Visionary

Emma Kelly Rhodes

Spend a few moments with Emma Kelly Rhodes. You’ll walk away inspired, smiling and certain of her belief in God and the human capacity to achieve.

Rhodes, 72, is one of 16 children born in Wilmer, Ark., to loving parents, whose educational opportunities were limited. “At that time, in the rural areas, you only went to school to the 8th grade. You had to come to Little Rock to further your education. My mother was a great woman, and she encouraged each of us to get an education. She’d always say, ‘It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.’”

Rhodes wanted to teach. So she planned to get her diploma and a degree. Her plan derailed when she was 15. “I got married; back then you couldn’t go to school if you were married. You were considered a bad influence,” she said.

She soon had a first child. She had a second child at 17, a third at 18 … she’s the proud mother of seven children, all born by the time she was 27. She was widowed at 29. So, Rhodes decided to pursue her dream of becoming an educator.

“At 28, I assumed the role of the head of the household. It was just me and the children. I got my GED at Arkansas Baptist College. I worked fulltime during the day and went to school and raised my family at night,” Rhodes said. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Philander Smith College. “I had a great design to go on, and the Lord kept promoting me.” While her parents could not assist her financially, they encouraged her. Each time, she earned a degree her mother asked “Is there another degree you can get? Well, get it.” So she did. She has a doctorate in education from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. A retired educator and administrator for the Arkansas Department of Education, she now encourages other to “get it” through the Dr. Emma K. Rhodes’ Institution of Special Education Center. The center offers Life Skills, Computer Literacy and GED classes. Her House of Vision is a non-profit agency that provides free office space for community programs that offer services to clients free of charge; services include mentoring programs, health screenings and seminars for ex-felons.

Rhodes, whose contributions have been recognized through numerous awards and accolades, assures others: “If I can do it, you can do it. If you really want to achieve, you can do it.”

Aj Smith

For artist Aj Smith, a piece of art begins in his mind, “The hard part, the work begins with the paper.” The Jonestown, Miss., native has drawn all his life.

“I can remember sitting in Ms. Poindexter’s first grade class. I finished [my work] and thought ‘Now what?’ So I started to draw. In second grade, I had a classmate who could really draw horses. I wanted to draw a horse as well as he; I’d practice and practice. There were these cookies called Wagon Wheels with a picture of a horse on them. I’d sit and try to draw that horse perfectly,” Smith recalls, smiling.

He continues this process in a different form now. For example, he fashioned a black and white drawing of a friend’s mother Ms. Cora Ammons. The drawing is lifelike; one imagines that Ms. Cora is within arm’s reach, reflecting upon a thought or conversation. Smith felt “it wasn’t quite finished,” that he’d not quite captured Ms. Cora’s essence or “said all that needed to be said,” so he created the same image in silverpoint, watercolor and as a lithograph, thus creating a series. It was featured in the exhibition “Collaborations: Two Decades of African American Art.”

Smith has been featured in more than 200 solo and group exhibitions. His works include drawings, watercolors and lithographs of various subjects, however, he is perhaps most known for his faces. Whether small or large — his largest work measures 51-by-60 inches — they are thorough, expressive and striking.

Smith has received a multitude of awards, grants and fellowships, and this summer, as a part of a grant, Smith will travel to sparsely-populated areas in the Delta to study and draw.

“I want to capture the ordinary person. Everyone knows who the celebrity of the moment is, but someone has to acknowledge the everyday person, the individual who works, loves, lives and who, when he dies, no one other than family and friends will know they’ve been here. This is a way of keeping all of us grounded,” he said.

Smith’s works have been acquired for private and public collections in several states and in countries as far as away as China. He is a professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “As a professor, I am 100 percent in the classroom. In the studio, I am 100 percent an artist. As an instructor, I share [techniques] and my experiences; but in the studio, I fight the same battle as my students, the battle to get the images just right. When I know I’ve got ‘it,’ I say ‘OK, that’s it. I can stop.’”

Michael Steele

A self-described reclusive worker, Michael Steele, has lived and worked in a progressive industry during some of the most interesting times and areas. This experience along with a desire to inform, educate and inspire change is a driving force for the president and CEO of Advantage Communications, Inc.

Steele, an Arkansas native, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. For a time, Steele worked for Stroh’s Brewery; however, in 1984, he joined the Coca-Cola Company.

“There I worked on a plethora of brands,” Steele said. “The brand of Coke was stable, but not dominant when I started with the company. But I had the honor of working with Roberto Goizueta. Under his direction the company grew dramatically.”

As did Steele’s business acumen. “I was very fortunate to work with brilliant people. Coca-Cola is one of the companies people yearn to work for because of the education you receive,” he said. During his tenure with the international company, Steele worked in France, London and South Africa. These years are among his favorite. “I learned to speak French and Zulu. I was in South Africa when the great Nelson Mandela, one of my heroes, was freed. During that time, we introduced Sprite to South Africa. I met Mr. Mandela … I got my second wind there. I learned the social consciousness of marketing. It was about more than selling soft drinks.”

While in South Africa, Steele spearheaded Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the South African Rugby team in 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match; former Pres. Mandela used the team and sport to build unity in the then-racially divided country (This story is told in the 2009 movie “Invictus”). Steele also worked in the community, donating computers and teaching children to read. “The job was good, but what I learned was incredible — the measure you give is the measure you get back — tenfold.”

Steele, wife E’van and their two sons moved back to Arkansas in 2000. Steele took some time off to spend with family. During this respite, he noticed the Arkansas business landscape did not reflect its population.

“I didn’t see diversity in marketing. Minorities were not represented in corporations in Arkansas. Someone challenged me, as did E’van, to do something about it,” Steele said. So he did. In 2001, he founded Advantage Communications, Inc., a very successful marketing firm. Some of their clients include Alltel Communications, the University of Arkansas and Arkansas Diagnostic Clinic.

“I’ve never made so little money in my life,” Steele said, with a smile, “but everyday is so rewarding.”