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

Ralph Steadman: Proud to be Weirrd

Anita O'Brien
Anita O’Brien, an original co-curator of the Library’s special traveling exhibit, Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective, discusses the work and life of the distinctive artist best known for his longtime creative relationship with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
 
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Anita O’Brien, an original co-curator of the Library’s special traveling exhibit, Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective, discusses the work and life of the distinctive artist best known for his longtime creative relationship with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Flying Debris Show

Friday Night Family Fun
Kansas native Richard Holmgren fills his comedy variety show with zany stunts, amusing tricks, audience participation—and always an inspirational message. It’s part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program, Dare to Discover.

Appropriate for all ages.
 

***PLAZA BRANCH PARKING ADVISORY***

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Kansas native Richard Holmgren fills his comedy variety show with zany stunts, amusing tricks, audience participation—and always an inspirational message. It’s part of the Library’s 2019 Summer Reading Program, Dare to Discover. Appropriate for all ages.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Remembering Emmett Till

Dave Tell
Drive through the Mississippi Delta today, and you’ll find it dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Most chilling, perhaps, are those recalling the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a milestone in the fight for racial equality.

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The University of Kansas’ Dave Tell discusses his new book Remembering Emmett Till, which looks at the conflicted backstory of a growing array of memorials recalling the grisly 1955 murder of Emmett Till. Turns out there’s money to be made in luring civil rights tourists. Politics play a role. And persistent vandalism of the signs and monuments betrays enduring racism.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

KC Fringe Festival Preview

Nearing the start of the 15th annual KC Fringe Festival—a two-week performing and visual arts extravaganza spread across multiple Kansas City venues—some of its hottest acts deliver a special preview.

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Nearing the start of the 15th annual KC Fringe Festival – a two-week performing and visual arts extravaganza spread across multiple Kansas City venues – some of its hottest acts deliver a special preview. Included: a Right Between the Ears radio play (Fantasmo vs. the Vampire Women).
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

Claire L. Evans
Writer Claire L. Evans, a contributor to Vice, The Guardian, and Wired and former editor of the multiplatform Motherboard, spotlights the unsung female visionaries who’ve helped write the story of the internet and related technology in a discussion of her book Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.
 
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Writer Claire L. Evans, a contributor to Vice, The Guardian, and Wired and former editor of the multiplatform Motherboard, spotlights the unsung female visionaries who’ve helped write the story of the internet and related technology in a discussion of her book Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Orz Boyz

Kansas City Sister Cities World Cinema Series 2019

Kansas City engages in educational, cultural, and commercial exchanges with a dozen sister cities across the globe, in part through the annual Kansas City Sister Cities World Cinema Series.

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The Kansas City Sister Cities World Cinema Series opens its six-film lineup with a 2008 Taiwanese drama about two troublemaking schoolboys, each with grownup-size challenges, who bond over their belief in an imaginary, escapist world called Orz. A post-screening discussion is led by a scholar/expert on Taiwanese culture and history and the film’s subject matter. Recommended for ages 18 and up.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Program: 
11:00 am
Plaza Branch

Mesner Puppet Theater: The Cat Came Back

Friday Night Family Fun

Based on the folk song made popular by children’s performer Fred Penner, this performance tells the tale of Old Mister Johnson and a mysterious cat that just won’t stay away. Give it to somebody else. Send it to outer space. The kitty keeps coming back.

Appropriate for all ages.
 

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Based on the folk song made popular by children’s performer Fred Penner, this performance tells the tale of Old Mister Johnson and a mysterious cat that just won’t stay away. Give it to somebody else. Send it to outer space. The kitty keeps coming back. For all ages.
Friday, June 28, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

George H.W. Bush: Life to the Fullest

Jean Becker

As chief of staff to former President George H.W. Bush for 25 years, Jean Becker oversaw everything from the opening of his presidential library to the commissioning of the Navy aircraft carrier named for him. Mainly, she tried to keep up. 

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George H.W. Bush’s longtime chief of staff, Jean Becker, discusses our 41st president and an inspired post-presidency that saw him become one of the country’s most widely admired political elders.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event AudioEvent Videos

Coneheads (1993)

2019 Off-the-Wall Film Series: Well (Multi)versed
One of Saturday Night Live’s signature comedy sketches gets the big-screen treatment, following Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin as stranded cone-headed couple Beldar and Prymatt. (Spoiler: They’re not from France.)  Ditching plans for world conquest, they try to blend in by moving to the suburbs and having a family, all while trying to dodge tenacious immigration agents (Michael McKean and David Spade) out to reveal their true identities. 

Doors open: 8 p.m.  •  Program: 8:45 p.m.
 
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This Library’s popular Off-the-Wall rooftop film series continues on its otherworldly summer course, featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin in the big-screen adaptation of the signature Saturday Night Live comedy sketch Coneheads. There’s free popcorn from Velvet Crème, plus local brews courtesy of KC Bier Co.
Friday, June 21, 2019
Program: 
8:00 pm
Central Library

Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine

Barry Strauss

Barry Strauss stands as one of today’s foremost classicists, his exhaustively researched and accessibly written books opening window after window into the history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

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Cornell University’s Barry Strauss, one of today’s foremost classicists, returns to the Library to discuss his latest book, Ten Caesars. It tracks the reigns and impact of 10 of the most important emperors over a 3½-century span of the Roman Empire, from Augustus to Nero to Marcus Aurelius to Constantine.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

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