Lynda Barry: “What It Is”

Expand and challenge your personal values about artistic expression with this talk by author and cartoonist Lynda Barry. Widely credited with expanding the literary, thematic, and emotional range of American comics, Barry’s seminal comic strip, Ernie Pook’s Comeek, ran in alternative newspapers across North America for 30 years. Witty, wildly imaginative, and compassionate, Barry has authored 21 books, worked as a commentator for NPR, and had regular features in Esquire, Mother Jones, Mademoiselle, and Salon. She currently is assistant professor in Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and prefaces her talk: “There is something common to everything we call the arts. What is it? It’s something I call ‘an image,’ something that feels alive and is contained and transported by something that is not alive—a book, or a song or a painting—anything we call an ‘art form.’ This ancient ‘it’ has been around at least as long as we have had hands, and the state of mind it brings about is not plain old ‘thinking.’ This talk is about of our innate creative ability to work with images and what the biological function of this thing we call ‘the arts’ may be. Please note: There will be swear words, party tricks, and jokes about balls." Presented in partnership with the Department of English Visiting Writer Series Adult themes and languages, not suitable for all audiences