Signature Event Archive

Search the Signature Event Archive to discover past Library events. Watch videos, hear speaker interviews, and listen to audio recordings of previous presentations. Search by keyword (event title, subject, or presenter name), location or by date range.
Signature Event Video Video Signature Event Audio Audio Signature Event Interview Interviews
E.g., 2019/09/15
E.g., 2019/09/15

The Liberation of Paris: 'The Loveliest, Brightest Story of Our Time'

Harry S. Laver
Military historian Harry S. Laver of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College looks back at Paris’ deliverance in 1944 from more than four years of German occupation and brutality. It didn’t come easily.
 
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Military historian Harry S. Laver of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College looks back at Paris’ deliverance in 1944 from more than four years of German occupation and brutality. It didn’t come easily.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event AudioEvent Videos

Young Actors Workshop Performance

Friday Night Family Fun
After five weeks of drama classes, the participants in the Young Actors Workshop need an audience.
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After five weeks of drama classes the participants in the Young Actors Workshop need an audience. Enjoy comedic and dramatic performances by children ages 3-17 taught by theatre instructor John Mulvey. For all ages.
Friday, August 2, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Shooting the Moon: Cinema of Space

Mitch Brian

What does film tell us about our fascination with and perception of the moon? University of Missouri-Kansas City film studies professor Mitch Brian explores the question, walking through Hollywood’s depiction of space flight and lunar landings using clips from silent movies, blockbuster classics, and documentaries. His presentation is part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program: Dare to Discover.
 

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What does film tell us about our fascination with and perception of the moon? University of Missouri-Kansas City film studies professor Mitch Brian explores the question, walking through Hollywood’s depiction of space flight and lunar landings using clips from silent movies, blockbuster classics, and documentaries. His presentation is part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program: Dare to Discover.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Jim 'Mr. Stinky Feet' Cosgrove

Friday Night Family Fun
Kansas City-based kid rocker and Library favorite Jim “Mr. Stinky Feet” Cosgrove takes audience members on an extraterrestrial musical adventure through the Milky Way as part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program, Dare to Discover. Learn about the planets in our solar system, and become a member of the Alien All-Star Band.

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Kansas City-based kid rocker and Library favorite Jim “Mr. Stinky Feet” Cosgrove takes audience members on an extraterrestrial musical adventure through the Milky Way as part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program, Dare to Discover. Learn about the planets in our solar system, and become a member of the Alien All-Star Band. Appropriate for all ages.
Friday, July 26, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

A Passion for Purpose: Building Cities for our Children

Sly James, Sean Wheelock
He has been the face of Kansas City for eight years. Now, as Sly James completes his second and mandatory final term as mayor, he looks back on a life that took him from his upbringing in a segregated working-class neighborhood to military service in the Marines, a groundbreaking legal career, and ultimately the 29th floor of City Hall.

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Sly James – in his final days as Kansas City’s mayor – joins co-author Sean Wheelock in launching his new autobiography A Passion for Purpose. It looks back on a life that took James from his upbringing in a segregated working-class neighborhood to military service in the Marines, a groundbreaking legal career, and ultimately the 29th floor of City Hall.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Patton the Ghost: His Last Hurrah

William Nance

The legend of George S. Patton is one of triumph touched by controversy. He delivered both in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, setting the stage for the campaign that would cement his name in the pantheon of American military history: the 1944-45 invasion and liberation of Western Europe.

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William Nance of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College recounts the campaign that would cement George S. Patton in the pantheon of American military history: the 1944-45 invasion and liberation of Western Europe. After he’d served as a D-Day decoy, he and his Third Army inflicted massive German casualties while storming across the continent. Nineteen months after V-E Day, Patton was dead.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Deep River

Karl Marlantes
The son of a World War II veteran and himself a decorated former Marine who fought a year in Vietnam, Karl Marlantes based his first two books on his military and post-military experiences. In Deep River, he draws movingly from his roots in a small logging town in the Pacific Northwest.

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Best-selling author Karl Marlantes discusses his new novel Deep River – drawn from his Pacific Northwest roots – about three Finnish siblings who emigrate to America at the turn of the 20th century, settling and coming into their own in a logging community in Washington state.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Thomas Hart Benton Paints the Ozarks

Steve Sitton
Missouri Valley Sundays

No artist captured the people and landscape of early 20th-century Missouri more than native son Thomas Hart Benton. As a child growing up in southwest Missouri, and later as an adult, he hiked the Ozarks’ hills and valleys and floated its rivers. Benton’s travels throughout the region are reflected in many of his paintings and writings.

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Steve Sitton, administrator of the Thomas Hart Benton Home & Studio State Historic Site in Kansas City, discusses the inspiration the artist took from his time and experiences in the Ozarks – noted in a 1971 Environmental Protection Agency film, A Man and a River, about a Benton float trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library

Pissarro III Launch

Benjamin Todd Wills

For Benjamin Todd Wills, art is born of curiosity as well as creativity.

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Benjamin Todd Wills discusses his airborne Pisarro missions, which use variations in altitude and speed and interactions with light, wind, and moisture to create images recalling the brush strokes of some of history’s great impressionists. The Kansas City artist invites his audience to join him in launching the third craft in his “aeronautic visual art program” from the Central Library’s fifth-floor Rooftop Terrace.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Program: 
12:00 pm
Central Library

Galaxy Quest (1999)

2019 Off-the-Wall Film Series: Well (Multi)versed
Hollywood actors from a Star Trek-like TV show (Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, and Sam Rockwell) get mistaken for actual galactic adventurers when real aliens conscript the crew to help defend the universe against reptilian invaders.

Doors open: 8 p.m.  •  Program: 8:45 p.m.
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Hollywood actors from a Star Trek-like TV show (Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, and Sam Rockwell) get mistaken for actual galactic adventurers when real aliens conscript the crew to help defend the universe against reptilian invaders.
Friday, July 19, 2019
Program: 
8:00 pm
Central Library

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