By Edward McKinnon

Carrie Jenkins’ music therapy studio is a small cube hidden inside your run-of-the-mill beige suburban strip mall. In the corner, where she sits talking about her profession and what she might do with a client throughout a therapy session, she is framed by a keyboard to her left and a television monitor to her right. Across the room, there is another keyboard. Right beside it, there is a beautiful ocean-blue guitar next to a bookcase featuring music literature, her college diploma and her certificate from the Certification Board for Music Therapists.

An otherwise tight space feels much fuller and more vibrant thanks to the bright green colored walls, collection of musical instruments, and of course, Jenkins herself. In this space, she works mostly with children with various developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome. She also travels to schools to hold group sessions as well as senior care facilities where she can work with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. During a session, she has clients work on tasks that usually involve her or them playing songs.

Typical sessions unfold similar to other types of therapy, but Jenkins incorporates musical elements to help clients. With many clients, she has them sing greeting and departure songs to signal the beginning and end of a session. From there, she must learn to improvise and adapt to any client’s need. Sometimes, clients will develop new lyrics for familiar songs to express their feelings. She has a guitar, keyboard and ukulele handy that she can use to perform songs. If a patient already has baseline musical skills, she will incorporate their skills into the session. For example, with her long-time client Daniel LeBlanc she used all of these elements in their meetings, enabling him to play the trumpet or write lyrics depending on the situation.

“They’re learning musical aspects,” Jenkins said, “but it’s not focused solely on musical properties. It’s figuring out how to read, how to focus, how to finish a task before moving to the next one.”

Jenkins has run Music Therapy of Northwest Arkansas under the Cardinal Care Center in Farmington since 2012. During more than 10 years on the job, music therapy globally has grown significantly in popularity, especially during COVID-19. ASD diagnoses have tripled in children ages 8 or younger in the last 20 years, with the CDC reporting 1 in 54 children in the age range diagnosed in 2016. Music therapy has proven very effective in helping children with ASD, among other similar groups, and is only becoming more popular.

Jenkins has experienced this demand to the point where she has to waitlist some prospective clients or groups. While national interest in music therapy continues to grow, she remains the only practicing music therapist in Northwest Arkansas. Statewide, she is only in contact with one other music therapist, Andrew Ghrayeb, who works at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Even if she is on an island of sorts, Jenkins takes solace in the fact that her work makes a noticeable difference. It is her dream job, she said. She has always loved music, lived around the medical field her whole life and has a natural inclination to help others. Music therapy is the perfect outlet.

Jenkins grew up in Farmington, attending high school down the road from her office at the Cardinal Care Center. Her dad is a retired pharmacist who loves music and initially wanted to be a music major, and her mother is a nurse. As a kid, she took piano lessons and taught herself guitar. This created an ideal development environment for an aspiring music therapist, but Jenkins did not always know she would do this kind of work. In her own words, it was all a fluke.

“I was working at an MRI clinic as a file clerk, and the guy that would come in and service our MRI machine to make sure it was working properly found out I was helping with music at my church … And he was like, ‘You know, I think you have the personality — you should look at music therapy.’”

Ironically, Jenkins nearly shrugged off the idea of music therapy as a calling with the same confusion a skeptic might direct toward her today. However, she was interested enough to research the topic, and she discovered that Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, offered a music therapy program. After visiting and talking to professors, she realized this profession was her ideal landing place.

After earning her bachelor’s degree, she partook in a six-month internship at the STAR Center in Jackson, Tennessee, and then decided to pursue her master’s degree. 

Shortly after Jenkins completed her master’s program at Drury, Cardinal Care Center opened. Sherri Gansz, the owner, wanted to offer a variety of services to address mental health, and Jenkins’ expertise fit that goal, making her a mainstay at Cardinal Care. 

“Due to the specialized therapy Carrie offers, we are known in the area for her talents,” Gansz said. “Her population is specific. None of us have the experience or training.”

Before even getting settled with Cardinal Care, Emily LeBlanc, the mother of Jenkins’ would-be-first individual client, contacted her. She found out about Jenkins online after searching out possible music therapy options in the region for her late-teenage son, Daniel, but did not realize Jenkins was still completing her degree. After Jenkins graduated and settled in Farmington, Emily reached out again. She had taken her son to other talk therapists before discovering Jenkins, but it was not as effective as music therapy.

“Singing about it was what he needed to do to fully express what he was feeling,” Emily said while sitting beside her son on a Zoom call.

Growing up with autism, Emily said her son Daniel was unhappy in public school and in search of an outlet to express his feelings constructively. “It was sad,” he said.

“It was sad,” Emily said, echoing her son’s sentiment. “(His struggle in school) was actually pretty normal for someone with autism. Having somebody else working on it was very helpful. Carrie would have him sing about different emotions. There were songs for greeting and for leaving, and in between, she would have different goals, such as keeping rhythm with her to help him link up to another person.” 

Much of what they worked on during therapy sessions emphasized mirror neurons, which are linked to brain activity in social interactions and expressing empathy. People with autism have mirror neurons and do feel empathy but cannot tell what others are feeling at a specific moment as easily.

Emily said Carrie was having him work on his mirror neurons musically by trying to match beats and play music. One task he worked on was playing Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” one of his favorite pieces.

After nearly 12 years of practicing professionally, Jenkins has refined her craft by learning to go with the flow during sessions. Music therapy is a versatile service that can mean a lot of different things depending on who the patient is and what the practitioner’s musical background is. For a client, such as Daniel, who is working on expressing their feelings, using music to elicit an emotional response is a point of emphasis. For other patients with disabilities whose primary struggle is staying on task, performing music is common regardless of their skill level.

“With music therapy, I’m focusing more on if they can play with one finger at a time,” Jenkins said. “Can they focus long enough to complete an entire song? Can they be able to match letters on a page to letters on the keys that I have to see if we have cognitive and visual tracking?”

She demonstrates this by showing the special keyboard she uses with clients. It is set up to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and features various settings that force a user’s level of involvement to increase incrementally. With the basic setting, a client can tap any key on the keyboard and it will produce the correct note for the song. Next, a client must press the correct key, which is illuminated, in order to continue performing the song, and so on.

