Arkansas Week
Arkansas Week: Busts of Arkansas Musicians/ Postpartum Care
Season 43 Episode 26 | 26m 42sVideo has Closed Captions
Arkansas Week: Busts of Arkansas Musicians/ Postpartum Care
North Little Rock Tourism and Argenta Arts Foundation are creating the ATG Pavilion in Argenta Plaza to honor Arkansas’ musical heritage with a Johnny Cash statue replica and 20 busts of influential musicians. John Gaudin and sculptor Kevin Kresse share details. UAMS researchers, led by Dr. Pearl McElfish, are improving maternal health using telemedicine, mobile clinics, and remote monitoring.
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Arkansas Week is a local public television program presented by Arkansas PBS
Arkansas Week
Arkansas Week: Busts of Arkansas Musicians/ Postpartum Care
Season 43 Episode 26 | 26m 42sVideo has Closed Captions
North Little Rock Tourism and Argenta Arts Foundation are creating the ATG Pavilion in Argenta Plaza to honor Arkansas’ musical heritage with a Johnny Cash statue replica and 20 busts of influential musicians. John Gaudin and sculptor Kevin Kresse share details. UAMS researchers, led by Dr. Pearl McElfish, are improving maternal health using telemedicine, mobile clinics, and remote monitoring.
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Show.
Welcome to Arkansas week.
I'm Michael Heflin.
Postpartum care is considered vital for a new mother's well-being, and a new study highlights the importance virtual appointments can play and identifying critical needs.
We'll talk about that later in the program.
But first, plans for coming together to celebrate several key Arkansas music pioneers in 2024, Johnny Cash became the first musician to be represented with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.
Now, the artist who created that will be sculpting busts of 20 additional people who also had significant impacts.
They span a wide variety of genres.
Some had fans around the world, while others were lesser known but still had an indelible influence.
The ATG Pavilion will be built to North Little Rock, searchin to Plaza to house an exact replica of the eight foot tall cash statue and busts of the other singers and musicians.
Or, in the case of Al Bell of Stax Records, a producer, songwriter and industry executive.
Also, the hometowns of those 21 Arkansans will get exact replicas to display.
Joining me to discuss this are John Gaudin, campaign chair for the project, and Kevin Cressey, the sculptor who will be creating the additional works.
Thank you both for coming in.
And, Kevin, you have long been making statues, depicting, Arkansans.
And before you, made the, were commissioned for the statue.
You, made one of, Lee Van Helm.
You've also been working for a while on ones of, Al Green, Sister Rosetta tharpe.
Glen Campbell, how does it feel for you to now have, the ability to showcase all of these in one place?
Well, it's incredible.
I mean, I had this idea driving back, from Levon Helms home.
This is back in 2016 or 17, and started thinking about all the incredible world influential musicians that came from Arkansas and just had this idea about that.
We really need to shine a spotlight on them.
So I just started on my own doing bus and started with Al Green.
I did young Johnny Cash, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Glen Campbell was working on Louis Jordan when the DC project came up.
So just sort of put these, on the back burner because I really didn't have, it was just a build it and hopefully they'll come project.
So after Johnny was installed, then, you know, I was talking with John Goodman and Scott Landers and the idea that I had, was a paper airplane idea compared to what they've now taken.
And it's, supersonic Concorde jet that's way beyond, what I was originally envisioning.
Yeah.
Well, John, this is, public private partnership, North Little Rock tourism, the, Arkansas Arts Foundation.
At the recent announcement, we learned that, planning has been in the works for years on this.
Tell me what you're envisioning.
Yes.
Thanks, Michael, for having us.
Yeah.
When Kevin and I first spoke about this project, after I had done Johnny Cash for DC, we started talking about doing something a little bit more significant.
And so I approached the city of North Little Rock about doing, some type of, space to honor these musicians that Kevin was, sculpting.
And so I met with North Laurel tourism.
Karen Trevino, and she was so excited about it.
Plaza.
In the original arts district, there was a strip of land that was available for just such a venture like this.
So, when Karen agreed to it, we started working on the renderings and started working with Kevin and Scott Landers.
Kind of putting it all together.
And it started really coming together.
Yeah.
And it's a big open, piece of land there.
Yes.
It's a it's about a 3000 square foot piece of property where the pavilion will sit right on top of it, and an open air pavilion that will house all the bronzes.
And we don't have time to go into all of the artists who will be honored here.
But, the 21 people who were selected.
What was the process in deciding that?
Well, I had already sort of made a list in my head.
And then Johnny's.
I mean, John said, you give me 20 names, and I was like, whoa, okay.
