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., 2019/07/18
E.g., 2019/07/18

Remembering Emmett Till

Drive through the Mississippi Delta today, and you’ll find it dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Most chilling, perhaps, are those recalling the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a milestone in the fight for racial equality.

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The University of Kansas’ Dave Tell discusses his new book Remembering Emmett Till, which looks at the conflicted backstory of a growing array of memorials recalling the grisly 1955 murder of Emmett Till. Turns out there’s money to be made in luring civil rights tourists. Politics play a role. And persistent vandalism of the signs and monuments betrays enduring racism.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Event Audio

Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

Writer Claire L. Evans, a contributor to Vice, The Guardian, and Wired and former editor of the multiplatform Motherboard, spotlights the unsung female visionaries who’ve helped write the story of the internet and related technology in a discussion of her book Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.
 
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Writer Claire L. Evans, a contributor to Vice, The Guardian, and Wired and former editor of the multiplatform Motherboard, spotlights the unsung female visionaries who’ve helped write the story of the internet and related technology in a discussion of her book Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

George H.W. Bush: Life to the Fullest

As chief of staff to former President George H.W. Bush for 25 years, Jean Becker oversaw everything from the opening of his presidential library to the commissioning of the Navy aircraft carrier named for him. Mainly, she tried to keep up. 

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George H.W. Bush’s longtime chief of staff, Jean Becker, discusses our 41st president and an inspired post-presidency that saw him become one of the country’s most widely admired political elders.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine

Barry Strauss stands as one of today’s foremost classicists, his exhaustively researched and accessibly written books opening window after window into the history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

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Cornell University’s Barry Strauss, one of today’s foremost classicists, returns to the Library to discuss his latest book, Ten Caesars. It tracks the reigns and impact of 10 of the most important emperors over a 3½-century span of the Roman Empire, from Augustus to Nero to Marcus Aurelius to Constantine.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Event Audio

Tom Stoppard in Love (With Shakespeare)

As the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival settles into its summer production of Shakespeare in Love, let us reappreciate the genius of Tom Stoppard.

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Former University of Missouri-Kansas City English professor Joan FitzPatrick Dean discusses William Shakespeare’s influence on decorated British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard, whose Shakespeare in Love is being staged this summer by Kansas City’s Heart of America Shakespeare Festival.
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Event Audio

Decision 2019: KC's Next Mayor

Less than a week before the June 18 general election, the two candidates to succeed outgoing Kansas City Mayor Sly James face off on the issues and concerns confronting the city.

Can we curb violent crime? How, and to what degree, should tax incentives be employed? What’s the route to more affordable housing?

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Less than a week before the June 18 general election, Jolie Justus and Quinton Lucas – the two candidates to succeed outgoing Kansas City Mayor Sly James – face off on the issues and concerns confronting the city. The public forum is moderated by KSHB-TV news anchors Christa Dubill and Kevin Holmes.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Event AudioEvent Videos

Human Trafficking: Today's Slavery

Slavery isn’t just a sin of the past. Today, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization estimates that more than 40 million victims of human trafficking are forced to engage in commercial sex or labor under the threat of physical and/or financial harm. The number in the U.S. reaches into the hundreds of thousands.

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Slavery isn’t just a thing of the past. Victor Boutros, founding director and CEO of the Virginia-based Human Trafficking Institute, examines the modern scourge of human trafficking – claiming hundreds of thousands of victims in the U.S. and more than 40 million worldwide – and efforts to combat it.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

Scenes From the Heartland

In her new book Scenes from the Heartland: Stories Based on Lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton, award-winning novelist, short story writer, and poet Donna Baier Stein picks up in prose where the iconic Kansas City artist left off in his studio more than half a century ago. She imagines the stories and lives of the subjects of nine of Benton’s lithographs—fiddlers and farm wives, preachers and soldiers, folks gathering in dance halls and tent meetings.

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Author Donna Baier Stein discusses iconic Kansas City artist Thomas Hart Benton, the characters he painted, and the stories and lives she has imagined for them in her inspired new book Scenes from the Heartland: Stories Based on Lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
Event Audio

A River in the City of Fountains

Missouri Valley Sundays

Founded as a port at the confluence of two great rivers, Kansas City has the waters of the Missouri running through its bloodstream—threading expressways, delivering drinking water, carrying traffic and sewage, and emerging most visibly in the city’s celebrated fountains.

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Drake University historian Amahia Mallea explores Kansas City’s long and fraught connection with the great waterway that winds around and through it. A century of managing the Missouri River for commerce and flood control has come at the expense of public health and the environment.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

Kickoff: 2019 Art in the Loop Project

As the 2019 Art in the Loop Project: Make/Believe begins its nearly five-month run in and around downtown Kansas City, meet its lineup of artists and performers and get a peek at their featured works.

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As the 2019 Art in the Loop Project: Make/Believe begins its nearly five-month run in and around downtown Kansas City, meet its lineup of artists and performers and get a peek at their featured works.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
Event Audio

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