Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World - Leo Damrosch: May 14, 2014 The Kansas City Public Library 2026-09-18 | Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World - Leo Damrosch: May 14, 2014
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times The Kansas City Public Library 2024-04-12 | Poet Taylor Byas moved away from her hometown of Chicago and quickly learned how it’s regarded elsewhere. New friends asked her about “Chi-raq” and wanted to know about the thug life. But for Byas, Chicago was so much more complex than its reputation allows.Her latest collection of poetry, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, discovers parallels between her experience and the one depicted in The Wiz, the 1978 movie version of the Tony Award-winning musical. Byas said that late in the project, she realized “this was a story about not only home, but what happens when you're whisked away from home; what does making a new home look like?”She and Kansas City's poet laureate, Melissa Ferrer Civil, discuss structuring the collection with song titles from The Wiz, how leaving her hometown changed the way she saw it in her work, and representing in verse her growth and journey as a writer and as a woman.I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times is the 2023 winner of the Maya Angelou Book Award, founded in 2020 to honor the legacy of Missouri-born author Maya Angelou. The award recognizes exceptional books by contemporary authors whose work demonstrates a commitment to social justice and diversifies contemporary American literature. It’s sponsored by the Kansas City Public Library, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair in Continuing Education, and five other Missouri universities.
35 Years and Counting: Meet KCPL Facilities Specialist Jackie Brown The Kansas City Public Library 2024-04-09 | Facilities specialist Jackie Brown has worked at the Library for 35 years and begins each day walking the floor. Once a week, she also winds all the grandfather clocks in Central.“I want to make sure that all our patrons when they come in have a great experience, they come into a clean facility where they feel welcome,” Brown says. “And I think my role ensures that.”As a single mother, Brown says the job provided a unique opportunity. “My children were raised in the Library,” she says. “And in turn, they are avid readers, they have a love and a passion for books."Brown says she’s proud that the Library looks ahead to the future, embracing “new and innovative technology.”
The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline The Kansas City Public Library 2024-04-02 | The Kansas City Mules baseball team doesn’t have the ring to it that Kansas City Royals does. But how about the Steers, MoKans, Plowboys, Scouts – or the Kansas City Capsules? When entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman gave Kansas City a new professional baseball team in 1968, The Kansas City Star held a naming contest and collected these ideas, plus about 17,000 more.Author and Emmy-award winning Fox4 reporter Matt Stewart has covered the Royals for 20 years, but his new book, The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline, provided an opportunity to dive into the team’s forgotten and lesser-known stories.Just after the 2024 season opener, Stewart shares those stories – and learns a few more – in a conversation with former Royals second baseman, Jackson County Executive Frank White. White played for the Royals for 18 years, appeared in five All-Star games, and won eight Gold Glove awards for fielding.
Credit Where Credit Is Overdue: The World War I Valor Medal Review The Kansas City Public Library 2024-03-27 | Historically, minority U.S. service members have been less likely than their white counterparts to receive medals of valor for valorous acts. Due to that systemic racism, many hundreds of veterans from past wars and conflicts did not receive the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, or service-specific awards like the Distinguished Service Cross. In the years after World War II, the Korean War, and the American war in Vietnam, the U.S. military reviewed the records of minority service members but, until 2018, no such review of World War I minority service members’ records was attempted. Timothy Westcott, Damon Grosvenor, and Martin Roberson of Park University’s George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War, talk to the Library’s Anne Kniggendorf about their ongoing research into African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Jewish American, and Native American service members who may have been denied the Medal of Honor due to racial or religious discrimination. President Biden signed legislation in December approving the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, extending Park’s Valor Medals Review Project through 2028.
Carrie Westlake Whitney: Remembering a Library (and Kansas City) Cornerstone The Kansas City Public Library 2024-03-15 | Carrie Westlake Whitney was a remarkable exception to the patriarchal times in which she lived, a 27-year-old woman who became the first full-time director of the Kansas City Public Library in 1881. Over the next 29 years, she grew and shaped a fledgling institution into a state-of-the-art civic centerpiece. Amid a yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Library’s founding and this month’s nationwide observance of Women’s History Month, historian Jason Roe looks back at Whitney’s significant impact on not only the Library but also a young Kansas City in need of some cultural sheen. Roe, the Library’s digital history specialist, draws from the upcoming book Kansas City’s Public Library: Empowering the Community for 150 Years, which he led in writing. Whitney became a trailblazer in the library industry in emphasizing children’s services. She was part of the move into the first facility in Kansas City built expressly as a library in 1889, then a decade later oversaw KCPL’s first expansion beyond downtown. And she pushed successfully to eliminate required paid subscriptions, giving residents of the city free access to books and all other offerings. Alas, the times caught up with her. The Kansas City school board, which established the Library in 1873 and oversaw it for more than a century, pushed Whitney out. The board’s president was blunt: "I think a man should be selected." Roe has served as the Library’s digital history specialist since 2012. Holder of a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Kansas, he serves as content manager and editor for the historical websites Civil War on the Western Border and The Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age and Great Depression. He also is co-author of the book Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era.
