010 Chateau de Bellevue Lussac-St. Emillion, $36
a wine-tasting vacation through Southern California in search of
your way through the Hillcrest hideaway’s Bar, stocked with loose- women and a perfect pinot noir. The main character, Miles, played There’s probably no other place in the world that produces merlot as
well as Bordeaux. Less fruity than its American counterparts, this bot-
lineup of mojitos—regular, spicy, ginger, leaf tea by Fayetteville’s by Paul Giamatti, is the classic wine snob, oozing pretension every tling from Bordeaux’s famed Right Bank is a lesson in subtlety. Notes
Savoy Tea Co.—some time he raises a glass. The film’s greatest irony? That Miles’ most- of worn leather and tobacco leaves intermingle with cardamom and
what have you—while snacking on small two dozen flavors of the prized possession, a bottle of 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc, is made raspberries. If it were a person, you could easily imagine it having a
almost entirely of merlot. whiskey and a cigar while wearing a smoking jacket.
plates like empanadas and fried plantains. stuff, for good measure.
The film, rightly or otherwise, gets blamed for decline in the sales
For non-tea folk, there’s 2014 Seven Hill Winery Seven Hills Vineyard Merlot, $48
(P.S. About that patio: Should you be so kombucha on draft (with of merlot-based wines throughout the mid-2000s. A more likely
version of the truth is that in the 1990s, merlot vines were being
inclined, ask for a blanket—they keep them growlers!), fresh pastries planted up and down California to be made into inexpensive, mass-
I know I said that Bordeaux is the pinnacle of merlot, but in wine,
there’s always an exception. This bottling from Washington state’s
handy for those truly committed to al fresco and pour-overs. In other market wines that could be found on grocery-store and gas-station Walla Walla Valley is the best merlot I’ve had in years. It’s like drinking
words: TEA TIME. (1423 the Batmobile: intense and powerful and full of energy that exists right
shelves (yes, wine in gas stations is a thing outside of Arkansas!)
arepas.) (3000 Kavanaugh Blvd.; facebook.com/ Main St., Little Rock; across the country. When the film came out and put a voice to the
beneath the surface. A chorus of spices on the finish—bay leaf, clove,
cinnamon and sage—buoys an overriding note of stewed black cherry.
la-terraza-rum-lounge) thegreencornerstore.com) fact that most of these wines were, in fact, quite bad, it gave many Think you don’t like merlot? Have a glass of this. I dare you.

69
AFIELD
76
CULTURALIST
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR WEEKEND 78
TRAVELER
2018 SHOW
JANUARY 14, 2018

STATEHOUSE CONVENTION CENTER • 12:30 P.M.  5 P.M. | LITTLE ROCK
VIB (Very Important Bride) Tickets - $50.
(Online only & tickets are limited)
AFIELD: WE TRIED IT
General Tickets: $10 in advance online;
$15 at the door WHEN IN
ARKANSAS …
… you duck hunt, fly
V.I.B. Package fish and rock climb. Or

at least you give it the
ol’ college try, which
Private mixer with show sponsors on Saturday, Jan. 13 we did this month.
Read on to see how we
at 7 p.m. at Albert Pike Masonic Center fared
Newly-designed t-shirts and canvas bags
Early entry into the show on Sunday, Jan. 14 at 11:30 a.m.
Reserved seating at all main stage events
sp onsored by
ANGIE DAVIS
www.arkansasbridalcommunity.com
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

