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Event Archive

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Format: 2013-05-23
Format: 2013-05-23
  • Think you’re film literate? Not until you’ve experienced the masterpieces of world cinema presented as part of this series.
    Rear Window (1954)
    Sunday, March 24, 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.

  • Kansas City and Seville, Spain, are sister cities. Thus this series of Spanish-language movies by “bad boy” director Pedro Almodovar. He loves women – and makes them the focus of his provocative films.
    "THE SKIN I LIVE IN" (2011; R)
    Saturday, March 23, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    This heady mashup of mad scientist horror story, sexual fantasy, revenge yarn, and existential escape caper from director Pedro Almodovar is simultaneously creepy and beautiful.

    Vera (Elena Anaya) is a prisoner in the clinic of an obsessive plastic surgeon (Antonio Banderas) who inch by inch, surgery by surgery is turning her into the most beautiful woman in the world.

    Who is Vera? Where did she come from? And just what does she mean to the outwardly rational but emotionally tormented doctor? Is it love…or something else?

  • International Jugglers Association team champion Brian Wendling tosses his juggling skills and audience antics into high energy fun! Appropriate for all ages.
    Brian Wendling: Juggling! Comedy! Energy!
    Friday, March 22, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    International Jugglers Association team champion Brian Wendling tosses his juggling skills and audience antics into high-energy fun! Give Brian three or more objects, and he’ll juggle them. Add three or more spectators, and you’ll wonder if he’s juggling the objects or the people!

    Participate in a lively family show suitable for all ages.

  • In observation of Women’s History Month, area civil rights pioneer Julia Hill and educator Mary Ann Wynkoop hold a public conversation that looks back on Hill’s six decades of activism.
    A Celebration of Kansas City Women Making History
    Wednesday, March 20, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Julia Hill spent nearly 60 years at the forefront of the battle for civil rights and equality. Now she participates in a public conversation with educator Mary Ann Wynkoop, discussing her own story as a Kansas City woman who made a difference.

    Hill recently retired from the board of the local NAACP, which she once led. Her history as an activist includes protesting against segregated lunch counters in downtown department stores and presiding over the Kansas City School Board.

  • Author and labor leader Bill Fletcher Jr. takes on accusations that unions pamper workers with high pay and cushy benefits at the expense of the American economy.
    “They’re Bankrupting Us!” And 20 Other Myths about Unions
    Tuesday, March 19, 2013
    Central Library

    Unions have been blamed for budget deficits and for pampering workers with high pay and cushy benefits. Labor leader Bill Fletcher, Jr. tackles those accusations in his book “They’re Bankrupting Us!” He traces the roots of anti-union myths, examines the movement’s missteps and lists significant labor contributions like the minimum wage and 40-hour work week.

  • The annual Searching the Psyche Through Cinema film screening and discussion series returns for an examination of Kansas City’s own home-grown cinema auteur, Robert Altman.
    Vincent & Theo
    Sunday, March 17, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    This annual film series returns for an examination of Kansas City’s own home-grown cinema auteur, Robert Altman.

    The mutually supportive but tortured relationship between the troubled artist Vincent Van Gogh (Tim Roth) and his brother Theo (Paul Rhys) is the subject of this drama, which according to critic Roger Ebert “generates the feeling that we are in the presence of a man in the act of creation.”

    Rated PG-13; 138 minutes.

  • 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, March 17, 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.

  • Kansas City and Seville, Spain, are sister cities. Thus this series of Spanish-language movies by “bad boy” director Pedro Almodovar. He loves women – and makes them the focus of his provocative films.
    "ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER"
    Saturday, March 16, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Despite some outrageous humor, this is a sincere and ultimately heart-wrenching drama from Pedro Almodova that won an Oscar for best foreign language film.
    A Madrid nurse (Cecilia Roth), devastated by the death of her teenage son, becomes surrogate mother to an extended family of misfit women: a pregnant nun (Penelope Cruz), a transsexual prostitute (Antonia San Juan), and a lesbian actress (Marisa Paredes).

  • Jim Cosgrove, local kid rocker and Library favorite, gives a high-energy performance. Appropriate for all ages.
    Mr. Stinky Feet
    Friday, March 15, 2013
    Plaza Branch

    Come out and enjoy a concert by one of Kansas City’s leading family entertainers.

    Jim Cosgrove, local kid rocker and Library favorite, gives a high-energy performance that carries the message that resonates with people young and old: “Hang on to the wonder of youth and love yourself, your neighbor, and the earth.”

    Appropriate for all ages.

  • Swiss architect Beat Kämpfen discusses his designs for solar-powered buildings that not only generate their own energy, but create so much that it can be returned to the grid.
    Holistic Sustainability
    Thursday, March 14, 2013
    Central Library

    Swiss architect Beat Kämpfen doesn’t just design self-sustained, solar-powered buildings. In the 2013 Regnier Lecture he takes that idea a step further, describing plus-energy buildings that not only meet the needs of their owners and operators but generate surplus energy that can be returned to the grid.

    Kämpfen, this year’s Regnier Distinguished Visiting Chair at Kansas State University, is principal of Büro für Architektur (Office for Architecture) in Zürich, Switzerland.