Features

‘Ghetto expressionist’ Rudy Ray Moore hustled and cursed his way to underground fame — and above-ground cultural influence.

Set the radio dial to WEVL-FM, 89.9, Memphis' all-volunteer local radio station. We’re about to drive you to the spots in the town that gave birth to rock ’n’ roll and is full of soul.

How Martin Philip left Fayetteville for a career in opera, ended up head baker at King Arthur Flour instead, and returned home with a bike full of biscuits.

The city braces for a teachers strike and indefinite state control of the school district.

High school alums celebrate their 45th class anniversaries with reunions, why not us? We’re celebrating our sapphire year by looking outward, rather than inward, with stories that reflect the times. Here’s the way we were (the most popular song of 1974, by the way), the way we went and the way we are now, year by year.

James Robert Lewis — better known to his peers and fans as “Smilin’ Bob” — was born in Paris, Arkansas, and died at his home in Van Buren. Those facts, taken alone, might give the impression that Lewis lived only one life. If half of the stories people tell about him are true, though, Lewis lived several lives in succession, and yet all at once. 

Excerpts from oral history interviews with restaurateurs in Northwest Arkansas.

As the medical marijuana industry grows, law enforcement agencies in Arkansas are faced with an unprecedented problem: identifying how much cannabis in a cardholder’s system renders them too impaired to drive. 

The fact that the Elaine Massacre Memorial is being built in Helena-West Helena rather than Elaine has been a point of contention with some residents of Elaine.

In a broken present-day Elaine, locals strategize about economic revival.

September 2019 will be the 100th anniversary of what has come to be known as the Elaine massacre in Eastern Arkansas’s Phillips County. A century ago, white posses and U.S. soldiers shot and killed what may have been hundreds of African Americans, most of them tenant farmers, over a period of four days.

Eating, thinking and being daring.

The winners of our annual readers' survey.

Amber Lane Roberts got her first camera when she was 7 years old and began shooting professionally at age 23, in 2009. Roberts says she’s shot “everything” — football games, events at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, weddings, families and newborns — but boudoir photography “always came the easiest” for her.

Best homemade breakfast treats, place to entertain out of town guests from a dry county, reason to listen to commercial rock radio and more.

Some photographs are worth revering because they imply a sense of motion. Matt White’s photographs are worth revering because they imply a pause.

Publisher Walter Hussman tries to save the news by stopping the presses.

The state beer brewers alliance has helped Arkansas craft beer grow faster than other states.

Little Rock's Pettaway neighborhood, once plagued by gang activity, is amid a revival, thanks to incomers and novel construction. New residents say they want the area to remain as diverse as the architecture.

Suggestions from thinking people on how to improve life in Arkansas.

KOKY has served as a beacon for black listeners from its beginning in 1956, establishing itself as a source for music, updates and community that African Americans in Little Rock — and across the state — couldn’t get anywhere else, particularly in the limited media landscape for black listeners in the mid-20th century.

A guide to touring the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma and Arkansas along the Talimena Scenic Byway.

Dave Cox's forgotten campaign and the 1962 election for Arkansas governor. An exclusive excerpt of Ernie Dumas' political memoir.