h The author
shoots a gun
for the first
time, shattering
an orange clay
pigeon. The next
several times he
AFIELD: I TRIED IT fired … Are not WORTH
important.
A SHOT
BLIND LUCK Between the newly rebuilt
15-room, 10,000-square-
At The Grove foot lodge, 7,000 acres of
Hunting Club, various Delta landscapes
there’s always and, oh goodness ,
more to the story that food, the seasoned
hunter will find few
By Jordan P. Hickey accommodations more luxe
Photography by Arshia Khan than The Grove Hunting
Lodge. But for those who
need a little more practice …
S
o early, everything was shade and shadows.
There were grays, every color of it, that were the IF YOU’RE MORE ABOUT
sky, the water, the mud underfoot. The treeline REST THAN RECREATION
was a line of bristles. It was romantic and peaceful as Delta Resort & Spa
everyone had said it would be, and in that moment,
… On second thought, this is
despite the chill of below-freezing temps on that pretty luxe. In addition to offering
December morning, there was no place I would have guided hunts and clay-shooting
rather been. eyeing a box of Cap’n Crunch. “They probably should’ve locked this.” courses from Olympic Medalist
A loud belch filled the silence. For the past several hours, those points had been made clear. The men who’d and World Champion Dan Carlisle,
“Good morning, sunshine,” came a second voice. gathered at the lodge had started the evening as strangers but quickly bonded this 130-room McGehee resort
over common interests: the Saints-Falcons game that was on television, the offers professional massage. Also,
Spread in three clusters along the rim of the pond’s H At the end of the duck nachos and steak courtesy
waterline were a dozen hunters hunkered down in small-world stories that are especially common in Arkansas circles. But more day, the dozen hunters of the onsite restaurant, 43 Grill
the shadows of the pond, waiting for the sun. They than anything, the stories they shared that evening—both the true-to-life and had gotten five full
and Bar. (8624 Bucksducks Road,
limits—30 ducks—
were men, mostly middle-aged, all of them seasoned those that felt a little overly rose-colored—about past hunts, their children, their every one of them a Tillar; deltaconferencecenter.com)
dogs, were undoubtedly the crux of that connection. gadwall.
hunters. I couldn’t see them, but I knew their faces
and their stories, having broken bread (read: some
It all seemed very natural, very effortless, and even as an outsider, it was not IF YOU WANT TO GET
difficult for me to imagine why. Just about all of them had grown up with this. OUT ON THE RANGE
of the best steak I’ve ever had; also, moonshine) with
Their familiarity with the sport allowed for it; the commonalities between stories Arkansas Game and
them the previous night at The Grove Hunting Club
meant one account segued seamlessly into the next. There were a few occasions Fish Foundation Shooting
in Pine Bluff.
when, undoubtedly for my benefit, some basic mechanics were described: how Sports Complex
It was quiet for a time, but as the sun rose, light and
ducks come wheeling down from above, how looking up was a sure way of driving
life arrived in tandem. Half past 6, the guide, a man
the birds. But inevitably, they returned to the stories. With 14 trap fields, three skeet
named Taylor Grayson, stepped out into the water, As the hour grew later and the brown stuff drained from the bottles, the stories overlays, and voice-activated
explaining to the men on the bank that they’d be using grew longer, and the men started to disappear into their rooms. controls, it should come as no
one dog that morning, that he’d be calling the shots. surprise that this state-of-the-art
complex is something special.
Time went by. Geese flew overhead. A few ducks
B
y 8 a.m., the day had gotten lighter, the trees were made gold, the skies Even better? It periodically offers
came through, barely visible. A round of shots rang blue. Overhead, tiny geese filled the void between the trees as they headed trap-shooting 101 classes from
out. The ducks kept flying. (“I must have cataracts.” for nearby rice fields. But there had been ducks. Sometimes they’d come Arkansas Trapshooting Hall
“We suck.” “I didn’t shoot. Y’all suck.” “Did anyone down fast, avoiding the shots. Other times, they’d slowed themselves, their feet of Famer Doyle Gaskin. (2800
bring the moonshine?”) Graham Road, Jacksonville;
outriggered, wings up like parachutes. I never heard the sound of their wings jacksonvilleshootingcomplex.com)
As I brought the gun to my shoulder, I thought back cutting the air as it’d been described to me, but presumably, it was there. It was
to that day when I’d first fired a gun. I didn’t have to often idyllic, the way the men had described it the previous evening. But more
think back very far. It was yesterday. often than not, in those moments between the ones that would make for future
IF YOU’RE STILL ON THE FENCE
stories, it was real. It was imperfect. ABOUT GETTING YOUR FEET WET
Hunter Education Classes
“I
t’s what most of this hobby is about,” In the murk at my feet, there were two shells from the two times that I’d fired,
Wilson Ward had told me the night before and missed. I have to admit that I’d all but resigned myself to not getting one— Not quite ready to don those
h Taylor Grayson’s
as he stood in The Grove’s kitchen, shelling and, what’s more, I was OK with that. Then just after 8:30 a.m., a duck flew low, dog, Ace, eyes the waders? The Arkansas Game and
pistachios. “The camaraderie. The stories you get to right in front of the barrel of my gun. I pulled the trigger. It is a strange thing quarry after the hunt. Fish Commission offers 10-hour
pass down. Every hunt is better when you’re telling to be done so quickly with something that feels so life-altering. But I suppose courses that combine classroom
your buddies about it.” He turned to Nathan Garner, and “hands-on” instruction from
that’s just part of the story.
dedicated volunteers and AGFC
who was standing in the doorway of the pantry. “Isn’t employees. (Locations vary; a list
that right?” Ready to hunker down at the Grove (or at least come for some of the ridiculous chef- of classes can be found at register-
“And the food,” Nathan said over his shoulder, prepared fare)? Visit thegrovehuntingclub.com. ed.com/programs/arkansas)

H Reaching for the next hold on
“Paul’s Redemption,” one of over 500
bolted climbing routes on the ranch.
AFIELD: I TRIED IT
ON THE ROCKS
Learning the ropes at of the wall instead of the bottom. On
Horseshoe Canyon Ranch his way up to set the route for me, he’d
warned me about a tough spot about 10
By WYNDHAM WYETH or 15 feet up, where I now find myself. TAKE A
photography by Wesley Hitt I stretch about as far as can reach, but
now I’m on my tiptoes, and to pull CRACK AT IT
myself up to the next ledge, I have to
Don’t have time to make it
I
t’s right in front of my face. put practically my whole body weight
on my arms. I start and stop a couple
out to Horseshoe Canyon
I’d been concentrating so hard on my feet, preparing to make
the next move, that I hadn’t even noticed the anchor. This bolt, of times, trying to figure out the best
Ranch for the weekend, but
drilled directly into the rock, is both what’s kept me safe and what way to approach it. I’m quickly tiring still ready to get your climb
I’ve been climbing toward. my arms out. My palms get sweaty. on? Satisfy your climber
I’ve done it, I realize. I’ve reached the top of the K Wall, my first “I think I’m gonna fall,” I shout. And craving with these bits of
climb of the day out at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper. before I know it, I no longer feel the rock candy.
Hands and feet securely gripping the sandstone wall—a “bloyd rock under my fingers, no longer feel
formation”—I turn my attention back toward the ground from the wall against my feet. IF YOU’RE MORE A FAN
whence I came. A jolt of nerves shoots through me when I see how This is it. I’m falling. OF THE GREAT INDOORS
small my climbing guide, Jason Roy, looks from this vantage point. The whole thing lasts only a second, Little Rock Climbing
I hadn’t realized how high I’d actually climbed: about 35 feet up. maybe even a fraction of that, but it Center, Little Rock
“Ready to come down?” Jason yells up, his voice bouncing off the feels much longer. The rope catches me
various formations in the North Forty section of the ranch where almost immediately, and I just dangle So maybe you’re not ready to
we’re climbing today. He’s at the bottom of the wall, holding onto there for a moment before pulling take on that Arkansas sandstone
just yet. Lucky for you, Arkansas
my lifeline—literally. I’m harnessed in, and Jason is “belaying” myself back to the wall. has several indoor climbing gyms
me up and down the rock face, using his gear to handle the rope “You can do this, Wyndham! I know where you can learn the basics,
that’ll keep me from plummeting back down to the ground should you can!” Jason yells down, and I really rent equipment and get a feel for
something go wrong. want to believe him. I try again, but my the sport. The LRCC offers 4,000
“Just lean back off the wall, and start taking baby steps,” he says. arms are trashed. I strain as hard as I square feet of climbable terrain
with routes perfect for beginners.
“I’ll do the rest.” can to get up over the precipice, but
(12120 Colonel Glenn Road #7000;
Feet securely on the ground, I’m feeling like a rock-climbing I just don’t have the strength. Again, littlerockclimbingcenter.com)
pro—that is, until I find out the name of this wall. “It’s called the I fall.
K Wall,” Jason tells me. “We used to call it the Kindergarten Wall, If we had more time, if the sun wasn’t IF YOU WANT TO TRY
but people didn’t seem to like the sound of that.” going down on us, I certainly would
I think I understand why. have tried. But instead, I have to close
BEFORE YOU BUY
Lewis & Clark Outfitters,
out this day on a failure. I’m honestly a
Rogers and Springdale
T
his isn’t technically my first time rock climbing, but it might little embarrassed and disappointed in
as well be. In high school, I’d visited an indoor climbing gym myself, and I tell Jason as much when These outdoor supply shops have a
a handful of times. But while a lot of the technical aspects we get back to the equipment room to climbing wall in the store! That way
are the same, there are no perfectly placed polyurethane handholds put our stuff away. you can put your gear to the test
here, no padded floors below me. It’s just me, the rock and the rope. “Failure is a huge part of the rock before you lay down the cash. Or if
you just like a little adrenaline rush
I’m in good hands with Jason. As the head climbing guide at climbing experience,” he says assuringly. when you go shopping. (multiple
Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, he’s not only an experienced climber and “There have been plenty of routes that locations; gooutandplay.com)
instructor, he’s been teaching and bolting new routes at the ranch have absolutely destroyed me.”
for about 15 seasons. And as Jason will tell you, the ranch—and Earlier, at the base of the rock as I IF YOU LIKE TO
Arkansas, in general—is a great place for climbing thanks to its was nursing my broken pride, I asked
abundance of Arkansas sandstone. Its coarse surface is perfect for Jason the name of the route that’d just
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Rock Climbing Arkansas, Second
creating the sort of friction that allows the climber to better connect taken me down.
Edition by Cole Fennel
to the rock and establish a strong hold. “Paul’s Redemption,” he says.
I think I’m ready to take things up just a notch with the next route, Maybe next time, I think, I’ll get my This is the book when it comes
a relatively easy one called “Kids Stuff,” on the main cliff. It’s a little redemption too. to rock climbing in Arkansas.
steeper and a little taller, but Jason tells me this route is practically Comprehensive and detailed with
made for rock climbing, and I quickly find that he’s right. There are route descriptions, difficulty grades
“This is my classroom and my office,” Don’t delay. Belay! If you want to make
and starred ratings, this is a must-
says Jason Roy, head climbing guide at plenty of spots within reach to place my hands and feet, and once an ascent with Jason Roy, visit the ranch’s have for exploring Arkansas’
Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Annnd now again, I’ve scrambled to the top before I even have time to realize it. website at horseshoecanyonduderanch.com, climbing options. (fixedpin.com/
we’re considering a career change.
On our third climb of the day, Jason’s belaying me from the top or give them a call at (870) 446-2577. products/rock-climbing-arkansas)