“That’s not only working on focus and staying on task until it is done,” Jenkins said, “but it is being able to follow directions, follow the light, move from one key to the next. And then we progress to this little book, which has the letters. So, they are learning to read and track from keys up to the book. So, that’s just a basic progression of something we would do for keyboard skills.”

When working with older groups such as dementia clients, the objectives and tactics change.

 “It’s not necessarily looking for growth in what we’re doing,” Jenkins said. “It’s more about maintaining what they have and maintaining their quality of life for as long as possible. So, with my dementia client groups, I’ll see them for an hour for each group, and it’s either once a month or twice a month depending on availability and the budget of the facility.”

Carrie said with older patients, memory recall exercises are highly useful. Around Valentine’s Day, she plays older love songs with older groups, which can serve as a jumping-off point for members to talk about their loved ones and other special figures in their lives.

She also plays games such as “Name that Tune” with these groups.

 “I’ll play a song but won’t sing the words, and we’ll see if they are able to recite any of the words back to me and tell me the name of it,” Jenkins said. “And like nine times out of 10, they’re very much able to. There are some songs where they are able to tell me what the song is in three notes, which is just phenomenal considering I can come in and someone could forget my name and have to ask what my name is 18 times. But I sing the first three or four notes of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ and they’ll sing the entire song to me.”

Though Jenkins said she gained a lot of confidence in herself during her practicum, she has had to swim in uncomfortable waters to build out the toolbox necessary to succeed as a music therapist. As a student, she expected the job to be more structured, but in reality, it commands more of a read-and-react approach. As someone who can be introverted, Jenkins has had to become more of an extrovert to build out a public presence and let people know about the services she offers — especially given she is the only practicing music therapist in the area. Within the therapy sessions, she has learned to become more resourceful.

In the present, Carrie Jenkins is happy about where she is in her career. Her career progression has coincided with the increasing popularity of music therapy worldwide. But even if she has found her footing, there are many obstacles she still has to overcome to be successful in her work, such as the stigma that surrounds it.

When people hear the term “music therapy,” they may fail to grasp its legitimacy immediately. Perhaps most people did not realize that close to 100 colleges across the United States offer undergraduate music therapy programs. Jenkins said people have cynically asked her if the job simply entails turning on an iPod, making people listen to music and telling them to be happy.

There are also barriers specific to Arkansas that she said she would like to see addressed in the future. Notably, the state has no colleges and universities that offer music therapy degrees. Arkansas currently does not offer licensure for music therapy, meaning she cannot accept insurance as a form of payment, and most clients are required to pay out of pocket for her services, unlike other therapy options. Eighteen states have licensure as of 2024, with many states establishing it within the past five years. Licensure would further legitimize her practice and perhaps could lead to more practitioners operating in the state. Jenkins played a role in establishing a task force for getting licensure in the state in 2018, but the pandemic brought much of the progress to a halt.

Through her colleagues at Cardinal Care Center as well as recommendations from facilities where she has hosted group sessions, Jenkins has built out an extensive network of contacts that enables her to always have a strong client base. But because there are no other practicing music therapists in Northwest Arkansas, she is frequently stretched thin, she said. Aside from therapy, she also offers music lessons and is a worship leader at her church. She hopes to get more help in some shape or form. “I would love to be a multi-person music therapy clinic and be able to contract out to other music therapists and say, ‘Go out, do this, be awesome!’” she said.

Although she has difficulties being a one-woman music therapy operation in a time of growing demand, Jenkins never sounds upset with the state of things. If anything, she embraces the challenges. “I’ve always had a drive to help people,” Jenkins said. She recognizes the demand for her services and wants to help as many people as possible. She wants to dedicate her spare time to putting her musical skills to use while helping at church or giving music lessons.

For the LeBlanc family, Jenkins’ positive demeanor has rubbed off in a multitude of ways. Beyond expressing feelings, Daniel and Emily reflect on the strong sense of joy the sessions have provided over the years. Daniel saw Jenkins for music therapy for a decade before relocating to Jamestown, New York, with his family. When they discuss their relationship with her, almost every answer is present tense, as Jenkins has remained in touch with the family. Daniel regularly sends her some of his best illustrations of dragons through the mail. With plans to take animation classes at the local community college in a work preparation program and dreams of one day running a film and animation studio, he said he is in part inspired by the time he spent with Jenkins and the skills he developed.

“She’s awesome!” Daniel said, excitedly. “She plays guitar just like I play trumpet.”

Emily interjected to ask her son a question. “Does she encourage you?”

“Yes.”

Emily described Jenkins as cheerful and happy in her sessions. Daniel, offering clarification, said he has fond memories of Jenkins because she understands him.

Jenkins is a helper. Music is her tool. When asked what helps her, she said she finds herself returning to acoustic covers of pop songs to chill out and lo-fi covers when she has to focus and get stuff done.

“It is so very therapeutic,” Jenkins said. “In a personal setting, I am listening to music all the time, 24/7. It gets me up in the morning, it gets me to and from in the car. If I’m having a bad day, I know what kind of music I’m listening to in order to get me out of a funk. If I need to stay in that funk and live in it, I know what music I want to listen to.”

She goes as far as to characterize therapy sessions as helpful for herself.

“There are times where I’ll be headed to an assisted living facility, and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I’m so tired. I don’t feel it today. I don’t want to do this, but I know I have to do this.’ Then, by the end of the session, I’m in a better mood than some of the clients are because being able to engage them and be part of that moment with them is just so rewarding and so wholesome, and it just helps me as much as it does them.”

Jenkins’ trajectory with respect to music therapy is not that different to clients such as Daniel. Though she comes in expecting to help each person she works with, music therapy and working with individuals have helped her just as much.

Although Jenkins did not specifically mention how she keeps a positive disposition when confronted with various obstacles outside her control in a session, it helps when the work doubles as her own therapy.

The post Got Problems? Let’s Sing About Them appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks 

Trigger Warning: This book review mentions suicide, drug addiction, and death. 

America has had an infatuation with the Presley family since Elvis hit the music scene in the 1950s, quickly becoming a worldwide sensation. Known as the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley and his music became a household name, an obsession with him and his family never dimming since.  

