Signature Events

Ghost World

Erin Hamer-Beck
Girlhood and Cinema Series

The Library launches a new film series showcasing the diverse roles of girls in cinematic storytelling with the dark, deadpan, strikingly original portrait of teen alienation Ghost World (2001; R), starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannsen.

 

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The Library launches a new film series showcasing the diverse roles of girls as cinematic storytellers with the dark, deadpan, strikingly original portrait of teen alienation Ghost World (2001; R). The University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Erin Hamer-Beck and the Library’s director of readers’ services, Kaite Stover, lead a subsequent discussion.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Program: 
1:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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World War II Scars the Middle East

Brian Steed

America’s involvement in the Middle East has revolved around oil as well as religion and Zionist pursuits, Cold War tensions, and the specter of terrorism. All arose or expanded as concerns during World War II and its aftermath.

 

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Brian Steed of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College continues a four-part series focusing on the Middle East. He examines a host of concerns – from oil (of course) to religion and Zionist pursuits, Cold War tensions, and the specter of terrorism – that arose as U.S. concerns during World War II and how they impact the world in which we live today.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Central Library
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

2019 Off-the-Wall Film Series: Well (Multi)versed
This animated arachnopalooza spins a web of multidimensional adventure. Young Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) gets the radioactive spider bite that renders him Spider-Man in his world. He joins Spider-folk from alternate realities (including Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage) to stop the villainous Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from destroying the fabric of the entire universe.

Doors open: 8 p.m.  •  Program: 8:45 p.m.
 
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This animated arachnopalooza spins a web of multidimensional adventure. Young Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) gets the radioactive spider bite that renders him Spider-Man in his world. He joins Spider-folk from alternate realities (including Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage) to stop the villainous Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from destroying the fabric of the entire universe.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Program: 
8:00 pm
Central Library
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Are You Ready for the Next Kansas City?

Kevin Klinkenberg
Making a Great City

Kicking off a new fall installment of the Library’s Making a Great City series, Kansas City-based urban planner, designer, and architect Kevin Klinkenberg examines why and how cities being reinvented today, who the winners and losers have been, and how municipalities can make the most of this evolution – looking closely at Kansas City and other noncoastal metropolitan areas.

 

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Kicking off a new fall installment of the Library’s Making a Great City series, Kansas City-based urban planner, designer, and architect Kevin Klinkenberg examines why and how cities being reinvented today, who the winners and losers have been, and how municipalities can make the most of this evolution – looking closely at Kansas City and other noncoastal metropolitan areas.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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You Can Say That: How Courage Can Defeat Political Correctness

David French

Where do we draw the line on free speech? On its tenor? On its subject matter? Have we taken political correctness too far, making individual Americans feel less free to speak their minds amid online shame campaigns, economic boycotts, firings, and even physical threats?

 

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Where does America draw the line on free speech? Have we taken political correctness too far, making individuals feel less free to speak their minds amid online shame campaigns, economic boycotts, firings, and even physical threats? Attorney and National Review senior writer David French explores the issue, raising the question of whether speech is really free if it can’t touch on race, gender, sexuality, and other sometimes uncomfortable matters.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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The 2019 State of Black Kansas City

Gwendolyn Grant

Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, leads a discussion of its 2019 State of Black Kansas City: Urban Education, Still Separate and Unequal. From health to social justice, key indicators trended downward four years ago. To what extent, if any, have they improved?

 

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Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, leads a discussion of its 2019 State of Black Kansas City: Urban Education, Still Separate and Unequal. From health to social justice, key indicators trended downward four years ago. To what extent, if any, have they improved?
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Democracy Will Win

Frido Mann, Luigi Toscano, Larson Powell

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Friday, September 27, 2019
Reception: 
6 pm
Program: 
6:30 pm
Plaza Branch
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Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries and Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard

Joy L. Poole
Missouri Valley Sundays

One of the earliest, and best, accounts of travel along the Santa Fe Trail came from a young physician, Rowland Willard, who trained in St. Charles, Missouri, and set off for the Southwest in 1825. His journals and subsequent autobiography chart a journey that took him to Chihuahua, Mexico, providing a rich account of life on the trail and medicine on the frontier.

 

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In a discussion of Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries & Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard, which she edited, New Mexico Deputy State Librarian Joy L. Poole recounts the richly detailed journey of a young physician over the Santa Fe Trail beginning in 1825.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Program: 
2:00 pm
Central Library
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