Published Work
The following is a collection of meaningful pieces from my time at Celebrate Arkansas and the NWADG. I have also been quoted by The New York Times, and published in Mud & Magnolias magazine, at the Associated Press, at U.S. News & World Report, on country singer Jo Dee Messina's website, in Edible Ozarkansas magazine, on Toronto's CityNews website, on the UA Traveler site, experiencefayetteville.com, the ISA (International Studies Abroad) blog, and on the exclusive luxury travel app Porter & Sail. I hope you enjoy my work and I invite you to contact me with any questions.
March, 2022
"Even if Dave Van Horn hadn't been a baseball coach, he's fairly certain the only other job he might have pursued would be coaching another sport. Maybe football. After sitting with the idea a few minutes, though, the thought comes to him that maybe, had he grown up around it, he would have been a farmer instead.
'Dave really likes to see things grow,' his wife Karen explains. 'I like to see things get better,' he agrees.
Looking around the $27 million J.B. & Johnelle Hunt Family Baseball Development Center in which the Van Horns sit on a chilly January morning, the parallels between the land Coach Van Horn likes to tend at home, and the extraordinary baseball program he has cultivated at the University of Arkansas are not lost."
July, 2022
"Whether talking over the phone, getting ice cream with the kids downtown on the Bentonville square, or stripping a historic home down to the studs among a camera and production crew, Jenny and Dave Marrs are the same couple you see on their HGTV show Fixer to Fabulous. Even in casual conversation, their earnest passion for transforming houses into havens, the true equity of their partnership, and even a fair amount of playful teasing pass comfortably between them as they reflect on the life they've built in the town they love. ... Together, the husband-and-wife team have become a beloved part of the HGTV network family as well as two of the region's most vocal advocates."
November, 2022
"A tall frame and sharp blue eyes that could be piercing are instead inviting. A firm handshake that could be intimidating is instead warm. The esteem of his title alone could perhaps spur assumptions of an unapproachable, self-important person whose time is limited and whose words are brusque.
But that's not Hunter Yurachek.
As the man responsible for the well-being and success of 465 young athletes, ... Yurachek is candid about the privilege he feels to be in such a role. ...
'This is a special profession. It's challenging, but I feel like we have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young men and women and build champions for life.'"
December, 2020
"As much as we here at What's Up! prefer to stay focused on the arts and the creative minds who bring them to us, another inescapable result of the coronavirus pandemic has been a newly acute awareness of the monetary support it requires to maintain such a robust arts community. ...
So in the spirit of (only a fraction!) of 'The Funders' that have helped the creative sector stay afloat this year, here are some of those positive crusades worth sharing."
November, 2020
"'I know there's probably just a few people there that heard about the show and said, "I thought that guy was dead!" Well, I'm only mostly dead.'
Arlo Guthrie threw out this joke before even saying hello on a phone call in September.
...
Guthrie didn't share any of this information at the time, but in light of the Facebook post that appeared on his account last week, his joke now seems a little less funny."
June, 2020
"In the spirit and celebration of PRIDE, maybe one of the ways we can help during this time is by sharing our space. We at What’s Up! wanted to lift up some of the voices of our own LGBTQ and gender non-conforming community to ensure them they are not alone, we see you, we hear you, and that we’re all in this together — whatever 'together' looks like in the face of this pandemic."
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January, 2020
"My predecessor used to contribute a retrospective of the year's best album releases to the Features department's year-end content because he is passionate about discovering and sharing great music. I tried that for a while with What's Up!, but last year I found something a little different that better suits my eclectic soul."
April, 2020
"There is a well-known understanding within the art field, explains Pia Agrawal, that the work is only complete once an audience takes it in. For performance- or time-based work, though, that relationship is a little different.
Enter the artist residency, where sometimes, like at Bentonville multidisciplinary arts venue the Momentary, artists can continue to develop a project in a setting where the audience can react in real time. At least, that was the idea."
April, 2020
"On Thursday, March 19, violinist Er-Gene Kahng and I connected over email. We were discussing scheduling an interview to share her perspective as a professional musician in the wake of the shutdowns and cancellations due to Covid-19. Kahng, a professor of music at the University of Arkansas, was in London, where she'd spent the past academic year.
By the time I checked in with Kahng on Tuesday, March 23, she was emailing me from Chicago."
May, 2020
"'I've shot some of the most historic concerts,' acclaimed photographer Kevin Mazur, shooting the show for Getty Images, said hours before it began. 'I was there for Live Aid in Philadelphia; I was at the Freddie Mercury [tribute concert] in England; I was the photographer for the 9/11 concert in New York. I do all the big, historical events. To me, this is equal to that.'"
February, 2019
"'Hey darlin', this is Dixie, your Tupperware lady!'
...
Inspired by the incentives and recognition, Longate 'worked her tail off' and became one of the top-selling Tupperware ladies across the U.S. and Canada. No, really -- Longate may be the drag persona written and performed by Kris Andersson for his stage show 'Dixie's Tupperware Party,' but he/she/the show really did become one of the brand's top sellers."
October, 2019
"As part of a generation of musicians known for creating art inextricably linked to the political affairs of the time, Don McLean laments the state of protest art today.
...
The way forward, in his opinion, will be the result of a massive situation that forces people to utterly rethink everything -- a huge economic depression, a confirmed UFO landing, who knows?
'That is when you might have something that will unite us.'"
September, 2019
"Lloyd Marley hasn't been able to perform in the bars on Dickson Street for the better part of the past year, but visit him in his home and he may just lift a guitar and pick out one of his favorite songs for you.
'It's one of my favorites, yes, but that's one of everybody else's favorites of mine,' he says with a chuckle after a soft rendition of Red Headed Angel."
April, 2020
"'The arts make us more human, make us more compassionate, make us more thoughtful and make us more reflective. And those are the things I want in my community,' asserts Laura Goodwin, vice president of learning and engagement at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
So what about the arts' effects on education? Can the arts also make us smarter, strengthen our memory skills and establish a foundation for lifelong learning?"
December, 2016
"'Tell me about the geography of where you are,' Art Garfunkel says to me just a few minutes into our phone call. It's a Friday evening, and he's just settled into his hotel room in Pennsylvania. 'I'm a geography nut -- you know, I walked across the United States, Jocelyn. I love the 50 states. I love the names. Wyoming. That is beautiful sounding to me.'
... It's less of a one-sided interview and more like meeting someone who's heard about you through a friend or parent."
December, 2018
"When animator Ron Campbell put his pencil down -- after drawing the very last line of dialog, in the last scene of the finale TV movie for the bizarre and twisted early 2000s cartoon 'Ed, Edd n Eddy' -- the legendary artist somehow knew his career in television animation had come to an end.
... The cartoon in question would also happen to be the last major animated series to use traditional animation techniques before the world turned wholly to computers."
November, 2017
"'My staff is -- I will argue this 'til the day I die -- one of the most educated shops in the country,' Mike Rush asserts.
But for those 'sneaker heads' and 'shoe geeks' interested in a more historical kind of education, Rush's Bentonville shop offers one of the most unusual and extensive collections in the country. Some 250 running shoes line the walls of the museum display, peeking out from the loft space overlooking the store showroom."
June, 2019
"Northwest Arkansas is at a tipping point, says Amber Chambers. The region stands at the precipice of becoming a new mecca for mountain bikers and cyclers worldwide, and the Monument Trails debuting in four of the state's parks are going to give that momentum a giant spin forward.
'The trails have been around long enough and we've got the infrastructure, the excitement and the trail mileage to really become a premier cycling destination.'"
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