Signature Events

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

2019 Off-the-Wall Film Series: Well (Multi)versed
This animated arachnopalooza spins a web of multidimensional adventure. Young Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) gets the radioactive spider bite that renders him Spider-Man in his world. He joins Spider-folk from alternate realities (including Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage) to stop the villainous Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from destroying the fabric of the entire universe.

Doors open: 8 p.m.  •  Program: 8:45 p.m.
 
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This animated arachnopalooza spins a web of multidimensional adventure. Young Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) gets the radioactive spider bite that renders him Spider-Man in his world. He joins Spider-folk from alternate realities (including Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage) to stop the villainous Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from destroying the fabric of the entire universe.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Program: 
8:00 pm
Central Library
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Are You Ready for the Next Kansas City?

Kevin Klinkenberg
Making a Great City

Kicking off a new fall installment of the Library’s Making a Great City series, Kansas City-based urban planner, designer, and architect Kevin Klinkenberg examines why and how cities being reinvented today, who the winners and losers have been, and how municipalities can make the most of this evolution – looking closely at Kansas City and other noncoastal metropolitan areas.

 

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Kicking off a new fall installment of the Library’s Making a Great City series, Kansas City-based urban planner, designer, and architect Kevin Klinkenberg examines why and how cities being reinvented today, who the winners and losers have been, and how municipalities can make the most of this evolution – looking closely at Kansas City and other noncoastal metropolitan areas.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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You Can Say That: How Courage Can Defeat Political Correctness

David French

Where do we draw the line on free speech? On its tenor? On its subject matter? Have we taken political correctness too far, making individual Americans feel less free to speak their minds amid online shame campaigns, economic boycotts, firings, and even physical threats?

 

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Where does America draw the line on free speech? Have we taken political correctness too far, making individuals feel less free to speak their minds amid online shame campaigns, economic boycotts, firings, and even physical threats? Attorney and National Review senior writer David French explores the issue, raising the question of whether speech is really free if it can’t touch on race, gender, sexuality, and other sometimes uncomfortable matters.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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The 2019 State of Black Kansas City

Gwendolyn Grant

Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, leads a discussion of its 2019 State of Black Kansas City: Urban Education, Still Separate and Unequal. From health to social justice, key indicators trended downward four years ago. To what extent, if any, have they improved?

 

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Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, leads a discussion of its 2019 State of Black Kansas City: Urban Education, Still Separate and Unequal. From health to social justice, key indicators trended downward four years ago. To what extent, if any, have they improved?
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Democracy Will Win

Frido Mann, Luigi Toscano, Larson Powell

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Friday, September 27, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries and Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard

Joy L. Poole
Missouri Valley Sundays

One of the earliest, and best, accounts of travel along the Santa Fe Trail came from a young physician, Rowland Willard, who trained in St. Charles, Missouri, and set off for the Southwest in 1825. His journals and subsequent autobiography chart a journey that took him to Chihuahua, Mexico, providing a rich account of life on the trail and medicine on the frontier.

 

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In a discussion of Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries & Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard, which she edited, New Mexico Deputy State Librarian Joy L. Poole recounts the richly detailed journey of a young physician over the Santa Fe Trail beginning in 1825.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library
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Guadalupe Centers at 100

Cris Medina, Crosby Kemper III

Its beginnings a century ago were modest: a converted home adjacent to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church that operated as a settlement house and gathering place for the growing number of Mexican immigrants on Kansas City’s west side.

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Amid a yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Guadalupe Centers, Inc. – a westside anchor since 1919 – CEO Cris Medina talks with Library Director Crosby Kemper III about its history, its impact on Kansas City’s Latino and Hispanic community, and its future.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
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An Evening With Ben Lerner

Born and raised in Topeka (which appears in some fashion in all of his works), novelist, essayist, and poet Ben Lerner is one of the most celebrated writers of his generation—a National Book Award finalist, Fulbright Scholar, and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow.

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In conjunction with his visit as the Cockefair Writer in Residence at UMKC, celebrated novelist, essayist, and poet Ben Lerner reads from his new fictional family drama The Topeka School and discusses his craft and career with Angela Elam of public radio’s New Letters on the Air.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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