Published posthumously, Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir offers a unique look into the life of Elvis’ only daughter. The memoir blends transcripts of Lisa Marie’s voice and outlook on her life with sections of her daughter Riley Keough talking about their relationship. In chapters, the voices of Presley and Keough are sectioned and differentiated with fonts.

“From Here to the Great Unknown” was released Oct. 8 and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. The memoir explores themes of motherhood, grief and the circular nature of family dynamics through the lens of America’s princess. 

Born to Elvis and Pricilla Presley, Lisa Marie grew up in the spotlight living at Graceland, the famous Presley home located in Memphis, Tennessee. The memoir begins with an introduction by Keough, where she explains that her mother had been planning on telling her story before her death, and Keough felt it was her duty to see it through. 

The book details early aspects of Lisa Marie’s life, from her childhood at Graceland to the traumatic loss of her father. To many, Elvis was a larger-than-life icon, yet Lisa Marie got to see her father in all of his humanity, with his triumphs and struggles. The language in which she talks about Elvis is similar to how her mother, Priscilla discusses him in her memoir, “Elvis and Me.” Both describe him as a god-like figure, with an enigmatic presence over any room or situation. It speaks to the presence of her father in her life, even after his untimely death. 

“He was a god to me. A chosen human being.” said Lisa Marie on page 5 of “From Here to the Great Unknown.”

Elvis tragically died of complications from drug use and addiction, which impacted the lives of those around him greatly, especially his young daughter. Lisa Marie talks about his funeral and her following tumultuous teenage years, filled with a complicated relationship with her mom, drug use and religion. 

The first five chapters of the book are written heavily in Lisa Marie’s voice, with few interjections from her daughter, offering more insight into her life and how these events affected her. As the book progresses, Keough’s voice becomes more powerful as she reflects on her mother’s life from an adult perspective. 

The book follows Lisa Marie’s life chronologically, discussing her marriages, relationships and children as well as her music career. While on paper everything looked great, she struggled with insecurities and attachment; she seemed to carry a sadness with her that permeated her life. Her daughter wrote she thinks she never really got over her father’s passing, the death of Elvis really impacting the remainder of her life. 

This idea of familial loss speaks to the memoir’s overarching themes of repetitive family dynamics; it is shown throughout the book that Lisa Marie’s relationship with her father mirrored the relationship Elvis had with his mom, Gladys, and how her relationship with her son, Benjamin, mirrored theirs as well.

Keough wrote on Page 159, “Just as Elvis had with his mother, and my mom had with Elvis, my brother and my mother had a kind of ‘I can’t live without you’ relationship. They shared a very deep soul bond.”

Motherhood was deeply important to Lisa Marie, not only with her son but with  her three daughters as well. 

“I was married at twenty, a mother at twenty-one, similar to my own mother,” Lisa Marie said on Page 120. “ I fell in love with being a mom. I realized I had been called to care for something else.” 

“From Here to the Great Unknown”  also shows how Lisa Marie’s life echoed her mom’s, especially as a teenager in her first relationship to an older man. Priscilla was 14 when she first started dating Elvis, and similarly, Lisa Marie got involved with an older man when she was underage. 

“But it was also history repeating itself,” Lisa Marie said on page 91. “My mom was fourteen when she met my dad. I was replaying her life in a weird way.”

This family cycle continued in other aspects of Lisa Marie’s life as she grew up, as she ultimately struggled with addiction as her father did. She began relying on drug use later in life, reflecting on how it can happen to anyone at any time. Keough wrote about how this was a hard time in both of their lives and how hard it was to watch her mother struggle. It only seemed to isolate Lisa Marie more, despite the family’s best efforts to stay close. She ultimately chose to go to rehab and get better.

The final part of the book reflects on Keough’s younger brother Benjamin’s death. Benjamin died by suicide in July 2020, and the memoir greatly discusses how his death affected the family. This section is mainly written by Keough and discusses how deeply his death affected Lisa Marie and herself. Keough emphasized the close relationship her mom and Benjamin had and how deeply the grief set in. 

“When Ben died, I thought it would be a matter of hours until my mother relapsed. But she surprised me and remained completely sober to honor him” Keough wrote, page 248.

Lisa Marie Presley died on Jan. 12, 2023, leaving behind her three daughters. The memoir was completed by Keough as a final goodbye to her mother and a way to make sure her story is heard. It is narrated in a way only a loved one can, with love and affection and loss haunting each word. Heartfelt and raw, “From Here to the Great Unknown” is a lovely tribute to a life well lived from the view of those who matter most: family.

The post Motherhood, Grief and The Circular Nature of Life: A Review of “From Here to the Great Unknown” by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ashton York

You may know Mason Ramsey as the 11-year-old “Walmart yodeling kid” meme that became popular in 2018. His rendition of “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams in the middle of the superstore was what initially threw Ramsey’s name into the public eye, and his passion for what he calls “gentleman’s country” has only continued to grow since the video went viral.

On Oct. 27 at 8 p.m., Ramsey will continue his “Falls Into Place Tour” at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. The show follows the release of his first full-length album, “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” which came out Sept. 13.

“Me and my band guys, we’re super excited to be back out on the road, singing the new songs that are on the album,” Ramsey said. “We’ve had some really good shows so far, and we’re, overall, super happy and excited where we’re at.”

Ramsey said fans can expect to see a lot of his older songs at the show, along with some from the new album. He said he and the band bring a strong energy to the stage, and no one will be expecting what happens at the show.

“Even though there have been little clips of me on the internet so far,” Ramsey said, “you have to actually go see it to experience it for yourself.”

While on tour, Ramsey spends his time creating new songs between shows. He said he uses his various locations as inspiration to write about new sights and experiences. 

After he writes the lyrics of a song, Ramsey then brings it to his producer to add music to the track and kick off the official songwriting process.

“It’s like you have the starting pieces of the puzzle, you just need to put the other pieces together,” he said. “It’s not hard as long as you don’t overthink.”

Many of the tracks on “I’ll See You In My Dreams” are slow and romantic, as Ramsey takes heavy inspiration from artists such as Elvis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.

Ramsey credits Hank Williams for the primary influence on his music, and he said he will not forget how Williams’ song is what got him started. Ramsey said he aspires to create the same simple yet beautiful genre of country.

