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Award-winning cartoonist examines the boundaries of satire

By Cecilia Nasmith


How far is too far – that's the question pondered by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Barry Blitt at the latest Northumberland Learning Connection session on April 15.

It's a question people have asked ever since 19th-century cartoonist Thomas Nast and his professional colleagues began lampooning the mighty - what boundaries exist when the name of the game is satire.

Those boundaries have been pushed in recent years, as the realm of politics has provided rich lodes of satire-suitable material, and Blitt's interpretations of the American scene have often been seen on the cover of The New Yorker.

On April 15, he will discuss these experiences and his own take on the central question in a session called How Far Is Too Far.

NLC is offering this as a free Zoom event. It begins at 7:30 p.m., with slides shown at 7:20 p.m.

NLC has been bringing great guest speakers and compelling topics to the local community since 2005. Their regular format was to organize two big issues a year, tackled in a compelling series of lectures by experts in the field, often with a special event, film or field trip as part of the mix.

Their last big series was Artificial Intelligence in the fall of 2019. When COVID-19 came along, an amazing line-up on Alberta had to be cancelled and, since that time, NLC has presented stand-alone Zoom sessions.

While these sessions have offered looks at China's expanding global role, the prospect of a basic income and a look at racial politics, several have involved aspects of COVID-19. The most recent – Is Canada At A Pandemic Pivot Point on March 11 – has been posted on the NLC website.

And the home page of the site is where you can register for Barry Blitt's upcoming session, at www.connectnlc.ca.