Que tan listo estoy para ser un emprededor? Metodología Lean Canvas The Kansas City Public Library 2024-03-07 | Paso Uno Antes de crear un nuevo negocio, verifica cuál es el punto de partida de tus habilidades y recursos. Comprende y visualiza las partes de un plan de negocios efectivo con Lean Canvas. Descubre cuál es la probabilidad más alta para tu idea, para que puedas iniciar con éxito tu nuevo negocio. Paso Dos ¿Cuál es el problema que resolveré? ¿Quién es mi audiencia objetivo (mis clientes)? ¿Cuál es la solución y mi propuesta de valor? ¿Qué y cómo debo comunicar? Paso Tres ¿Cómo generaré ingresos? ¿Cómo puedo estructurar mis gastos? ¿Cómo sabré que voy en la dirección correcta? (Indicadores clave de rendimiento, KPI).Biografía Diana Rongish MBA, PMP, NLP, ACSTH Consultora, Mentora y formadora apasionada en crear y desarrollar nuevas estrategias para obtener crecimiento sostenible a largo plazo, con un enfoque de solucionar y satisfacer las necesidades del cliente aportándole un valor único y diferencial. Ha liderado varios programas a la medida con el uso de herramientas efectivas de Marketing, Investigación de Mercados, Gestión del Talento Humano y Tecnología para atraer y convertir clientes con alto nivel de calidad. Mentora certificada en Liderazgo y desarrollo profesional. Con más de 20 años de experiencia internacional en consultoría desarrollando mercado en Europa, Latinoamérica y Estados Unidos, entregando resultados de incremento de retención y rentabilidad de emprededores, pequeñas y medianas empresas. Disfruta mucho trabajar con colegas de diferentes perfiles y nacionalidades y logra construir lazos profundos de conocimiento y desarrollo profesional.
Owl Prowl at the Library The Kansas City Public Library 2024-03-01 | What better way to celebrate the new library logo than to learn more about owls. Yvonne Burbach of Wings of Love will share her passion and knowledge of these wise creatures. We will learn about North American owl vocalizations and hunting skills. Swoop will be joining Yvonne, he is a Eurasian eagle-owl, the largest type of owl. Swoop is magnificent and will end the program with a fly-over in Kirk Hall!This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Industry Research Using Statista The Kansas City Public Library 2024-01-30 | This session covers different ways to approach industry research using Statista. Whether you're simply curious or looking for detailed information about a certain industry this virtual session will cover three methods to start your research.
Gun Country The Kansas City Public Library 2024-01-19 | The United States accounts for a little more than 4% of the world’s population and 46% of its private gun ownership, the number of privately held firearms surpassing 393 million. That’s 120 for every 100 people.That pervasiveness is a relatively modern phenomenon. In a discussion of his new book Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture & Control in Cold War America, Louisiana Tech University historian Andrew C. McKevitt tracks a gun boom born of a glut of mass-produced weapons in Europe at the end of World War II and a handful of American entrepreneurs eager and willing to capitalize.Those opportunists bought used munitions for pennies on the dollar and resold them stateside. An emerging Cold War stoked fears and demand for personal protection. When gun control legislation arose in the 1960s, many Americans – accustomed to the unregulated abundance of firearms and fearful of Soviet invasion, domestic subversion, and urban uprisings – mounted a fierce challenge that endures today.In a review of Gun Country, after its release in November, The Washington Post called McKevitt’s account “indispensable … one of the best works of nonfiction this year.”McKevitt is the John D. Winters Endowed Professor of History at Louisiana Tech, where he has taught since 2012. Holder of a Ph.D. in history from Temple University, he is also the author of Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America and has written for Time magazine and MSNBC, among other outlets.
Visions of America The Kansas City Public Library 2024-01-12 | Crosby Kemper III, who served nearly 15 years as executive director of the Kansas City Public Library, returns to discuss his latest project: a PBS-produced video series on historical sites across our country that symbolize the spirit of its independence. Among them: KC’s 18th & Vine Jazz District.The three-part series, Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places, also spotlights the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, the only pan-Asian, community-based museum in the U.S.; and the Freedom Tower (or Torre de la Libertad) in Miami, which served in the 1960s and ’70s as a crucial help center for Cuban refugees fleeing communism and political persecution.The 18th & Vine Jazz District, of course, is a vibrant center for Black history and culture in Kansas City.Kemper discusses the series’ creation and production and shares some favorite locations that did not make the short list of selections. Kemper oversaw the Library from 2005 to the end of 2019, when he received a presidential appointment to head the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, D.C. He concludes a four-year term this year.He and IMLS partnered with PBS Books on the Visions of America series, which explores “the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today.” It heralds the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, to be celebrated in 2026.
