Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:
WEDNESDAY
Jazz in the Park
Trumpeter Rodney Block leads the Rodney Block Collective to close out this fall's Jazz in the Park, 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at the History Pavilion, just west of the First Security Amphitheater in Little Rock's Riverfront Park, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. (The closest entry point is on Ottenheimer Drive off President Clinton Avenue.) Admission is free.
No coolers are allowed; beer, wine, soft drinks and water will be for sale, along with Jazz in the Park koozies, and a portion of the proceeds benefit Art Porter Music Education Inc.'s scholarship fund. Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome, and there is some seating in the natural stone amphitheater at the History Pavilion.
Sponsors are the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and the River Market, in partnership with Art Porter Music Education Inc. In case of rain, the performances will be in the River Market Ottenheimer Market Hall West Pavilion.
Call (501) 375-2552 or visit the website, rivermarket.info.
Paranormal tours
Starting Wednesday and continuing through November, entertainer, author, historian and paranormal enthusiast Paul Prater will conduct tours through downtown Argenta, describing the area's history incorporating tales of ghosts, paranormal entities and bizarre events.
The tours, which start at Faucette Park at the northern end of the Main Street Bridge, Washington and Main streets, will include the story of Anastasia, who still haunts Four Quarter Bar; photos of the Argenta Devil; details on the many ghostly residents of the Baker House Bed & Breakfast' and the locations where the Argenta Race Riots started and ended.
The tours begin at 8 p.m., with additional tours at later times. Tickets are $20. Size of tours is limited and reservations are highly recommended. All times and tickets are available online at hauntedargenta.com. Call (870) 543-9064 or email paul@paulprater.com.
TICKETS
Monster Jam
Tickets -- $17-$47 (plus service charges) -- go on sale at 10 a.m. today for Monster Jam, 7 p.m. April 6 and 1 p.m. April 7 at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena. Passes for the Pit Party, 4:30-6 p.m. April 6, are $15 plus the cost of a ticket. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit the website, ticketmaster.com.
ETC.
Arts attendance up
The National Endowment for the Arts says findings from its recently published survey of public participation in the arts show gains in arts attendance, and in particular a sizable growth in poetry reading.
"U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017," a partnership between the NEA and the U.S. Census Bureau, covers shifting patterns of arts attendance and literary reading for the years 2002, 2008, 2012 and 2017 as measured by the share of Americans 18 and older who reported doing any of these activities at least once in a year.
Between 2012 and 2017, the share of adults who attended visual (going to art museums, galleries and craft festivals) or performing (ranging from dance to theater) arts activities grew by 3.6 percentage points to 132.3 million people, representing nearly 54 percent of the U.S. adult population. Most of the increase came from visits to art museums or galleries and the "informal" arts sector, including outdoor performing arts festivals, touring places for their design or historic value and "other" performing arts events not tracked individually, including rap and hip hop, country music, rock and folk music.
The rate of poetry reading between 2012 and 2017 among adults grew by 76 percent, to 28 million people in 2017. A total of 106.8 million people attended performances in 2017, up 3.2 percentage points from 2012.
Style on 09/25/2018