Hope Cancer offers support
• Free Tobacco Cessation Program: Hope Cancer Resources' certified health education specialist is available to support members of the community who are looking to quit smoking with nicotine replacement therapy and counseling.
• Emotional Support Through Cancer Battle: Hope Cancer Resources' team of counselors and social workers are supporting cancer patients and their families every day with a focus on emotional health, no matter the circumstance.
• Virtual Wellness Classes For Cancer Patients and Caregivers: The Wellness Center for Hope at Hope Cancer Resources has created a yoga and fitness class schedule via Zoom and Facebook Live.
Information: (479) 361-5847.
Baptist Health offers classes
In March, Baptist Health Community Outreach will offer a variety of free health and wellness classes from the convenience of your computer or mobile device. Classes typically last one hour.
These courses can be accessed through Google Meet so that participants can watch the presentation and interact with the presenters. A complete schedule with details on class topics and how to join classes can be found at baptist-health.com/community-outreach and through the Baptist Health Community Outreach Facebook page under the "Events" section.
Registration is required.
Information: (501) 202-1540.
OLLI sets new classes
The Osher Lifelong Institute at the University of Arkansas announces the following classes for the upcoming week:
• March 8: "Arkansas Indigenous People of the Mississippian Culture" (in-person). Have you ever wondered about what America looked like before Columbus? Join us on this unique course that examines the ancient life of the Mississippian culture, 900A.D. to 1600 A.D., the arrival of Hernando de Soto, and the impact of the Spaniards on the lives of the indigenous people. The people were known as great traders and travelers. This course also studies the religion and practices of the early indigenous people as they were spiritual people believing in the Sun God. Their shamans and priests held many rituals and ceremonies to bless special events. $25 members, $40 nonmembers.
• March 9: "OLLI for Coffee," (Zoom). Free and open to all, please contact office for Zoom details.
• March 11: "Chasing Waterfalls: The Glory Hole," $25 members, $40 nonmembers; "Louise Glück: Nobel Prize Winner," $25 members, $40 nonmembers.
• March 15: "Eat Your Way to a Healthier Brain," (online), $19 members, $34 nonmembers.
Information: (479) 575-3541 or olli.uark.edu.
Architecture will be topic
The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design will host the virtual event "Piggybacking Practices: A Symposium on Architecture and Inequality" on March 15 and 22, via Zoom.
This virtual symposium will bring together several of North America's most innovative architects, urban designers and scholars for a two-part conversation exploring "piggybacking practices" in relation to contemporary forms of inequality in the built environment.
Participants include the founders of Landing Studio, New Affiliates, Interboro, Ants of the Prairie, Clare Lyster Urbanism and Architecture, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, Lateral Office and cityLAB UCLA.
Brian Holland, an assistant professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School, organized the symposium, which is planned for two consecutive Mondays in March. Sessions will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. each day.
Piggybacking practices, as Holland defines them, are multiple-use propositions for anchoring socially or economically marginal activities alongside dominant ones. A few examples of piggybacking practices are rooftop community farms, student-senior home shares, restaurants doubling as coworking spaces, luxury apartments supporting free or low-cost artist residencies, and public pavilions incorporating repurposed construction mock-ups.
The symposium is motivated by Holland's belief that there is an important role for planners, architects and designers to play in uncovering latent sites and situations for piggybacking, and in developing tactics and sensibilities in support of this work.
The March 15 session on "Tactics and Strategies" will examine common piggybacking tactics such as niche inhabitation, resource sharing, and waste stream capture, and ask how these tactics can be leveraged in support of larger strategic aims. Mason White and Lola Sheppard of Lateral Office, based in Toronto, Canada, will moderate the session. Panelists will include Clare Lyster of Clare Lyster Urbanism and Architecture, in Chicago, Illinois; Dan Adams and Marie Law Adams of Landing Studio, in Somerville, Massachusetts; and Jaffer Kolb and Ivi Diamantopoulou of New Affiliates, in New York, New York.
On March 22, the symposium will continue with the session titled "Ethics and Sensibilities." This session will explore the emancipatory potentials of piggybacking practices in relation to the wider discourse around advocacy and activism in architecture and urban design. Dana Cuff of cityLAB UCLA, in Los Angeles, California, will moderate the session. Panelists will include Georgeen Theodore of Interboro, in Brooklyn, New York; Joyce Hwang of Ants of the Prairie, in Buffalo, New York; and Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, in San Diego, California. Cruz and Forman are also the John G. Williams Distinguished Visiting Professors in Architecture this semester in the Fay Jones School.
To register for the symposium, and for more details and bios of the participants go to the Fay Jones School website.
Information: (479) 575-4704, fayjones.uark.edu or email mparks17@uark.edu.
Dairy Hollow hosts Poetluck
The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow will hold a virtual Poetluck at 6:30 p.m. March 18. Each Poetluck reader has received a WCDH fellowship, winning a writing residency at Dairy Hollow to focus on their writing project. Readers include Keija Parsinnen, Zenique Gardner-Perry, Stephanie Rosenbaum Klassen, Jami Nakamura Lin, Valerie Laken, and Alison Moore.
WCDH fellowships are underwritten by individuals, organizations, or corporations. Each unique fellowship is designed with input from the sponsor to support a specific demographic or genre of writing, or to honor an individual. Fellowships that are currently open or will open later in 2021 include My Time for parent writers, Moondancer for writing about nature and the outdoors, Emerging Poet for unpublished poets working on their first book, Celebrate! Maya Project for young writers who address social justice issues, Dancing in the Rain for writers of children's and YA literature, and Real People, Real Struggles, Real Stories: Writing About Mental Illness. Visit the website for details about open and upcoming fellowships.
The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow will continue to host Poetluck virtually until it is safe to return to in-person readings. Readings may be poems, prose, or songs, and writers are invited to share their work for up to ten minutes. A link to the virtual Poetluck and instructions for joining can be found on the website. Spectators may join a moderated watch party on Facebook Live at the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow page.
Information: (479)253-7444 or writerscolony.org.
Elkins Library gets grant
Elkins Public Library has been selected as one of 200 libraries to participate in Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, an American Library Association initiative that helps library workers better serve their small and rural communities.
The competitive award comes with a $3,000 grant that will help the library use books to facilitate social-emotional learning conversations for teens. More than 300 libraries applied for the grant, according to ALA.
As part of the grant, Elkins Public Library staff will take an online course in how to lead conversations, a skill vital to library work today. Staff will then host a monthly online conversation with local teens and use the grant funds to help tackle difficult social problems presented in popular young adult fiction and how it translates to real life situations.
Information: (479) 643-2904, elkins.arkansas.gov/city-departments/elkins-library or email audrabell@elkins.arkansas.gov.