Winter term Montgomery Fellows address the state of the nation
If more people are getting their political updates from the Daily
Show with Jon Stewart or Real Time with Bill Maher than from
traditional news programs, can the Fall of the Empire be far behind? Poking fun
at politics is a time-honored tradition and this winter’s Montgomery series,
America in 2008: Commentators and Cartoonists, promises to deliver laughs and
insight in equal measure. Three of the nation’s most astute observers of the
political and social scenes—Juan Williams, Roz Chast, and Steve Kelley ’81—will
be on campus as Montgomery Fellows, beginning Jan. 21 and continuing through
Feb. 19.
Susan DeBevoise Wright, executive director of the Montgomery Endowment, says
the program aims to “introduce some humor into this political year, while
considering the relationship between social commentary, the art of satire, and
the machinery of politics.”
The series begins with National Public Radio Senior Correspondent Juan
Williams, on campus Jan. 21 through 23, and continues with cartoonists Roz
Chast (Jan. 28-30) and Steve Kelley ’81 (Feb. 18-22).
Juan Williams
One of the most respected political correspondents in the nation, Juan
Williams is the author of six books, including Thurgood Marshall: American
Revolutionary, described by Time magazine as a “magisterial” work
of American history. He is senior correspondent for NPR’s Morning
Edition, host of the nationally syndicated America’s Black Forum,
a political analyst for Fox Television, and a regular panelist for “Fox News
Sunday.” During the presidential election season, Williams will serve as senior
political analyst for both organizations.
 Juan Williams
|
During a 21-year career at The Washington Post, he won numerous
awards for writing and investigative journalism, and his television documentary
writing has earned him an Emmy Award. An extensive and balanced understanding
of American politics, demographics, and diversity has made Williams a
sought-after moderator for political debates and forums. He is also known for
his outspoken views on a wide range of issues, including contemporary African
American culture.
Williams’s other books include Enough—the Phony Leaders, Dead-End
Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We
Can Do About It; My Soul Looks Back in Wonder; Eyes on the
Prize; I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A History of Historically Black
Colleges and Universities; and This Far By Faith.
Williams will deliver a public lecture, “The Changing Face of America:
Money, Race and Age in the New Century,” on Jan. 22 at 4:30 p.m. in the Moore
Theater, Hopkins Center.
Roz Chast
In the introduction to her newest book, Theories of Everything:
Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons by Roz Chast, David
Remnick, editor of The New Yorker magazine writes, “Since she sold her
first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1978, Roz Chast has won a place as
one of our greatest artistic chroniclers of the anxieties, superstitions,
furies, insecurities, and surreal imaginings of modern life.”
 Roz Chast (Photo copyright Anne Hall)
|
With images populated by surprisingly ordinary people in the midst of
extraordinary and hilarious revelations, Chast’s cartoons have become instantly
recognizable. They have appeared in dozens of magazines and in her previous
book, The Party, After You Left. She recently collaborated with writer
and actor Steve Martin on The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter
Z, and author and illustrator teamed up for an interview at The New
Yorker Festival where many of Chast’s drawings were held up for critical
scrutiny. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as she explained the inspiration
for “At the Corner of Irate and Insane,” which depicts three urbanites waiting
for the “Walk” sign. Thought balloons above their heads reveal the sources of
their subterranean angst: “Mad because she isn’t Bob Dylan,” reads one.
“Furious because it isn’t the eighteenth century,” reads another. “Enraged by
inability to fly,” reads the third.
Martin, pausing to think for a moment, observed, “Everyone can pick one and
say, ‘oh, that’s me!’”
Chast says she’s always liked to draw pictures that made her laugh—a
description of her work that doesn’t quite equal Remnick’s assessment. “If
The New Yorker employs an artistic genius since the passing of Saul
Steinberg,” he writes, “Roz Chast is the one.”
On campus as a Montgomery Fellow Jan. 28 through 30, Chast will deliver a
public lecture, “Theories of Everything and Much, Much More,” on Jan. 29 at
4:30 p.m. in Filene Auditorium. A few of her original drawings will be
displayed in Baker-Berry Library in January and February.
Steve Kelley ’81
Steve Kelley’s political cartoons are distributed by Creators Syndicate to
more than 100 newspapers and magazines around the country, and are frequently
seen in The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago
Tribune, and Newsweek. According to one profile, “[Political
cartoonist] Steve Kelley devotes his attention to public officials the way the
radiator grille of a tractor-trailer might devote its attention to June
bugs.”
 Steve Kelley ’81
|
He began his cartooning career at The Union-Tribune in San Diego,
staying there for two decades before moving to The Times-Picayune in
New Orleans. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in the editorial cartooning category in
1999, Kelley’s cartoons have won the National Headliner Award, the Best of The
West competition, the Los Angeles Press Club award, and six first-place
California Newspaper Publishers Association awards, among others. Since 1985,
he has also written and performed stand-up comedy, making appearances on
The Tonight Show; at Harrah’s, the Riviera, and the Desert Inn in Las
Vegas; and at Carnegie Hall.
Kelley devotes significant amounts of time and energy to charity. Funny
Money, a show he was instrumental in creating, funded a San Diego Child
Abuse Prevention Program, and A Thousand Laughs for a Thousand Smiles
contributes to funding reconstructive surgery for Mexican children.
Kelley graduated with honors from Dartmouth where he served in student
government, drew cartoons for The Dartmouth, co-founded the
Dartmouth Review, and set the College's indoor pole vault record.
On campus as a Montgomery Fellow Feb. 18 through 22, Kelley will deliver a
public lecture, “Art Irritates Life: Politics and Stuff People Really Care
About,” on Feb. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in the Bentley Theater, Hopkins Center.
Kelley’s cartoons will be displayed in the Upper Jewett Corridor of the Hopkins
Center beginning in mid-February.
|
RSS/XML Feed