Elf on a Shelf Help The Kansas City Public Library 2023-12-24 | Our Elf on a Shelf, Booksie Winterpage, is here with some reading recommendations inspired by classic Elf pranks.Keep these recs for your shelf or add help a loved one find their next read.Get more personalized reading recommendations from our librarians at kclibrary.org/shelf-help
Show Me Love: Female Impersonation and Drag in Kansas City The Kansas City Public Library 2023-12-18 | Drag became a gay bar staple in the 1960s as a shared audience expression of gay sensibility. While often seen as synonymous with female impersonation, drag is distinct – entailing mostly gay audiences in the context of private parties and bars, as opposed to female impersonation acts for predominantly straight audiences.In a discussion drawing from his newly published book The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After, author and scholar Lucas Hilderbrand spotlights two gay establishments on Kansas City’s Troost Avenue in the 1960s: the Jewel Box Lounge and the Colony Bar. He examines how these venues made the differences between drag shows and female impersonation apparent at a time when gay bars were emerging as visible and politicized spaces.Hilderbrand is a professor and chair of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Although based in Los Angeles, his family hails from Missouri, and Kansas City is a second home town to him.His presentation is co-presented by the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA), located within the LaBudde Special Collections at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Cultivating Good Community Vibes: How Libraries and Parks Bring Us Together The Kansas City Public Library 2023-12-06 | Good vibes don’t come out of thin air. Community-wide good vibes take some work and are a product of factors like good planning, collaboration, and shared spaces. Tommi Laitio, an expert in library and public park design and governance, discusses his research on the natural state of friction between religious, social, and cultural practices and how shared public institutions like libraries can facilitate a confluence of friendship and joy, or conviviality.The Kansas City Public Library launches a yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of its founding with a special presentation by the Finnish-born scholar, urbanist, and innovative civic leader.The former executive director of culture and leisure for the Finnish capital of Helsinki, Laitio examines the concept of transforming communities through the design of libraries, parks, and other public spaces for greater conviviality. “Parks and libraries,” he says, “can be inspiring and safe learning grounds for living in a diverse world and thus an essential component of democratic society, especially in times like today when polarized political conversations can cause us to feel divided.”They "allow us to share resources without forcing us to shared action.”Laitio is currently an inaugural Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow at the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University. During his more than five-year tenure as director of culture and leisure for the city of Helsinki, from 2016 to early 2022, he oversaw a department that won international and national awards for innovations in youth employment, public libraries, citizen engagement, cultural access, COVID-19 response, and increasing physical activity.Also part of the anniversary celebration: Glenn North, the director of inclusive learning and creative impact for the Kansas City Museum and the first poet laureate of the city’s Historic 18th & Vine Entertainment District, presents an original poem in honor of the Library on its anniversary.
150 Years and Counting: Celebrating Library Foundations and Future The Kansas City Public Library 2023-12-05 | How do you showcase 150 years of the Kansas City Public Library in five minutes? Our staff, patrons, and board members partnered with Stellar Image Studios to figure it out. We centered people, our services, and our enduring commitment to discovery and transformation. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, you belong at the Kansas City Public Library. What will you discover next? Learn more about our year-long 150th celebration: kclibrary.org/150Sign up for a library card: kclibrary.org/librarycard
Kansas City Public Library Hosts Inaugural Heartland Book Festival The Kansas City Public Library 2023-11-30 | On October 7, 2023, we invited Missourians to "Find Your Story" at the inaugural Heartland Book Festival, a partnership with Missouri Humanities and the Missouri Affiliate for the Center for the Book. Festival goers explored story and literature through new photography exhibitions, musical and theater performances, panel discussions featuring local and national authors, creative pep talks, writing, tarot, collage, and print-making workshops, a featured presentation from international best selling author Karin Slaughter, and face time with celebrated children’s authors and illustrators.The Heartland Book Festival is a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities, and the Missouri Center for the Book. Learn more at heartlandbookfest.org.Special thanks to our Heartland Book Festival sponsors: the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Folly Theater, KC Streetcar, Heart of KC Foundation, the Missouri Arts Council, KCUR 89.3, and the Health Forward Foundation.
This Place of Promise: A Historians Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History The Kansas City Public Library 2023-11-29 | Former Missouri archivist Gary Kremer, one of the state’s foremost historians, discusses the latest of his 12 books, This Place of Promise: A Historian's Perspective on 200 Years of Missouri History.It examines the how and why of two centuries’ worth of events leading up to Missouri’s 2021 anniversary of statehood. For Kremer, a fifth-generation Show-Me-Stater, that history is personal; he aims to get at the heart of what it means to see himself as part of the state’s past and present. He also discusses how the forces of history have shaped other Missourians and the opportunities available to them both in the past and in the years to come.Kremer has served as executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri and is a senior fellow in its Center for Missouri Studies. He has written about George Washington Carver, women in Missouri history, and the African American experience in the state. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Missouri Historical Review.
Crisis in the Middle East: Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict - Complete Event The Kansas City Public Library 2023-11-07 | Centuries of Arab-Israeli enmity has re-erupted into crisis, Hamas militants from Gaza unleashing an unprecedented attack on Israel and the Israelis fiercely striking back. Political and humanitarian ramifications ripple across the globe.Understanding the conflict is not easy. In a special and timely Library event, military historians from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth examine its historical roots – how medieval times continue to inform modern beliefs about rights and ownership in the Holy Land – and identify today's issues. Why do they disagree on everything from the setting and characters to objectives, God's will, and the conflict’s origins? To understand the animosities, one must comprehend the context.Joining the conversation are two authorities on the region:John Hosler, a professor of military history at the Command and General Staff College, is an expert on medieval warfare in Europe and the Near East and the author of seven books including Jerusalem Falls: Seven Centuries of War and Peace, released late last year. Holder of a doctorate in European history from the University of Delaware, he is a trustee of the U.S. Commission on Military History, a fellow of the British-based Royal Historical Society, and past president of De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History.Brian Steed is an associate professor of military history at the Command and General Staff College, where he has taught since 2013. He served in the Army as an armor officer and Middle East foreign area officer, living and working there for 8½ years. He retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in political science and history.
