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Event Audio

To listen to an audio recording of a previous Library special event, click the icon. The audio file will launch the media player on your computer.

The most recent recording displays at the top. The Library offers recordings only with the permission of the presenter. Please allow 7-10 days for the recording to be posted.

  • Architect Richard Farnan explores six Kansas City buildings that exemplify the best in art deco design, including the Power & Light Building and the Jackson County Courthouse.
    Richard Farnan - Kansas City’s Art Deco Masterpieces
    Sunday, July 22, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    Architect Richard Farnan explores six downtown Kansas City buildings that exhibit the symmetrical elegance of the art deco style.

    The event focuses on City Hall, the Jackson County Courthouse, and the Municipal Auditorium.

    There is a sister event on July 15 that looks at the Kansas City Power & Light Bulding, the Union Carbide Building, and the Fidelity National Bank Building.

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  • LaDene Morton traces the 170-year history of Kansas City’s residential/business district as depicted in her book The Waldo Story: The Home of Friendly Merchants.
    LaDene Morton - The Road to Waldo
    Wednesday, July 18, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    LaDene Morton, author of The Waldo Story: The Home of Friendly Merchants, traces the history of the district from the Civil War and the coming of the railroad to Waldo’s role in the Kansas City housing boom. Throughout the years the ever-adaptable Waldo neighborhood always seems to find ways to stay modern and prosperous.

    Morton is a former researcher and policy analyst at Midwest Research Institute, and past vice president of the Applied Urban Research Institute. She runs the consulting firm I/O & Company.

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  • Architect Richard Farnan explores six Kansas City buildings that expemplify the best in art deco design, including the Power & Light Building and the Jackson County Courthouse.
    Richard Farnan - Kansas City’s Art Deco Masterpieces
    Sunday, July 15, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    Architect Richard Farnan explores six downtown Kansas City buildings that exhibit the symmetrical elegance of the art deco style.

    The program looks at the Kansas City Power & Light Bulding, the Union Carbide Building, and the Fidelity National Bank Building.

    There is a sister event on July 22 that focuses on City Hall, the Jackson County Courthouse, and the Municipal Auditorium.

    Read more
  • Western author Johnny D. Boggs examines the cinematic heritage of Missouri outlaw Jesse James to separate fact from fiction and myth from reality.
    Johnny D. Boggs - Jesse James and the Movies
    Sunday, July 15, 2012
    Central Library

    Since his first celluloid depiction in 1908, Jesse James has been the subject of more than 40 films and has been portrayed by the likes of Tyrone Power, Audie Murphy, Robert Duvall, and Brad Pitt. Western author Johnny D. Boggs examines this cinematic heritage to separate fact from fiction and myth from reality.

    Boggs has written more than 40 novels about the Old West. He is a six-time winner of the prestigious Spur Award from Western Writers of America, and in 2004 received the Western Heritage Wrangler Award.

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  • Biographer John Robert Greene examines the domestic issues, personality factors, and the vagaries of the 1992 campaign that confined George H.W. Bush to a single term.
    John Robert Greene - George H.W. Bush
    Thursday, July 12, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    How could a president have won a war and lost a re-election? For George H.W. Bush, being Commander-in-Chief during Desert Storm was not enough.

    John Robert Greene, author of The Presidency of George Bush, sets Bush’s presidency in the context of the Reagan years and reviews his foreign policy successes, such as the war with Iraq and an improved relationship with Russia, and nagging domestic issues such as economic recession, “Read My Lips,” and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court appointment.

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  • Be part of the studio audience as KCPT tapes the latest installment of Meet the Past when Crosby Kemper III interviews basketball inventor and former Kansas Jayhawks coach James Naismith, as portrayed by Bill Worley.
    Meet the Past - James Naismith
    Wednesday, July 11, 2012
    Central Library

    Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper III returns for a conversation with James Naismith, portrayed by Bill Worley.

    In 1891 Canadian minister and physical education teacher James Naismith invented a game that could be played indoors. He called it “basket ball” after the peach baskets which served as goals. A few years later he founded the University of Kansas basketball program (he worked for KU until his retirement in 1937 at the age of 76).

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  • Governor Jay Nixon - Kansas City Land Bank
    Monday, July 9, 2012
    Lucile H. Bluford Branch

    Gov. Jay Nixon today signed House Bill 1659 which allows Kansas City to create a land bank for the purpose of acquiring, rehabilitating, and reselling abandoned and blighted properties. The Governor went to the Lucile H. Bluford Branch Library in Kansas City to sign the bill.

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  • Author and businessman Barnett C. Helzberg, Jr. and Library Director Crosby Kemper III hold a public conversation with some of the local entrepreneurs profiled in Helzberg's new book Entrepreneurs + Mentors = Success: 22 Convincing Stories.
    Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. - Entrepreneurs + Mentors = Success: 22 Convincing Stories
    Thursday, June 28, 2012
    Central Library

    No matter what the business problem, there’s usually someone who’s dealt with it before. That’s the power of mentoring, business veterans share their insights with up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

    Author and businessman Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. and Library Director Crosby Kemper III hold a public conversation with some of the local entrepreneurs profiled in Helzberg’s new book Entrepreneurs + Mentors = Success: 22 Convincing Stories.

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  • Historian Jeff Broadwater discusses the presidency of James Madison who played key roles in the creation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but whose clear political mind became muddled when it came to slavery and race.
    Jeff Broadwater: James Madison
    Wednesday, June 27, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    Historian Jeff Broadwater argues that no single figure can tell us more about the origins of the American republic than our fourth president, James Madison, a bookish political theorist who played key roles in the creation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, but whose thinking became muddled on the issue of race.

    Broadwater is professor of history at Barton College and author of James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation.

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  • Ethno-biologist Edwin Marty looks at the exploding urban farming movement, which he believes has the potential to transform our national food system.
    Edwin Marty - Breaking Through Concrete: Building an Urban Farm Revival
    Tuesday, June 26, 2012
    Central Library

    Author Edwin Marty looks at successful urban farm programs, part of an environmental and social movement that could transform our national food system. From backyard food swaps to a restaurant supply garden on a Brooklyn rooftop, Marty chronicles changing attitudes and offers advice on keeping livestock in the city, decontaminating toxic soil, and even changing zoning laws.

    Marty is an ethno-botanist, former assistant garden editor for Southern Living magazine and founder of the Jones Valley Urban Farm in Birmingham, Alabama.

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