The Power Of Satire
Final day of the Oslo Freedom Forum
I only drew three things today, it was a quieter day of drawing for me at Oslo Freedom Forum. THere were no keynote speakers.
But I drew a terrific panel on The Power of Performance: Fighting Authoritariansm with Music and Satire. The panelists were my friend and colleague from Kenya, cartoonist Gado, Egyptian musician Ramy Essam, Morrocan-born French journalist Zineb El Rhazoui (she was once a cartoonist for Charlie Hebdo) and Sudanese musician Manasseh Mathiang. Moderated by Srdja Popovic. They mostly talked about satire—because let’s face it, it’s a fascinating subject. In the end, the panel suggested that humorists around the globe need to collaborate more!
After the panel, I spoke with Gado, and our friend cartoonist Pedro Molina from Nicaragua, and the three of us decided to propose to Oslo Freedom Forum that we do an event with cartoonists next year. I plan to follow up on that. Everyone loves cartoons.
And I also saw two powerful performances, one by Ramy Essem….
And one by the singer from Ukrain, Elizaveta Ismalkova.
It was very hot in Oslo, which is unusal, so I also took some time to myself and went on a boat ride, photos below.
Thanks so much for being here, I had back to NY tomorow morning!
Writing political satire songs is one way I’ve survived the madness of the last many years. I wrote a parody of Little Boxes after reading the indictment Saturday morning. It wrote itself! If we couldn’t laugh at it, we’d be crying all the time!
Thanks for your stories of the forum in Oslo - I wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise.
I love reading your perspective on cartooning and humor. Oslo looks beautiful. I got through the last presidency by focusing on political comedians. It definitely helped. Unfortunately, the political landscape is not looking good right now, so humor is still vital. Seeing your column every day is helping.