Signature Event Archive

Search the Signature Event Archive to discover past Library events. Watch videos, view photos, 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 Signature Event Photo Photos
E.g., 2017-08-24
E.g., 2017-08-24

Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family

Women's Equality Week
In a discussion of her book Marriage Markets, the University of Minnesota’s June Carbone – a former law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City – examines the role of our country’s growing fiscal inequality in reshaping American families. The event marks Women’ Equality Week.
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The phrase “American family” once evoked the image of a breadwinning dad, homemaker mom, and their 2K kids in comfortable suburbia. No longer as divorces, single parenthood, and out-of-wedlock births rise. One largely overlooked agent of that change: our country’s growing fiscal inequality.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
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2017 Total Solar Eclipse: Up on the Roof

Kansas City gets a prime view of the celestial event of a lifetime – the first total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States since 1979 – and the Library offers one of the best viewing areas and experiences on its fifth-floor Rooftop Terrace.
*** THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY AND RSVPS ARE NOW CLOSED ***
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Geography blesses us. Kansas City gets a prime view of the celestial event of a lifetime – a total solar eclipse – and the Library offers one of the best viewing areas and experiences on its fifth-floor Rooftop Terrace.
Monday, August 21, 2017
Program: 
10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Central Library
Event at Capacity

Partisan Paintings: George Caleb Bingham and the Election of 1844

Missouri Valley Sundays

Art historian Joan Stack explores how two 1845 paintings by Missouri artist and politician George Caleb Bingham may have reflected anxiety about President James K. Polk’s expansionist ambitions and pro-war policies.

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Art historian Joan Stack explores how two 1845 paintings by Missouri artist and politician George Caleb Bingham may have reflected anxiety about President James K. Polk’s expansionist ambitions and pro-war policies.
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Program: 
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Invasion of the Robots from Earth!

Humanity has explored far beyond the reaches of Earth, nearly to the edge of interstellar space (and we’re getting closer every day). We have visited every planet in the solar system except Pluto, many more than once. Given that no human has traveled out of Earth orbit in almost 30 years and none has gone farther than our moon, how did we visit those other places? With robots!
 
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umanity has explored far beyond the reaches of Earth, nearly to the edge of interstellar space (and we’re getting closer every day). We have visited every planet in the solar system except Pluto, many more than once. Given that no human has traveled out of Earth orbit in almost 30 years and none has gone farther than our moon, how did we visit those other places? With robots!
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Program: 
2:00 pm
Plaza Branch

The Beaded Image

Every Street is Charlotte Street
Kansas City-area artist Jessica Kincaid, who works from a palette of colorful beads rather than paint, discusses her work in an illustrated presentation revolving around the Library exhibit Jessica Kincaid: The Beaded Image.
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Kansas City-area artist Jessica Kincaid works from a palette of colorful beads rather than paint, creating pictorial textiles that have been displayed at the Kansas City Jewish Museum and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, among other venues.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library

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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Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Program: 
6:00 pm
Central Library
Event at Capacity

Harold & Maude (1971)

2017 Off the Wall film series: Misfits, Music, and Mayhem
Doors open: 8 pm • Program: 8:45 pm
Young Harold has a bit of a morbid obsession with death. He drives a hearse and attends strangers’ funerals for kicks. But he meets a kindred spirit in the elderly Maude, a fellow funereal tourist who has a livelier outlook on life (or what remains of it). What begins as friendship soon becomes something more, much to the shock and dismay of Harold’s family, therapist, and priest.   
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This year the Library's FREE rooftop summer film series highlights quirky characters fighting the status quo. These madcap movie escapades are set to memorable soundtracks ideally produced to serve up shenanigans.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Program: 
8:00 pm
Central Library

Dino O'Dell: Build a Better World

Friday Night Family Fun
Take a musical trip around the globe with award-winning educator, author, and songwriter Dino O'Dell, and discover how you can build a better world – even while swimming with piranhas in South America or jumping with kangaroos in Australia.
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Take a musical trip around the globe with award-winning educator, author, and songwriter Dino O'Dell, and discover how you can build a better world – while swimming with piranhas in South America or jumping with kangaroos in Australia.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Public Interest Law: Justice for All

Scott Bullock, who heads the libertarian, Virginia-based Institute for Justice, examines the role and impact of public interest law firms and the emergence of state-based public interest groups designed to help underrepresented constituencies and/or promote policy change.
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The history of public interest law traces back almost a century, encompassing the legal strategies of the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union that helped end segregation and gain critical victories for free speech and freedom of the press.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch

Shooting the Eclipse

Kansas City photographer and instructor Reed Hoffmann offers a tutorial on photographing the rare, spectacular total solar eclipse on August 21 – from getting the right equipment to finding the best location and selecting the proper settings.

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Reed Hoffman’s career as a photographer spans more than three decades, and has brought him to inspiring locations both near and far. Inspiration on August 21 comes from above: a total solar eclipse whose path across the U.S. covers Kansas City and areas north.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

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