“There are 7,800 fish
per square mile in the
White,” Brock told me.
Better make that 7,799.
AFIELD: I TRIED IT
SO FLY
Or how to fall in
love with a river and
a rod
I’m poking it? Kinda sticking it mentioning places such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, New York,
By KATIE BRIDGES in the ceiling?” Wisconsin. “The White River is really famous for really big brown
SHOP TALK
photography by brock dixon It’s quiet and still, and trout. There’s nowhere else in the country that grows brown trout I asked Brock where
the river’s ours alone. As I like we do in a river. There’s such a biodiversity here. They stock Arkansans should head if
cast behind me, I can hear over a million rainbow trout here every year—that’s a lot of food
they’re a) interested in fly
the whooosh of the fly line for brown trout.” Something to his left catches his eye. “Hey, watch
fishing and b) very much
T
o me, it’s invisible, but accelerating. that indicator. If it ticks or makes a move like it went under, set the
he can see it. With quick, “That’s it,” he says. “You’ve hook just like a back cast.”
beginners. “That’s easy,”
steady fingers, he whirls got it. Real compact. Real I’m trying to watch, but there’s just so much else to see. The sun’s he said. “A good fly shop.”
the filament four, five, six times, simple. People over-complicate glinting off the water, the river rocks are tumbling, the … Here, his recommendations
threading it back through an fly-fishing. It’s easy—way easier “Yip! Yip! Oup, there he is!” Brock says, breaking my reverie. for folks in the know:
equally invisible hole. He takes than regular fishing.” “OK, so, just strip that line in just like that, keep that rod tip high,
it between his thumbs and “ Yeah?” I think, still you want a nice bend in the rod … just like that, turn your rod a IF YOU’RE ON THE WHITE
forefingers, brings it to his awkward ly wielding my bit, direct him in here …” Dally’s Ozark Fly
mouth, and with a quick nibble, imaginary ice pick. I’m bending, stripping the line, leading him (or her?) in, and I’m Fisher, Cotter
it becomes two. “Yeah,” he says. “It’s more not sure, but he feels like The Big One. It’s me versus him, or are we
Tasmania-native Steve Dally is
“I do a lot of knot-tying,” he natural.” working together? In a flash, he’s in the net. Turns out he’s … tiny.
a legend in these parts, and his
says. “I probably swallow more Brock’s a natural. Or at least But he’s beautiful. Rainbow trout is a fitting name. eponymous shop is the de facto
fluorocarbon than I should.” that’s the way it seems. Truth “There he is!” Brock says, high-fiving me. “First fish on a fly rod!” hub of the Cotter fishing scene.
He is Brock Dixon, the is, he’s just a perfectionist. A We make a pit stop at Gaston’s White River Resort. Brock shows (1200 W. Main St.; theozarkflyfisher.
man behind North Arkansas Texas native, he taught himself me the resort’s air strip and hangar, the prim cabins, the restaurant com)
Troutfitters, and the knots he’s to cast a line on the banks of where the walls are positively smothered in clippings from fishing
tying are connected to the end the Illinois River between publications. It’s only then, much as I’ve heard tell, that I realize the IF YOU’RE IN
of my fly rod. I’m in his boat, classes at the University of renown that surrounds this sport in the state, that’s elevated this NORTHWEST ARKANSAS
and we’re in the middle of Arkansas. Once he mastered river to world-class status. McLellan’s Fly Shop,
the White River, not far from that, he wanted a boat. Then Back in the boat, cruising to find a cove where we can have the Fayetteville
Cotter. He’s the expert, I’m the he wanted to guide. Then he picnic Brock’s stashed away for us in his Yeti, I sit in the front seat,
novice, though I don’t know if started his guiding business. whipped by a fresh wind. The river’s wide, much wider than I’d The shop where Brock got his
start back during his U of A days,
“novice” is accurate enough. These days, the 29-year-old’s anticipated, and the breeze has chopped up the water’s sapphire-blue
McLellan’s is stocked to the gills
“Make a cast to 12 o’clock. booked pretty much full time. surface. Towering blufflines hem us in on both banks, and every few (sorry) with everything you need
Just throw it behind you— This is his desk—I think of the hundred feet, you can spy the pitch of a roof atop the ridge. High to get out on the water. (18 W.
therrre you go,” he says from boat we’re sitting in. This river above us, a pair of wintering bald eagles circle, and blue herons—so Sunbridge Dr.; mcflyshop.com)
his perch in the center of the is his office. many I’ve lost count—perch on their stickly legs near the shore. Not
boat. “See how it carries it out Casting learned, we move far downstream, I spot what, at first, seems to be yet another heron, IF YOU’RE IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS
there? Be careful not to be too upstream. He’s killed the but as we approach, it turns out to be a wader-sporting fly fisher The Ozark Angler, Little
wristy—use that thumb … there motor, and as he rows and the waist-high in the drink, casting a line. The scale of it all startles me. Rock and Heber Springs
you go. Think of that rod tip oars make their Styrofoam-y, He seems so small. I feel so small.
Whether you’re looking to head
being an ice pick, and you’re in a record-scratchy creaks, I ask It’s a feeling I could get used to.
to the Little Red or farther afield
room, and you want to stick that him where his clients come (Utah? Chile, perhaps?), Chad
ice pick in the ceiling without from. If you’d like a seat in Brock Dixon’s boat, visit his website at Kneeland can help. (multiple
scratching the ceiling. See how “All over, really,” he says, northarkansasoutfitters.com, or give him a call at (870) 421-8960. locations; ozarkangler.com)

