Only the Jester Speaks the Truth
Starts: Saturday, Jul. 19 1:30 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Jul. 19 2:45 PM (Eastern)
“If you’re going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they’ll kill you.”
– Often attributed to George Bernard Shaw
The Left is supposed to be funnier than the Right, damn it.
So why do we so often sound in public like we’re stiltedly reading from a non-profit grant proposal?
This panel hopes to explore humor’s unparalleled ability to deliver challenging information to the public, as well as mold and shift perspectives.
We’ll have some of the folks who have most effectively used comedy as an organizing and advocacy tool, whether for an one-time campaign or an ongoing media project. T hat includes comedians; offline organizers; online media- makers; and anyone who could use comedy to say what’s otherwise impossible. (Read: anyone.)
Also, we’ll make climate catastrophe hilarious. (We promise.)
Moderator
Nicole Carty
Nicole Carty is a Director with PowerLabs where she focuses on online to offline mobilization and creating structures and processes to support volunteer-led teams.
Prior to PowerLabs, Nicole was a Campaign Manager at SumOfUs where she ran campaigns to bring equitable policies to the tech industry, served as a communications specialist, and implemented internal anti-oppressive organizational structures.
Previously Nicole was Programming Director at The Other 98% where she helped grow the organization’s social media reach into the millions.
Nicole is a movement builder who was deeply involved in Occupy Wall Street and has played critical roles in the Movement for Black Lives.
Nicole is also a Lead Trainer and Core team member at Momentum.
Panelists
Lee Camp
Lee Camp is a comedian and writer. He’s the creator of the “Moment of Clarity” web series and podcast. He’s also a founding principal of Qualified Laughter – a production company dedicated to comedic social justice media – where he co-created the AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining video series and the We The People anti-Citizens United series, among others. He’s a contributor to The Onion and Huffington Post and the author of “A Moment of Clarity”. Camp has been featured on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” BBC’s “Newsnight,” Showtime’s “Green Room,” and Comedy Central’s “Fresh Debate ’08.” You might know him best as the guy who went on Fox News and called them a “parade of propaganda” live on their own network.
Julianna Forlano
Julianna Forlano is the creator, host, and producer of the acclaimed progressive news parody ABSURDITY TODAY! which can be found on FreeSpeechTV, and at CrooksandLiars.com. (Archives at www.AbsurdityToday.com) She is a professor at Brooklyn College where she teaches Media Studies, Broadcast Journalism Ethics, and Comedy Script Writing. Her written work has been published in the Chicago Sun Times, in the book Letters to President Obama, and online. She is also a popular guest commentator on some of today’s favorite progressive tv and radio programs as well as at mainstream outlets. Once named Chicago’s Funniest Comedian by Reader’s Digest, Julianna has had many notable performances including being the featured speaker and humorist at Barack Obama’s Official Inaugural Ball. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Other sessions: Laughing Liberally Comedy Show, Food, Guns and Money: A Showcase of Advocacy Films
Katie Halper
Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker. A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed throughout the country, at all Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, the Alan Colmes Show, and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” She is a founding principal of Qualified Laughter – a production company dedicated to comedic social justice media – where she co-created the AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining video series and SEIU’s Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine series, among others.
Other sessions: Top-Choice Movies for the Pro-Choice Movement: Film and the Fight for Reproductive Rights, Laughing Liberally Comedy Show
Elon James White
Elon James White is a Brooklyn-based comedian, writer and creator of the award-winning web series This Week in Blackness, a satirical look at race, politics and pop-culture in a so-called “post-racial” America and the award winning podcast Blacking it Up! White has been a featured commentator on MSNBC’s The Melissa Harris Perry Show, VH1’s “Black to the Future”, “The Great Debate” and HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show.” His commentary on race and politics has been featured on CNN.com, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Giant Magazine, Salon, Alternet & The Root. Praised as “The perfect comedian for the Obama era, talking race while exploding racial stereotypes” by Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry on Politco.com & as “Precise, thought provoking and hilarious” by Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead, White continues to win accolades from critics, academia and audiences alike
Other sessions: TWiBPrime w/ Elon James White: Biden Reaction, TWiBPrime w/ Elon James White: Biden Introduction, TWiBPrime w/ Elon James White, TWiBPrime w/ Elon James White, Laughing Liberally Comedy Show, Historical Blackness: Movements as Models: What the History of Organizing Can Teach Today’s Organizers