The Ozarks, Still Becoming: History and Music at the Honors College House C

The Ozarks are more than a place on a map. They are a collection of sounds and stories, inherited traditions and changing identities — a region whose boundaries and meaning have been debated, reimagined and passed down across generations. Join the Honors College on Wednesday, October 28 at 6 p.m. in the Honors Student Lounge (GEAR 130) for an evening of history, music and conversation featuring historian Brooks Blevins and the Ozark Highballers. Together, they will explore how places acquire identities of their own, how those identities change and why the Ozarks are attracting renewed attention today.

Blevins, the Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University and author of the three-volume A History of the Ozarks, will consider the Ozarks within the broader history of American regional identity. His talk will explore how the region came to be understood as a distinctive place and what its rapidly changing landscape might mean for its future. Following his remarks, the Ozark Highballers will bring that history to life through music. The Fayetteville-based old-time string band — Roy Pilgrim on fiddle, Seth Shumate on harmonica, Clarke Buehling on five-string banjo and Aviva Pilgrim on guitar — draws from the repertoire and styles of rural Ozark musicians of the early 20th century, treating the music not as an artifact of the past but as a living tradition that continues to evolve.

The House Concert arrives at a fitting moment for the University of Arkansas, which this fall launched a new minor in Ozarks Studies led by Jared Phillips, teaching associate professor of history. In the intimate setting of the Honors Student Lounge, Blevins and the Highballers will offer complementary ways of encountering a region that is at once historical and contemporary, familiar and surprisingly difficult to define. The concert is free and open to all, and guests are encouraged to arrive early to find a seat. Parking is available in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage. Advance registration is encouraged; U of A students may register using their UARK ID, and community members may register using a guest account.

Ticket registration: https://cglink.me/2uB/r407025