Previous Special Events

Topeka native Gary Jackson reads from and discusses his Missing You, Metropolis, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the exceptional first book by an African-American poet.

With humor and the delight of a serious comic book collector, Jackson – recently named one of “five young black writers you should be reading now” – imagines the comic-book world of Superman, Batman, and the X-Men co-existing with the real world of Kansas, racial isolation, and the gravesides of a sister and a friend.

Co-sponsored by Park University and the University of Central Missouri.

George Washington was a slave owner, a fact which he described as his “only unavoidable subject of regret.” So much did he regret it that in his will Washington made the startling decision to free his slaves. Author Henry Wiencek, who in 2012 spoke at the Library about Thomas Jefferson’s attitudes toward slavery, now examines the relationship between the most iconic of our Founding Fathers and the “peculiar institution.”

Area high school students bring Shakespeare’s work to life through their unique interpretation of his monologues and sonnets. The competition, created by the English Speaking Union, aims to develop students’ speaking and critical thinking skills as they explore Shakespeare.

Previous winners have gone on to win the national competition in New York, where the winner is awarded a full tuition scholarship to the British American Drama Academy’s Midsummer Conservatory Program.

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

Often referred to as Altman’s “anti-Western,” this dreamlike story follows bumbling gambler McCabe (Warren Beatty) as he settles into a remote mining town and establishes a bordello with the help of the English madam Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie). His success attracts the attention of a predatory corporation that employs killers as members of its acquisition team.

Rated R; 120 minutes.

Local filmmaker Terence O’Malley employs clips from his latest documentary, Harry & Tom, to show how Harry Truman rose through public service – from county official to president of the United States – with the help of Kansas City’s notorious Pendergast political machine.

An insurance executive by day, O’Malley has produced, written, and directed two previous feature documentaries: Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time about local fashion icon Nell Donnelly, and Black Hand, Strawman, a history of organized crime in Kansas City.

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.

Children in kindergarten through eighth grade are encouraged to create their own masterpieces and have good, messy fun during the spring session of the Westport Center for the Arts' "Kids Team Up for Art" workshops.

Local artists will lead participants to focus on both individual skill building and the completion of a group project by the end of the session.

This one-hour production features select Edgar Allan Poe stories (The Pit and the Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart) and poems (Alone, The Bells, and The Raven) performed by classically trained actor Hughston Walkinshaw. Composer Rex Hobart accompanies with musical lines and retorts from a reactive electric guitar.

This show contains mature themes and is recommended for ages 13 and above.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, scholar Marilyn Yalom employs the literature of Moliere, Racine, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, and Simone de Beauvoir to reveal the Gallic evolution of love over the centuries.
She examines how the French invented love, how they have kept it vibrant for over nine centuries, and why the French love
experience is unique.

Yalom has been a professor of French and comparative literature and is senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University.

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) went from playing organ in Kansas City’s silent movie houses to become a fixture of “Paris in the twenties,” a prominent music critic, and a world-famous composer of operas (Four Saints in Three Acts, The Mother of Us All) and movie scores (The Plow that Broke the Plains, The River).