Bobbling Through History The Kansas City Public Library 2023-11-03 | Bobbleheads of baseball players are popular giveaways at ballparks across the nation. But why? Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, explains the attraction and how his museum aims to advance understanding of the historical role that bobbleheads play in American culture – while also celebrating the quirky side of collecting them.In 2020, Sklar worked with Dreams Fulfilled and Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to create a line of player bobbleheads for the centennial celebration of the Negro Leagues’ formation. That collection remains the Bobblehead Museum’s largest for a single organization.Sklar talks with the Library's Anne Kniggendorf about the history of bobbleheads, their versatility – they’re not just for sports – and what goes into producing them. He also discusses why these bobbly figures warranted the founding of a very niche museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
What We Do In The Library The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-30 | Since Nadja's vampire night club closed, she's found a new place to party: The Library.
Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-26 | We want Kansas City – and cities across the country – to be more affordable, more equitable, more vibrant and sustainable. Among the necessary fixes, former New York City planner Nolan Gray says, is this: Scrap zoning.In a discussion drawing from his book Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It, Gray prescribes an end to the use of arbitrary lines that have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing many cities into patterns of growth that are segregated and sprawling. Most noticeable among the ramifications is a dramatic rise in home prices – 42% from 2019 to the end of last year.The no-zoning solution is gaining traction. Key pillars of zoning have come under fire in Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, among other cities, with the removal of bans on apartments, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing. Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city, makes land-use planning work without zoning.The presentation by Gray is part of the Library’s Making a Great City series, which is aimed at fostering the healthy growth of Kansas City. Now in its sixth year, it is co-presented by Multistudio, the Hall Family Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.Gray is the research director for California YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard), a Sacramento-based housing advocacy organization that has successfully backed eight state bills to increase home building and expand access to opportunity. He previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City’s Department of City Planning.A widely published writer, his work has appeared in outlets including The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Bloomberg’s CityLab.
De-Mystifying the Grant Writing Process The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-25 | This program is ideal for people representing Non-Profit organizations who are new to grant writing and/or fundraising. Learn about crucial components of a grant application and how you can prepare to take advantage of the right funding opportunities.
Provoking the Press The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-25 | A healthy democracy needs engaged and curious citizens as well as engaged and curious journalists. But in the 1970s, engagement and curiosity took a turn toward skepticism and even cynicism about not only democracy but also the media outlets covering government – a feeling that persists today.Kevin Lerner talks about his new book Provoking the Press: (MORE) Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism, which looks at the journalists who wrote about how others in their field covered big events of the day – from the Watergate scandal to the “seven dirty words” obscenity trial and debate over a reporter’s constitutional privilege.Lerner, who holds a doctorate in journalism and media studies from Rutgers University, is a journalism professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he teaches, among other topics, American press history, media law, and narrative journalism. He edits the Journal of Magazine Media and serves on the executive committees of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies and the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference.
The Cuban Missile Crisis: Catalyst for Change in the Cold War The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-11 | A year ago, when Vladimir Putin accompanied Russia’s assault on Ukraine with some nuclear saber-rattling, U.S. President Joe Biden noted that Americans “have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”It was a reminder of the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War: the U.S.-Soviet stare-down in October 1962 over the USSR’s installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 93 miles off the coast of Florida. In the latest installment of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, military historian Gates Brown looks back at the crisis, its causes, and its lasting ramifications.The brief but frightening episode brought home the nuclear reality of the Cold War to many in the U.S. for the first time. It also represented a dramatic escalation of competition between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China over which of the countries was best advancing global communism.Placing the Cuban Missile Crisis in that broader context, Brown says, helps to better explain the crisis and its long-term implications.Brown is an associate professor at the Command and General Staff College who was named its civilian educator of the year in 2021. A former Army captain who served (and was injured in combat) during Operation Iraqi Freedom, he holds a master’s degree and doctorate in military history from the University of Kansas.
Author Karin Slaughter The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-08 | The works of bestselling author and crime writer Karin Slaughter have spawned two streaming and television series: Netflix’s Pieces of Her, adapted from Slaughter’s novel of the same name, and the ABC police procedural Will Trent.The Heartland Book Festival is a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities, and the Missouri Center for the Book. Learn more at heartlandbookfest.org.This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Illustrator and Storyteller Andy J. Pizza The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-08 | Andy J. Pizza, based in Columbus, OH, is an American illustrator who has worked for clients such as The New York Times and LEGO, as well as illustrated picture books like "A Pizza With Everything On It." His podcast, Creative Pep Talk, hosts guests like comedian Abbi Jacobson and poet Morgan Harper Nichols. Andy is a storyteller, often pep talking teams at creative hubs like Warby Parker and Sesame Street.The Heartland Book Festival is a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities, and the Missouri Center for the Book. Learn more at heartlandbookfest.org.
