Zunar

Wednesday night at 7 pm, the Center for Asian Democracy is hosting the Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, or Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, who will deliver the Annual Lecture.

He is expected to talk about the importance of free expression, the challenge of his work in Malaysia and the need for activism from cartoonists, satirists and comedians as well as human rights activists and social campaigners.

Last fall, I saw some of Zunar's political cartoons when participating in a workshop on "Comedy and Satire as Discourses of Protest in Asia." The images presented there were just terrific. Here's more info on Zunar:

[He] received the 2011 Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning from Cartoonists Rights Network International. In 2010 the Malaysian government banned the publication of his book “1 Funny Malaysia” and then months later police seized and confiscated copies of his  latest book, “Cartoon-o-phobia,” and arrested him hours before its planned launch. He lost his appeal for wrongful arrest when the Malaysian appellate court ruled that police had cause to suspect the book was seditious.

To learn more about his life and work, visit his website.

Here are the logistical details:

7 p.m. in the Brown & Williamson Club at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, 2800 S. Floyd St.; visitors should enter through Gate 6. The talk and reception afterward are free and public, but guests are asked to register through a form on the center’s site

Updates (January 22): See this article in the Louisville Courier-Journal and this piece posted on the WFPL website.


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