Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:
MUSIC: 75 years of Folk
The Eureka Springs City Auditorium, 36 S. Main St., Eureka Springs, hosts the 75th Original Ozark Folk Festival Thursday-Saturday, including a free daytime Folk Faire during the day and ticketed headliners each night.
The Folk Faire lineup for Thursday: Skye Pollard & Family Holler at 11 a.m.; Springily at 12:30 p.m.; Willi Carlisle at 2 p.m.; and Hedgehoppers at 5:30 p.m. Carlisle and Chucky Waggs perform for the 7:30 p.m. Barefoot Ball; tickets are $15.
The Folk Faire lineup for Friday: Jesse Dean at 11 a.m., Front Porch at 12:30 p.m. and Shannon Wurst at 2 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., Shinyribs opens for Rachel Ammons. Tickets are $30.
And Saturday's Folk Faire lineup includes Dandelion Heart at 11 a.m., Brian Martin at 12:30 p.m. and Ozark Mountain Rhombus at 2 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., Pokey LaFarge opens for Hot Club Town of Cowtown. Tickets are $39.
Call (479) 253-7333 or visit eurekasprings.org/ozarkfolkfestival.
TELEVISION: Kenyan 'Wives'
Little Rock actor and producer H.G. Wells screens episodes of his Kenyan TV series, "The Wives," at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. The event, called "Africa Comes to Little Rock," will also include a special presentation on Kenya by Sandy S. McMath, Little Rock lawyer and author of "Africa Alone." Host is University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumna Essence Simone. Doors open at 5:30. Tickets are $20; visit eventbrite.com/e/the-wives-tickets-411505482977.
Kenyan-American actor Benjamin Onyango, who appears in the show, describes the idea, which he presented to Wells, as "the drama and dilemma of a traditional African man who had married five wives and brings home the sixth and final wife." The show's episodes ran on Kenya Broadcasting Corp., Kenya's biggest television network, for a year starting in May 2019. A second season is in the works.
FILM: 'Dollhouse' director
Filmmaker Todd Solondz, in residence today at the University of Central Arkansas, hosts a screening of his 1995 feature film "Welcome to the Dollhouse" at 6:30 p.m. in the university's Reynolds Performance Hall, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. UCA faculty members Keith Corson and Emily Railsback will host a post-screening question-and-answer session with Solondz. Admission is is free and open to the public.
Solondz currently teaches film writing and directing at the Tisch School of Art at New York University.
Call (501) 450-3293 or email gayles@uca.edu.
ART: 'Catalyst' grants
The Mid-America Arts Alliance will award 50 $10,000 practice-based grants over two years, totaling $500,000, to Central Arkansas artists through its new Catalyze initiative. The money will come from the Little Rock Windgate Foundation. The Arkansas Arts Council is a component member of the alliance. The grants, 25 each in 2023 and 2024, will combine money, mentoring and management, with the artists choosing how best to use the money to support their creative practices, including equipment, travel, studio space and child care.
The grant requires Catalyst fellows to attend a professional development conference in June at which they will work with small peer groups and artist facilitators to formulate strategic plans for how to best use the grant funding, with one-on-one coaching sessions throughout the following year.
Apply between Jan. 9 and Feb. 24. The grants are available to artists of all creative disciplines living in Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Lonoke, Perry, Pope, Prairie, Pulaski, Saline, Van Buren, White and Yell counties; criteria and an application form are at maaa.org/professional-development/catalyze.
Seeking docents
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is expanding its volunteer docent program as it prepares for its April 22 grand opening. Docents will welcome the community to the museum's art and architecture through tours and discussions for K-12 school groups and adult visitors. The collaborative training program lasts 10 weeks; docents will need to make a one-year commitment. Participants will receive a family-level membership, exclusive opportunities to learn directly from museum staff about current artists and exhibitions, access to museum programming and a discount at the museum store. Apply at arkmfa.formstack.com/forms/docent_app.
Poet, essayist and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib will read and discuss his Thursday at Hendrix College in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Kate Sweeney)
ETC.: 'Genius' on campus
Poet, essayist and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib will read and discuss his work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Reves Recital Hall at Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. A reception and book signing in the nearby Trieschmann Gallery will follow (Little Rock's WordsWorth Books will sell select titles). The event is under the aegis of the college's Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language. Admission is free. Email McGill@hendrix.edu. Abdurraqib's most recent book,"A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance," won the Andrew Carnagie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize. Abdurraqib was named a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellow in 2021.