FUN

Anime Fest

Little Rock Anime Fest, the state’s largest anime event, Tuesday-Wednesday at Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, will feature as celebrity guests:

◼️ Eric Vale, voice of Yuki Soma from “Fruits Basket,” Sanji from “One Piece,” Tomura Shigaraki from “My Hero Academia” and Future Trunks from “Dragon Ball Z”

◼️ Bill Farmer, the voice of Disney characters — Goofy since 1987 and of Pluto and Horace Horsecollar since 1990

◼️ Stephanie Young, who voices in English Arachne in “Soul Eater,” Towa in “Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2,” Nana Shimura in “My Hero Academia,” Clare in “Claymore” and Olivier Armstrong in “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.”

Other guests include additional voice actors from “Soul Eater,” “Dragon Ball,” “My Hero Academia,” “Jujutsu Kaisen,” “The time I got reincarnated as slime,” “High School DxD,” “One Piece” and, according to a news release, “literally hundreds of other titles.”

The festival also focuses on games, cosplay “and fun.” It includes question-and-answer 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.

Tickets are $30 per day or $45 for the weekend in advance, $35 per day or $55 for the weekend at the door, with discounts for active duty military and veterans; children 10 and younger attend free with paid adult admission. Visit littlerockanimefest.com.

    Kattam and His Tam-Tams is onstage Sunday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Nathaniel Huard)
  

MUSIC

Global program

World music group Kattam and His Tam-Tams performs at 4 p.m. Sunday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St. Accompanied by his monkey Takoum, Kattam performs music from Africa, the Middle East and India, ranging from African rap and desert dance to Sufi rhythm and Bollywood. Tickets are $10. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

COMEDY

‘Beautiful Beast’

Comedian Tacarra Williams, host of the CW show “Totally Funny Kids,” performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Starr Theater at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., under the center’s Comedy Zone banner. Williams, also known as “The Beautiful Beast,” has been opening for Katt Williams on his “Dark Matter Tour.” Tickets are $25-35. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

    “Step Afrika!” performs Tuesday in Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
  

DANCE

‘Step Afrika!’ at UCA

“Step Afrika!”, a professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping, performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. It’s part of the university’s Public Appearances series.

Founded in 1994 by C. Brian Williams, the company has toured more than 60 countries, blending percussive dance styles practiced by historically Black fraternities and sororities, traditional African dances and contemporary dance and art forms, integrating songs, storytelling, humor and audience participation.

Tickets are $30-$50, $10 for children and students. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit uca.edu/publicappearances.

    Photographs by Brian McCarty and drawings by Ukrainian children make up “War Toys: Ukraine,” on display starting Tuesday at Little Rock’s MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
  

ART & EXHIBITS

‘War Toys: Ukraine’

“War Toys: Ukraine,” a traveling exhibit involving a collaboration of photographer Brian McCarty, therapists and children who have been affected by conflict, opens Tuesday at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 E. Ninth St. in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park. The project “invokes principles of expressive art therapy to safely gather and articulate children’s accounts of warfare,” and focuses on individual children and communities of Ukraine. The exhibit, which includes 30 children’s drawings alongside McCarty’s staged photographs, is up through Aug. 10. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call (501) 376-4602 or visit littlerock.gov/macarthur.

    Photographs by Brian McCarty and drawings by Ukrainian children make up “War Toys: Ukraine,” on display starting Tuesday at Little Rock’s MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
  

ON THE PODIUM

Historic evenings

Katrina Yeaw will lecture on “Finding Girls in the Archives: The Case of Fekiriyeh and Renghi Sefa,” part of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock history department’s Evenings With History series, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., Little Rock. Yeaw will analyze how a specific case represents a broader treatment of non-elite girls and women in the Middle East. Light pre-talk refreshments will be served at 7 p.m. Sponsor is the University History Institute. Admission is free. Visit ualr.edu/history/history-institute.

The rest of the spring Evenings With History lineup (all at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Arkansas Museum):

◼️ March 4: UALR faculty members Charles Romney (history), Kris McAbee (English) and Larry Smith (theater arts) will discuss “Playing With History: Community and the Contemporary Stage,” covering the intersection of history, drama and community and suggesting ways in which theater helps us understand both history and the world today.

◼️ April 1: Assistant Professor of Geography Kyungsun Lee will share her research on the historical significance of the Arkansas River and how it has been affected by climate change in “The Arkansas River: Navigating the Impact of Climate Change.”

AI ethics

Jeffrey Carroll, assistant professor in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University, will give a talk titled “Go Fast and Break Things,” focusing on the ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the third-floor auditorium of Arkansas State University’s Carl R. Reng Student Union, 102 N. Caraway Road, Jonesboro. It’s part of the university’s annual Lecture-Concert Series. Admission is free. Call (870) 935-5133 or visit AState.edu/Lecture-Concert.