CULTURALIST 1.12 1.12
KATY PERRY: WITNESS THE
TOUR AT VERIZON ARENA IN
WHERE TO BE THIS MONTH NORTH LITTLE ROCK
1.19-21
CABARET AT WALTON ARTS
CENTER IN FAYETTEVILLE
1.20
1.27-28 BALLET ARKANSAS’ MOTION
ON MAIN: WINTER WINE
TASTE
1.19-21
1.24 - 2.11
There are the obvious
reasons we get excited BROTHERHOOD THE CALL AT ARKANSAS
REPERTORY THEATRE IN
each Ja n u a r y
Oaklawn’s opening day:
for
AT THE ART LITTLE ROCK
the thoroughbreds, the

people-watching, those
GROUP GALLERY 1.31
JUDAH & THE LION AT
insanely delish corned-
beef sandwiches. But
IN LITTLE ROCK, GEORGE’S MAJESTIC
really, if we’re being FEATURING LOUNGE IN FAYETTEVILLE
WORK BY JASON
honest? We’re just as
excited to have another
reason to grab a pie at
Deluca’s and a brew at SACRAN AND 1.3-28
Superior while in the Spa
JOHN P. LASATER
ONE
With selections from Bizet’s Carmen, de Falla’s Nights in City. (oaklawn.com)
the Garden of Spain (featuring pianist Tatiana Roitman
Mann) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, this duo of
ARTIST’S
performances the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s
calling “Tchaikovsky’s Passion” is sure to get you feeling
all starry-eyed and lovey-dovey. (arkansassymphony.org)
1.18-21
TRASH
... blank canvases, unused
1.21 1.24 - 2.18 pastels, errant brushes—is

