Previous Special Events

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. 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The War of 1812 began with much confidence among U.S. leaders.

Thomas Jefferson predicted that the conquest of Canada was “a mere matter of marching.” But, as historian Richard V. Barbuto points out, “Mr. Madison’s War” found the U.S. government in debt, the Royal Navy raiding our coasts and British troops burning the White House. The conflict was hugely unpopular with American citizens.

How did we get into this war ... and how did we win it?