Aside from other artists, there were several different people who inspired songs on the new album, including Ramsey’s family members and a few different girls he has known over the past few years.

“Family is a big part of why I’m where I’m at today,” Ramsey said. “I wanted to write a song about my uncle, and just to my overall family, because over time, family changes whether they move on and go somewhere else or they pass away. ‘Family Pictures’ kind of talks about that.”

Ramsey said his current favorite tracks from the album are “All The Way To Memphis” and “Blue Over You” because they are about specific people in his life. He described the sound of his music as American country soul.

In preparation for the rest of the tour, Ramsey’s traveling band has to learn the new songs since he used a separate band in the recording studio. His team plans everything ahead of the tour, booking hotels when needed and scheduling soundchecks. Most of the time, Ramsey and his entire crew use a tour bus as opposed to hotels, and they have done that for the “Falls Into Place Tour.”

“It’s been a pretty wild ride since the whole tour’s kicked up and everything,” Ramsey said. “I’m kind of just waiting to see what happens next.”

Ramsey said his dream and life goal is to travel the world and have stadium tours. He said he hopes to become one of the largest country artists and use that platform to help other artists have their work noticed.

Ramsey experienced the other side of such platform when Lana Del Rey welcomed him onto the stage at Fenway Park to sing a duet of “Blue Over You.” It was the first time he was able to perform one of his own songs on such a large stage, as the capacity of the venue is around 38,000 people.

Singing on the big stage was one step closer to Ramsey fulfilling his dream of becoming a popular country singer, one he has had since he was 3 years old. Now, as a 17-year-old, Ramsey said he feels it has always been his passion in life. He was always determined to be a performer, even if that meant doing small local shows in his hometown.

“I was just always happy singing and making other people happy,” he said. “Anything can happen at any time. You just have to be motivated and inspired to do what you do, and I want people to see that. I want people to believe in themselves as I believed in myself.”

Ramsey said no matter what new and exciting adventures showed up in his life after his Walmart video went viral, he feels as though he has remained the same person he has always been. He never expected to appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” or at the Grand Ole Opry, and his mindset remained the same throughout. He still wanted to bring people joy through music.

“I was just (at that Walmart) the other day before I started my tour,” Ramsey said. “I went back, and it’s still the same as it was.”

Ramsey said he has never visited Northwest Arkansas, but he is excited to check out the area during the fall. Fall tours are his favorite because they come along with pumpkin spice foods and sweater weather.

“I’m just so grateful that I got to have my first album put out, and we’re super excited to be on this tour and with Halle Kearns opening for me,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got a lot of great things planned.”

The post I’ll See You In George’s Majestic: Mason Ramsey to Perform in Fayetteville appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks

Translation is often overlooked as a literary medium. Without the work of translators, beautiful stories and verses that immerse us in another culture – or time would be lost to us forever. Stories are thus able to transcend the bounds of language and instead become available to different areas of the world, creating a melting pot of ideals and elevating the commonalities between us all. 

Dr. Geoff Brock, who has been teaching at the University of Arkansas since 2006, has been a writer and translator long before.

“A translation inscribes a particular reading of a text from one language into another language – it is reading and writing at the same time,” Brock said. “That’s what drew me to it and what keeps me at it.”

Brock primarily teaches courses for master’s students in the poetry track and the translation track, such as poetry workshops, translation workshops, and reading-intensive craft or literature courses.This Master of Fine Arts degree is unique as it is a four-year program and has a track in literary translation as well as poetry and fiction tracks. “It’s the latter element – the translation track, and the ability for me to teach both poetry and translation courses – that drew me to Arkansas,” Brock states.

One such student in the translation track is Colleen Noland; she is pursuing her master’s in creative writing and translation. Noland was drawn to translation from her love of Spanish; she began learning Spanish in public schools as it was mandatory in my school district. It was her first exposure to Spanish and she hasn’t stopped learning the language yet. 

While translators work with many languages, the one language that connects them is English.  

“We focus on English,” Brock said. “Of course, we think about and ask questions about whatever languages the students in the class happen to be working from that semester (Spanish! French! Arabic! Bengali! Tagalog!), but the one language we have in common, and the one all of the students are translating into is English, so each translator focuses on making an English text that embodies whatever elements – meaning, style, tone, form, etc. – they find most salient in their original texts.”

Noland works with mainly contemporary works and authors; she chooses a translation project based on what she herself would like to read and is able to connect with through deep, close reading so that she can see “the meaning running under the page.”

Noland is currently working on translating a collection of short stories in Madrid about romantic relationships. When translating, she said she believes “the words themselves are not as important; it’s the emotions they are trying to convey or leave the reader with. I think if you translate a word literally exactly every time from one language to the target language, you are going to get a text that is way different and conveys way different emotions because we just have cultural associations and baggage with different words. Being creative with how you translate emotions is something I think about a lot.”

Students in the master’s program typically take six to nine hours a semester and teach two undergraduate classes, mainly in the English department. One of Noland’s favorite classes she took was on 12th-century Celtic literature and translation. She says the course was challenging yet rewarding as it worked with authors who are no longer living, so the authors true intentions cannot be known. It allows for more interpretation as you don’t necessarily know the full meaning of the piece. 

When examining texts from long ago, how do we as a reader choose which translation to go off of? Professor Nicole Clowney teaches classical studies in both the undergraduate program and law program here at the U of A. 

“I have always loved the humanities,” Clowney said. “Now more than ever, they can teach us so much, particularly about what humans have in common across cultures and time periods and how other cultures have contended with the big human questions we all ask ourselves.”

Clowney is currently teaching third-semester Latin, a class based on reading Gaius Petronius’ “Satyricon.” Students read and translate directly from the Latin text, as well as reading a translation to better understand and appreciate the story as a whole. Clowney chose the translation of the “Satyricon” by Sarah Ruden. 

She said she believes that while there is nothing like reading the text in its original language, she tends to gravitate towards works that are true to the original spirit the original was written rather than exact words. 

Brock has similar sentiments surrounding whether translations should focus on strict adherence to the text or solely on the essence of the story. 