Author and Podcaster Jermaine Fowler The Kansas City Public Library 2023-10-07 | Jermaine Fowler is a New York Times Bestselling Author and public historian who founded The Humanity Archive, a media company that uses history to explore the stories of humanity. His work sheds light on the unsettling history and current realities of poverty, racism, and educational inequality in post-industrial cities. Jermaine offers hope by studying traditions of excellence that connect us and push us toward a better world. He teaches us how history can be a powerful tool for transformational change, uncovering our blind spots and features voices and perspectives traditionally erased from the past.The Heartland Book Festival is a partnership between the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities, and the Missouri Center for the Book. Learn more at heartlandbookfest.org.
Invited to Life: Artist Talk The Kansas City Public Library 2023-09-28 | Internationally known photojournalist and writer B.A. Van Sise traveled the United States for four years documenting the lives of more than 150 Holocaust survivors with the aim of highlighting their individual experiences and the paths they forged in their new country after World War II.“No matter how it might seem,” he writes, “this is not a book about the Holocaust. This is a story of overcoming.” Van Sise – joined by Holocaust survivor Allan J. Hall and the Library’s Kaite Stover – discusses what that means and how he worked with his subjects to reflect their “overcoming.”The event coincides with the exhibition Invited to Life on display at the Central Library through October 21, 2023. Featuring selected black-and-white portraits from the 90-photograph, four-essay book Invited to Life: Finding Hope After the Holocaust. The portraits were originally shown at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and are now featured in Kansas City for the first time.
The Last Million: Europes Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War The Kansas City Public Library 2023-09-21 | The terrible toll of World War II did not end when the fighting in Europe stopped in 1945. Millions of refugees – concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators fleeing Russia’s Red Army – remained in a devastated Germany, malnourished and increasingly desperate.Many were repatriated to their homelands. More than 1 million were not, including some 250,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust whose homes in Europe had vanished. Assistance from other countries, including the United States, never came or lagged.Renowned historian David Nasaw recounts this tragic postscript to the war in a discussion of his book The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War. Those stranded refugees spent the next three to five years in camps, divided by nationality, with their own police forces, churches and synagogues, schools, newspapers, theaters, and infirmaries. By 1952, the Last Million were scattered around the world.Nasaw is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for biographies on Andrew Carnegie and Kennedy family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy and earned the Bancroft Prize for History and J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. A past president of the Society of American Historians, he serves as a distinguished professor emeritus of history, biography and memoir, and American studies at the City University of New York.His presentation is co-presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Turning Points: Seven Days in September 1814 The Kansas City Public Library 2023-09-13 | A still-young America saw a test of its mettle and might a little more than two centuries ago. Britain was seizing merchant ships and their cargoes, forcing crewmen to enlist in the Royal Navy, and providing arms to Native Americans on the frontier. The U.S. responded with a declaration of war in 1812 but struggled to back it up, losing battle after battle.Three victories in the space of a week in September 1814 proved a turning point in the war and set the U.S. back on a path to greatness.In the latest installment of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, military historian Richard Barbuto looks back at that critical chain of events: a successful defense of Baltimore, then the country’s third-largest city; victory in the Battle of Plattsburgh (New York), turning back British attempts to invade the northern United States; and thwarting a British siege of Fort Erie.It headed off British hopes of creating an Indian state north of the Ohio River – under their sovereignty – and demilitarizing the Great Lakes. Barbuto is a professor emeritus of military history at the Army Command and General Staff College and former deputy director of its Department of Military History. A 1971 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served for 23 years as an Army armor officer.He holds a doctorate in American history from the University of Kansas and has written several books and numerous articles on the War of 1812.
An Army Afire The Kansas City Public Library 2023-09-01 | Amid the United States’ protracted involvement in Vietnam, its military confronted racial justice demands more directly than perhaps any other institution in the country. Senior leaders recognized that racial conflict between troops compromised the stability of the ranks and subsequently their ability to defend the nation. In a discussion of her new book, An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era, University of Kansas history professor Beth Bailey looks back on that reckoning and its impact. She’ll give a presentation followed by a conversation with the Library’s Anne Kniggendorf and talk about her research, the challenges and roadblocks the Army faced in managing racially integrated units, and how the Army’s approach to addressing “the problem of race” was eventually woven into its long-term institutional practice and widely adopted in the civilian world. Bailey is the director of KU’s Center for Military, War, and Society Studies and the author of numerous books and articles based on feminist studies research and her scholarship on the armed forces. The two might seem like disparate interests, but she writes: “I ask questions about the nature and impact of social, cultural, and institutional authority; about who ‘belongs’ in the United States and on what terms; and about how, exactly, social change occurs.”
Ordinary Equality The Kansas City Public Library 2023-08-25 | For more than 200 years, the U.S. Constitution has been subject to a succession of influencers, starting with the likes of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Author Kate Kelly wants to acquaint you with some less celebrated figures who, notably, have pushed for “constitutional equality” for women and other marginalized groups.In a discussion of her book Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment, Kelly recounts the centuries-old fight against gender and sex discrimination and examines the lives of 12 women who’ve helped wage it. The ERA has been an important undercurrent in the movement since an initial version of the constitutional measure was drafted in 1923.Kelly’s presentation comes two days before Women’s Equality Day, celebrated annually on August 26.A nationally known advocate for ERA ratification, Kelly holds a JD degree from American University Washington College of Law, the only law school in the nation founded by and for women. She is the creator and host of the podcast Ordinary Equality.This event is co-presented by the Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City's Women's Equality Week Coalition, and the Human Rights Commission.