another artist’s treasure,
which is why the Mena Art
JASON ISBELL
FAMILY MATTERS
Gallery holds an “artists’
garage sale” throughout
AND THE the month of January each
year. Aspiring artists can
400 UNIT AT score like-new materials
ROBINSON
... are at the heart of The Humans, the Stephen at a fraction of the cost,
Karam play New York Times called “blisteringly funny, Soooo … We weren’t sure how we’d feel about “experimental and psychedelic banjo and pros with overflowing
MUSIC CENTER
bruisingly sad, and altogether wonderful.” Directed by music.” But then we listened to a few tunes by Ozark Mountain Music Festival’s studio cabinets can
Shana Gold, TheatreSquared’s production promises headliner, Tall Tall Trees. Let’s just say we know where we’ll be on the evening of relieve themselves of
IN LITTLE ROCK to be just as hysterical—and just as heartbreaking. January 19, and that’s in front of Basin Park Hotel’s main stage in Eureka Springs. creativity-killing clutter.
(theatre2.org) (ozarkmountainmusicfestival.com) (menaartgallery.com)
TRAVELER
THE HIGHS
OF LOWEST GOING
GREENVILLE
GREENVILLE Hope you’re hungry, because
this neighborhood knows how
A decade ago, there wasn’t much doing on to eat (and drink)
this blighted stretch of Greenville Avenue.
Now it’s a can’t-miss for foodies and, IF YOU JUST WANT TO UNWIND
quite possibly, your new favorite Dallas The Blind Butcher
neighborhood
“Oh, man,” says Molly. “Their sau-
By Mariam Makatsaria | Photography by Elisa Fisher sage and sauerkraut is my favorite
thing. And the pastrami egg rolls
are amazing.” Also amazing: the
Blind Butcher’s rotating sausage
board, which boasts favorites such
as beer-cheddar-jalapeno brisket,
B
Sammy and Molly efore 2011, everything was different. The Lowest Greenville plans included a complete h Carnivores and
bacon bratwurst and an English-
Mandel, owners of cocktail nerds will find
area, the 0.4-mile stretch of Greenville Avenue sandwiched face-lift—a new logo, lighting, style banger, all made in-house.
Greenville Avenue Pizza refuge at The Blind
Co., have witnessed
between Ross and Belmont avenues, just northeast of wallpaper and paint. Before And even if you turn an, ahem,
Butcher.
downtown Dallas, was a tinge too rough-and-tumble. In the wee the wave of change, Sammy blind eye to the food (which is,
a sea change in the
like, really hard to do), this neigh-
neighborhood since hours of the night, police broke up fights. Seedy bars drew a tough and Molly had to construct a
borhood staple prides itself on
opening their doors in crowd, frequently catering to minors. More often than not, the area makeshift sidewalk using pizza its libations, offering two dozen
2007. could count on a steady stream of crime. But things began shifting boxes. drafts and killer cocktails. Adven-
when a new ordinance forced local businesses to apply for a specific- Now, the Lowest Greenville turous imbibers, take note: The
use permit to stay open past midnight. The result? Businesses with Area is abuzz with activity. latter sometimes unite beer and
less-than-stellar track records packed up and left the scene. And There’s no shortage of hungry booze—their new old-fashioned
infuses rye whiskey with a stout
slowly, so, too, did the crime. masses exploring the area’s reduction. (1919 Greenville Ave.;
For Dallas natives Sammy and Molly Mandell, it was like culinary scene, especially on theblindbutcher.com)
witnessing a dead log sprout leaves and come back to life. In a weekends. Molly and Sammy’s
way, quite literally: To beautify the block, greenery was brought joint even stays open to 4 a.m. IF YOU WANT A BURGER
in, and sidewalks were widened to accommodate foot traffic. In an Saturdays to help night owls
effort to draw more businesses and the people back to Greenville ward off late-night cravings.
WITH A VIEW
HG Sply Co.
Avenue, the city added bike racks, park benches and decorative The best part? The area still
streetlights. Evidently, it worked. In 2013, Trader Joe’s—a big and has the potential to grow. HG takes its motto seriously: “sim-
desirable name in retail—settled in the vacant lot where the fabled “We’re really working on trying ple, clean food, classic drinks and
Arcadia Theater once stood. Seeing the area’s untapped potential, to encourage people to come in humble hospitality.” The modern-
a slew of new restaurants took up residence shortly after that, and [with] retail shops,” Molly says. but-rustic decor features wood ta-
bles and red-and-white tiles, while
business owners formed the Lowest Greenville Collective to lend “There are so many restaurants the paleo-inspired menu boasts ev-
one another a hand and to foster community engagement. It was and bars, but it would be great erything from ahi tuna poke and co-
laboriously earned, but that section of Greenville was elevated to to have more shopping. We’ve chinita nachos to a killer cheddar-
the status of “hip.” talked to a few people about bacon burger. Though HG’s dishes
Even longtime favorites, such as Greenville Avenue Pizza Co.—a doing a weekend market or are mostly carnivorous, there are
plenty of equally delectable gluten-
pizza shop that opened its doors back in 2007 with Sammy and Molly some sort of art gallery—
free and vegetarian options. And
at its helm—rebranded with the block. “When new businesses came anything that would get more the view from the eatery’s rooftop
in, we saw the opportunity to really hire a branding company to redo people to come and enjoy the patio ain’t half bad, either. (2008
our image, as well as our interior and exterior,” says Sammy, whose neighborhood.” Greenville Ave.; hgsplyco.com)

TRAVELER
ADVERTISEMENT
A New You Starts with a

After
New Smile
Before
Authentic gelato
plus quirky shops and IF YOU NEED OPTIONS
quirkier food-truck Truck Yard
yards equals long- For Carole Smith, senior vice pres- who you are. It’s really like a small family.”
weekend gold. Some days, you get a hankering ident of Simmons Bank, a pro- Dickinson said Smith’s issues included
for something specific—a slice of fessional and personal image is asymmetrical and crowded teeth that
pizza, say, or a plate full of crispy important. That’s why when she needed brightening. “Carole is an energet-
potato skins. Other days, you’re decided she wanted a dazzling, white, per- ic, beautiful woman who deserved a youth-
just plain hungry. Truck Yard is for fect smile, she called Dr. Leslie Dickinson, a ful smile. That’s what we gave her, and it fits
those kinds of days, when you’re West Little Rock dentist who specializes in her perfectly. It’s a smile you notice when
open to a little bit of this and a cosmetic makeovers. she walks in a room,” Dickinson said.
little bit of that. And cold beer. “I had heard from friends that Dr. Dickin- Dickinson’s work with Smith included
“It’s such a fun place to go, says son was a gentle dentist who was a perfec- veneers, porcelain crowns and ZOOM
Molly. “It’s an outdoor beer garden, tionist about her work. And having under- whitening. However, Dickinson is quick to
and they have three food trucks gone this transformation with her, I can tell point out that each treatment plan is indi- face. And, I listen carefully to your personal
that come in every day. They’re you they were right,” Smith said. vidualized depending on a patient’s needs. preferences,” she added.
always different, so they rotate.” “Dr. Dickinson literally held my con- “I look at the patient as the whole. There Smith said that’s exactly what she re-
Head over to Truck Yard’s website sultation where we discuss my treatment are subtle differences that I take into con- ceived from Dickinson. “I’m proud of my
to see what food trucks will roll options and goals through my final visit,” sideration when designing a smile. That in- new look,” Smith said. “It’s one of the first
into town when you will. (Or don’t, Smith said. “She has a professional, friendly cludes everything from your personality to things people notice about me, and I’m
and live a little.) (5624 Sears St.;
staff that gets to know you and cares about the tone of your skin and the shape of you happy I made the change.”
truckyarddallas.com)
IF YOU’RE NOT FEELING

COOL ENOUGH
Botolino Gelato Artiginale
If a hefty serving of rich and

creamy gelato is on your mind (if it
wasn’t before, it probably is now),
take a detour to Botolino Gelato,
which serves up scoops such as
maple gelato whipped up with ma-
ple syrup aged in bourbon barrels.
Everything is made in-house with
locally sourced ingredients and
is dreamed up by Carlo “Botolo”
Gattini, who hails from Tuscany
and claims he was “born to make
gelato.” We don’t doubt it at all.
Not one bit. (2116 Greenville Ave.;
botolino.com)
IF YOUR HOTEL COFFEE

SITUATION IS LACKING
Mudsmith
Walk into Mudsmith at any point

during the day, and you’ll likely
find something that tickles your
fancy. Morning cup of joe? Try the
Contessa—two shots of espresso,
generously topped with foam and
drizzled with honey. A cold cool-
down drink after an afternoon
workout? They’ve got kombucha
on draft. A pint after it gets dark?
Mudsmith has a rotating selec-

