Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:
Magic Springs concerts
Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, on U.S. 70 East (Grand Avenue), Hot Springs, will open its summer concert series June 19 with Vanilla Ice.
The rest of the lineup (doors open at 6 p.m., shows start at 7):
- ◼️ June 26: John Michael Montgomery & Lonestar
- ◼️ July 3: All That Remains
- ◼️ July 10: Rend Collective
- ◼️ July 17: Matt Stell with special guest Jameson Rodgers
- ◼️ July 24: Sevendust
- ◼️ July 31: Tauren Wells
- ◼️ Aug. 7: Neal McCoy
- ◼️ Aug.14: Red
Admission is included in park admission — $59.99, $39.99 for children and senior citizens — or by season pass —$69.99 or, for Gold Season Passes, $139.98. All prices are plus tax. The park is following social distancing and other covid-19 protocols, which prevent it from offering reserved seating. Visit bit.ly/MAGNewsR.
Black History lineup
The Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission is celebrating Black History Month with a series of virtual programs, streaming on Facebook and Twitter (@AMLKC and @ArkansasED), Instagram (@AMLKC and @Arkansas_ED), YouTube (AMLKC) and on its own website, ARKingDream.org, and on the Arkansas Department of Education site, ADE.Arkansas.gov.
Most of the events were recorded in 2019 or 2020 before the covid-19 pandemic hit.
◼️ Noon today: "Sacred Grounds," a visit to the Equal Justice Institute and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.
◼️ Noon Friday: "Living Witness to History Part II" – "The Fifth Girl," an account of the September 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Ala.
◼️ Noon Feb. 19: "Virtual Voyage Through Arkansas Black History," narrated by DJ MC Lyte and spoken word poet and rapper Malik Yusef.
◼️ Noon Feb. 26: Martin Luther King Jr. Commission's Pilgrimage to Alabama, including the church of the late voting rights advocate Jimmy Lee Jackson in Selma.
◼️ Noon March 5: Re-Enactment of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, commemorating the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" protest in Selma, Ala., in which Martin Luther King Jr. led 3,200 civil rights protesters the 49 miles from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, leading to a violent confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Grisham conversation
Author and Jonesboro native John Grisham will be the guest speaker for the Methodist Foundation's "In Conversation Together" series, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Feb. 18, virtually via the foundation's website, methodistfoundationAR.org.
Grisham — novelist, lawyer, politician, philanthropist and activist — released his most recent novel, "A Time for Mercy," in October. It features the characters he established in his first novel, "A Time to Kill," and follows the story of a small-town Mississippi lawyer representing a minor accused of murder.
The third-Thursday online speaker series features philanthropists, leaders in religion, authors and motivational speakers sharing work, stories and visions. Subsequent speakers include Master Gardener and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contributing writer Janet Carson (March); motivational speaker and former Arkansas Razorback Anthony Lucas (April); Bishop Gary Mueller, episcopal leader of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church (May); and Chelsea Clinton, author and economic and global health advocate (June).
Price quintet
The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas is releasing the premiere concert performance recording of Florence Price's "Quintet" in A minor, which five of its principal members recorded live in the Great Hall at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. The performance will stream at noon Feb. 25 on the orchestra's Facebook page (facebook.com/sonafan) and YouTube channel (tinyurl.com/nk6pnqyw), and on its website, sonamusic.org, where it will be archived for future viewing.
Tomoko Kashiwagi, piano; Zsolt Eder and Miho Oda Sakon, violins; Jesse Collett, viola; and Kari Caldwell, cello, play the four-movement, 25-minute piece. A performance of movements 1 and 4 debuted as part of Crystal Bridges' Van Cliburn New Year's Day Concert. The program will also include two movements of Gwyneth Walker's string quartet "The Dove and Other Songs of Peace" and arrangements of American folk music and spirituals.
Price, born in 1887 in Little Rock, was the first Black American woman to earn recognition as a symphonic composer. The 2009 discovery of a collection of her manuscripts in the attic of the Chicago home in which she lived for many years has sparked major interest in her work and a number of recordings, including the Fort Smith Symphony's release of all four of her symphonies.