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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: 2013-06-19
Format: 2013-06-19
  • 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.

  • The seventh season of the Kansas City Public Library’s Script-in-Hand performances continues with the popular female-focused Women of the Years series. Presented by the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre.
    I Do! I Do! - Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
    Sunday, May 12, 2013
    Central Library

    Performance rights to Dreamgirls, previously scheduled as the final Script-in-Hand show of the season, have been withdrawn by the publisher.

    The seventh season of the Library’s Script-in-Hand performances concludes with a special Mother’s Day performance of the musical I Do! I Do! presented by the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre.

  • Coterie Theatre artists read from their favorite children’s books while the audience enjoys an opportunity to “jump into the story” on stage. This program is appropriate for all ages.
    Coterie Theatre - Dramatic Story Time
    Sunday, May 12, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Children and parents are invited to be part of monthly interactive story times presented by the Coterie Theatre. Coterie Theatre artists read from favorite children's books while audience members enjoy an opportunity to "jump into the story" and then participate in an improvised story of their own making.

  • Michael Gillette discusses the life and legacy of Lady Bird Johnson, including her marriage to Lyndon Johnson, her careers as a congressional assistant and radio magnate, and her impressions of other first ladies.
    Lady Bird Johnson
    Thursday, May 9, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Over nearly two decades Lady Bird Johnson recorded 47 oral history interviews with historian Michael Gillette and his colleagues at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. Now Gillette details Johnson’s stories of marriage to a powerful man, of creating a media empire, and of encounters with first ladies like Edith Bolling Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bess Truman.

  • Local hip hop performer/producer Denzel "D/Will" Williams joins UMKC musicologist Andrew Granade for a discussion and performance of contemporary sounds. Features excerpts from the documentaries Latin Music USA: Bridges and From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale.
    Latin Rhythms from Mambo to Hip Hop
    Tuesday, May 7, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    The six-week America’s Music program is a film and discussion series that looks at popular music from blues to bluegrass, Broadway to rock ‘n’ roll. Each event features films followed by a discussion (and frequently performances) led by UMKC musicologist Andrew Granade.

    Featured are the documentaries Latin Music USA: Bridges (2009) and From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale (2006), and a discussion/perfromance with KC rapper Denzel "D/Will" Williams.