����vlog���� will welcome the bluegrass band 5 South for a performance at 7 p.m. Friday, March 13, in the Walton Fine Arts Center.

The event is part of the University’s 2025-26 Walton Arts & Ideas Series. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend.

Based in Mountain View, Ark., 5 South is an original music roots group that cut its teeth on old time music and is now blazing trails in the bluegrass world.

IBMA, Silver Dollar City, HOBA and the Ozark Folk Center are just a few of their favorite stages to play. They recently took second place in the National Youth in Bluegrass competition held in Branson, Missouri for 2025. 

The band was founded by Kailee Spickes-Jestice, who is a two-time Arkansas State Fiddle Champion and an Arkansas State Banjo Grand Champion. Kailee’s triplet brothers, Chandler, Evan, and Mason, are the band’s rhythm and harmony.

This cohesive group has a true love of old-time, gospel and bluegrass music.

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Award-winning cartoonist, author and artist Jeffrey Brown will present a talk titled, “May The Comics Be With You,” at ����vlog���� on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.

The event is part of the University’s 2025-26 Walton Arts & Ideas Series and will begin at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Cemter. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited.

Brown is an Eisner award-winning cartoonist known for his best-selling Star Wars graphic novels, including the popular middle-grade series, Jedi Academy,  and the New York Times No. 1 best-seller Darth Vader and Son.��

A lifelong comics fan, Brown was pursuing his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago when he abandoned painting to write and draw his first graphic memoir, Clumsy. Since then, he has created dozens of comics and graphic novels, directed an animated video for the band Death Cab For Cutie, co-wrote the screenplay of the film Save The Date, and exhibited his artwork at galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.��

Brown will discuss his creative process and everything that goes into writing, drawing, and publishing his books, followed by an audience Q&A session.  

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Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter Kevin Willmott will discuss his career on Tuesday, Nov. 11, as part of the ����vlog����’ 2025-26 Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

The event will begin at 7 p.m., in the Rogers Conference Center. The public is invited to attend and there is no cost for admission.

In 2019, Willmott won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the British Academy award (BAFTA) for co-writing with Spike Lee the feature film Blackkklansman. The film also won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. 

He co-wrote with Spike Lee the feature film, Da Five Bloods for Netflix which won the best film by the National Board of Review.  He also co-wrote and is the executive producer of the critically acclaimed film, Chi-Raq, also directed by Spike Lee.  

Award-winning films written and directed by Willmott include Ninth Street, CSA -Confederate States of America, the Battle for Bunker Hill, Jayhawkers and Destination Planet Negro.

Documentaries directed by Willmott include: From Separate to Equal: The Creation of Truman Medical Center, Gordon Parks Elementary, Fast Break: The Legendary Coach John Mclendon, and William Allen White: What’s the Matter with Kansas,  No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate in Kansas  and The Heroic True-Life Adventures of Alvin Brooks.

Willmott co-wrote with Trai Byers and directed the critically acclaimed feature film The 24th about the Houston Riot of 1917 which was nominated for an NAACP image award.

He just completed principal photography on the feature film, The Bard starring David Gyasi of The Diplomat and Julia Schlaepfer of 1923.  The film tells the story of enslaved poet, George Moses Horton.

Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kansas, and attended Marymount College, receiving his BA in drama. After graduation, he returned home, working as a peace and civil rights activist, fighting for the rights of the poor, creating two Catholic Worker shelters for the homeless and forcing the integration of several long-standing segregated institutions. 

He attended graduate studies at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, receiving several writing awards and his M.F.A. in dramatic writing.

Willmott is a professor in the Media and Film Studies Department of Kansas University.

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Megha Rao, an accomplished and dedicated artist of Bharatanatyam, a celebrated Indian classical dance form, will perform at ����vlog���� on Tuesday, Oct. 21, as part of the University’s Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Seay Theatre, located in the Walton Fine Arts Center. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited.

Rao has more than two decades of experience both as a performer and as a teacher. She is a graded Doordarshan artist and was selected for inclusion on the Arkansas Arts On Tour (AOT) and Arts In Education (AIE) Rosters. 