Conflict and Crisis: Iran’s About-Face The Kansas City Public Library 2023-08-09 | Iran once stood, with Saudi Arabia, as one of two key pillars in protecting America’s interests in the Middle East. That changed with the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the U.S. is grappling today with a steady escalation in Iranian aggression and tensions – among other things, over Tehran’s shipments of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.Iran is now considered one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism in opposition to United States’ objectives in the Middle East and across the globe.In the latest installment of the Library’s Conflict and Crisis series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, military historian and Middle East authority Brian Steed guides a discussion of that decades-long shift in dynamics and where our country’s fraught relations with Iran might be heading.Joining him on the panel are Gates Brown, also an associate professor in the Command and General Staff College’s Department of Military history, and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Frank Klimas.· Steed is an associate professor of military history at the Command and General Staff College, where he has taught since 2013. He served in the Army as an armor officer and Middle East foreign area officer, living and working there for 8½ years. He retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in political science and history.· Brown, who was named the Command and General Staff College’s civilian educator of the year in 2021, is a former Army captain who served in Iraq (and was injured in combat) during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He holds a master’s degree and doctorate in military history from the University of Kansas.· Klimas just retired as commander of the Air Force’s 505th Command and Control Wing, Detachment 1, at Fort Leavenworth. In that capacity, he served in part as the principal airpower advisor to the Training and Doctrine Command of the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center. Klimas also was a foreign area officer for the Middle East and North Africa, and he serves on the board of Kansas City’s International Relations Council.
Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law The Kansas City Public Library 2023-08-03 | Written by father and daughter Richard and Leah Rothstein, the newly released Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law builds on Richard’s 2017 book The Color of Law, which posited that racial segregation in housing is the result of federal, state, and local policies.In a discussion of Just Action, Leah Rothstein looks further at that pernicious connection while also suggesting strategies and changes to policy that can be enacted at a local level to promote inclusive housing. Rothstein is a consultant for affordable housing developers and a union organizer in San Francisco.
1918: Turning Points in an Attritional War The Kansas City Public Library 2023-07-19 | Fearsome new weaponry and the adoption of trench warfare made World War I a horrific, slow-moving slog of attrition. By the time it ended in late 1918, four years of fighting had claimed the lives of more than 16 million soldiers and civilians. In the latest installment of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, military historian Shawn Faulkner examines the uniqueness of this first truly global conflict. The turning points of many previous attritional wars had arrived far earlier as one side gained a preponderance of power over the other. But until its final months, the victor of the Great War remained very much in doubt. Faulkner is a professor of military history at the Army Command and General Staff College. He served for 23 years in the Army as an armor officer, commanding a tank company during Operation Desert Storm before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He also taught American history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Faulkner is the author of three books including What Price Glory, Captain Flagg? Leader Competency in the American Expeditionary Forces, which examines how the U.S. Army trained and developed company-level leaders during WWI. His most recent work, Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I, earned the Richard W. Leopold Prize from the Organization of American Historians as the best book on foreign policy, military affairs, historical activities of the federal government, documentary histories, or biography written by a U.S. government historian or federal contract historian.
Henry Perry: Kansas City’s Barbecue King The Kansas City Public Library 2023-07-03 | Henry Perry is the undisputed father of Kansas City’s barbecue tradition, with both Arthur Bryant’s and Gates Bar-B-Q tracing their roots to the city’s original Barbecue King. In 2020, Mayor Quinton Lucas designated July 3 as Henry Perry Day, celebrating Perry’s legacy and his generosity in hosting a free public barbecue on that date in 1920 at his east-side restaurant.Tapping new resources and research tools, local historian Michael Sweeney has produced the first new historical assessment of this iconic figure in 20 years. He discusses his findings, including new insights into Perry’s mentorship of Black men and women in the barbecue business, his unique place among his business competitors, and many other aspects of his life and career. Sweeney lends fresh perspective about the role of a legend who once walked – and smoked meats – among us.Sweeney is a writer, researcher, and historian who has served as archivist for the American Jazz Museum and the Black Archives of Mid-America. He coordinated Missouri’s statewide Bicentennial celebration in 2021.
Kansas Citys Montgall Avenue: Black Leaders and the Street They Called Home The Kansas City Public Library 2023-06-23 | Just a few minutes south of the celebrated intersection of 18th and Vine streets, some of the most notable chapters in Kansas City’s Black history sprang from a single city block on Montgall Avenue.There, in the first half of the 20th century, lived Chester Franklin, founder of one of the city’s and country’s leading African American newspapers, The Call. The publication’s trailblazing editor and civil rights standard bearer, Lucile Bluford, resided nearby. Alongside them were Edward Perry, who established the first hospital for Kansas City’s Black residents, Wheatley-Provident; and the principal and four teachers at what was then the city’s only Black high school, Lincoln High.In a discussion of her new book Kansas City's Montgall Avenue: Black Leaders and the Street They Called Home, author Margie Carr recalls this 16-home, elm tree-lined enclave and the leaders and influencers who settled there. The 2400 block of Montgall also came to illustrate the perniciousness of racial discrimination and segregation. Residents found themselves unable to transfer wealth to the next generation, and the area today is one of the poorest in the city, many of its once-graceful houses abandoned, razed, or destroyed by fire.Carr, who grew up in suburban Kansas City, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in economic education from the University of Kansas. Now living in Lawrence, Kansas, she writes and works as a volunteer children’s advocate for the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Douglas County.
