Category: Audio Video

Liza Donnelly on Woodstock Writers Radio

liza on radioLast week, I was fortunate to be invited to talk on the radio with the author Martha Frankel for her radio show, Woodstock Writer’s Radio. We had a lot of laughs, but we also talked about serious issues like freedom of speech, humor, Hillary,  and Trevor Noah taking over the Daily Show.  She wanted to know what I was reading and who decides what I draw each week.  It was fun, and I plan to go back since she invited me!

Listen here:

“New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly talks about books that move her, and cartoons she’s glad she didn’t draw.”

Liza Donnelly – What’s So Funny About Humor?

In 2013, I was honored to be invited to deliver a talk at the Distinguished Lecture Series at the University Of  Michigan. It is a lecture series called Penny W Stamps Lecture Series, and the speakers are always in art and design. So my talk focused on the creative process. Below is their description of me:

“Known for her acute observations on cultural and political issues, Liza Donnelly’s cartoons have been appearing in The New Yorker magazine for over three decades. In Donnelly’s view, humor is serious business, helping us laugh at our failings, and working to make changes in ourselves and the world. Donnelly is an author of fifteen books, columnist for Forbes.com, and a cartoonist for Women’s Enews, among other places. She travels the world as a Cultural Envoy for the US State Department, speaking about women’s rights and freedom of speech, and she delivered a very popular TED talk in 2010 She is the founder of WorldInk.org, a site that promotes international cartoonists and their work, and is a member of Cartooning For Peace, PEN and the Writer’s Guild. She is at work on a screenplay based on being a woman cartoonist.”

University of Connecticut Graduate School Commencement 2014

I was extremely honored to receive an honorary degree from The University of Connecticut Graduate School this May, and to be invited to deliver their commencement speech. It was an amazing experience to be in the huge auditorium (where they play their famous basketball) and to speak to 9,000+ students, family and friends.  We had a great time– it was a very festive atmosphere. Above is a video of the  full 2014 commencement ceremony–you can catch my introduction by the president of the University, Susan Herbst at 7:00 min, followed by my address.  I tried to be humorous and serious, not an easy task. Particularly without my cartoons to help me!

Being On The Radio At WNYC

I love radio, particularly news radio.  The interviews, analysis, call-ins about issues in the news, local or national are all great, and what I listen to while I work. My favorite station is the New York City station WNYC, and in particular the afternoon show, The Leonard Lopate Show. I also like the Brian Lehrer Show in the mornings, too. The station loves New Yorker cartoonists, and have had them on the show numerous times over the years. I have done a lot of radio, usually connected to any new books I have. But I have never been invited to be on WNYC….until now. I was very lucky to be asked to be a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show to talk about my book, Women On Men, with guest host Anna Sale. It was great fun– Anna is a skilled interviewer with a devilish streak and great sense of humor.  One New York friend said to me when she heard that I was to be on WNYC, “You’re really famous now!”  Such is a true New York attitude.

Here is the interview:

 

Rendering the Unspoken: My TED talk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKdvdNU7AmU

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate to speak at a TEDx in the Bay Area of California, called TEDxBayAreaWomen (TEDxBAW). The conference was a day long gathering of men and women who spoke about the International Entrepreneurship of women, and I learned a lot about business and micro-finance and global trade. It was fascinating. I chose to speak about something that all women have in common: our bodies. As a cartoonist, I deal in bodies, and my thinking was that no one else at the conference would speak about this in the way I chose to. My talk begins humorously, personally, but then I take the audience into the more serious subject of freedom for women’s bodies. We may be doing amazing things around the world–and women are–but many of us are not able to truly be ourselves or truly succeed because of restrictions on our physical presence. I discuss the appropriation of our bodies by culture, but also the violence against our bodies. I hope you enjoy.