This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. The online version of this event will be live captioned. Please register below.
Join political cartoonists Lalo Alcaraz, Scott Stantis, and Alexandra Bowan for a discussion about the history of political cartoons, the role of this artform in interpreting news in a democratic society, and the ways that the digital media landscape is influencing the field. Margaret Storey, the curator of Conceived in Liberty: Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations in the Wartime US, 1812-1918, will moderate the discussion and share examples of historical cartoons from the exhibition.
Speakers
Lalo Alcaraz is an award-winning visual/media artist and television/film writer. A Los Angeles resident, he has been chronicling the ascendancy of Latinos in the U.S. for over a quarter-century. The busy Chicano artist is the creator of the syndicated daily comic strip La Cucaracha seen in the L.A. Times and other newspapers nationwide.
Scott Stantis is the editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. His work is syndicated to over 200 newspapers and has been featured by Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, "CBS This Morning," and "Nightline." When Scott isn't creating editorial cartoons, he works on his daily comic strip, "Prickly City."
Alexandra Bowman is a designer and writer from Washington, D.C. who became a huge fan of political cartooning during the 2020 election season. She graduated with her MA in English from Georgetown University in May 2023.
She served as the political cartoonist for the John Kerry and John Kasich-founded environmental organization World War Zero (formerly My Daily Planet), as well as the official political cartoonist for The Lincoln Project in 2020-2021, throughout the 2020 presidential election season.
Margaret M. Storey is Professor of History at DePaul University, where she teaches the history of the United States with a particular focus on antebellum slavery and abolitionism, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the era of Jim Crow. She is the author of numerous books and articles including, most recently, “Empathy, Humility, and Good Faith: Studying History in Times of Crisis,” in the Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2026).
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Registration opens May 1.
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