Local authors Evin Demirel, J.B. Hogan, and filmmaker Brian Reindl will sign copies of their work at an “Arkansas Sports Night” themed event in Fayetteville next month.
The signing event is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7 at Bank of Fayetteville.
Demirel recently released a new book titled African-American Athletes in Arkansas: Muhammad Ali’s Tour, Black Razorbacks & Other Forgotten Tales. The 200 page anthology came out earlier this year, and includes original features on Faytetteville’s forgotten “Black Razorbacks” of the 1930s, Muhammad Ali’s fascinating weeklong 1969 tour through the state, and other stories. Demirel is also scheduled to sign copies of the book at 6 p.m. the Clinton House Museum on Nov. 9.
Hogan’s book, titled Angels in the Ozarks, was released in 2013, and covers the story of a nearly forgotten Class D minor league in Fayetteville back in the 1940s. The league was once described as the “smallest league that ever functioned in organized baseball.”
Reindl co-wrote and produced the Brandon Burlsworth biopic Greater, the film about “the greatest walk on of all time” who played for the Razorbacks and who died tragically in an automobile accident on U.S. 412 outside of his hometown Harrison on April 22, 1999; just 11 days after the Indianapolis Colts selected him in the NFL Draft. The film was released in 2016, and is now available on video and streaming services.
Copies of all three writers’ work will be available to purchase at the event.
The event will also coincide with a First Thursday art opening featuring photography by Jeremy Tenhaken. Tenhaken will exhibit a show entitled A Tribute to Tenacity documenting some of the planet’s oldest living things – the Bristlecone pines.
It will be free to attend and open to the public.