TRAVELER
tion of beer. “It’s a great place to

go get coffee,” Molly says. “The
owner is actually a fan of our pizza,
so we go there for meetings and
stuff.” Meetings, homework, work,
no work at all—this hunting-lodge-
esque spot fits the bill. (2114
Greenville Ave.; mudsmithcoffee.
com)
IF YOUR FOLKS BACK HOME

EXPECT A SOUVENIR
Bullzerk
“I buy everyone’s Christmas and

birthday presents at Bullzerk,”
says Molly of this Dallas-centric
gift shop, where hard-core Dallas
pride unabashedly covers hats,
outerwear, coasters, notebooks,
glasses, mugs and the like. Which
is fine, really, because owners Dan
and Kari Bradley bring a lot of hu-
mor into it. One T-shirt recently
featured on their Instagram claims,
“American until Texas secedes.”
Another says, “A little bit of Dez,
and a little bit of Dak.” And even
for those out-of-towners who don’t
get the inside jokes or follow the
Dallas Cowboys enough to get the
Dez-and-Dak reference, there’s still
plenty to enjoy—and take home.
(1909 Greenville Ave.; bullzerk.
com)
IF YOU’RE NOT FEELING

FANCY-SHMANCY
The Libertine Bar
Situated just a stone’s throw from

Mudsmith, The Libertine Bar elic-
its a strong, enthusiastic reaction
from Molly—and for good reason:
It’s the kind of low-key, no-frills
place you’d want to go to after a
long day’s work to fill up on booze
and bites. The kind of place that
offers humble mac and cheese,
as well as a flavorful hanger steak
sandwich packed with Gruyere,
caramelized onion, au jus and
horseradish cream. “When we go
over there after work, we usually
get a beer and a cheese board,”
Molly says. “It’s just a relaxing, Everything’s bigger
come-as-you-are place to wind in Texas—even the
down with friends or co-workers.” cocktails. Case in
(2101 Greenville Ave.; libertinebar. point: the Campfire
com) Old Fashioned at The
Libertine Bar.

I
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57 t is a fine thing to have a clean narrative, with that, I ask for your vote.” pre-programmed to know you’re going to
one that ends, as all good stories do, When the bill passed 24-0 (11 legislators get dinged?”
with a sense of finality, the ends tied were present but opted not to vote), the “Well, that’s kind of what we were talking
tight, wrapped together, adhering to the galleries erupted in applause immediately about: It’s expected. … The voting rights
notions that you’ve approached it with. following the vote, and there were more thing? It’s not surprising. I mean, no proof
And in a sense, this story is no different. than a few “Praise God”s spoken aloud just to it, no evidence, but it allows … So, we get
As the weeks and months slipped by, SB519 behind us. Having passed the Senate, the one thing. And the question is, which one
passed through all the proper channels, from bill would go on to the House, where it is more substantive? Honestly. Remember, I
committee to the Senate to the House to was telling you, we’ll get a little something,
would be heard two weeks later, passing
the governor’s desk, undeterred by the yeah, we’ll probably get MLK …”
with 66 yeas, 11 nays and five voting present,
challenges that rose up before it, of which “Maybe.”
before landing on the governor’s desk.
there were many. It had a good ending. “Maybe. But what substance is under
multicolored umbrella was Kelly Duda. On there?” Reginald said. “What programs,
“T
There is something to be said, however, oday, the government of Arkansas,
the chair between us was a copy of that day’s what policies? Nothing.”
about attention. When you turn your in that senate chamber …” Kelly
newspaper, in which an editorial that he’d “It’s a symbol.”
attention to a single narrative for so long, paused. “…Took an important
written had appeared. Much like the one “It’s a symbol. So, it shows where it’s
everything outside that main point of focus
that had run two years before to the day, this step. In recognizing the value of African really at. … But the sad thing is we’ll clap
goes fuzzy. Tunnel vision sets in. You lose
one, entitled “On the Right Side,” offered a Americans in this country. And in this state. and all that, but we really haven’t done a
sight of the broader picture. You miss the
look at some history for those who claimed As fully human beings.” whole lot.”
point. And to say that is where the story
“that eliminating the state holiday Robert E. We were standing in the main hall of
ends would be the equivalent of describing
Lee Day is an attempt to ‘change history.’” the Capitol building, just outside the doors
the tip of an iceberg without bothering to
In it, he noted that the Robert E. Lee of the Senate. He’d just finished a long
mention that, just below the waves, there
holiday, established in Arkansas in 1947, had
MARCH 2, 2017
was so much more worth noting and seeking statement about the day’s events. I asked
come at a time when the Confederacy was him how felt about the fact that, on the
to understand.
making a “big comeback,” and that under day the bill to separate the holidays passed
On the day that bill SB519 was scheduled
Gov. Ben Laney, “Lee Day was established out of the senate, a bill mandating stricter
to go before the Senate, there was discussion
as a state holiday as part of this political ID laws had also been advanced, and would
on another bill: House Joint Resolution
agenda to reinforce white supremacy.”
I
1016, an amendment to the Arkansas eventually be signed. f this were a different story, I’d tell you
Those holdovers from Laney’s time and
Constitution that would require voters to “That’s what I was getting back to,” he that there are many ways to change the
the Jim Crow South weren’t just limited
“present valid photographic identification said. “We have the same Supreme Court world, and not all of them happen on
to holidays, however. As the Southern
when voting in person or when casting an that’s been dismantling the voting rights the floor of the capitol. I’d tell you that, two
Poverty Law Center documented in its
absentee ballot.” act. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how weeks before the governor signed into law
April 2016 report “Whose Heritage: Public
In the Senate, there were two senators who they part and parceled this: We’ll take away the bill that would separate the holidays
Symbols of the Confederacy,” there are at
spoke against it: Sens. Linda Chesterfield this, but we’ll give them that. … But ask any for all Arkansans, I was sitting in a Pulaski
least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy in
and Joyce Elliott. Chesterfield focused on black person, any African American in this County courtroom with Reginald Ford. He
public spaces—57 of which can be found
those who would be voting absentee, namely country, and they’re used to it: For every step was dressed well, not unlike the handful
in Arkansas. After addressing some other
people living in nursing homes, who would of progress, they know they’re going to get of lawyers who were in the room. Beside
points—how the Confederate flag wasn’t
be reluctant to send in their photo IDs in hit. They always get dinged. Every time they him, there was a young man, G., wearing
present at Lee’s funeral, nor was the general
order to vote. Elliott spoke more bluntly, move forward, they get dinged. … baggy acid-washed jeans, a large checked
buried in uniform—in closing, Kelly wrote,
saying, “This is not a problem, and the one “Hey Reggie!” he called out, waving shirt, a neck tattoo arcing above his collar.
“It’s time for the state of Arkansas to be on
thing we want to do, we should be doing, is to Reginald Ford, vice president of the On his lap, Reginald held a folder full of
the right side of history.”
making sure it’s easier, and less onerous, for Jacksonville branch of the NAACP, whom documents, forms documenting the young
That afternoon, it wasn’t difficult to
people to vote. … If in your heart of hearts, we’d been chatting with a few minutes man’s community service, his newfound
figure out that most had been following
you know this to be a problem, then I think before. “come here for a second when you employment at a fast-food restaurant,
the news about the holiday. Officials from
you should vote for it. But if you can’t sit in … I need you.” Turning back to me, he said, everything that they would need in order
all sectors of public life—State Sen. Joyce
your seat, and lean over to the next person, to show the judge that G. had gotten to be
Elliott; Republican Party Chairman Doyle “Don’t hear it from me.”
or tell me to my face, what the problem is, on the right path.
Webb; Dale Charles, then president of the As Reginald, who’d been speaking with a
you need to vote against this.” They’d known each other just three weeks.
Little Rock NAACP; Mayor Mark Stodola, woman across the way, came back over with
After the bill was passed without a hitch, They’d met by chance one day as Reginald
among many others—spoke about the need a sheet of paper in his hand, Kelly said, “I
I watched with Kelly from the second-floor was looking after one of the properties that
to separate the holidays. The halls of the said to him, we were talking about … I made
gallery as Chesterfield removed her glasses he rents. G. was 20 years old, homeless.
Arkansas state capitol are enormous, prone a statement that, more than a hundred years
and began rifling through her papers for a They’d gotten to talking and the young man
to echo, even more so when there are few ago, today, was the infamous Dred Scott
moment. An older gentleman sitting behind mentioned he had a court date coming up—
bodies to absorb the sound. But even then, decision in which blacks were told in this
us in the gallery said, “Bad, bad, bad, bad.” and then asked whether Reginald be open
though it was often difficult to catch what country, whether free or slave, they were not
Kelly said, “Yep.” to going with him. Although he has no
the speakers had to say word for word, their citizens. Over 50 years ago …”
When it came time for SB519 to go to legal background, Reginald agreed to go
messages were clear. “Right, right. You’re excited,” he said,
the floor, the bill’s sponsor, David Wallace, a along. When G. stood before the judge,
white soft-spoken senator from Mississippi putting a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. “Calm Reginald stood with him and told the judge
County, got up before the assembly and down.” the Jacksonville NAACP has a mentorship
explained the bill’s merits, saying it was a After giving a summary of the
MARCH 7, 2017
program and that he would be willing to
day that needs to stand alone. He ended by conversation, Kelly then turned to Reginald take G. under his wing. The judge agreed to
telling his fellow Senators: “We’re better and said. “As a black American, when this, but told them that they’ll need to be
than that. We can do better than that. And you’ve seen progress, are you not already back in 30 days to give an update.