Resources to Help Start, Grow or Expand your Business The Kansas City Public Library 2023-06-14 | Are you a small business entrepreneur interested in starting a small business but you're not sure where to start? Join Sheila Forrester with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Kansas City District Office and Small Business and Non-Profit Specialist, Hadiza Sa-Aadu, as they share free resources that will help you refine your business idea(s), create a business plan, conduct market and competitor research, and understand the legal steps you need to take to legally register your business.
Restrengthening Democracy The Kansas City Public Library 2023-06-09 | For over 35 years, Valerie Lemmie, director of exploratory research for the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio, has worked to solve public problems and controversial issues in government organizations and local communities.She discusses today’s national and local threats to democracy, including Kansas’ alleged gerrymandering in redistricting and Missouri’s controversial changes to voter ID requirements. She also offers strategies for individuals and groups: ways a community can hold onto what it values, how to be better citizens, and creating and building trust. A National Academy of Public Administration fellow, Lemmie holds leadership positions in the National Civic League, the Center for New Democratic Processes, and numerous other local, national, and international organizations. Her presentation – co-presented by the Mid-America Regional Council
Turning Point at Vicksburg: Lessons Learned in the Pursuit of Victory The Kansas City Public Library 2023-06-07 | The tide of the Civil War turned in many respects with Ulysses S. Grant’s successful, weeks-long siege of the blufftop city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, securing Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in two.Military historian and Civil War authority Angela M. Riotto looks back on that pivotal victory – finally achieved in 1863 after several failed attempts by Grant and his troops – and the important lessons it brought. Grant and his subordinates would apply those lessons throughout the rest of the war. The presentation is part of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.Riotto is an assistant professor of military history at the Command and General Staff College, specializing in the American Civil War era, prisoners of war, memory studies, and gender studies. Holder of a doctorate in history from the University of Akron, she served previously as a historian on the Army University Press’ Films Team, producing documentaries for use in teaching military history and current U.S. Army doctrine.
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain The Kansas City Public Library 2023-05-23 | Andrew McCarthy may be best known for his membership in Hollywood’s 1980s Brat Pack and roles in classic films including St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Mannequin. But he’s also an author and has written for National Geographic. He discusses his latest book, Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain, the poignant account of a five-week pilgrimage he made along the historic Camino de Santiago with his young adult son Sam. McCarthy hoped the trip would allow the two to connect in meaningful ways, and indeed that happened amid discussions of divorce, the trauma of school, fame, and McCarthy’s difficult relationship with his own father. They had more substantive interactions in those five weeks, McCarthy said, than in the previous two decades. Co-presented by Rainy Day Books.
The Spirit of the West Bottoms The Kansas City Public Library 2023-05-22 | From its earliest days as a settlement of French trappers and traders, Kansas City’s West Bottoms grew more than a century ago into a bustling railroad hub and agricultural and livestock center. Ingrained in that rich history is the distillation, distribution, and consumption of liquor. Prior to Prohibition, dozens of West Bottoms saloons served locally produced spirits to a thirsty clientele of workers from nearby stockyards and packinghouses. When master distiller Alex Lindsey founded the West Bottoms Whiskey Co. in 2021, he embraced the Bottoms’ legacy of industrialization and entrepreneurism and its role in shaping Kansas City as a commercial hub. In a special Library event, he examines the history of American whiskey, the emergence of the West Bottoms District, and the pre-Prohibition era that influences and inspires his whiskey making. Samples of Lindsey’s award-winning Kansas City Whiskey are offered following the program, which is co-presented by the Historic West Bottoms in conjunction with its Heritage Days celebration.
IDEAL Entrepreneurship with Jackie Nguyen The Kansas City Public Library 2023-05-19 | Jackie Nguyen, founder of Café Cà Phê, highlights the second installment of the Library’s four-part series on how to make entrepreneurship in Kansas City more inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, and liberating – more IDEAL for all. Café Cà Phê is Kansas City’s first Vietnamese coffee shop. Nguyen started her business as a food truck in 2020 but since has opened a brick-and-mortar location in the Columbus Park neighborhood. She discusses entrepreneurship through the lens of allyship and diversity as a first-generation Vietnamese American and daughter of a refugee.