So started with that and got together with Steven Cook, who does Arkansas songs, on choir and then, Greg Spradlin, another friend, and both of them had been sort of working on getting highways named for some of the musicians.
They've been working as well on their ideas about this.
So we just started going over who might be one name recognition for tourists coming through, and then to the amount of influence they've had on the world of music.
And so that's sort of how we started coming together with the list of 20.
Yeah.
And you've got a pretty good geographic, representation from all different, parts of the state.
Lefty Frizzell from El Dorado, Conway Twitty, as well as Sonny Boy Williamson from Helena, big Bill Broonzy from Pine Bluff, Scott Joplin from Texarkana.
This is a good, state representation.
Yeah.
As well as the different genres that you were mentioning at the front.
So, yeah, Scott Joplin with ragtime, you have William Grant still and Florence Price.
First, African-Americans have major orchestras perform their work.
You have the folk with, Jimmy Driftwood, and so obviously the blues and gospel and all through the Delta and Lefty Frizzell, as you mentioned.
So, for a state this small, we pack a big punch when it comes to the amount of influence and the different genres that are represented.
And for you to be creating, these works.
I know I talk to you, many times over the years while you were working on Johnny Cash, who was such a, very slow, deliberate process.
I know you, Toby.
You'd sometimes rip off the clay for part of it.
Start over.
How is it for you as an artist to take on something like this?
You've got obviously several in the works, but others, we were talking about Conway Twitty before coming on, you know, that you have it started on or even decided which era to represent.
What's the process for you like, and how will you approach this?
Well, it's, one bite at a time, you know?
It is.
It's a big project, so I like to do as much research as possible.
So I can really get a feel for the subject.
So as I'm making these little decisions that they either feel right or wrong, if there's any family around, I really try to rely on the family to help me.
Head to Glen Campbell.
Sisters come just a little over a week ago, and, that's invaluable for me.
So that's what's really helping with the process so that it feels authentic, that you really get a sense of who they are, which is it is a little tough to do in a frozen moment in a sculpture.
Yeah.
And just getting the community, together, all the city leaders.
And, was it a, challenge to convince, the city to, take on such an ambitious project?
Now, you know, Michael, not not at all, really?
Everyone that we've talked to about this project has realized the value of it, and, and many have said, why haven't we done this before?
And, you know, we look at it as kind of a triple mitzvah, you know, the this is going to be such a win for the whole state in those communities.
And then for North Little Rock, North Little Rock tourism, it's going to be fabulous.
And then we've got probably the top sculpture out of the state of Arkansas, doing 20 bronzes of potentially the most heralded musicians of arts in Arkansas history.
So it's a real win win.
Yeah.
And people travel from around the world to see the places, associated with these musicians.
I know I covered, a lot of the, cache boyhood home being restored in Dyess.
That's where his family moved when, he was three.
And they got this opportunity as part of the, New Deal.
But I was up there from before the restoration began through to, when the, unveiling, opening of the museum happened.
Arkansas State University did a great job with that, but I know when I would be up there, it wouldn't take long to standing in front of that house before I'd meet people from all over the world South Africa, Germany, you name it.
People wanting to come see the place where, you know, five feet high and rising was said, yeah, pick in time.
Well, and I think one of the interesting things in Dyess is, right behind the counter there.
They have a world map with Pushpins in it from people will put one in from wherever they are.
And you can literally see that is from all over the world that the people are coming.
And this is one of the things I learned when I was doing Levon Helm.
It was that they were saying the house was not open for tours or anything.
There was really nothing there, but they would find fans from all over the world on his doorstep just to see where he grew up.
Yeah.
I mentioned it's hoped that, we'll get that kind of, attention here.
Absolutely.
That works.
The the city is really excited about it and is really behind it 100%.
Well, the, another key part of this that, I know a lot of these communities are excited about is that, you will make duplicate busts for each one of the, communities.
And in the case of Johnny Cash for this project, it's, Kingsland, the place he was born.
But tell me about the process of how, you'll work with the communities to decide, where and how these, busts will be placed.
Yeah.
You know, part of the process is identifying who in those communities.
You know, we need to work with, some of them are pretty easy, you know, Fayetteville, some of the other larger communities.
But when we start getting to smaller communities, like where Charlie Richards from in court or, Sister Rosetta Tharpe from Cotton Plant, it just makes it a little bit more complicated.
But there's usually some civic group or of some kind in the in the smaller rural communities that we're going to be able to work with.
So we're excited about that.
And our initial conversations with a few of the communities, they're super excited about it.
Yeah.
Well, I think of, Glen Campbell's hometown, the community of, Bills Town.