“Your binary – strictness versus essence – is a version of the old ‘letter versus spirit’ duality, and for me a translation is always a dance between the two,” Brock said. “In general, you can’t be slavishly strict to literal meaning without losing some of the spirit, and you can’t capture the spirit without a nuanced sense of the literal meaning. No literary text – think of the complex pleasures of an Emily Dickinson poem – can be reduced to the literal meaning of its words.”

The question remains: is translation, in essence, adaptation? 

Noland said she believes that every translation is an adaptation and that there is no such thing as a perfect translation. 

“No, of course, the translation will not be a perfect carrying of that text into a new language,” Noland states. “With any translation there’s going to be loss, there’s going to be additions, in order to try and bring it authentically. Does a perfect translation exist? No. Do we do it anyway because it would be sad if we only had literature isolated to one language. We do it anyway.”

So why do we keep returning to stories, both ancient and modern, that span cultural differences and norms? 

“These were civilizations honestly contending with questions all humans ask: Why are we here? What do we owe each other? What is justice? What is beauty?” Clowney said. “There’s never an expiration date on discussions on those questions because there are never really any answers.”

Translation, at its core, reminds us of our similarities across cultures, time periods and geography. Reading these works remind us of our humanity and how integral our connection to others truly is.

The post Lost Without Translation  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ashton York

For fans of a galaxy far, far away, there is an exciting, intergalactic event coming to Fayetteville on “Star Wars” Day this year. 

Reyetteville will take place at the Fayetteville Town Center Saturday, May 4 from noon to 6 p.m. General admission to the family friendly event will cost $12 at the door and $8 if ordered online before the event, but children 15 years and under get free entrance.

Costume contests, local vendors and “Star Wars”-themed trivia are just a few of the events that will take place at Reyetteville. The Reyetteville experience revolves around the joy and nostalgia for fans of “Star Wars,” no matter what generation of the fandom you are from.

Reyetteville hosts Emily Walker and Evan McDonald have held other events in the past, most of which were adult-only. Their brand, Fruitcake, is all about hosting nostalgic events to bring out the inner child in adults.

One well-known event they have is the Fruitcake Holiday Market, which is a holiday and nostalgia-themed market. It first happened in November and December 2023, and the host’s plan to continue it annually.

“Each individual event that we do is connected to nostalgia in a different way,” Walker said. “We always try to hit on the different types of nostalgia for all different generations.”

Fruitcake is hosting another event called “Fruit Salad” May 18. Fruit Salad will also include a small business market, along with cocktails and bingo. It will even have an after party that includes a drag show and dance party, continuing until midnight.

The idea for a “Star Wars” market came to Walker when she noticed that May 4, “Star Wars” Day, falls on a Saturday this year. Walker said she has connected with “Star Wars” differently as an adult than she did as a child.

Walker said she wants people to know that everyone is welcome at this event, even if you know nothing about “Star Wars.” 

“Fandom events can be a little intimidating if you’re not a super fan or if you haven’t watched the movies a hundred times,” Walker said. “I think a big part of what we’re trying to do is we want everyone to feel like they have a space to have fun. You can come in at any level of knowledge and you would probably still have a great time.”

Walker said she and McDonald were inspired to create these events so adults in the Fayetteville area could go out and have fun without worrying about kids. Reyetteville is the first of their events that is open for children.

“I was a little kid when the prequel series was coming out, and my dad was a little kid when the original series was coming out,” Walker said. “I guess for me, it was a family thing and something I related to my dad with. When I was in college, I found my own stride as a fan. I guess because I was an adult, I connected with them in a different way.”

Walker says they both hope to bring the nostalgic feel from their past events into the new “Star Wars” program in May, even though it is not just for adults.

“We both love ‘Star Wars’ and we’re from different generations of fans,” Walker said. “So we are trying to get a bunch of different elements in this one event, highlighting the different generations of ‘Star Wars’ fans and how we can all come together and have fun.”

Reyetteville will feature a traditional vendor market, and most vendors will have fandom-themed items. Not only will it have “Star Wars” options, but the market will also sell anything from “Marvel” to “Lord of the Rings” products.

There will be three separate rounds of “Star Wars” trivia and a costume contest with prizes throughout the day. Also, live artists and face painters will be present for the first several hours of the event.

One of the live artists is Melspace Creative, a “self-taught rug tufter specializing in pop art and whimsical abstract art,” according to the Melspace website. Her booth will have “Star Wars” items that she creates on the spot.

There will be some book booths with local stores such as Underbrush Books from Rogers. Underbrush Books will sell sci-fi and fantasy books for different ages.

Gear Gaming, a Fayetteville-based game store, will have an interactive gaming station at the market. This booth will let visitors try a “Star Wars”-themed Dungeons & Dragons game.

Docking Bay, a Fayetteville-based business, will be making 3D-printed models of droids, masks and other “Star Wars” items. 

A variety of food and drinks will be offered at the market, as many of the local vendors are based around cooking. Corndogs, roasted nuts, bakery items and more will be available.

The hosts are still searching for more vendors to participate in Reyetteville, as new businesses are continuously added to the lineup. 

The post Reyetteville hits Fayetteville appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Emma Bracken

Fayetteville is home to many creative voices and talents, searching for an outlet to showcase them. San Connie, a senior at the University of Arkansas, has made it his mission to bring them to life through his love for filmmaking. His feature film, “The Space In Between,” premieres on Friday evening, April 19. As the writer, director, producer, and editor of the film, Conine is anticipating not just the payoff for all of the cast’s hard work but the inspiring truth that the movie’s release represents. For him, working from the ground up to make his dream a reality is proof that anyone with creative ambition and enough love for their art can do the same. When combined with a passionate, talented group of people like the cast and crew of “The Space in Between,” the end product is bound to be something meaningful and impressive.

Conine first wrote his ideas for the film when he was just 15 years old, once abandoning them entirely before returning years later to bring them to fruition. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Conine has traveled all around the country in pursuit of his education and filmmaking, collecting friends and creatives along the way that would come to Fayetteville and bring his movie to life. The film amassed a cast and crew of over 100 students from several different universities beyond the UA.

Though the film is being created by students, Conine is aiming for something beyond what you’d expect from a student film. Not only has he culminated a large-scale production beyond expectation, but the community that has emerged from the making of the film also surpasses any class project or small club effort.  

