Signature Event Archive

Search the Signature Event Archive to discover past Library events. Watch videos, view photos, here 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 Signature Event Photo Photos
E.g., 2017-06-28
E.g., 2017-06-28

Yoga on the Rooftop

Feel like an end-of-the-day workout in a unique, open-air setting? Relax and rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit with an hour of yoga on the downtown Central Library’s Rooftop Terrace.
 
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Lauren Leduc, founder and teacher at Kansas City’s Karma Tribe Yoga, leads a relaxing, rejuvenating session on the Rooftop Terrace. It’s suitable for all skill levels.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Program: 
6:00 pm
Central Library
Event at Capacity

Behind the Scenes: Hamlet

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s four-part series of inside-the-play presentations focuses on its summer production of the masterful, revenge-tinged tragedy Hamlet. This week: The Play’s the Thing by Robert Willson, emeritus professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
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The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s four-part series of inside-the-play presentations focuses on its summer production of the masterful, revenge-tinged tragedy Hamlet. This week: The Play’s the Thing by Robert Willson, emeritus professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Program: 
1:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Notorious Incidents of the Ozarks

Missouri Valley Sundays
Infamous characters and sensational incidents abounded in the Ozarks immediately after the Civil War and well into the 20th century. The mining district around Joplin, Missouri, saw perhaps more murderous violence than any comparably populated area in the country. Gunplay erupted with alarming regularity, and spectators flocked to the drama of executions and lynchings.
 
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From Wild Bill Hickok’s gunfight on the Springfield square in 1865 to Bonnie and Clyde’s shootout with Joplin police in 1933, award-winning author Larry Wood examines the Ozarks’ preponderance of violent, murderous events from the 1860s until well into the 20th century.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library

Stagecoach

Script-in-Hand
The Library’s Script-in-Hand series hits the dusty trail as members of the Western Writers of America perform Stagecoach, reading from the Dudley Nichols screenplay that became the 1939 film starring John Wayne.
 
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The Library’s Script-in-Hand series hits the dusty trail as members of the Western Writers of America perform Stagecoach, reading from the screenplay for the 1939 film starring John Wayne. Western Writers President and Emmy-winning screenwriter Kirk Ellis directs.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Program: 
8:00 pm
Plaza Branch

Paul Mesner Puppets: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Friday Night Family Fun
Think you know the real story behind the huffing and puffing? In this delightful adaptation of the beloved fable, Alexander T. Wolf tells his side of the tale of the three pigs and their houses of straw, sticks, and bricks.
Appropriate for all ages.
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Think you know the real story behind the huffing and puffing? In this delightful adaptation of the beloved fable, Alexander T. Wolf tells his side of the tale of the three pigs and their houses of straw, sticks, and bricks.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Program: 
6:00 pm
Plaza Branch

Angels with Angles

Sisters Berta Sailer and Corita Bussanmas were once quiet convent dwellers. Forty-six years ago, however, the two nuns went rogue, fearlessly taking on a Catholic bishop and diocese, politicians, landlords, and the Internal Revenue Service to sustain and grow what now is one of the largest single-site, early education and social service providers in Missouri.
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Sisters Berta Sailer and Corita Bussanmas, who founded Kansas City’s Operation Breakthrough in 1971, join a discussion of its growth into one of the state’s largest and most essential early education and social service centers. Also on hand: Loring Leifer, author of Angels with Angles: The Rogue Nuns behind Operation Breakthrough.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

American Eclipse

In Kansas City and across the country, anticipation is building for the total solar eclipse of August 21. It parallels the nation’s fervor in 1878, when an eclipse darkened skies from Montana Territory to Texas and inspired jockeying among scientists hoping to solve longstanding riddles of the solar system.
 
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Journalist David Baron prefaces the total solar eclipse of August 21 with an examination of the fervor inspired by the eclipse of 1878. He draws from his book American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

Recaptured Africans

As part of the country’s celebration of Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., Occidental College history professor Sharla M. Fett examines a compelling chapter in the 19th-century march toward abolition.
 
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Commemorating Juneteenth, Occidental College history professor Sharla M. Fett discusses her new book and a compelling chapter in the 19th-century march toward abolition: the journeys of slaves aboard illegal slave ships captured by the U.S. Navy and repatriated to Liberia.
Monday, June 19, 2017
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

Behind the Scenes: Hamlet

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s four-part series of inside-the-play presentations focuses on its summer production of the masterful, revenge-tinged tragedy Hamlet. This week: Putting on the Show by HASF’s executive artistic director, Sidonie Garrett, and cast members.
Learn More >
The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s four-part series of inside-the-play presentations focuses on its summer production of the masterful, revenge-tinged tragedy Hamlet. This week: Putting on the Show by HASF’s executive artistic director, Sidonie Garrett, and cast members.
Monday, June 19, 2017
Program: 
1:30 pm
Plaza Branch

A Photographer's Street Guide to Kansas City

Charlotte Street
When TIME magazine was searching for the perfect images to accompany a 2012 cover story on the history of the American dream, it turned to Mike Sinclair. The Kansas City photographer has captured life in the heartland for nearly 4 decades, often training his lens on his hometown.
 
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Acclaimed Kansas City photographer Mike Sinclair, who has spent more than 3½ decades capturing life in his hometown and across America’s heartland, discusses his work in an illustrated presentation revolving around the Library exhibit Mike Sinclair: Main Street.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

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