Signature Event Archive: Audio

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., 2018-11-14
E.g., 2018-11-14

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

A Fierce Glory: Antietam - The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery

There remains a haunting stillness over the grounds around Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, where 3,650 Union and Confederate soldiers perished on the deadliest day—September 17, 1862—in American history.

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In a discussion of his new book A Fierce Glory: Antietam – The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery, historian Justin Martin takes a fresh look at the historically bloody battle that became a watershed in the Civil War. It was a tactical draw, but a Confederate retreat gave Abraham Lincoln the “victory” he sought before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

The Library Book

In a discussion of The Library Book, her acclaimed account of most devastating library fire in our country’s history, author and longtime New Yorker writer Susan Orlean details the Los Angeles Public Library’s life and near-death in April 1986 – a calamity that stirred renewed appreciation for the crucial role that libraries play in all our lives.
 
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In a discussion of The Library Book, her acclaimed account of most devastating library fire in our country’s history, author and longtime New Yorker writer Susan Orlean details the Los Angeles Public Library’s life and near-death in April 1986 – a calamity that stirred renewed appreciation for the crucial role that libraries play in all our lives.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

An Evening With Laura Kasischke

UMKC Cockefair Chair
Laura Kasischke, a renowned literary multi-talent who has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her poetry and seen three of her novels adapted into feature films, discusses her craft and career in a conversation with Angela Elam of public radio’s New Letters on the Air.
 
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Laura Kasischke, a renowned literary multi-talent who has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her poetry and seen three of her novels adapted into feature films, discusses her craft and career in a conversation with Angela Elam of public radio’s New Letters on the Air.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Hiking with Nietzsche

John Kaag of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, discusses his new book Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are. It recounts two his two enlightening journeys to the Swiss mountain city where noted German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his landmark Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
 
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John Kaag of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, discusses his new book Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are. It recounts two his two enlightening journeys to the Swiss mountain city where noted German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his landmark Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

The Epic Two-Year Siege of Acre: 'The Whole Globe Assembled to Fight for Her'

In a discussion of his new book The Siege of Acre, 1189-1191: Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Battle That Decided the Third Crusade, John D. Hosler of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College analyzes the Christian assault on the Mediterranean seaport of Acre – a military epic that claimed tens of thousands of lives over two years.
 

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In a discussion of his new book The Siege of Acre, 1189-1191: Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Battle That Decided the Third Crusade, John D. Hosler of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College analyzes the Christian assault on the Mediterranean seaport of Acre – a military epic that claimed tens of thousands of lives over two years.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality: Women's Activism in Kansas City

Missouri Valley Sundays
In a discussion of his new book Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality: Women’s Activism in Kansas City, 1870 to 1940, author David Hanzlick traces the evolution of women’s activism in the city from the post-Civil War era through the demise of the Pendergast political machine.
 
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In a discussion of his new book Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality: Women’s Activism in Kansas City, 1870 to 1940, author David Hanzlick traces the evolution of women’s activism in the city from the post-Civil War era through the demise of the Pendergast political machine.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

These Truths: A History of the United States

In a discussion of her new book These Truths: A History of the United States, an ambitious look of the origins and evolution of our country from Columbus to Trump, Harvard University’s Jill Lepore poses the question: Can today’s divided nation embrace a shared past?
 

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In a discussion of her new book These Truths: A History of the United States, an ambitious look of the origins and evolution of our country from Columbus to Trump, Harvard University’s Jill Lepore poses the question: Can today’s divided nation embrace a shared past?
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Kansas City Houses, 1885-1938

In an illustrated discussion marking the launch of his book Kansas City Houses 1885–1938, local scholar Michael C. Kathrens spotlights the golden architectural age in which our once rough-and-tumble town evolved into a fashionable city with exclusive neighborhoods on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line.
 
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In an illustrated discussion marking the launch of his book Kansas City Houses 1885–1938, local scholar Michael C. Kathrens spotlights the golden architectural age in which our once rough-and-tumble town evolved into a fashionable city with exclusive neighborhoods on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Benjamin Rush: The Overlooked Founding Father

In a discussion of his new biography Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, award-winning journalist and historian Stephen Fried examines the famous physician and political progressive who was perhaps the most significant Founding Father you’ve never heard of.
 
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In a discussion of his new biography Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, award-winning journalist and historian Stephen Fried examines the famous physician and political progressive who was perhaps the most significant Founding Father you’ve never heard of.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

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