Previous Special Events

Its reputation is that of America’s incorruptible police force. Yet the primary mission of the FBI is secret intelligence, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tim Weiner. In his new book Weiner reveals how presidents have used the agency as the most formidable intelligence force in American history, and how the bureau has spied on anyone it considers subversive … including presidents.

The FBI’s secret intelligence and surveillance techniques have created a tug-of-war between national security and civil liberties, creating a tension that strains the very fabric of a free society.

Author Laura Lippman’s appearance at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St. – initially scheduled for this evening, Monday, February 25, 2013 – has been cancelled due to the impending winter storm.

We appreciate you taking the time to RSVP for this event and will make every effort to notify you when and if the event is rescheduled.

Dean Young, this year's Carolyn S. Benton Cockefair Chair Writer-in-Residence at UMKC, reads from his poetry and discusses his work during a public conversation with Angela Elam of KCUR's New Letters on the Air.

Young's poetry has been described "as entertaining as a three-ring circus and as imaginative as a canvas by Hieronymus Bosch." Using surrealist techniques like collage, he often blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination.

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.

In honor of Black History Month Tommy Terrific will be performing a magic show about the African-American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver. The show will feature magic tricks related to Carver’s promotion of peanuts, sweet potatoes, and much more. Tommy will explore the products, inventions, and accomplishments of Carver, also known as the “Wizard of Tuskegee.” This show is appropriate for children of all ages.

Other performances are scheduled during the month of February:

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.