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Event Archive

Search our archive of past events at the Library! You can search by keyword - such as event title, subject, or presenter name - or by a date range. To search for an exact phrase, put it in quotation marks. If you know the specific date of an event, enter the same date in both fields. Search results will only show events that match ALL entered terms.

Format: 2013-05-23
Format: 2013-05-23
  • Educator Michelle Rhee joins Library Director Crosby Kemper III for a public conversation about her ideas for improving public education in America and putting students first.
    Radical: Fighting to Put Students First
    Wednesday, May 22, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Educator Michelle Rhee joins Library Director Crosby Kemper III for a public conversation about her new book Radical: Fighting to Put Students First and explains her ideas for improving public education by ensuring that laws, leaders, and politics are making students – not adults – their top priority.

    Interest in the public conversation with Michelle Rhee has exceeded our expectations. There are now over 1,000 RSVPs for this program. The Library anticipates that anyone arriving after 6 p.m. will likely have to stand. Parking in the Library’s garage may be full as early as 5:30 p.m. If you RSVP’d prior to 10 a.m. on May 6, 2013, you will be given a ticket upon check-in that grants access to the auditorium. Please note that a ticket does not guarantee a reserved seat.

  • Executive coach and former newspaper publisher Dan Chiodo offers simple time management techniques that can add two hours to your day.
    Perfect Timing: Gaining Two Hours in Your Day
    Tuesday, May 21, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    There’s no shortage of time management systems aimed at busy business executives. But most are so complex that just learning them eats up more time than could possibly be saved. In his book Perfect Timing executive coach Dan Chiodo offers a system of simple techniques for creating a personal roadmap for time management success.

  • Katherine Kranz shares the stories of her fellows from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2002, who have faced little but war since graduation day.
    In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War
    Sunday, May 19, 2013
    Central Library

    The first to graduate after the events of 9/11, the midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2002 have faced nothing but war ever since. Katherine Kranz, herself a member of that class, presents their stories in In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War.

  • Think you’re film literate? Not until you’ve experienced the masterpieces of world cinema presented as part of this series.
    Metropolis (1927)
    Sunday, May 19, 2013
    Plaza Branch

     

    Twenty Films Essential to Cinema Literacy

    Think you’re film literate? Not until you’ve experienced the masterpieces of world cinema presented as part of this new series. Former Kansas City Star film critic Robert W. Butler (now a member of the Library’s Public Affairs staff) provides opening and closing remarks.

  • Join Kansas City writer Rhiannon Ross and others for an afternoon of Vietnamese poetry, performance art, live and recorded music, video, fashion, dance, and visual art. Following the presentations, sample a variety of Vietnamese cuisine.
    A Cultural Celebration of Kansas City’s Vietnamese Community
    Saturday, May 18, 2013
    North-East Branch

    Join Kansas City writer Rhiannon Ross for an afternoon of Vietnamese poetry, performance art, live and recorded music, video, fashion, dance, and visual art, featuring Vi Tran, performance artist and musician, and Phong Nguyen, poet and assistant professor of English at the University of Central Missouri. Following the presentations, sample a variety of Vietnamese cuisine. The program and post-event reception is presented by the Vox Narro project that pairs writers with immigrant communities to give voice to the voiceless.

  • The Library celebrates the career of Kansas City-raised comedic actor Paul Rudd in this summer’s Off-the-Wall film series.
    Role Models (2008: R)
    Friday, May 17, 2013
    Central Library

    The Library kicks off this year’s summer film series of comedies starring Kansas City native Paul Rudd with this tale of energy drink salesmen (Rudd, Seann William Scott) who must perform community service as mentors to two young boys after a road rage incident. This title is recommended for adult audiences only.

    Films are screened outside on the Rooftop Terrace. Filmgoers are welcome to bring blankets and folding chairs. In cases of inclement weather, screenings will be moved indoors to Helzberg Auditorium.

  • Brandon Draper takes the audience on a “drum safari.”
    Brandon Draper Celebrates Children’s Book Week
    Friday, May 17, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Celebrate the winners of the Children’s Book Week Bookmark Contest with a performance by drummer Brandon Draper.

    Draper teaches percussion instruments at the University of Kansas and UMKC. He is also percussion director at Shawnee Mission West High School and music director at Kansas City Academy.

    The program is appropriate for all ages.

  • Poetry duo Ezhno Martin and Jeanette Powers headline an evening of al fresco art and entertainment on the Rooftop Terrace as part of rises Zora, a city-wide multi-venue visual and performing arts project.
    rises Zora
    Thursday, May 16, 2013
    Central Library

    Poetry duo Ezhno Martin and Jeanette Powers headline an evening of al fresco art and musical entertainment on the Central Library’s Rooftop Terrace as part of rises Zora, a multi-venue visual and performance arts project.

    The Library event includes experimental acts by Kansas City-based composers, musicians, and sound artists.

    rises Zora is sponsored by the Charlotte Street Foundation and organized by its curator-in-residence, Jamilee Polson Lacy.

  • Library Director Crosby Kemper III conducts a public conversation with Roshann Parris, president and CEO of Parris Communications Inc. and lead advance person on the White House Presidential Advance Team.
    A Conversation with Roshann Parris
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013
    Central Library

    Library Director Crosby Kemper III conducts a public conversation with Roshann Parris, president and CEO of the award-winning public relations firm Parris Communications Inc.

  • Author and economist John Blundell looks at the lives of women such as Anne Hutchinson, Rosa Parks, Mercy Otis Warren, the Grimke sisters, and Alice Paul to refute the idea that women desire and benefit from big government.
    Ladies for Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History
    Monday, May 13, 2013
    Central Library

    From Anne Hutchinson, whose doctrinal disputes with the Puritan clergy led to her expulsion from colonial Massachusetts, to Rosa Parks, who became a Civil Rights icon by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, women have helped shape the American experience.