Department Colloquium: Emily Allen-Hornblower (Rutgers) & Nafeesah Goldsmith (COO at YFOF) "From our Classics and Incarceration series: Breaking the Silence: The Myth of Cassandra and the Voices of Incarcerated Women"

Speakers: Emily Allen-Hornblower,, Associate Professor of Classics at Rutgers University  & Nafeesah Goldsmith, co-founder and COO of YFOF (Youth Function Over Form)

Abstract: This talk is part of a series of public-facing dialogues we (Emily Allen-Hornblower and Nafeesah Goldsmith) have been having before and with the broader public about Classics and Mass Incarceration. Nafeesah survived 13 years behind bars, including the torture of solitary confinement. Our talks address systemic structural and social issues directly and indirectly, by way of the timeless poetic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. We take on the critical issue of the dehumanization and wounding (individual, familial, and communal) caused by incarceration by relating it to characters and plots from classical myth, putting the shared humanity of all front and center.