She has extended her creative journey in choreography combining many Indian dance forms and she was recently awarded a grant by Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, to support her Dance production – ‘Baala – tale of Kanha.’

Over the past decade, Rao has captivated the hearts of audiences across the Central U.S at multiple venues. 

As artistic director, she currently runs the Dhirana Academy of Classical Dance, based in Bentonville, Ark., training more than 100 students in the U.S. every year in Bharatanatyam.

Rao also works with school districts and other organizations to bring Bharatanatyam to the community. Her goal is to bridge the gap between society and the classical art form by inspiring, educating and guiding budding talent. She often collaborates with like-minded artists across different genres of music and performing arts, expanding the vocabulary while staying true to the art form.

Rao has been appointed as an Ambassador of Good Will by Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, representing the spirit of an Arkansas traveler. She has been approved as a subject of biographical record in the esteemed Marquis Who’s Who in America. 

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Joanna Mendez, a best-selling author who held the title of chief of disguise at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), will speak at ����vlog���� on Monday, Sept. 8, as part of the University’s 2025-25 Walton Arts & Ideas Series (WAIS).

The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center on the U of O campus. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited. 

Mendez will share her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the CIA during the height of the Cold War in the captivating world of intelligence, espionage, and covert operations. She also recounts how she navigated the general culture of sexism at the time while never wavering in her patriotism. 

Mendez started as a secretary at the CIA and eventually rose to the position of chief of disguise. In the best-selling author’s 2024 book, “In True Face, A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked,” she inspires with tales of intrigue. 

Mendez lived undercover for several decades, serving tours of duty in Europe, the Far East, and the subcontinent, as well as at CIA headquarters. In 1970, she joined the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, similar to “Q” in the James Bond films.  

Mendez specialized in training foreign assets to gather high-priority intelligence using subminiature spy cameras and other espionage technology.  Now retired after dedicating 27 years of her life to the CIA, she emerges as a pioneer who defied the prevailing sexism of her time.

WAIS is made possible by an endowment established by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.

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Three-time Olympian swimmer Lilly King (pictured, from left), award-winning Star Wars cartoonist Jeffrey Brown, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief of disguise and best-selling author Jonna Mendez will highlight the ����vlog����’ 2025-26 Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

WAIS is made possible by an endowment established by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. All of the events begin at 7 p.m. and there is no charge for admission.

This upcoming academic year’s series will feature six events, including one yet-to-be-determined event in November.

The 2025-26 series begins on Monday, Sept. 8, with a talk from Mendez, who tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the CIA during the height of the Cold War in the captivating world of intelligence, espionage, and covert operations. She also recounts how she navigated the general culture of sexism at the time while never wavering in her patriotism. Mendez started as a secretary at the CIA and eventually rose to the position of chief of disguise. In the best-selling author’s 2024 book, “In True Face, A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked,” she inspires with tales of intrigue. Mendez lived undercover for several decades, serving tours of duty in Europe, the Far East, and the subcontinent, as well as at CIA headquarters. In 1970, she joined the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, similar to “Q” in the Bond films.�� Mendez specialized in training foreign assets to gather high-priority intelligence using subminiature spy cameras and other espionage technology.�� Now retired after dedicating 27 years of her life to the CIA, she emerges as a pioneer who defied the prevailing sexism of her time.

The series continues on Oct. 21 with a performance by Megha Rao, an accomplished and dedicated artist of Bharatanatyam, a celebrated Indian classical dance form. Rao has more than two decades of experience both as a performer and as a teacher. She is a graded Doordarshan artist and was selected for inclusion on the Arkansas Arts On Tour (AOT) and Arts In Education (AIE) Rosters. She has extended her creative journey in choreography combining many Indian dance forms and she was recently awarded a grant by Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, to support her Dance production – ‘Baala – tale of Kanha.’  Over the past decade, Rao has captivated the hearts of audiences across the Central U.S at multiple venues. As artistic director, she currently runs the Dhirana Academy of Classical Dance, based in Bentonville, Ark., training over a 100 students in the U.S. every year in Bharatanatyam.