“I hope people take us seriously,” Conine said. “It’s not just a student film; we worked harder than anyone else, we cared about each other more than anyone else, and we loved the thing we made more than anyone else. We hope they can see and appreciate the effort of so many incredible people involved in the film.”

The passion and love the entire cast and crew have for the film is bursting at the seams of it all, building anticipation for those of us waiting for the release. They are working tirelessly to polish the film off and celebrate the release this weekend. Filming began just around the new year, and they’ve been putting in long hours and late nights to put it together since. Conine explained that many of the people working on the film had no prior experience at all, but cared so much about the project that things seemed to just fall into place. Everyone was an equally important part of the puzzle, and the crew became less of a staff and more of a family. 

“Art is more than it serves financially,” Conine said. “There is education, community, and love to be had.”

Operating on a tight budget and timeline, putting the film together required ingenuity and endless determination. Conine described the film as “scrappy,” with penny-pushing and cutting corners at every step. It was a community effort, with all hands on deck. The support came from even beyond the cast and crew, such as the AirBnB owner who lent them their set, or the gear borrowed from universities. Whatever could be done to bring the dream into a reality was, without hesitation or fear of failure getting in the way. Though the work was hard, everyone left the set after wrap devastated for it to be over.

“We ride until we all fall off,” Conine joked. He thanked Assistant Director Hayden Leonard and business partner/producer Josh Howington for keeping him afloat at the head of such a large project. Getting people who care, he said, was the most important key to their success, and more valuable than any equipment or high-end Hollywood set. The cast of actors, including leads Louis Waddell and Lillie Huffman, were also eager to bring the magic of the movie to life. To Conine, the greatest joy of it all will be to rave to the families and friends of his team about how proud he is of them. 

This is what makes the film special, and what the team hopes people take from it after Friday’s premiere. For him and the others working on the film, it has already been a place of love and connection. Even before knowing exactly what the end product would look like, he knew he was proud of the film because of the environment it fostered and the opportunities it created for people to get their first taste at following their dreams in the movie industry. He not only hopes that the audience will be able to feel this through the screen, but will be inspired in their own right, either to make art or meet people.   

The World Premiere of “The Space in Between” will be at 7 p.m. on April 19, in theFayetteville High School Auditorium. It is cocktail attire mandatory, and tickets start at $12.50. Not only will you be the first to get to see the film before it hits streaming, but many of the cast and crew members will be in attendance, as well as Conine who will be speaking to the audience about his experience directing the film and maybe even sharing a special announcement with the crowd. He encourages people to find the same connection when seeing the film as they all did making it, whether that means asking someone you’ve always been scared to ask out to tag along with you or flying solo and making a new friend with the person sitting next to you. 

The post “The Space in Between”: Student filmmaking turned space for love, friendship, and community  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Addie Jones

In the heart of Fayetteville is a warm, tranquil escape from the business of life and the bustling town streets. Founded by Jo Ann Kaminsky, The Art Experience provides art therapy and creative experiences in a safe, growth-oriented environment containing anything from colored pencils to giant handmade puppets. 

Kaminsky started out as an artist and art teacher, receiving a certification in counseling and further training in Dallas at the North Texas Art Therapy Institute. In the early 1990s, she started a practice where the University of Arkansas School of Art is currently located.

“When I first started,” Kaminsky said, “I did work with an agency, but I really wanted to work in the community. I was working with some kids who had really struggled with their ability to succeed in school and had very low-self esteem and realized that they were the perfect folks for art therapy.”

Kaminsky now works as a full-time art and play therapist, persuading skeptical clients to draw, paint, journal or soak strips of paper in paste to create. The Art Experience empowers individuals and groups while encouraging community and developing the creative impulse.

The therapist works with people of all ages. She primarily emphasizes play therapy with younger children, providing them guidance in a room full of toys. With older visitors, she leads them to a room with an assortment of art materials.

“We’re using it to calm ourselves,” Kaminsky said, “sometimes gather memories and sometimes really come up with solutions, maybe imagining something being in a different way.”

Robert Davis, a professor of public health at the University of Arkansas, said expressive therapies entail a multitude of activities — art, music, dance, journaling — and can be used as therapy or as a psychotherapy technique. They are often used to express emotion, providing a medium for patients to project feelings and add meaning to a topic.

In the context of art psychotherapy, a client might receive a prompt and a medium: clay, paint, colored pencil and paper. They would then express themselves through the material they were given, allowing them to open the door for further acknowledgment, discussion and remediation.

“Art is interactive,” Davis said. “Think about looking at a great painting. You don’t just see it, you feel it. It visually, auditorily and interactively brings people into contact with their emotions and the causality of those feelings.”

Lauren Levine, a licensed professional counselor/supervisor and registered expressive art therapist at Create Change Counseling, furthers these ideals through her work. Levine’s mission is rooted in the belief that there is an innate and powerful sense of creativity within each of us waiting to be unlocked, she said.

“I work to bridge the gap between the undercurrent of emotions and conscious awareness,” Levine said. “I strive to provide an environment which encourages clients to explore hidden feelings, build resilience and uncover a deeper kind of inner strength which they can use to meet their daily challenges.”

Levine purely treats individuals over the age of 18, mostly addressing anxiety, situational depression and attachment wounds. Her approach is, ‘just because I don’t know the answer doesn’t mean there isn’t one.’

With this approach, one can learn to creatively explore all the potential routes to change without being forced, she said.

“I approach growth and healing from a place of creativity and imagination,” Levine said. “Even if there is no ‘art activity’ happening in the session, I view growth and healing as a creative process. We can learn to sit in the discomfort of (it) as answers reveal itself.”

Kaminsky also hopes to use art therapy to help people calm themselves, gather memories and create solutions. She uses her mediums to help people develop coping skills, making sure the art is driven by the individual and their needs.

Play therapy tools include a sand tribe, 3D collage, paper mache and “masks of emotions.”  In this room, children are essentially allowed to create or perform anything they desire.

Part of Kaminsky’s treatment is understanding the developmental level of the person she is working with. Though adults have more freedom regarding making changes in their lives, they also have misconceptions that they cannot do art. This mental block affects them more than it does with younger kids, Kaminsky said, so she works to encourage them and be a cheerleader for them to loosen up and explore.

