Signature Event Archive

Search the Signature Event Archive to discover past Library events. Watch videos, hear speaker interviews, and listen to audio recordings of previous presentations. Search by keyword (event title, subject, or presenter name), location or by date range.
Signature Event Video Video Signature Event Audio Audio Signature Event Interview Interviews
E.g., 2018-11-16
E.g., 2018-11-16

Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Your Life

Near the end of four months of filming in Kansas City, the Fab Five stars of Netflix’ infectious reality series Queer Eye sit down at the Central Library to discuss their newly released book Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Life and reflect on their experiences here.
 
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Near the end of four months of filming in Kansas City, the Fab Five stars of Netflix’ infectious reality series Queer Eye sit down at the Central Library to discuss their newly released book Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Life and reflect on their experiences here.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Program: 
7:30 pm
Central Library
Event Videos

The Battle of Tarawa: 'One Square Mile of Hell'

Few military battles have matched the concentrated ferocity of the three-day fight between U.S. and Japanese forces in November 1943 for a sandy sliver of land halfway between Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.

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Military historian Bud Meador of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College discusses the “toughest battle in Marine Corps history,” a three-day fight between American and dug-in Japanese forces in November 1943 for the tiny atoll of Tarawa halfway between Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Mister Roberts

Script-in-Hand
Commemorating Veterans Day, members of Kansas City’s Equity Actors' Readers' Theatre (EARTh) deliver a script-in-hand performance of one of the most beloved stage and screen treatments of World War II – winner of the 1948 Tony Award for best play.
 
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Commemorating Veterans Day, members of Kansas City’s Equity Actors' Readers' Theatre (EARTh) deliver a script-in-hand performance of one of the most beloved stage and screen treatments of World War II – winner of the 1948 Tony Award for best play.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Remembering World War I

Join us this Veterans Day for a powerful and poignant commemoration of World War I that integrates live music, dance, poetry, and prose.

Presented in partnership with the University of Missouri—Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, the program includes works in a variety of styles and genres by composers who lived through -- and in some cases fought in -- the Great War.
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Sunday, November 11, 2018
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library

Storytelling Spectacular

Lepp, Cardenas, Lowry, and Washington return for a grand storytelling finale.

Co-sponsored by Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods.

Ages 10 and up.
 

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Saturday, November 10, 2018
Program: 
7:00 pm
Plaza Branch

City School Fair

Parents seeking a good school fit for their children can visit with representatives and parents from 55 public, private, and charter institutions – kindergarten through high school, all within the Kansas City public school boundaries – at the annual City School Fair.
 
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Parents seeking a good school fit for their children can visit with representatives and parents from 55 public, private, and charter institutions – kindergarten through high school, all within the Kansas City public school boundaries – at the annual City School Fair.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Program: 
10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Central Library

Storytelling Celebration

The 19th Annual Kansas City Storytelling Celebration features a lineup of lively stories, anecdotes, myths, legends, and lessons.

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The 19th Annual Kansas City Storytelling Celebration opens with a Friday Night Family Fun performance and a ghost-tales session. Saturday’s Storytelling Spectacular offers an array of lively stories, anecdotes, myths, legends, and lessons.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Jazz at Lincoln Center: Presidential Suite

The best political speeches transcend oratory. In such stirring addresses as John F. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” and Winston Churchill’s “we shall never surrender,” Grammy-winning composer, saxophonist, and conceptualist Ted Nash detects inherent musical elements—lyrics, cadence, rhythm, and melody.

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The Library streams the latest installment of the Jazz at Lincoln Center digital series, spotlighting Grammy winner Ted Nash’s Presidential Suite. Performed by Wynton Marsalis and an ensemble of other gifted musicians, it transforms key passages from some of the 20th century’s most memorable political speeches on freedom into a lushly orchestrated suite of modern jazz.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Final Act: 2018 Art in the Loop Project

The 2018 Art in the Loop Project: KC Plays!, a curated outdoor exhibition, wraps up with a reception, illustrated review, and reflection on this year’s entries.

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The 2018 Art in the Loop Project: KC Plays!, a curated outdoor exhibition staged in partnership with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, and KC Streetcar, wraps up with a reception, illustrated review, and reflection on this year’s entries. Selected artists present their works and discuss their experiences.
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Dawnland

Indie Lens Pop-Up
The marginalization of Native Americans wasn’t simply a crime of our country’s distant, unenlightened past.
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As part of the Indie Lens Pop-Up film series, the Library and KCPT-Kansas City PBS screen the 2018 documentary Dawnland. It chronicles efforts in Maine to come to terms with the decades-long removal of Native American children from their families to force their assimilation into white society. A discussion follows.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Program: 
2:00 pm
Plaza Branch

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