In that time, Reginald had been a source and nearly gotten himself thrown in jail.
of support. Upon learning that the G. had “Anyway, I know that’s not what you
no other ID than the card he’d gotten from called about,” he said.
the Pulaski County prison system—no birth When asked about the matter of the
certificate, no social security card—he’d pen—whether he deserved it—he said:
helped him get one. When they went to “Absolutely. I had been told beforehand that,
get G. a job, Reginald went in first and you know, the politicians always want to take
personally vouched for him. He got him all the credit. And if you want something
a 10-speed to bike to ride to work and a done, you have to allow them to be able to
flip phone (G. told him that no one has a do that. The irony is, do you want credit or
flip phone anymore; Reginald responded do you want to accomplish something? Do
that he wasn’t in a position to be asking for you want to get it done? So, absolutely, I feel
something nicer). like I deserved that pen.”
At 10:12 a.m., the judge called G.’s name. “It had to happen,” he went on to say. “I
Reginald stood with him. knew it would happen. I didn’t know when.
“Looks like Mr. [G.] has taken care It took people like me to call it out. I knew I
of what he owed,” the judge said, after was on the side of right. That’s what protects
reviewing his file. “I hope you stay on this me, and that’s what motivates me. It is its
path you’re on. It’s a good path to be on. … own reward.”
We hear from a lot of people who don’t have As we spoke, I couldn’t help but think
that kind of support.” back to the last interview we’d had before he
If this were a different story, I’d tell you left for California, where he’d moved a few
that it was somewhere around this moment, months before. We’d driven out to Scott on
and in the months that followed, that I the pretense of him showing me where he’d
realized how much I’d missed. Sitting in that grown up, so that I could get a better sense
courtroom, which felt worlds away from of where he was from. After we’d gotten
the Capitol, I thought back on what I’d back to Little Rock, he’d pulled his SUV
seen—and what I hadn’t. By focusing so in front of the Democrat-Gazette building
much on the goings-on at the Capitol, I’d and he’d told me that he was glad that he
missed so much of what the holiday truly would no longer have to play the part of the Do you know a home-services company
stands for—what Dr. King stood for. More agitator, the soap-box-stander—or, as he put
importantly, I’d neglected to realize that, it: “I don’t have to be Kelly Duda.” that deserves recognition?
as a white male, even in writing this story, The thing with Kelly is, for all his
there was a measure of unexamined privilege grandstanding, he is not a man fond of the Nominate your favorites in Arkansas Life’s
(to say nothing, of course, about the fact dais. He is a man who, at heart, I think,
C O N W AY that sponsor and co-sponsor of the bill, the would rather stand on the sidelines than Readers’ Choice Top Home-Services Contest.
governor who signed it, the subject of this step before the microphone and explain that
his name is Kelly Duda, you know, just like
piece were all white as well). CATEGORIES INCLUDE
the song. He knows the position he’s in, the
Ultimately, though, I suppose there’s
skin he has to inhabit—though at times he
no difference between this story and the • Appliance Store • Kitchen Designer
seems quite surprised to have found himself
2018 SHOW hypothetical one.
there, zipped up in this Kelly Duda suit, full
• Brick Company • Landscaping Company
Presented by the Because, really, it’s all the same story. • Bath Designer • Lighting/Lamp Store
of ire, channeling passion. • Cleaning Service • Mosquito Control
But he also knows that there’s something • Countertop Store • Outdoor Furniture and
to be said about the reverberations of words • Deck Installation Accessories Store
that we put out there. It can be tough to • Driveway Contractors • Painting Contractor
F E B R U A R Y 18 , 2 0 18 DEC. 15, 2017 say how deeply felt those are. But there’s
no denying where we are right now, and
how much has changed. And come January,
• Fencing Company
• Flooring Store
• Furniture Store
• Paint Store
• Pest and Animal-Control
Service
1- 5 P M we won’t be seeing signs that have Martin • Garage Door Company • Plumbing Service
C O N W AY E X P O C E N T E R A N D Luther King Jr. Day and Robert E. Lee Day • Garage Organization Company • Pool Company
A
few weeks before we went to press on • Heat-and-Air Company • Roofing Company
on the same piece of paper.
FAI R G R O U N D S this issue, my editor posed the question: The day we spoke in December, Kelly, as
• Home Builder • Siding Company
• Home Remodeling Service • Window Company
That pen Kelly had gotten from Sen. he’s wont to do, said a lot of things. However, • Interior Designer • Window-Treatment Company
Chesterfield—did he feel that he deserved there is something in particular that stuck
it? When I called him up, he was feeling a with me: Paraphrasing Bobby Kennedy, he
little under the weather. He’d just gotten said, “Each of us can be a tiny ripple of hope. CAST YOUR VOTE:
home from Italy, where he’d been testifying Each of us can make something happen in
about the tainted blood that had been
sent to that country. For the better part
society. It took a lot of people. It took chain
reactions. I was an agitator. … My job was
arkansaslife.com/homeservices
to make it so. Make it happen. Tiny ripples. Look for the results in the April issue of Arkansas Life.
of 25 minutes, he told me a story as only
Kelly can—how he’d had his phone stolen, And together, combine and cascade and take The entry deadline is Friday, January 26, 2018.
confronted a supposedly corrupt prosecutor down the mightiest walls of oppression.”