Xi Jinping and Taiwan: Where Is China Headed, and Why? The Kansas City Public Library 2023-05-10 | Taiwan sits ever more uncomfortably in the shadow of China and the threat of forced reunification with its neighboring giant. In the latest installment of the Library’s Conflict and Crisis series, a panel of military historians and experts from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College examines the roots of those tensions and the broad ripples they still cause today. A speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping a little less than two years ago, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Community Party, still reverberates. He talked of rejuvenation since the Century of Humiliation, a period ending in 1949 in which China lost control over large portions of its territory at the hands of foreign powers. Taiwan’s return is an essential element in that revival. The three panelists recount the key events of the Century of Humiliation and rise of Xi as a contemporary leader rivaling Mao Zedong in power and global influence. And they assess the Taiwan situation – the biggest and most dangerous concern in today’s Sino-American relations. Joining the discussion: Geoff Babb is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel and current professor in the Department of Military History at the Army Command and General Staff College. He served as an Army foreign area officer in China and in the Defense Intelligence Agency and on the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C. John Modinger, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, is an associate professor in the Command and General Staff College’s Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations. He holds a doctorate in military and strategic studies from the University of Calgary with a concentration in Chinese strategic thought. Lt. Col. David C. McCaughrin is an instructor in the Command and General Staff College’s Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations. An Army foreign area officer with China as his area of concentration, he has served as a senior policy analyst with the China Strategic Focus Group of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and at the Pentagon as chief of the Indo-Pacific Branch of the Army’s International Affairs Division. The Conflict and Crisis series looks at the chief sources of international stress for the U.S. today. Subsequent installments will focus on North Korea, Iran, and the world’s violent extremist organizations.
Taking It to the Streets: Rethinking Mobility in America’s Cities The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-28 | A little more than a century ago, cars were introduced to our cityscape, dramatically changing the nature of streets as places for walking. Through societal shifts and new design priorities, they became urban thoroughfares built for speed. In the latest installment of the Library’s Making a Great City series, University of Virginia transit historian Peter Norton examines that evolution, its impact, and the necessity – again – to revise our concept of city streets. We’ve adopted the most expensive transportation strategy conceivable, he says, advocating for mobility that is more inclusive, more equitable, and more healthful. Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at Virginia, where he teaches the history of technology, social dimensions of engineering, research, and professional ethics. A frequent speaker on the subject of sustainable and equitable urban mobility, he is the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City and Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving. His presentation is the 15th in the Making a Great City series, which is aimed at fostering the healthy growth of Kansas City. Now in its sixth year, it is co-presented by Multistudio, the Hall Family Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. This program is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Celebrate National Library Week with Kansas City Public Library The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-26 | Happy National Library week! Check out these messages celebrating libraries.
An Ordinary Wonder The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-13 | Buki Papillon’s acclaimed debut novel An Ordinary Wonder revolves around an intersex Nigerian teenager whose sex at birth is unclear. The child is designated as a boy – wishful thinking on the parents’ part -- which goes wrong almost immediately. Young Oto identifies as a girl. The story is about righting this wrong. A native of Nigeria, Papillon talks to the Library's Kaite Stover about how her work delves into African belief systems, superstitions, and folklore to fully root the tale in the African nation, as well as to humanize and add weight and depth to the character’s challenge. Papillon won the second annual Maya Angelou Book Award given in alternate years for works of fiction and poetry. The Library, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and five other Missouri universities sponsor the national honor, which recognizes literary merit, commitment to social justice, and how a book “serves to enrich the diversity of American literature.”
Turning Points: U.S. Grant and the Battle of the Wilderness The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-12 | The first meeting of the Civil War’s two preeminent commanders, Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, came in May 1864 in two bloody days of fighting in a dense Virginia woods known as the Wilderness. Neither Grant and the North’s Army of the Potomac nor Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia could claim victory, gaining little to no ground. Still, the Battle of the Wilderness was a critical turning point in the war. Though Grant’s forces sustained the bulk of its 30,000 casualties, he refused to retreat. He chose, inspiringly, to press ahead in the Union’s newly mounted offensive toward Richmond – a dogged advance that would culminate in the final defeat of Lee’s army and the Confederacy a little less than a year later. Military historian Harry S. Laver recounts this important juncture in the latest installment of the Library’s Turning Points series in partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Laver, a professor in the college’s Department of Military History, holds a doctorate in history from the University of Kentucky. He is the author of two books, The Leadership of Ulysses S. Grant: A General Who Will Fight and Citizens More than Soldiers: The Kentucky Militia and Society in the Early Republic.
Foundation Directory Online and Grants.Gov Virtual Demonstration The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-10 | Learn tips and tricks for utilizing Foundation Directory Online (available at the Central Library) and Grants.gov to find funders. If it's been a while since you've searched for grants, join this virtual demonstration to brush up on your approach.
NedRa Bonds Artist Talk: This is Who We Are Quilt Exhibit at the Kansas City Public Library The Kansas City Public Library 2023-04-07 | In celebration of National Quilting Month and Women’s History Month in March, the exhibition This is Who We Are features narrative quilts created by textile artist NedRa Bonds and her granddaughter, Ashlynn Bonds. Embracing a whimsical, nontraditional approach passed down through generations, the works embody themes revolving around African American culture, womanhood, familial origins, resilience, and human connectedness.
Second Chances: Collateral Consequences, Community Strengths The Kansas City Public Library 2023-03-31 | Join the library and the Clear My Record Project to continue Second Chance conversations. Let’s learn more about➢ Collateral consequences of a criminal record ➢ Expungements and their effects, and why they are important➢ How communities are strengthened by second chances
