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New York City
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Death Panels: Comics That Help Us Face End of Life

Hosted by

The New York Public Library + Reimagine

Storytelling - visual, textual, and the powerful combination of the two in comic form - is an effective and healing medium for exploring extreme situations and the emotions they create. There will be a special reception for this exhibit on 10/30 from 6:15-6:45pm.

This exhibit features the work of artists from New York, as well as across North America and the United Kingdom who share stories about life-limiting illness, acute care medical decision-making, dying, and death. Artists include New Yorker cartoonists Emily Flake, Ben Schwartz, Roz Chast as well as graphic memoir work by Brian Fies (Mom’s Cancer), Joyce Farmer (Special Exits), MK Czerwiec (Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371), and more.

Join us for a reception from 6:15pm-6:45 on 10/30.

This exhibition arises from two sub-disciplines within the health humanities: Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine. Graphic Medicine refers to the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of health care. Narrative Medicine refers to medicine practiced with narrative skills of recognizing, absorbing, interpreting and being moved by the stories of illness. It is comprised of some original comic art as well as some high-quality framed or mounted reproductions. Death Panels was originally curated and mounted by Mara Holt Skov, Professor of Art and Design at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

Related public programs include:

- Graphic Medicine, Reflective Drawing, and Advanced Care Directives (10/31, 2pm at 53rd Street Library)

- A Funny Thing About Death: Using Humor and Narrative to Tackle a Taboo (11/1, 7:00pm at Columbia University Faculty House)

- A talk with Roz Chast (10/29, 7:30pm at JCC Manhattan)

- Redemption: An Exploration of Possibilities at the End of Life, a panel with Wendy MacNaughton who will present her work with the Zen Hospice Project and San Quentin Prison (10/30, 6:30pm at 53rd Street Library)

- Death Panels: Conversations with the Artists (10/31, 1pm at 53rd Street Library)

- SHITSHOW - Parenting Comedy From Funny People Unwise Enough to Breed with cartoonist Emily Flake (11/2, 7:30pm at Union Hall)

Visual Art
Wellness