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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: 2013-05-20
Format: 2013-05-20
  • Writer Charley Kempthorne hosts a two-hour workshop on writing your life story and publishing or otherwise disseminating it to family and friends.
    Charley Kempthorne - LifeStory Workshop
    Sunday, November 4, 2012
    Central Library

    Everyone can – and probably should – write their life story to pass on to their family and friends. In this two-hour workshop led by writer Charley Kempthorne, participants will learn to write and share their histories.

    The workshop – which Kempthorne strives to make fun as well as educational – features sections on story structure, writing, and publishing your memoir.

    Kempthorne holds an MFA in narrative writing from the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has given hundreds of writing workshops.

  • Think you’re film literate? Not until you’ve experienced the masterpieces of world cinema presented as part of this
    Raging Bull (1980)
    Sunday, November 4, 2012
    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.

  • With his thick spectacles, big teeth, and boundless energy, President Theodore Roosevelt was a cartoonist’s dream subject. Author and former political cartoonist Rick Marschall discusses this most dynamic of chief executives.
    Rick Marschall - Theodore Roosevelt
    Thursday, November 1, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    With his thick spectacles, big teeth, and boundless energy, President Theodore Roosevelt was a cartoonist’s dream subject. Rick Marschall, author of Bully! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt: Illustrated with More than 200 Vintage Political Cartoons discusses this most dynamic of chief executives.

    Marschall is a former political cartoonist. Bostonia magazine calls him “perhaps America’s foremost authority on popular culture.”

  • Think you know Charles Dickens? Help celebrate the bicentennial of the Victorian novelist’s birth with a special performance by members of Kansas City’s acting community, who will perform five scenes from five Dickens books in 50 minutes.
    The Dickens You Hardly Know
    Tuesday, October 30, 2012
    Central Library

    Think you know Charles Dickens? Help celebrate the bicentennial of the great Victorian novelist’s birth with a special performance by members of Kansas City’s acting community. In The Dickens You Hardly Know they will perform five scenes from five Dickens books in just 50 minutes.

    The evening kicks off What the Dickens? a fall-long series of Dickens-themed events that include book discussion groups, a film series and a new dramatic interpretation of A Christmas Carol created and performed by area teens.

  • Host Steve Kraske conducts a Q&A session (to be broadcast love) with area political consultants Jeff Roe (Republican) and Roy Temple (Democrat) over the choices offered by their parties for Missouri and the nation.
    Up to Date - A Surrogate Presidential Debate
    Tuesday, October 30, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    In the waning days of the 2012 political campaign, KCUR-FM and the Library join forces to present a live surrogate Presidential debate.

    Steve Kraske will broadcast a live episode of his Up to Date program.

  • KMBZ's Dana Wright hosts a public conversation with Thomas Frank, whose new book asks why so many Americans are ready to penalize the recession's victims at the expense of society's traditional winners.
    Thomas Frank - Pity the Billionaire
    Monday, October 29, 2012
    Central Library

    For his latest book Thomas Frank, the best-selling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, went looking for public discontent in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown.

    Instead, as Frank reports in Pity the Billionaire, he found loud demands that the system be made even harsher on the recession’s victims and that society’s traditional winners receive even grander prizes.

  • Think you’re film literate? Not until you’ve experienced the masterpieces of world cinema presented as part of this
    Nosferatu (1922)
    Sunday, October 28, 2012
    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.

  • Historian Henry Wiencek examines how Thomas Jefferson, for all his accomplishments and advanced thinking, could not get beyond his own limited perspective in matters of race.
    Henry Wiencek - Thomas Jefferson
    Thursday, October 25, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    For all his accomplishments and advanced thinking, Thomas Jefferson could not get beyond his own limited perspective in matters of race. Drawing from new archaeological work and previously overlooked evidence, historian Henry Wiencek examines the factors that led Jefferson, once an emancipationist, to keep some of his own children as slaves.

  • Small-business guru John Jantsch explains how you can create a successful corporate culture, one with committed, long-term customers and dedicated employees.
    John Jantsch - The Commitment Engine: Making Work Worth It
    Wednesday, October 24, 2012
    Central Library

    Why are some companies able to generate committed, long-term customers while others struggle to stay afloat? Why do the employees of some organizations fully dedicate themselves while others punch the clock without enthusiasm? Small-business guru John Jantsch looks at what makes a successful corporate culture.

  • Royals great Frank White discusses his life and career as chronicled in his new book and, for the first time, publicly discusses his dramatic split from the Royals earlier this year.
    Frank White - One Man’s Dream
    Tuesday, October 23, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    During his 18 years playing for the Royals, Frank White became a beloved figure in Kansas City. In a public conversation with sportswriter Bill Althaus, co-writer of One Man’s Dream: My Town, My Team, My Time, White discusses his life and career.