Online event Friday, October 2, 7 p.m. 

Please join Ithaca City of Asylum (ICOA) and City of Asylum Pittsburgh for “Crossing the Line,” a virtual (and highly visual) conversation about cartooning, free expression, censorship, and personal risk.

The free online event will take place on Friday, October 2, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Featured guests are internationally acclaimed political cartoonists Pedro X. Molina of Nicaragua and Rob Rogers of Pittsburgh.

Both artists have paid a steep price for their work. Molina (self-portrait above) was forced to flee Nicaragua with his family in December 2018 after his main media outlet, Confidencial, was taken over by government forces during a crackdown on dissent. He won the 2018 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network International and is now ICOA’s artist-in-residence and a Visiting International Scholar in Residence at Ithaca College.

Rogers, winner of several national cartooning awards and a two-time Pulitzer finalist, was fired by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in June 2018 for his cartoons critical of Donald Trump. They will discuss their experiences and compare cartoons before taking audience questions.

“Crossing the Line” takes place during Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of the freedom to read. It is cosponsored by the International Cities of Refuge Network, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection, City of Asylum Detroit, and Group 73 of Amnesty International.

Use the button above or click here to preregister now and receive reminders (recommended!) or sign in on the evening of the show. The event will be recorded and available for streaming afterward at the same URL.

“Crossing the Line” is made possible by funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County. Additional support comes from the Freedom to Read Foundation, affiliated with the American Library Association.