ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Irish dance to grace the stage at Robinson Center

“Celtic Throne — The Royal Journey of Irish Dance” will be onstage June 28 in Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
“Celtic Throne — The Royal Journey of Irish Dance” will be onstage June 28 in Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)

Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:

Royally Irish

Herbert W. Armstrong College and Armstrong Dance brings "Celtic Throne — The Royal Journey of Irish Dance," with a musical score by Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne, onstage 7:30 p.m. June 28 at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. Tickets are $55, $25 for children 12 and younger. Call (501) 376-4781 or visit TicketMaster.com.

Byrne composed the music for "Heartbeat of Home." The troupe consists of more than 30 Irish dancers from around the world, including Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States, ranging in age from 5-23, students from the Carey Academy in England and the Maguire Academy in the United States.

Summer art classes

Monday is the deadline to register for June 6-July 2 art classes at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts' Windgate Art School visual and performing arts experiences for adults and youth includes the business of art, sketchbook journaling, figure drawing, collage and performing arts. Socially distanced outdoor classes offer opportunities to create around Central Arkansas.

The museum is also offering its virtual-format summer youth academies. Junior Arts Academy, for students in grades 1-4, runs June 7-18; Arts Academy, for grades 5-8, runs June 21-July 2.

The June session will be the museum's last virtual art School mini quarter before the new museum opens in May 2022.

Call (501) 372-4000 or visit arkmfa.org.

Frat/sorority symposium

The Black History Commission of Arkansas will hold its biennial symposium, "Profiles in Arkansas History: African American Sororities and Fraternities," virtually at 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. June 5, highlighting the history and importance of Black sororities and fraternities in Arkansas and the United States. It's free to participate; register (required) and find a complete list of presenters and topics at tinyurl.com/4vfu2eps. The symposium is in partnership with the Arkansas State Archives.

Wright stuff

Julia Wright, daughter of author Richard Wright, will discuss her father’s posthumously published novel, “The Man Who Lived Underground,” online today with Sixth Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen in “A Conversation with Julia Wright.” (Democrat-Gazette file photos)
Julia Wright, daughter of author Richard Wright, will discuss her father’s posthumously published novel, “The Man Who Lived Underground,” online today with Sixth Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen in “A Conversation with Julia Wright.” (Democrat-Gazette file photos)

Julia Wright, daughter of author Richard Wright, will discuss her father's new, posthumously published novel with Sixth Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen in "A Conversation with Julia Wright," 6 p.m. today online via Zoom or Facebook. Presenters are Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing of Little Rock and the Elaine Legacy Center. Visit pyramid1988.com

Wright wrote the novel, "The Man Who Lived Underground," about "state-sanctioned torture and murder of a Black man by police," in 1941; Julia Wright, her father's literary executor, unearthed the manuscript among his papers at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library in 2010 and Library of America published it in its entirety for the first time last month.

Richard Wright was born Sept. 4, 1908, in Roxie, Miss., and moved with his family to Elaine in Phillips County in 1916. They lived in West Helena before eventually leaving Arkansas for Jackson, Miss. He was the author of the 1940 novel "Native Son" and the 1945 memoir "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth." He died Nov. 28, 1960, in Paris.

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