Signature Events

It’s a Circus in Here: Summer Reading Kickoff Party

Summer Reading
Friday Night Family Fun
The Library’s Summer Reading Program is back. Celebrate with an evening of activities including face painting, five-hole mini-golf, and lawn games – you may even be in for a fluffy cotton candy treat! Recommended for ages 3 and up.  
Friday Night Family Fun banner with a circus tent
Plaza Branch
Friday, June 2, 2023
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
In Person Event

A Rabid Sense of Hope: From the Artists’ Perspective

Amy Cousins, Ruben Castillo

Philadelphia artist Amy Cousins and Kansas City educator and printmaker Ruben Castillo talk to the Library's Anne Kniggendorf about their work and their collaboration on the Kansas City Public Library exhibition All Modes are Open to Us, which is on display in the Central Library’s Guldner Gallery through August 12, 2023.

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A Rabid Sense of Hope
Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 6:00pm
Reception: 
5:30pm
Central Library
In Person Event
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Turning Point at Vicksburg: Lessons Learned in the Pursuit of Victory

Angela M. Riotto
Turning Points
Military historian and Civil War authority Angela M. Riotto looks back on the pivotal Union victory at Vicksburg in 1863 – finally achieved after several failed attempts by Ulysses S. Grant and his troops – and the important lessons it brought. Her presentation is part of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
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Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - 6:00pm
Plaza Branch
In Person Event
Online Event
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Restrengthening Democracy

Valerie Lemmie
Valerie Lemmie, director of exploratory research for the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, discusses today’s national and local threats to democracy and offers strategies for tackling them: ways a community can hold onto what it values, how to be better citizens, and creating and building trust.
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image of Valerie Lemmie
Thursday, June 8, 2023 - 6:00pm
Reception: 
5:30pm
Plaza Branch
In Person Event
Online Event
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Play Together: Brain Games

Friday Night Family Fun
Summer Reading
Everyone knows that games are fun. But did you know they can also make you smarter? Try out some family games – brain games – that “trick” you into learning. Recommended for ages 3 and up.  
Plaza Branch
Friday, June 9, 2023
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
In Person Event

Josie and the Pussycats

Off the Wall
Summer Reading

Welcome to a cat-tastic start to this summer’s Off the Wall series of rooftop film screenings, featuring cats in non-starring but invariably scene-chewing roles. The Library screens 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats (PG-13, 98 min.), which finds Rachel Lee Cook and her co-stars in a rising rock band caught in a scheme to control America’s youth.

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cat being held in the air by a pair of arms on pixelated background
Friday, June 9, 2023 - 8:45pm
Central Library
In Person Event
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Rise of the Kansas City Monarchs: We Have Always Played

Larry Lester
Missouri Valley Sundays
There remains an aura around the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the most famous and successful teams in baseball’s Negro Leagues. Drawing from his book Black Baseball in Kansas City, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum co-founder Larry Lester discusses the Monarchs’ beginnings and rise, including a memorable triumph in the first Colored World Series in 1924.
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Sunday, June 11, 2023 - 2:00pm
Central Library
In Person Event
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Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law

Leah Rothstein
In a discussion of the newly released Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law, co-authored with her father Richard, Leah Rothstein looks at the role of federal, state, and local policies in promoting segregation in housing and suggests strategies and changes that can be enacted at a local level to promote inclusive housing.
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Monday, June 12, 2023 - 6:00pm
Plaza Branch
In Person Event
Online Event
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