Rosslyn Elliott

Whether you like horror films or comedies, this coming week will bring a unique opportunity to enjoy movies together online with your friends, near or far. The Made in Arkansas Film Festival 2020 is going virtual and interactive! After the Little Rock Film Festival ended its run in 2015, Arkansas filmmakers had fewer opportunities to screen their work for the general public and to meet to exchange ideas or work together. Stepping into the gap, several enterprising filmmakers founded the Made in Arkansas Film Festival in 2019 to provide a networking venue and showcase for the Arkansas filmmaking community.

We miss seeing kids at the library! That’s why we’ve been doing lots of programs online, so kids can still see their CALS friends reading great stories. And here’s some exciting news– we put our heads together with the Little Rock Zoo and Little Rock TV and made some videos that have real animals in them.

The Galleries at Library Square are well-known for their popular rotating exhibitions by Arkansas artists. But we find that casual visitors who walk in from the downtown River Market are also captivated by our retail gallery, with its beautiful and affordable art, jewelry, and craftworks. From large, bright paintings to small tokens of affection, the Galleries offer handcrafted gifts carefully chosen by our professional curators. Once you discover how easy the gallery makes your holiday shopping for Christmas, your New Year’s date, or Valentine’s Day, you may stop by as often as CALS staff members do!

Got a DSLR camera and don’t quite know how to use it? On October 17, the Nexus Nook coffee space at the CALS Main Library will host a special introductory workshop called “Off-Auto: How to Get the Most Out of that Nice DSLR Camera,” led by photographer Jeremiah Holman. The workshop fee of $25 will include instruction, local coffee from Nexus, and pastries. Library parking will be free with validation for participants. The workshop will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Holman is a full-time firefighter who has been pursuing photography for about 7 years, and just started his own LLC for his photography business.

Come rock out to this beloved cult classic and audience interactive favorite! It was 1975 when Brad and Janet first got lost in a storm and ended up at the haunted mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (played with glee by a cross-dressing Tim Curry). Ever since, audiences have been singing and dancing through the haunted house with the cast in their offbeat coming-of-age story.

Our Bookstore at Library Square is a gold mine for gift seekers, offering affordable delights for the book lover, the science buff, and the humorist. From Jane Austen lip balm to Edgar Allan Poe candles to Mr. Rogers magnetic playsets or political joke mugs, these quirky gifts can make anyone on your list smile. Tee shirts, totes and tea sets provide plenty of fun browsing. The Bookstore also holds thousands of popular used books for sale. Priced at deep discounts, these purchases will help your budget while you support your library system.

It’s true! The Nexus Nook coffee shop here at CALS has been honored as an Arkansas Times Editors’ Pick for BEST PLACE TO DRINK COFFEE, LISTEN TO MUSIC, AND BE SURROUNDED BY BOOKS YOU CAN’T BUY. The editors praised the “bookish bistro” with “real music” as a “soothing spot with a good read” and a place to “bliss out.” And we totally agree about our partners, Nexus Coffee & Creative, and the wonderful space they’ve created for relaxing, reading, or chatting with friends, your kids, or your business associates at the Main Library in downtown Little Rock. In a humorous nod to the perils of bookstores for book lovers, the AR Times editors quip about the advantages of “books you can’t buy,” but of course, the even better news is that you can have those books without buying them, because this is, after all, a public library. After you bliss out for a while skimming books at the Nexus Nook with cappucino in hand, you can just saunter over to the check-out station, whip out your library card, and take all those lovely books, movies, or CDs home with you at no charge.

Little Rock is known for its many striking bridges, which make elegant silhouettes across the Arkansas River and provide pleasure to so many people who walk and bike the river trail. Our bridges light the night with color for all who enter and leave the city—a beautiful symbol of progress and hope. Bridges take us across barriers that seem impassable. Through human invention and determination, bridges overcome obstacles and open the way for new journeys and opportunities. Bridges unite diverse communities and bring people together. For all these reasons, the Central Arkansas Library System has chosen to herald a new community focus for its literary festival by renaming the annual event as the “Six Bridges Book Festival.”

Our annual Teen Poetry Contest has been a part of the Arkansas Literary Festival for years. Anyone who has seen the contest can tell you that watching the young writers present their work is memorable. The creativity, courage, and talent on display never fail to make an impression on the audience.

Small Business Saturday is coming to the River Market and Library Square this weekend! On Saturday, November 24, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm, join the downtown street fest with gift vendors, local beer, local shops, Christmas karaoke, and kids’ holiday crafts. At our Galleries at Library Square, you’ll find one-of-a-kind, handcrafted gifts from Arkansas artists, in all price ranges. Explore our beautifully curated assortment of jewelry, pottery, sculpture, and paintings of many styles. We’ll have cookies and beverages and artist David Paul Cook will be painting with watercolors in a live demo.

The community of artists in Arkansas will be represented with style and originality in the Arkansas League of Artists’ Show, opening on Second Friday Art Night in our Galleries at Library Square. One of the joys of a show created by the regional artistic community is the sheer variety of works on display. According to president Sharon Franke, the Arkansas League of Artists is a working artists’ group open to artists in all kinds of visual arts media. The current group of members tends to work i