Signature Events
Brian Steed
Brian Steed, a military historian at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Middle East foreign area officer, discusses the Middle East’s emergence during World War II as a key battleground and vital element in America’s national security – a view that persists to this day.
Tom Tudor
Tom Tudor, once a sentinel and commander of the relief at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns, traces the story of the cemetery from its Civil War origins to today. Included is a look at President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s place in its history, presiding over the interment of World War II and Korean War soldiers in the Tomb of the Unknowns in 1958.
Robert H. Mnookin
Drawing from his new book, Harvard University’s Robert Mnookin takes stock of the situation of American Jews today. While they’ve achieved unprecedented integration, esteem, and influence, he identifies a number of critical challenges: rampant intermarriage, weak religious observance, a waning sense of community (owing to a diminished threat of persecution), and conflicting views about Israel.
Bridget Heos
Friday Night Family Fun
Kansas City children’s author Bridget Heos shares the latest addition to her award-winning series about a little boy and with a bad-guy mustache and the hilarious adventures he finds. Ages 4 and up.
Benjamin Wills
Artist Benjamin Wills has come to understand what a few lines in a letter – or just the arrival of mail – can mean to someone behind bars and separated from society.
After more than a century, the voices of anxiety and joy, of longing and frustration and despair, still rise from the cemetery in the fictional Midwestern town of Spoon River.
Friday Night Family Fun
Kansas City-area entertainers Jay and Leslie Cady have been delighting fans young and old since 1980. They’re off and running again, delivering a lively mix of juggling, mime, magic, and more.
Indie Lens Pop-up
Nightly news cameras trained on the flames, the looting, and the chaos that gripped Baltimore in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015. Filmmaker Marilyn Ness sought, and found, more.