In addition to individual therapy, The Art Experience hosts classes, partners with outside institutions for workshops and conducts events such as puppet parades. Kaminsky also provides a space for group therapy, with topics including circles of healing and memory keepers. Looking forward, the practice is working to continue classes and produce a puppet parade on May 3 to continue being a therapeutic center for community members.

“There is no right or wrong way to do art therapy,” Kaminsky said, “so when people are there, I encourage them to think about it in a different way.” 

The post Art for everyone: Creative and expressive therapies provide a unique approach to local practices appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ashton York

Dazzling dresses reflected the lights of the Verizon Ballroom as eager viewers from the campus community watched performances from several drag queens.

University Programs (UP) held a drag show in the University of Arkansas student union Friday, April 5. The show featured many local artists and a headliner who was a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The drag show was once an annual event, but UP did not host it in 2023 due to concerns about Arkansas government restrictions at the time. 

Senate Bill 43, which was introduced in Jan. 2023, was originally vague enough to criminalize any form of self-expression that did not fit societal gender norms. It defined drag as exhibiting “a gender identity that is different from the performer’s gender assigned at birth” and classified it as “adult-oriented,” according to Arkansas Advocate. 

The bill initially contained restrictions that would not only affect drag, but LGBTQ+ Arkansans as a whole. However, the bill was later amended to define “adult-oriented performance” as that which features nudity or sexual themes, and it restricted said performances from public spaces. 

The amended version of Senate Bill 43, which became Arkansas law in Feb. 2023, no longer targeted drag shows and was not capable of restricting transgender individuals’ self-expression.

Steele Engelmann, the UP Cultures and Concepts Chair, helps bring events like the annual drag show to campus. As the chair, he plans several types of events both on campus and in Northwest Arkansas.

“We’re kind of testing the water, especially with some legislation that was passed last year,” he said. “There’s always concerns from admin about doing some types of events and the way we advertise those events.”

Engelmann said he hopes the show will pave the way for more events for marginalized communities on campus.

Five local drag queens were featured in the 2024 University Programs’ Drag Show. 

First onstage was Faux L’Beau, a local artist who also works on the UA campus when she is not doing drag. She makes every outfit she wears for performances, including this show.

L’Beau led most of the event, performing multiple different times and introducing each queen as they entered the stage. L’Beau seemed to feel a personal connection with the audience because she works at the UA.

“I see the future in college students just like you all, and this is an opportunity for you to find your kind and find who you are,” L’Beau said to the audience. “I know some of you are near and far from home. I know we don’t often get to explore (our identities) when we’re at home, but I’d like to inspire the next generation, and it’s always fun to come back to my roots.”

After L’Beau’s first performance, Audacity Twinx, Angel Divinity and Vivi Dreams took the stage one-by-one. 

Each of these queens are based in Fayetteville and often perform at C4, a nightclub and lounge located off of Dickson Street. All three local drag queens have competed to be C4’s Top Entertainer in the past.

The last local drag queen to appear was Starflower, another C4 performer. She has done shows with Divinity in the past, such as the “Angel x Starflower Birthday Tour” in Fort Smith and Fayetteville.

Divinity, Starflower, Dreams and Twinx are all part of The Haus of Vulgar, a collaborative project between the four drag queens and various other artists.

The last drag queen to enter the stage was Alexis Mateo, who is well-known for appearing on season three of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The audience erupted with screams of excitement as she entered the stage..

The UP Drag Show attracted a diverse audience full of people who had experienced drag before and others who had no idea what to expect from the event. It allowed students a safe space to be themselves, but it also gave the local artists a chance to show students what drag is all about. 

“My drag career started in the seats that you are in,” L’Beau said. “I saw an opportunity for me to show my creativity and love, and it’s gotten me here.” 

Engelmann said he thinks a big motivation for doing the yearly drag show in such a visible capacity is to highlight the LGBTQ+ community on campus as well as in the wider NWA community.

“The art of drag, or even just the LGBTQ+ (community) in general, has been misconstrued in the public eye as something that has no place in ‘normal’ society,” Engelmann said. “And I think this is our way of trying to send a message that it is an art form that’s no different than a talent show or a magician. It shouldn’t be something that causes such a big controversy.”

Drag is an art form that allows many queer individuals to express themselves. Bringing events like this to campus allows for exposure and inclusivity, and it gives more gender nonconforming and LGBTQ+ individuals a chance to meet others with similar identities and experiences, Engelmann said.

“I really hope that we can show that University Programs is a place for everyone,” Engelmann said. “And the University of Arkansas, as well. Everyone has a place on campus.”

The post A Sickening Return: Drag Shows are back on campus, bringing glitz, glam, and inclusivity appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Madison Hiser

While the transition from childhood to college years often means new and exciting things for students, it also typically indicates a season of letting go. Gracie Tuohy, a junior broadcast journalism and political science major, considered her dancing years to be over when she came to the University of Arkansas. Three years since arriving on campus, she is continuing her love for dance and the community it creates through the university’s The Movement Dance Company.

Originally founded as an RSO, The Movement Dance Company recently became a part of the university’s Theatre Department. The company’s first show in Fall 2022 was the first time in more than 30 years that a dance company has performed at the University of Arkansas.

Tuohy, who has been dancing since she was five years old, joined The Movement as a sophomore after the company held auditions for the first time.

“Since joining, I have made some of my best friends and have been able to grow my love for dance,” Tuohy said, “being able to continue that sense of community while in college has benefited all of us so much.”

She now serves as the company’s president. In this role she oversees all operations, assists in auditions, helps run practices, organizes performances, and serves as a resource and confidant for the dancers.

The Movement Dance Company currently has 24 dancers of all college ages, ranging from freshman to graduate students. Auditions to be a member of the company are held in the Fall, but any student interested can be involved in The Movement Experience, or member-led dance classes. The classes are beginner-level, and the dance style rotates every week. 

The Movement Experience classes allow dance to be accessible for any student interested.

“Our mission is to bring dance to campus and to cultivate a culture where dance is prominent (at the UA),” Tuohy said.

In this spirit, the company holds The Movement Experience classes every Tuesday night. Prior dance experience is not required to participate in these classes.

“As president, I am really trying to focus on creating a strong foundation for this group so that it will last for many years to come once I’m gone,” Tuohy said.

