FUN
The Central Arkansas Library System marks Black History Month with the third annual Black Family Expo, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at Dunbar Community Center, 1001 W. 16th St., Little Rock. The expo includes spaces to share family memorabilia, digitize personal archives and to take family portraits, plus arts and crafts and Black History Month item giveaways. Admission is free. cals.org.
Celebrity guests and cosplayers descend on Little Rock’s Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, Tuesday and Wednesday for Little Rock Anime Fest. The event also features Q&A sessions with celebrities, panels of fans and professional cosplayers, costume contests and video and board-game tournaments. Vendors and artists from across the country will be on hand. littlerockanimefest.com.
MUSIC
René Marie, a jazz singer in the tradition of Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington & her band, Experiment in Truth, perform at 7:30 p.m. today THURSDAY at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. arkmfa.org.
Area classical musicians explore musical collaborations by Felix Mendelssohn and Ignaz Moscheles; Gustav Mahler and (posthumously) Alfred Schnittke; and Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich in a Close Up! Steinway Salon Chamber Series concert titled “Merging Ideas,” 3 p.m. Sunday at the Steinway & Sons Piano Gallery Little Rock, 657 Arkansas 365, Mayflower. (501) 940-1562; steinwaylr.com/close-up.
THEATER
A national touring company brings “Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations” to the stage of Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday. The jukebox musical features the music and lyrics of The Temptations (including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”) and explores the group’s journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (501) 244-8800; Ticketmaster.com.
The Weekend Theater, 1001 W. Seventh St. at Chester Street, Little Rock, closes out its run of “How Black Mothers Say I Love You” by Trey Anthony, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday Jan. 31-Feb. 1 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday Feb. 2. centralarkansastickets.com/organizations/the-weekend-theater.
And Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, closes out its run of “Ripcord” by David Lindsay-Abaire, 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday. The buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain time. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.
FILM
The Clinton Presidential Center and the Central Arkansas Library System will host a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 very dark comedy “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” 7 p.m. Saturday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. An unhinged Air Force general (Sterling Hayden) unleashes a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union; U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) and his advisors and generals are caught up in a desperate effort to save the world. (Sellers also plays a British Air Force officer and aide to the general, and the title character, an ex-Nazi scientist who is an expert in nuclear weaponry). The film also features George C. Scott, Keenan Wynn and Slim Pickens, and was the first film appearance for James Earl Jones. Admission is free. cals.org. It’s the final screening in the Clinton Center’s “Commanding the Screen” Watch Party series, in conjunction with the center’s current exhibition, “Commanding the Screen: The American Presidency in Film and Television.”
ART AND EXHIBITS
And speaking of that exhibit, “Commanding the Screen: The American Presidency in Film and Television,” material from more than 30 movies and television shows portraying fictional and real-life U.S. presidents, is up through March 23 at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. clintonpresidentialcenter.org/exhibits.
“Lighter than the childhood home,” items by German artist Iris Eichenberg that “explore identity, memory and personal stories through 2D and 3D sculpture and works in metal, fiber and wood,” is on display through March 9 in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art + Design here at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. (501) 916-5117.
“3D,” works by sculptor and Hendrix College faculty member Andy Huss, is on display through Feb. 7 at the Argenta Library, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. Library hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission is free. (501) 687-1061; NLRlibrary.org.
The Arkansas Arts Council’s 2025 Small Works on Paper, 40 pieces, no larger than 18-by-24 inches, by 35 Arkansas artists, is on display through Feb. 16 at UA Little Rock’s Windgate Center of Art + Design, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, 2-5 p.m. Sunday.