The Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics will open its spring schedule of panels with cartoonist Marshall Ramsey from The Clarion-Ledger. He will talk about his prize-winning art form and angry complaints provoked by his satire next Tuesday.
The hour-long program will begin at 11 a.m. at the Overby Center Auditorium. Ramsey will speak, present some of his work and answer questions from the audience. He will speak at length on threats that cartoonists sometimes face in light of the massacre at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical paper that published cartoons that infuriated Muslim extremists. He considered that deadly assault to be a troubling eye-opener.
His cartoons have featured on the Clarion-Ledger’s editorial pages for over 15 years with national recognition and distribution with appearances in The New York Times and USA Today among several publications. Ramsey has twice been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
He is also the host of a weekly radio show, “Now You’re Talking with Marshall Ramsey” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. He is also an author with several books including collections of his cartoons and a children’s book, “Banjo’s Dream.”
Overby Fellow Curtis Wilkie, who will be moderating the event, said “Mississippians are lucky to have Marshall Ramsey in our midst. I look forward to waking up with his cartoons every morning. They make me laugh out loud – and sometimes they make me wince.”
Ramsey has subjected public figures to satire regardless of their party affiliation or background. Over the past year, he has drawn complaints from state and municipal officials as well as partisans of the Tea Party.
Just a couple months ago Ole Miss Athletics Director Ross Bjork confronted Ramsey on Twitter over his joke on quarterback Bo Wallace’s performance in the Peach Bowl.
The criticism comes with the territory of being a free-wheeling cartoonist, he says. Happily for him, the disputes have been no more than healthy clashes of opinion.
This event, like Overby Center events, is free and open to the public. For more information visit the Overby Center’s website.
Information provided by Graduate Assistant Chinonyeranyi Kalu
Callie Daniels is a staff writer for HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.
