NEW POET LAUREATE: It's Feb. 11, and Suzanne Underwood Rhodes is back home in Fayetteville after a trip to Little Rock.
She was in the capital the day before to be sworn in as the state's new poet laureate.
"It was one of those really great days," she says. "We met with Gov. Hutchinson and took a lot of photos that we're looking at now. It was delightful."
Rhodes was appointed by Hutchinson on Feb. 1, and will serve until Dec. 31, 2025.
She is a native of Nyack, N.Y., grew up in Arlington, Va., and is the author of several books and chapbooks, including "The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets," "Sketches of Home," "A Welcome Shore" and last year's "Flying Yellow: New and Selected Poems." (She's also written freelance articles for the Democrat-Gazette's Northwest Arkansas publications).
Rhodes takes over from the state's previous poet laureate, Jo McDougall, and is carrying on with McDougall's establishment of April 10 as Arkansas Youth Poetry Day.
She also hopes to start an annual poetry contest.
"Poetry is so powerful," she says. "It has this capacity to reach deep into the wells of our feeling and our experience. It can lift us out of the mundane and open our eyes wide to see what's around us."
The position of poet laureate was established Oct. 10, 1923, by the state Legislature. Charles T. Davis, who was on the editorial staff of the Arkansas Gazette, was the state's first poet laureate.
For decades it was considered a lifetime appointment, but in 2003 then-Gov. Mike Huckabee created a bit of a commotion when he appointed Peggy Vining of Little Rock to the spot while the sitting laureate, Verna Lee Linxwiler Hinegardner, was still alive.
In 2017, the Legislature approved a bill limiting the laureate's term.
SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE: There was an Arkansas connection to last week's Super Bowl LVI halftime extravaganza.
Little Rock native Fatima Robinson choreographed the show, which featured performances by hip-hop stars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent and R&B singer Mary J. Blige.
Robinson, who was 4 when she moved with her family from Arkansas to Los Angeles, has choreographed videos by Lamar, Pharrell Williams, Selena Gomez and others. She also has done choreography for movies and commercials.
She was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2004.
email: sclancy@adgnewsroom.com