The New School

The New School is a major educational and cultural institution in New York City which houses both a prominent art school and a graduate school for social science.  This event is part of an ongoing lecture series at Parsons titled "The New York Comic and Picture-story Symposium" and consists of an evening discussion of urban sign-painting and murals created by mostly unrecognized community artists in resource poor neighborhoods. Camilo José Vergara: photographer, sociologist, and 2002 MacArthur Fellow presents works from his photographic archive of hand-painted signage and murals and engages in a dialogue with Ben Katchor, cartoonist, writer, and 2000 MacArthur Fellow, Lawrence Hubbard, a Los Angeles based cartoonist and publisher; and Naa Oyo A. Kwate, associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University.

In bringing together practitioners of real-world sociological documentation and artists working in visual narrative, the discussion illuminates the intentions, processes, and techniques of urban sign painters and muralists. 

For "State Reform, Public Insecurity, and Deteriorating Rule of Law: The Case of Mexico."