On Feb. 12, 2026, Brown will present a talk titled, “May The Comics Be With You.”  Brown is an Eisner award winning cartoonist best known for his best-selling Star Wars graphic novels, including Jedi Academy and the New York Times No. 1 best-seller Darth Vader and Son. A lifelong comics fan, Brown was pursuing his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago when he abandoned painting to write and draw his first graphic memoir, Clumsy. Since then, he has created dozens of comics and graphic novels, directed an animated video for the band Death Cab For Cutie, co-wrote the screenplay of the film , Save The Date, and exhibited his artwork at galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Brown will talk about his creative process and everything that goes into writing, drawing, and publishing his books, followed by an audience Q&A session.

The series continues on March 13, 2026, with a performance by the bluegrass band 5 South, an original music roots group from Mountain View, Ark., where old-time music is part of the school curriculum. This group cut their teeth on old time music and is now blazing trails in the bluegrass world. IBMA, Silver Dollar City, HOBA and the Ozark Folk Center are just a few of their favorite stages to play. They recently took second place in the National Youth in Bluegrass competition held in Branson, Missouri for 2025.  The band was founded by Kailee Spickes-Jestice, who is a two-time Arkansas State Fiddle Champion and an Arkansas State Banjo Grand Champion. Kailee’s triplet brothers, Chandler, Evan, and Mason, are the band’s rhythm and harmony. This cohesive group has a true love of old-time, gospel and bluegrass music.

The series concludes on April 7, 2026, with a talk by King, a three-time Olympian and breaststroke legend who announced her retirement this summer. King has made three Olympic appearances – 2016, 2020 and 2024. Her breakout came at the 2016 Rio Games, where she won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter medley relay. At the Tokyo Olympics, King added to her medal haul with a silver in the 200-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter medley relay, along with a bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke. The 2024 Paris Games marked King’s final Olympic appearance. She finished eighth in the 200-meter breaststroke, tied for fourth in the 100-meter breaststroke and closed her Olympic career with a gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay.�� She set the world record in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest with a 1:04.13, a time that still has yet to be broken.

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Dr. Kathryn “Katie” Conrad, professor of English at University of Kansas and a leading authority on Artificial Intelligence (AI), will speak about the ethics of the emerging technologies in a presentation at ����vlog���� on Thursday, April 3, as part of the University’s Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend.

The title of Conrad’s talk is, “Pandora’s Bot: The Ethics of Generative AI.”  She will explore the world of generative AI and the ethical issues that it entails from development to deployment, asking us to consider how we think about technological change and what we value about human work.

“AI is appearing seemingly everywhere now–in music, text, video, presentation, translation, social media, education, and other applications as well in hundreds of bespoke apps.” Conrad said. “AI-generated material is also showing up in work emails, social media posts, advertisements, textbooks, and political ads. What is it? And why is it so controversial?”

Conrad is also the Dean’s Fellow for Humanities Advancement for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and affiliate faculty in the Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics at KU. Her primary research focus is on technology and culture, particularly but not exclusively with regard to contemporary AI; surveillance technologies; and technology in British, Irish, and Northern Irish literature and culture.

Her current research and work focuses on ethical questions that accompany the development, deployment, and use of generative AI tools.�� She is the author of “A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for Education,” and she has published several articles and book chapters on technology and culture.�� She is co-director (with Sean Kamperman) of the AI & Digital Literacy project, in partnership with the National Humanities Center.

She has also served as associate editor for Education Policy for Critical AI and on the founding advisory board for Harvard’s AI Pedagogy Project. She has spoken on topics including critical AI literacy, AI & writing, AI ethics, and AI risk & compliance at the University of Kansas, Rutgers University, and Kansas State University as well as on several webinars, panels, and podcasts.

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The Celtic Breeze Band and the McCafferty Irish Dance Troupe will combine talents in an evening of celebration of Irish music, dance and culture at ����vlog���� on Wednesday, March 19.

