Signature Events

All Roads Lead to Vienna

Kansas City Baroque Consortium

The Kansas City Baroque Consortium, which specializes in the performance of early music on period instruments, offers a rich selection of late-17th century works from the inspired time when the royal Habsburg court in Vienna served as a crossroads of European culture. Four notable composers – Schmelzer, Fux, Biber, and Muffat – are spotlighted.

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Sunday, March 26, 2023 - 3:00pm

Central Library

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The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America

Shawn Rochester, Gwen Grant

In a discussion of his book The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America, author and personal finance consultant Shawn Rochester assesses the staggering cost of nearly 250 years of anti-Black bias in America – a total of $70 trillion, by his account. He is joined in the conversation by Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.

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Thursday, March 30, 2023 - 6:00pm

Reception:

5:30 pm

Plaza Branch

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Sciencey Fridays: Science of Sound

Friday Night Family Fun

How do we hear? With our ears, of course. But how do our ears hear? Learn about sound waves traveling through the air, just waiting to be caught and interpreted by... you! Also, create a bee hummer using simple objects. Recommended for ages 3 and up.

Plaza Branch

Friday, March 31, 2023

5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Nelly Don: Labor, Unionization, and Community on the Factory Floor

Jane Greer

Missouri Valley Sundays

Drawing from her book Unorganized Women: Repetitive Rhetorical Labor of Low-Wage Workers, 1837-1937, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Jane Greer looks at how women working at Kansas City’s Nelly Don Garment Company in the 1930s sought a collective identity as practical and comfortable as the garments they stitched – but resisted union overtures.

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Sunday, April 2, 2023 - 2:00pm

Central Library

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Spring: Easter Crafts

Friday Night Family Fun

Make a graham cracker and candy house for a neon-bright marshmallow Peep. Try a painting technique, “crayon resist,” on egg-shaped paper – it’s like dyeing a paper egg! And check out books about your favorite baby creatures while you’re here. Recommended for ages 3 and up.

Plaza Branch

Friday, April 7, 2023

5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Turning Points: U.S. Grant and the Battle of the Wilderness

Harry S. Laver

Harry S. Laver of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College recounts a critical juncture in the Civil War: the first meeting of its two preeminent commanders, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, in the dense Virginia woods in May 1864. Despite heavy casualties, Grant rejected retreat and inspiringly pressed ahead in confronting – and eventually defeating – Lee's army.

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Tuesday, April 11, 2023 - 6:00pm

Plaza Branch

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the ripple, the wave that carried me home

Kansas City Repertory Theatre

The Kansas City Repertory Theatre offers the first of two free Library performances of the ripple, the wave that carried me home, a moving exploration of a family’s response to injustice and a daughter’s reckoning with her political inheritance. It’s part of the 2023 KC Rep for All community tour, bringing productions to audiences where they live.

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Tuesday, April 11, 2023 - 6:00pm

Central Library

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An Ordinary Wonder

Buki Papillon, winner of the 2022 Maya Angelou Book Award

Buki Papillon’s acclaimed debut novel An Ordinary Wonder revolves around an intersex Nigerian teenager whose gender at birth is unclear, leading to their incorrect designation as male. Papillon discusses the book and how it delves into African belief systems, superstitions, and folklore to fully root the tale in the African nation, as well as to humanize and add weight and depth to the character’s challenge.

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