Book Group

Want a read on the progress women are making in society, on where they once stood or stand now in their centuries-long struggle for equal access and opportunity? “All you have to do,” Mallory O’Meara says, “is look into the bottom of a glass.” The Library’s latest FYI Book Club selection is Mallory O’Meara’s G...

The Library and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation present a series of online community conversations centered around the book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee, chair of the board of Color for Chang...

Stanley Banks' Blue Beat Syncopation: Selected Poems 1977-2002 is a frank meditation on the Black experience in Kansas City at that time – with remarkable resonance today, addressing street violence, untimely death and “never-to-be dreams” while also celebrating resilience and finding ro...

The Library and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation present a series of online community conversations centered around the book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School, by award-winning author and social justice scholar Dr. Monique W. Morris. Pushout ex...

Established as a general holiday in 2021, Juneteenth marks the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans on June 19, 1865, following the end of the Civil War. Celebrate this milestone in America's history by exploring book recommendations, films, and other resources that highlight the history of Black...

Pride Month in June commemorates the Stonewall riots in New York's Greenwich Village, which ignited the gay rights movement in the United States in 1969. The Library offers a collection of book recommendations, events, films, and other resources that celebrate LGBTQIA+ voices and experiences. &n...

The latest pick of the Library's FYI Book Group, in partnership with the Kansas City Star, is Hanif Abdurraqib's new book A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, a penetrating meditation on Black culture and creativity and its...

Passionate about pentameter? Really into rhyme and rhythm? Are you a stanza stan?  The Library can help you get well-versed during National Poetry Month with a collection of reading recommendations, special online events, book discussions, and more!  

The Kansas City Public Library partners with The Kansas City Star on the latest FYI Book Group discussion:  Sarah Smarsh’s She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 4, 2021, via Zoom. Read...

Nothing comes between readers and their books. Not even a pandemic. “One of the first things the Library did after closing our physical locations in response to COVID-19 was start looking for ways to maintain our connection with readers,” says Kaite Stover, director of readers’ services at the Kansas City Public Librar...