Features

The results of our annual Best of Arkansas survey.

Across the state, from Bentonville to Crossett, thousands of Arkansans have taken to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest police brutality. Some are seasoned organizers. Some are first-time protesters. Some have served on task forces, met with elected leaders, received death threats. They are racially diverse, and they span generations. And they have decided, despite a pandemic that put them at risk when gathering, to keep coming out. Here are a few of their stories.

Inmates at Arkansas’s Cummins Unit say guards treated them like “lepers” as COVID-19 tore through the penitentiary.

Arkansas poultry plants see 64 COVID-19 cases and at least one death.

Meet the best and brightest high school seniors in the state.

The third-year pediatric resident was working in the ER at Children’s (masked, following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines) when she was told she needed to quarantine. That was March 26. She was released from isolation April 11.

The strategy "allowed us to procure large quantities of PPE for Arkansas that some other states who went the traditional route don’t have. We didn’t want to go to the well with everyone else, so instead we went to the creek,” UAMS procurement head said.

"This whole situation is nothing anyone thought we’d ever do when we signed up to be a nurse,” Elizabeth Sullivan said. “Right now, I kind of equate it to, if this was a war and I was a soldier.”

Arkansas funeral home staff and coroners' offices prepare for a rising death count.

Thanks to World Central Kitchen, the Clinton Foundation, the Little Rock School District and a broad coalition of local players, all Little Rock kids have access to free food on a daily basis.

Birders are better than books at helping you find the birds. Almost all are enthusiastic about sharing their passion with new avian aficionados, and their fine-tuning is essential to accurate identification.

Craig O'Neill's 50-year career in broadcasting is no joke.

Our annual Readers Choice issue that celebrates the best in food in Arkansas is not a beauty contest. Good dining is about substance as well as ambiance. Kitchens are beehive-busy with battle plans, where great creativity meets vigorous chopping and stirring and strategic use of the stove.

Once a school of choice, now in the crosshairs of the State Board of Education, Little Rock Hall prepares to hit the reset button.

This is the story of how the Little Rock landmark came to be and how it persists as told by staff, friends and customers.

When Chase Outlaw (that’s really his name) goes into the bucking chute now, the announcers broadcast the story of his infamous comeback across the arena, and an X-ray of his mutilated face flashes on every screen, projecting an image of his eye socket looking like a chewed up piece of tobacco.

Like most senior citizens, I have one or two conditions that would qualify me for a medical marijuana card. So, when a dispensary opened in a nearby town there was no reason not to give it a try.

‘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.