I went through there, a few months ago, I'd drop off my daughter the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning in Texarkana.
And on my way back, I had been just recently listening to a podcast that talked a lot about the wrecking Crew.
And I thought, well, let me, you know, I've got time to kill.
Let me get off the interstate and let me, drive up to Bill's town.
And I saw the family, cemetery there where he's, buried.
There's a great state marker there.
One unique aspect, I got out of my car.
I was wandering around for a few minutes, and suddenly, out of nowhere, Glen Campbell's voice singing amazing Grace.
And, you know, it gave me chills practically.
I looked around, saw, speaker in a tree and a camera, and I guess there's motion sensors, but, I then drove around a little more and, didn't see anything else, but I was thinking bills Town, this would be, you know, another great addition to celebrate that heritage.
Yeah.
And I think when tourists are going through, they love something like that that they can take a picture with to say, you know, look where I am.
And I think that's one of these things that can really start to build upon itself, especially with social media these days.
And the hope for all of this is that, you know, North Rock with the with the ATG Pavilion was sort of be the mothership and it spokes out all over the state and that there will be, a reciprocal, energy happening with tourist, so if they come to North Iraq and their favorite is whomever, they can go there and vice versa.
So hopefully all boats will will rise.
And this is scheduled to be completed in 2029.
What's the the process here?
Are you planning to, have a big grand opening with all of them, or are you going to do this?
Few at a time.
But we'll start with groundbreaking when we for the pavilion itself.
And then within the first year and a half, Kevin will have six sculptures, six bust and Johnny.
The full, the full figure of Johnny Cash.
Done.
And then hopefully I'll get him to do 3 or 4 year, 12.
We have the 20 done.
But by 2029, okay.
What's exciting I want to mention to, there's so many people we haven't mentioned.
So no, the any oversight here not being mentioned is not, intentional or any sign of disrespect, but we've got so many people.
Pharoah Sanders I'm excited.
We just lost him.
Legendary jazz saxophonist who died a couple of years ago but from North Little Rock, started playing in high school in North Little Rock.
It's great.
North Little Rock honoring him in this way.
Yeah.
We're really excited about, doing Pharoah.
You know, we did a mural of Pharaoh in North Little Rock, and while he was still alive, we reached out to him and let him and asked him if it was okay for us to do a mural.
And we had the image of it that Robin Tucker had painted.
And he said, I said, can I just email it to you?
And he said, well, I don't do email.
John, can you email it to me in California?
And so I waited a couple of weeks, called him, and he says, yeah, you're good to go.
And he he passed away not long after that.
But, I wish he would still be around for I'm sure Kevin's going to do a great job with this.
With his bust.
Yeah.
Well, John co Dan campaign chair artist Kevin Cressy, thank you both so much for coming in.
Thanks for having appreciate you.
And we'll be right back.
And welcome back.
The Carroll woman receives after becoming a new mom is considered vital for her physical and emotional well-being.
But in a roll state like Arkansas, a number of factors can make it a challenge for a woman to get the post postpartum care that she needs.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are delving into ways to address this.
A new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Global Report, looks at some of the things being done in the state.
Joining me to discuss this is Doctor Paul Michael Fish.
And thank you so much for coming by.
Thank you.
It's an honor to be here and talk about this incredibly important topic.
Well, give me a little background first.
Why is it important for a woman to have, care immediately after childbirth?
We often think about success for a woman and a baby as the first thousand days.
So throughout pregnancy, that postpartum period, and really, even the early days of that child's life are critically important for their health, but also population health.
So many things that we can do during that critical period really set both mom and baby up for a lifetime of success.
And so at the Institute for Community Health Innovation, we are really looking at practical interventions and working with the state on policies that can really help improve that entire first thousand days.
Postpartum care, is certainly important part of that.
Yeah.
What are we talking about here?
The screenings and, appointments and what the mothers need to know.
Yeah.
So, several of the studies that we have looked at show that telemedicine, in particular, can be a really important part of that process, and that can be anything from wearables, which is one of the studies I'm working on with, another investigator, Doctor Carleton Carew.
Doctor Willis and I have looked at, whether or not telemedicine being part of that postpartum care visit, whether it's more comprehensive and some of the important screening and education questions or care happens.
And what we found is through multiple studies is when we leverage telemedicine and its many forms that women are getting more care and that additional care really helps with outcomes.
And so really excited about how the state can leverage technology in order to improve women's health.
So we're talking about things that, came in during the pandemic.
Virtual doctor's appointments.
Absolutely.
