FUN
Little Rock’s South on Main neighborhood celebrates 501 Day (5/1, and also reflecting the local telephone area code) a few days late, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Festivities are centered on 101-149 E. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive. They include musical performances; food trucks; vendors of apparel, art, accessories and handmade goods; and a kids zone with bounce houses, face painting and laser tag. Admission is free. Visit 501festival.com.
In conjunction with the festival, South Main Creative, 1600 Main St., 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, hosts a vintage and art market on its lawn with an Orbiting Debris Jewelry trunk show inside.
And within the festival footprint, area artists will “transform the space” in the alley behind 1501 S. Main St. (115 E. 15th St.) during the Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s inaugural MuralFest.
‘Mayhaw on Main’
Main Street El Dorado holds its fourth annual May on Main, 10 a.m. Saturday at 201 N. Jefferson Ave. at Elm Street, El Dorado. The festival is linked to the Mayhaw Festival, which starts at 8 a.m. on Jackson Street to create a composite event, which is being dubbed “Mayhaw on Main.” The festival features live music, games, food trucks, a kids foam party, a beer garden and mimosa bar, vendors, big-wheel races and more. Admission is free (food and drinks, of course, will cost money). Call (870) 862-4747 or visit mainstreeteldorado.org.
Magic Springs opens
Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, U.S. 70 East (East Grand Avenue), Hot Springs, opens Saturday, with the water park opening the following Saturday, May 11. Hours are noon-6 p.m. on weekends; weekday operations start May 27. Daily admission is $59.99, $44.99 for children and senior citizens, all plus tax. Visit MagicSprings.com.
Lightsaber workshop
In honor of Star Wars Day (May 4), learn how to construct a lightsaber from pool noodles, decorative tape, markers and lights, 1-3 p.m. Saturday at The ARTSpace on Main, 623 S. Main St., Pine Bluff. Instructors are J. Tyler Lewis and Shakeelah Rahmaan. Admission is free; register at artx3.org/all-events/lightsaber-workshop. For more information, call (870) 536-3375 or email srahmaan@artx3.org.
THEATER
Texas one-acts
The Ozark Arts Council is staging a pair of associated one-act plays — “Lone Star” and “Laundry and Bourbon” by James McLure — at 7 p.m. today-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Lyric Theater, 115 W. Rush Ave., Harrison. The two plays are set in the same small town in Texas and focus on the same characters. Due to sensitive subject matter and “coarse and crude” language the presenter is advising parental discretion. Tickets are $12, $10 for students and senior citizens, $8 for children. Visit TheLyric.org. For more information, call (870) 391-3504.
Organist Sungyun Kim gives a recital for the Little Rock Musical Coterie Sunday May 5 at Little Rock’s Second Presbyterian Church. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
MUSIC
Organ recital
Organist Sungyun Kim, associate music director at Little Rock’s Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, plays pieces by Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Cesar Franck and Marcel Dupre for the monthly meeting of the Little Rock Musical Coterie, 2 p.m. Sunday at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock. Admission is free. Call (501) 269-9020.
“Priority Too,”https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/01/entertainment-501-day-saturday-in-soma-magic/”The Road Ahead” and “Wrinkled on Purpose” by Oluwatobi Adewumi are part of the “Journey to the Unknown” exhibition, on display through June 12 at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
ART & EXHIBITS
‘Journey to the Unknown’
“Journey to the Unknown,” multimedia drawings by Oluwatobi Adewumi, a native of Nigeria who now calls South Arkansas his home, is on display through June 12 in the Merkle and Price Galleries at the South Arkansas Arts Center, 110 E. Fifth St., El Dorado. The center holds an artist’s reception, 5:30-7 p.m. today. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission to the center and the reception is free. Call (870) 862-5474 or visit saac-arts.org.
“Priority Too,”https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/01/entertainment-501-day-saturday-in-soma-magic/”The Road Ahead” and “Wrinkled on Purpose” by Oluwatobi Adewumi are part of the “Journey to the Unknown” exhibition, on display through June 12 at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Art, design on display
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Art and Design’s 2024 BFA and Professional Practices Exhibition is on display through May 12 in the Brad Cushman and Ann Maners and Alex Pappas Galleries, Windgate Center of Art + Design, UALR, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. A reception is set for 5-7 p.m. today. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, 2-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission to the gallery and the reception is free. Call (501) 916-5104 or email nglarson@ualr.edu.
The exhibition includes works by Bachelor of Fine Arts students Kristi Crow-Pruett, Ashi Franke, Ashley Garrison, Bailey Holley, Bryce Horn, Cecilia Ilg, Reed James, Antonio Keyes, Jessica Koenigsede, Ashlly Lambaren, Jorge Mandujano, Julie McPeake, Tabitha Parker, Emily Reynolds, Lucio Tapia, Erin Vaughn, Lily Warren and Courtney Wilson. Professional Practices students showing works include Jennifer Antonetz, Sydney Davidson, Courtland Dukes, Nat Emons, Grace Garvin, Sunny Jenkins, Kate Lusk, Hannah Nowlin and Mike Sanders.
‘Slavery and Freedom’
“Slavery and Freedom: Journeys Across Time and Space,” focusing on the history of two enslaved people who used the courts to sue for their emancipation during the 19th century, opens with a 4:30-6 p.m. reception Friday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock.
The exhibition, up through Oct. 31, details how Abby Guy and Furcy Madeleine, separated by decades and thousands of miles, used the legal system to escape slavery. The exhibit is open 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; email downtown@ualr.edu.
Inspiration for the project is a traveling exhibit, “The Surprising Story of Furcy Madeleine,” created by the Musée de Villèle in Réunion Island, which explores the life of Madeleine, an enslaved man who in 1817 launched his freedom suit in the French colony of Isle Bourbon (today’s Réunion Island) in the Indian Ocean.
Abby Guy launched her freedom suit in Arkansas in 1855 against the man who enslaved her. Guy v. Daniel twice reached the Arkansas Supreme Court, first in 1857 and again in 1861.
TICKETS
‘Come From Away’ coming
Tickets — $34-$104 — are on sale for the touring production of “Come From Away” (book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff & David Hein), onstage 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3 and 1 p.m. Aug. 4 at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. Call (501) 244-8800 or visit CelebrityAttractions.com or Ticketmaster.com. The musical is based on the true story of 7,000 airline passengers stranded in a small Newfoundland town of Gander after their flights were grounded following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the welcome the townsfolk gave them.
