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
E.g., 2021/06/11
E.g., 2021/06/11

Philly D.A

Larry Krasner, Megan Kamerick, Jerry Redfern, Yoni Brook, Ted Passon, Nicole Salazar, Laurel Wyckoff
Indie Lens Pop-Up Film Series

The city of Philadelphia reduced the size of the local jail population by nearly half from 2015 to 2020, reflecting efforts by District Attorney Larry Krasner – a former civil rights attorney – to lower one of the highest urban incarceration rates in the country. It has been an interesting ride. 

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Thursday, April 22, 2021 8:00 pm

Lift Every Voice: The Enduring Power of Langston Hughes

Kevin Young, Edgar Tidwell, Glenn North, Tahraji Milsap, Jayden James
The Library celebrates the life and work of Missouri-born poet, playwright, and novelist Langston Hughes in a multifaceted event coinciding with National Poetry Month. Kevin Young, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, joins University of Kansas English professor and Hughes scholar Edgar Tidwell in a centerpiece discussion of Hughes’ continued relevance, particularly to young people. 
 
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Wednesday, April 21, 2021 6:30 pm

Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale

Tim Fielder

Tim Fielder is among the artists placing new emphasis on Afrofuturism in comic books and graphic novels, laying out historical timelines in which African-descended peoples and their cultures play a central role in the creation and direction of the world. 

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Tuesday, April 13, 2021 6:30 pm

The Montford Point Marines: A Case Study on Integration

Jeremy Maxwell

When President Franklin Roosevelt signed a 1941 executive order banning discrimination in the military and all other government agencies “because of race, creed, color or national origin,” the then-Commandant of the Marine Corps made his objection clear. “If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 whites or 250,000 Negroes,” Maj. Gen.

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Tuesday, March 30, 2021 6:30 pm

When Women Invented Television

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

Like most industries of the era, television in the 1940s and ‘50s was largely a male monopoly. Four visionary women nonetheless began carving out singular legacies, overcoming sexism, racism, and red-scare McCarthyism to help shape the TV we watch today. In a discussion of her newly released book When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today, author and TV cultural critic Jennifer Keishin Armstrong recounts the careers and contributions of four trailblazers.
 

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Wednesday, March 24, 2021 6:30 pm

Coded Bias

Joy Buolamwini
Indie Lens Pop-Up Film Series

While conducting research on facial recognition technology at the MIT Media Lab, Ghanaian-born Joy Buolamwini was startled to discover that it failed to detect women or dark-skinned faces with accuracy. Machine-learning algorithms designed to eliminate bias were only as unbiased as the humans and historical data behind them. The documentary Coded Bias chronicles the dramatic journey that followed.
 

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Thursday, March 18, 2021 6:00 pm

Brides on the Santa Fe Trail

Joy L. Poole
Missouri Valley Sundays
In commemoration of the bicentennial anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail, historian Joy L. Poole examines the stories of five wives who traveled the Trail between 1830 and 1870. These women recorded their adventures in memoirs, diaries, or letters sent back home. Drawing from the firsthand accounts, Poole introduces these devoted frontier brides, who vowed to take a husband for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ‘til death they do part – no matter how long and arduous the journey before them. This Missouri Valley Sundays program is co-presented by the Kansas City Athenaeum in celebration of Women’s History Month.
 
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Sunday, March 14, 2021 3:00 pm

Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge

Daniel R. Wildcat

Pay attention, scientists say. The deadly winter storm that pummeled Texas last month is the latest warning on the impact of climate change.  

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021 6:30 pm

Binding Us Together

Alvin Brooks, Quinton Lucas

Alvin Brooks’ mark on civil rights history in Kansas City – on the city’s history in total – is indelible. Born into poverty and a racist society, he became a trailblazing police officer and detective, city councilman, and mayor pro tem.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 6:30 pm

A Legacy of Leadership

Emiel Cleaver
Missouri Valley Sundays

While his story is not widely known, Kansas City civil rights leader Leon M. Jordan was among the most influential African Americans in Missouri before being shot to death in 1970. He lent a powerful presence as a co-founder of Freedom Incorporated and three-term state legislator, paving the way for other Blacks in politics. 

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Sunday, February 21, 2021 3:00 pm

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