And I think, again, knowing that it can be in that prenatal care process and that postnatal care process, and it's not one or the other, it's how can telemedicine and digital health and wearables be paired with more traditional care in order to really increase the contact hours and the information that women are able to share?
Our preliminary research conducted with Doctor Willis really highlights that women may be, more willing to answer certain questions or disclose certain information when they have that little bit of buffer from a phone call or a zoom meeting.
We're still delving into the why, but, across both state and national data, we definitely see trends of women disclosing things in the telehealth.
Visit that they're not necessarily getting when they only have traditional care.
And what kind of things are you talking about here?
So in particular, sensitive topics.
So topics such as whether or not there might be interpersonal violence, but also maybe slightly less but critically important, topics such as gestational weight gain and other, co-occurring chronic diseases or other safe practices that we need moms to be, really focused on both during prenatal and postnatal care.
So I really think the message is that a combination of telemedicine, which we really accelerated during Covid, paired with traditional care and then non traditional care providers such as community health workers and do was that that entire wrap around leveraging technology is really going to help us shift outcome.
Yeah.
And we've got what are termed maternal health deserts in Arkansas.
Obviously, we're a rural state.
And, this has been a growing problem, I understand.
So, having these sort of virtual or telemedicine, appointments I'm sure can help bridge that gap.
Absolutely.
In a perfect world, we would want every woman to have a delivery hospital in her county.
But we what we know is that far less than half the counties in Arkansas have a delivery hospital.
And so we have to consider what do we do in a rural state where hospitals are under lots of pressure or financial constraints, and they have closed their OB units, and many never had obstetrical units to begin with.
And so, face to face physician nurse care is always important.
And then in a rural state like ours, with the maternal deserts, we have to be able to look at alternatives that can ensure every woman gets the care where she is when she needs it.
Telemedicine, and certainly wearable technologies such as remote blood pressure cuffs and other things like that are absolutely critical to making sure all women and particularly rural women, receive the care they need.
Well, there were some figures in the study that was published.
80% of pregnancy related deaths are preventable.
More than half occur between seven days and one year after delivery.
Suicide, homicide, substance abuse are the leading causes of, pregnancy associated deaths.
That's, pretty startling.
Yes.
For many years, Arkansas has had the worst or second worst maternal mortality rate of any state.
That's not something we want to be known for.
And, Doctor Sam Greenfield and others have really been delving into why this is and what can be done to prevent it.
And so I think one of the important takeaways is that it's not going to be just one thing.
Of course, we would love there to be one thing and and everything's taken care of.
But I think on the other end, knowing that there are some of these reasonably priced and and really accessible technologies that can help shift the numbers.
And so proud of the state in general.
And as you well know, there have been several legislative, bills that have been passed to reinforce good maternal health, both prenatally and in the postpartum period.
And some of those were really focused on, mobile care.
So mobile clinics will now be funded as well as, remote monitoring.
So the types of glucose monitoring and blood pressure monitoring.
And so the combination of telemedicine, remote monitoring and mobile clinics will really allow us to reach all women where they are.
I think one of the things that's always been critically important to me is I grew up in the most rural parts of Arkansas.
I lived in those rural parts of Arkansas and Van Buren and Searcy County when I gave birth to my two children.
And so we can't just tell women, go get the care you need.
We can't just give more and more education.
We have to make care accessible to these women.
We have to be able to meet them where they are, and meeting them where they are is geographic.
But it's also socioeconomic.
And so it will be a number of wraparound things in order to meet women where they are.
And that the Institute for Health Innovation, that is our primary mission.
How can we stop saying come to us and how can we go to them?
And you mentioned legislation, and that was a priority for some lawmakers during this, past session.
Governor Sanders has talked a bit about this as well.
So the state is, doing things that, can help.
Absolutely.
I think, we talk a lot about the negative things in the state, the positive or negative things related to maternal health.
I always lived in Arkansas.
I love Arkansas, but we have a maternal health crisis.
One of the positive things is the way that leaders have come together throughout all sectors.
So insurance, Medicaid, legislators, health care providers, researchers such as myself have really collaborated to say we must address this and we will address this.
And so it's been beautiful to see the legislation passed.
Now we have the really, really hard work of implementing those those programs.
I cannot say enough great things about working with Medicaid and seeing how well they have stepped up to this Herculean task to really make sure that that legislation becomes action that will really help women.
I think one of the best things I've seen is the assumptive Medicaid, and that has already been implemented.
So that means a woman can go see the physician or the nurse practitioner even before her Medicaid application has been approved.
Doctor Pearl MC Elfish, thank you so much for coming on to talk about this.
Thank you.
And I'm Michael Heflin.
Thanks for joining us.
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