Leadership opportunities within the company are part of this foundation. The company president explains that leadership roles help her members to grow in many aspects of their life, not just in dance. The company will offer four officer positions in the next year, VP Administration, VP Marketing and VP Community, and any company member can teach a Movement Experience class.

Tuohy says that the most valuable part of being involved in The Movement Dance Company is the relationships she has made.

 “The company is just one big family, and I cherish every rehearsal and moment we have together,” Tuohy said.

The company president also shares that through these cherished bonds company members have been able to endure the growing pains that come with establishing a student organization in a sea of student interests.

“As a company, we have faced some hardships…. we have had lots of trials and errors to overcome, but it has only made us stronger,” Tuohy said. 

One of the most prominent issues the company has faced is finding rehearsal space on or near campus.

“Over the years we have bounced around to wherever has been available to us,” Tuohy said.

Currently the dancers rehearse in either the HPER/UREC building or at Nadine Baum Studios. Out of the two dance studios at the UREC, only one of them is available to the company– a room they have to share with other groups.

“We’ve had issues in the past with scheduling and making sure no other group is conflicting with our scheduled time,” Tuohy said.

To add to this issue, the UREC will be undergoing renovations during the next school year, leaving the company with even less space to utilize. 

“We are really grateful to have Nadine Baum Studios as another space to rehearse, ” Tuohy said, “but we will still have to work with the Theatre Department on scheduling, as different groups also use (the studios) to rehearse.”

As the dance company receives funding solely through the Theatre Department, Tuohy says that she appreciates the support around the addition and the acceptance by the department this last year.

A way that The Movement plans to gain support and put its talent on display is the Spring showcase, Arkansas Moves. The weekend-long showcase, April 5-7 at the University Theatre, featured five company dances, all choreographed by Arkansas choreographers, as well as performances by other local dancers. 

Arkansas Moves allows the company to exhibit the talent within its membership and show off their hard work from the semester, while also allowing a space for other Arkansas dancers to showcase their work.

“We want to show that we are dedicated and hard working dancers that work together to bring dance to campus,” Tuohy said, “getting to see (it all) come together is the best feeling.” 

She expresses her hope that the student body will take advantage of the free performing arts tickets available to them.

“Many people still don’t know that there is a dance company on campus and our goal is to reach as many people as possible and have a presence on campus.”

The post From Studio to Stage: Creating a Space for Dance on Campus appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Dustin Staggs

Fayetteville native Aaron Logan, 22, recently took a leap of faith, bidding farewell to the monotonous confines of his full-time job, to pursue his lifelong passion: filmmaking.

Once a kitchen manager, Logan now pursues creating short films. The decision to leave his full-time job was not one out of confidence, Logan said, but a mixture of anger and dejection. 

“I wasn’t happy,” Logan said. “I’ve climbed up a corporate ladder before; it wasn’t as fulfilling as I thought it would be. There’s just nothing like doing things that are my own, being my own boss, going out there, and creating my own opportunities.”

Logan said he’s always been considered a creative person, starting with music, yet he’s always been drawn to creative writing and developing his own worlds.

In the past couple months, Logan said he’s been getting into modeling and acting through the agency Ozark Talent Bank, which has introduced him to the film community and peaked his interest in short films. 

TikTok has been the main introduction to short-form content and inspired a younger generation about the possibilities of creating their own cinematic short-form content. 

Apps like TikTok and the feature Instagram Reels, have their own editing capabilities and even enable the production of simple effects such as green screening. This encourages beginners to pick up the fundamentals of filmmaking without requiring expensive editing and effects tools. 

The University of Arkansas is also fostering this passion for filmmaking with its annual 24-Hour Film Festival which took place March 8 and 9. The event put on by the University’s Film Honors Society gives students the opportunity to create their desired short film and present it at the festival to win a prize.

Alfredo Perez, a junior mechanical engineering major from Rogers, won best line for his short film “Amber.”

Perez used both days to put his film together and said it was challenging because this was the first time he’d ever put his vision out in the world to be seen and judged by others. 

After going to last year’s festival, Perez said he set aside time on his calendar to really focus on this year’s event. Creating these short films as a creative outlet is something he wants to continue to pursue. 

“It challenges me to have to express myself and defend my vision, and I have to say what I want and know what I want,” Perez said. “Because if you don’t know what you want, then you won’t get what you want. Your vision will just kind of be led forward by something else.”

The University of Arkansas’ Film Honors Society is a student-led group that promotes film culture and education among aspiring filmmakers. The community provides a platform for students interested in all parts of filmmaking, such as cinematography, direction, scripting, editing, and more. 

The society serves as a supportive environment for students interested in the visual medium, providing chances for networking and developing their creative expression. Members can interact with the provided screenings put on by the society, along with seminar talks joined by expert filmmakers and faculty members of the university.   

Rileigh Jamison, a sophomore storytelling and multimedia journalism major, was also in attendance at this year’s festival and won second place for her short “Dog Park.” 

After college, Jamison is looking to go into videography or film and is still trying to figure out exactly what that looks like. She said she is trying to take advantage of all of the opportunities on campus, to try and figure out specifics on what she would like to do after college. 

Jamison and her partner, Lily Eisold, entered the competition to get out there and work on their videography and editing skills. They put together a fun little short film—nothing serious, they said—and had a fun time.

“I think that, especially with how media is changing, people are getting more and more comfortable with short-form content,” Jamison said. “I think it’s important if you’re trying to create art that you’re also following what people are willing to consume, and I think videography and just film in general is a really cool outlet to share a lot of different things like stories, passions, and ideas, but also just important messages.”

Jamison and Eisold are now working on a passion project about the expectations placed on women in our society. 

“We really fell in love with when you’re in videography, you have full control over what the end product looks like, whereas I feel like some other forms of art, you know, can kind of take a different route and can go a little off what you were expecting it to,” Jamison said. “You really just kind of hold the control of what you want each individual aspect of the project to look like.”

With the visual medium of short films, filmmakers like Logan, Perez, and Jamison are able to create projects that express their message and showcase their creative visions. All of them expressed a passionate interest in continuing to navigate the realm of filmmaking to see what path it takes them on.

The post The rise of short film creators appeared first on Hill Magazine.