The event is presented by the Walton Arts & Ideas Series and is free and open to the public. It will begin at 7 p.m. in Seay Theatre, located in the Walton Fine Arts Center on campus.

The Celtic Breeze Band is a Celtic folk band and dance troupe. Founded in Arkansas in 2005, Celtic Breeze performs traditional Irish and Scottish tunes along with American folk songs.

The group has performed at venues as varied as the Scottish Festival at Lyon College in Batesville, Ark., and Celtic in the Caverns at Blanchard Springs Caverns in Mountain View, Ark. In 2014, the group was chosen for inclusion on the Artist on Tour roster of the Arkansas Arts Council.

Dancers from the McCafferty School of Irish Dancers in Little Rock will also take part in the performance. The McCafferty Academy of Irish Dance is owned/operated by Marisa Christiansen, a member of the world’s oldest Irish Dancing organization. The McCafferty Academy specializes in traditional Irish Step dancing and Ceilidh dancing. McCafferty offers Irish dance lessons to ages three to 93; no dance experience is required.

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Dewey Bozella, a former professional boxer who spent 26 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, will speak at ����vlog���� on Wednesday, Feb. 12, as part of the University’s 2024-25 Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend.

Bozella’s story of courage, strength, faith, and perseverance began in the late 1970s, when he was wrongfully accused of murdering Emma Crapser, a 92-year-old resident of Poughkeepsie, New York. Sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Bozella fiercely maintained his innocence throughout his ordeal at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, and even refused the prosecutor’s offer of instant freedom in exchange for admission of guilt.

But in 2009, more than a quarter century later, Bozella would reclaim his identity and his humanity when his conviction was vacated.

He was the recipient of the 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award and is the author of the 2016 book, “Stand Tall: Fighting for My Life, Inside and Outside the Ring.” The 2011 ESPY Awards celebrated his courage and conviction.

Bozella candidly discusses his tragic story of injustice and the perseverance, courage and faith that led to his long overdue exoneration. His inspiring story takes audiences on an emotional rollercoaster as they struggle with the flawed U.S. justice system that sent an innocent man to prison for most of his life, while warming their hearts with Bozella’s unyielding determination and forgiveness.

Bozella still continues on his path of inspiration. During the summer of 2014, he launched CHAMPS Camp, a product of the Dewey Bozella Foundation. This boxing program was created for at-risk adolescents from Newburgh. There, they receive invaluable lessons from Bozella and other staff members, who help the campers become well-rounded individuals with teachings in responsibility, commitment, dedication, and perseverance. The program aims to educate at-risk youth with lessons that can be utilized both inside and outside of the ring.

For more information on the event, please contact the University’s Office of Public Relations at 479-979-1420.

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Former NBA player Pat Burke, founder of the youth-development program HOOPSLife, will speak at ����vlog���� on Wednesday, Jan. 22, as part of the University’s 2024-25 Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Seay Theatre. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend. Burke’s visit to Ozarks was originally scheduled for October, but he had to cancel because of Hurricane Milton, which hit his home state of Florida.

Born in Dublin, Burke’s family moved to the United States from Ireland when he was 4 years old. He became the first Irish-born player to make it to the NBA in 2002 when he signed with the Orlando Magic. He had a professional basketball career spanning 12 years playing all over the world. He acquired a total of six championships in a career that included the NBA and FIBA leagues overseas as well as with Ireland’s senior men’s team.

Today, Burke has taken on a new role that involves youth development. He and his wife, Peyton, in 2013 spearheaded a group of leaders to develop transformative programs that share an introduction to leadership and life skills. The experience in his career allowed Burke to identify what creates a strong team, community, and family.

The HOOPSLife program extends that experience to youth, promoting leadership and life skills through basketball to young boys and girls and allowing them to identify how their choices impact their lives and those around them.

The HOOPSLife program has extended from Orlando, Fla., to impacting youth in Ireland and within academies around the country. HOOPSLife has assisted thousands of youth since its start-up in 2011 to enroll children in positive programs.

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