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., 2019/07/20
E.g., 2019/07/20

This Is Kansas City

Friday Night Family Fun

What makes Kansas City such a special place to live? Local children’s author Angela Kmeck helps you explore what you love about your hometown in a discussion of her colorful board book This Is Kansas City.

Appropriate for all ages.
 

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What makes Kansas City such a special place to live? Local children’s author Angela Kmeck helps you explore what you love about your hometown in a discussion of her colorful board book This Is Kansas City.
Friday, May 17, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Gender and Sexuality: How Medieval Are We Still?

Valiant knights. Chaste virgins. Bawdy widows. Our notions of gender and sexuality in the Middle Ages tend to come from Hollywood and the History Channel. But are they accurate?

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Our notions of gender and sexuality in the Middle Ages tend to come from Hollywood and the History Channel. But are they accurate? Three medieval scholars from the University of Missouri-Kansas City discuss their findings in the final installment of a series exploring connections between contemporary issues and Middle Age concepts of race, gender and identity.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Becoming American: Immigration and Popular Culture

The Library concludes its examination of immigration in America with a look at pop culture’s role in the assimilation of newcomers to our country—and how they, in turn, have transformed American culture.

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The Library concludes its examination of immigration in America with a look at pop culture’s role in the assimilation of newcomers to our country – and their contributions to our culture in return. The event features a screening of the documentary The Search for General Tso. University of Missouri-Kansas City historian Sandra Enriquez leads a subsequent discussion.
Monday, May 13, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare’s seminal play? It’s difficult if not impossible to choose among the Bard’s many masterpieces, but Romeo and Juliet makes just about every short list of contenders. It’s one of his two most-performed pieces (with A Midsummer Night’s Dream), especially popular in the U.S.

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Kansas City’s Heart of America Shakespeare Festival delivers a script-in-hand reading of the famously tragic tale of teen lovers irresistibly drawn to each other despite an ancient feud between their families.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Plaza Branch

Courting Mr. Lincoln

We’re well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln the country lawyer, the principled statesman, the revered martyr. In a discussion of his new historical novel Courting Mr. Lincoln, author Louis Bayard fleshes out the personal side of our 16th president—through the eyes of the two people who knew him best, spirited young debutante and wife-to-be Mary Todd and handsome, charming roommate and confidant Joshua Speed. Bayard sits down with Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle.
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In a discussion of his new historical novel Courting Mr. Lincoln, author Louis Bayard fleshes out the personal side of our 16th president through the eyes of the two people who knew him best – spirited young debutante and wife-to-be Mary Todd and handsome, charming roommate and confidant Joshua Speed.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

America Meets the Middle East

Our country’s deep (and fitful) involvement in the Middle East traces to World War II, when the U.S. came to Britain’s assistance in North Africa, transported millions of tons of material across Iran in support of the Soviet Union, and protected the movement of critical oil across the Mediterranean Sea and through the Suez Canal.
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Military historian Brian Steed of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College continues a yearlong series focusing on the Middle East, discussing the evolution of America’s role as protector in the region.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Washington Black

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, named one of the best books of 2018 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time magazine, among others, Washington Black transformed Canadian author Esi Edugyan into an international literary star.

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Canadian author Esi Edugyan discusses the book that made him an international literary star, a novel – inspired by real events – about a young slave on a Barbados sugar plantation who escapes with the help of his cultured master. It examines both the scars of slavery and the weight of privilege.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Wrestle

Indie Lens Pop-up

For 15 weeks, from the start of their season through the 2016 Alabama state tournament, the wrestlers at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School endured both the demands of their sport and the trials of life in a school and an area where the odds were stacked against them. For a fortunate few, a college scholarship could offer a way out.

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The Library and KCPT- Kansas City PBS offer a screening and discussion of the 2018 documentary Wrestle, an intimate look at students on the 2016 wrestling team at J.O. Johnson High School in Huntsville, Alabama. With the odds stacked against them in a troubled school and area, college scholarships offered a way out.
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Plaza Branch

Art Is for Everyone

Friday Night Family Fun

Join student dancers, professional musicians, and instructors from the Owen/Cox Dance Group's Take the Stage Program in a special art-and-performance program. Get a sneak peek at the group’s upcoming dance performance, A Night at the Museum—Shine a Light on Me, and learn about the renowned visual artists whose works are on display at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

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Join student dancers, professional musicians, and instructors from the Owen/Cox Dance Group's Take the Stage Program in a special art-and-performance program. Get a sneak peek at the group’s upcoming dance performance, A Night at the Museum – Shine a Light on Me. Attendees of all ages can learn choreography from the show and dance on stage to live music.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

The Feather Thief

A young American flautist, Edwin Rist, broke into the British Museum of Natural History in Tring in 2009 and made off with nearly 300 bird skins. Bizarre, perhaps. But Rist had a passion for the art of salmon fly-tying, and knew the value of birds’ rare feathers—in the millions of dollars—to those who shared it. Each specimen was almost 200 years old. Many species were extinct.

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In a discussion of his book The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, author Kirk Wallace Johnson recounts the stunning theft of nearly 300 bird skins – yes, bird skins – from a British museum in 2009. Turns out the feathers were worth millions to those, including the American perpetrator, with a passion for the art of salmon fly-tying.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

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