One Take
In which we gave local

photographer, musician
and all-around creative
Renaissance man Joshua
Asante a Polaroid, eight
frames of film and one take
to get the shot.
THE LIVES OF BLACK MEN: A STUDY

The root of our empathy for a lot of us is eye contact and physical contact. And
we live in very apathetic times. Because I am of African descent—because I was
raised in American black culture—my lens is trained on my people, the culture
of my people. All my life, I’ve noticed, without being able to fully articulate it,
the reluctance for intimacy amongst black men. The first thing I wanted to do
was humanize the subjects and normalize their humanity—just to create some
images of black men being normal. And then I wanted to try to encroach on that
reluctance for intimacy between myself as a black man and a photographer, and
the subjects who were black men. If they can leave that experience with me and
have one safe and positive experience with another black male in an intimate
setting, then that’s progress.
As told to Jordan P. Hickey

Photographed by Joshua Asante
To see the other photos Joshua shot for this issue, visit arkansaslife.com
JANUARY 2018 88 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 iii Arkansas Life

JANUARY 2018 iv Arkansas Life

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A F IR ST-T IMER’S M A RT IN HIP A ND HUNGRY

GUIDE TO DUCK LU T HER K ING JR. IN DA L L A S’ LOW EST

NATURALLY CURIOUS | January 2018 | VOLUME 10, NO. 5

JANUARY 2018 2 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 3 Arkansas Life

Front Porch Dispatches

JANUARY 2018 4 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 5 Arkansas Life

< Reeling in a big

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CREATIVE DIRECTOR EMMA DEVINE

SENIOR EDITOR JORDAN P. HICKEY

ADVERTISING “Lore! Its spooky nonfiction

Arkansas-native singer/ ADVERTORIAL DESIGNER LEANNE HUNTER

Arkansas Life is published 12 times yearly

PUBLISHER WALTER E. HUSSMAN JR.

NICHE SALES DIRECTOR

121 East Capitol Ave., Little Rock, AR 72201

isn’t parenting a manic,

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JOSHUA ASANTE JORDAN P. HICKEY MATTHEW WILLIAMS

JANUARY 2018 12 Arkansas Life This adJANUARY

FIVE THINGS FIRST

Becoming John Marin

Arkansas Arts Center’s

h Becoming John Marin: Modernist

MARIN WAS AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN MODERNIST Of the 270 works in the

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6TH DAY HIKE

You’ve likely driven by this

13TH DAY HIKE LET'S PLAY

Glittering quartz and glimmer-

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In the beginning, I kept up with it every day. I started planning my

On your website, you mention that the series “advanced

Before I did this, I’d always been very interested in historic

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Jake wasn’t far f rom his

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That fringe-y one on

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RUNNETH OVER our favorite local

H Clear quartz bookends,

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Profile: “The First Steps”

Reader Service Article: “Day Tripper”

Magazine Writer of the Year, 30,000 or more circulation:

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION BY CALLING 501-918-4555 OR VISITING ARKANSASLIFE.COM.

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remember when the treadmill

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DISPATCH FROM SOUTHERN MISSOURI the back seat.

Steve, with shed in her immaculate car.

the Bicycle “Not no cops come to see you?”

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JANUARY 2018 40 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 41 Arkansas Life

Maybe it’s because

a Beauty and the

JANUARY 2018 42 Arkansas Life JANUARY 2018 43 Arkansas Life

feel, but at the

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and gut a place and

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owners have come

back multiple times—

Elise’s bed is a 19th