Programs for Arkansas Heritage Festival Announced

The Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) of Hot Springs Village has announced the line-up of programs for the first annual Arkansas Heritage Festival, Friday-Saturday, August 27-28, 2021. The event is free and open to the public.

The Festival is co-sponsored by LLI and the Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association through a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage. It will include Arkansas culture, entertainment, and history. Sites around Ponce Center will include Woodlands Auditorium, Grove Park, the porte cochere, and festival tent in the parking lot.

Serving as emcee for the two-day event will be Bill Lamoureux of Hot Springs Village. The popular entertainer is well known for his musical and theatrical talents, both on the East Coast and in Central Arkansas. He will introduce the various programs to be held at Woodlands Auditorium across the two days.

After the Opening Ceremony at 10 a.m., the programs on Friday, August 27, will begin with Holly Hope of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program with a presentation titled, “Flora, Fauna and Faces: Reading Cemetery Symbolism” Author and presidential diarist Janis Kearney will discuss “My Arkansas Journey, featuring Daisy Bates, Miller Williams, Bill Clinton, and Maya Angelou.”

Also on Friday, Brian Robertson, Anna Lancaster, and Guy Lancaster will present “Researching Arkansas History at the CALS Roberts Library, including a look at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.” Musician Terry Diggs will take the stage with “Folklore and Songs of the Ouachita Mountains.”

On Friday afternoon, noted writer Rex Nelson will present a program called “A State of Disaster.” He will be followed by Dreamland, an award-winning documentary from Arkansas PBS that spotlights Little Rock’s historic West 9th Street, which was once a vibrant African-American business and entertainment district.

Saturday, August 28 kicks off with Linda Pennington Black discussing “The Negro Baseball League and its Connection to Arkansas.” Best-selling author David Hill will speak about his popular book, The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice.

Arkansas music will be spotlighted on Saturday by Charlie Moore and Ken Tillery with “Mountain Music and its Roots.” Lisa Coleman Carey, daughter of Ron Coleman of Ron Coleman Mining and the owner of the unique in Hot Springs shop, All Things Arkansas, will present “Arkansas’ Heritage in Quartz.” She will be followed by Liz Robbins, long-time executive director of the Garland County Historical Society, with “A Small Town’s Giant Contribution to Arkansas’ Tourism Heritage.” Also on Saturday will be special video presentations.

More details about the programs for the Arkansas Heritage Festival will be released soon. For more information about the Arkansas Heritage Festival, the website is https://www.arkansasheritage.hsvlli.org/