October 25, 2017
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Page 9
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
The Pen is Funnier than the Sword
Cartoonist for
justice to visit
Portland
m iChael l eighton
P ortlanD o bserver e Ditor
His political cartoons tackle issues
like Islamophobia, immigration and
racial justice in America with insight
and humor and have been carried
by newspapers around the world,
including regularly in the Portland
Observer.
Now the journalist known for em-
bracing his Muslim, Third-World
perspectives for cutting-edge com-
mentary will be in Portland to give a
public lecture and a present some of
his cartoons as part of a two month
exhibit, “The Pen is Funnier than the
Sword”
Khalil Bendib was born a refugee
in Paris during Algeria’s bloody war
of independence before moving to
America where he earned a college
education and started his career. He
draws with a sense of humor that in-
vites viewers to see themselves, to
laugh, and then to consider what jus-
tice might mean for the people and
by
Khalil Bendib
Political cartoonist Khalil Bendib is known for tackling issues of Islamophobia, immigration and racial
justice in America. A regular contributor to the Portland Observer and other newspapers across the
country, Bendib will give a talk ‘The Pen is Funnier than the Sword,’ at First Congressional Church,
downtown, on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. His editorial cartoons are part of an exhibit now showing at the
church’s ArtReach Galley.
societies he depicts.
part of the media kaleidoscope that studied sculpture and ceramics. His
“My work has always instinctive- makes this country irresistible to free work is currently distributed widely
ly espoused the side of the underdog spirits like me.”
to alternative and small, independent
-- the side on which I was born,”
Currently based in Berkeley, Ca- publications like the black fami-
Bendib said. “After early brushes lif., Bendib lived in France, Algeria, ly-owned Portland Observer through
with political censorship in Algeria, and Morocco prior to immigrating Otherwords.org and the Institute for
at age 20, I voted with my feet and to the United States. He earned his Policy Studies.
came to the Land of the Free, where master’s degree at the University of
The public is invited to meet and
my contrarian leanings -- while not Southern California in 1982 where hear from Bendib during his visit
always universally welcome -- did his political cartoons were published
C ontinueD on P age 11
find an echo and gradually became in the Daily Trojan and where he also