Musical energy for Little Rock. Don’t let anyone steal your rock and roll. When I was in my late teens one of the most influential eras of my life was as a production intern at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. From Horace Mann to Parkview, I was absolutely entranced by the theatre and would take absolutely any opportunity to be in one or around one. Tickets are expensive and my parents would take me to any show they could but my exposure was limited to the productions I worked on at school and what we got to see on field trips mostly. Robinson tours if we could swing it. I could not get enough.
One of my teachers at Parkview told me that there were internships at The Rep for students and the summer after I graduated, I sent a series of very thirsty voicemails or emails to anyone at The Rep asking if I could come and simply breathe their air for the summer.
If you see your life as a path you walk, that was a crossroad summer for me. I’d just graduated high school, was going to UCA in the fall and scored an illustrious role as a cashier at Smokey Joe’s on Chicot to help save what I could before I went. In one of those parent stories I’m gonna harp on my daughter with for LIFE (because she will NEVER)…. I would walk from my house to the restaurant soaked from summer with enough time ahead of my shift to dry off and cool down in the walk-in. It was not looking good for your girl.
The production manager at The Rep responded and told me there was in fact an internship available. It paid $150 a week full time and housing was provided. That’s practically free and I see that clearly now but at the time I was like…. WHAT? A dream come true. I’d come back for a few summers after that but that first summer I was as a new graduated late teen in Little Rock at what was affectionately called “The Ivy House”.
You couldn’t tell me a THING. I felt SO grown. Making a small life on whatever happenings a carless intern on a stipend could afford and reach. A time was had in the 6th street area of downtown Little Rock in that era, but it was NOT the downtown of today. You know the beautiful Mills Davis house on the corner of 6th and Sherman? Well 
back in my day it was an Addams Family situation and we were the neighbors! But it was walking distance from the theatre, gave me a brilliant sense of early independence and I cherish every piece of broken sidewalk and failing infrastructure that made a way for me during that time. Life is really what you make it.
ANYWAY! One of my favorite shows I worked on at The Rep was “Memphis”. If you saw that show, I was running the follow spot for the lead character Felicia so when I tell you I WATCHED that show. I can still see it. I watched that show come together from script reading to rehearsal and over those weeks and hours of production, its message and energy moved me and changed me. If you saw it, I’m sure you remember it because LORD. That cast took us all on a journey.
For the readers here, I have a song to share. Music is a language of its own for me and there are things that come through on that medium that I can’t do with words so I hope you’ll listen and think and consider Little Rock if you’d read this long. If you love Little Rock, you have to love it with your feet and be in it. If you want a downtown, put your feet there. If you want War Memorial, put your feet there. If you want to pass a sales tax to fund your city, put your feet where they gotta be in November.
If you wanna rock with Little Rock, rock with it and don’t let anyone keep you from it.
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“Steal Your Rock and Roll”: spoti.fi/3StwCU4
I listened to advice from folks smarter than me
And I ignored it
I listened to hatred from folks richer than me
And I deplored it
I listened to music from folks darker than me
And you know I adored it.
First come’s a point in everybody’s life
When they gotta stand up and face a fight
There comes a point in everybody’s life
When they gotta wonder if they done right
I swallowed my fear, followed my heart right here
And through it all one almighty thought stood clear-
Listen to the beat, listen to the beat.
Play it, obey it, love it with, love it with your feet.
Listen to your soul, listen to your soul
Heed it
You need it
Let it make, let it make you whole
And if you listen to the beat
And hear what’s in your soul-
You’ll never let anyone steal your rock ‘n roll.
Listen to the beat, listen to beat.
Play it. Obey it.
Love it with, love it with your feet!
Listen to your soul/listen to your soul
Heed it.
You need it.
Let it make you whole!
And if you listen to the beat and hear what’s in your soul-
You’ll never let anyone steal your rock ‘n roll.
Listen to the beat and hear what’s in your soul-
You’ll never let anyone steal your rock ‘n roll.
I want downtown Little Rock and all of our our city to still be a place a young person starting out their life can find purpose and be moved by what is created in their community.
I see the places of my youth blossoming now so it’s hard to tell me that better isn’t possible. Early 2000’s downtown Little Rock we were down there making the best of the worst. I don’t even recognize the block now and I LOVE THAT FOR US.
