Crossing the Line - cartooning at risk with Pedro X. Molina and Rob Rogers

Two of ICORN’s member cities, Ithaca City of Asylum (ICOA) and City of Asylum Pittsburgh, have joined forces and organises Crossing the Line, a virtual and highly visual conversation about cartooning, free expression, censorship, and personal risk. Featured guests are internationally acclaimed political cartoonists from Nicaragua and ICORN resident in Ithaca ICOA, Pedro X. Molina, and Rob Rogers, who was fired after 25 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for drawing cartoons critical of Trump.

Both Molina and Rogers 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 dissents. He won the 2018 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network International and is now ICORN resident as ICOA’s artist-in-residence and a Visiting International Scholar in Residence at Ithaca College.

Join the event during Banned Books week! 

Crossing the Line takes place during Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of the freedom to read. It is supported and presented in cooperation with the International Cities of Refuge Network, PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection, and Group 73 of Amnesty International. It 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.

The free online event will take place on Friday, October 2. Follow the link to join the conversation!