Emily Allen-Hornblower (Rutgers)
Over the last 5 years I have taught several college courses behind bars at men’s prisons (medium and maximum security). The discussions, particularly regarding Greek tragedy, have been so thought-provoking and enlightening that I decided to open these up to the broader public. I was able to do so in the context of my outreach project, “The Public Face of Emotions: Public Engagement, Prison and the Emotions in Our Lives,” supported by a Whiting Public Engagement seed grant, and 2 other microgrants (the Just One Foundation and the SCS). The events involve moderating a series of public-facing conversations with my formerly incarcerated students, many only recently released after several decades behind bars. Together with the broader public (first in person, now through Zoom), we watch an excerpt of Greek drama performed by theater actors, and then converse about the play’s significance for them as mass incarceration survivors. Each session centers on specific emotions, such as shame, fear, anger, hope, compassion, grief, friendship. So far we have held events at Rikers, the New York Society for Ethical Culture (NYSEC), the Players Club of NYC, Howard University, the Middlesex County Community ReEntry Coalition, the Philadelphia Ethical Society, Chris Hedges’ On Contact (“The Power of Classics”), and MoMA PS1 (Queens).
My paper discusses the challenges faced by such public-facing activism, from getting institutional support, to building collaboration with partners. It also highlights the potential for the Classics to spark conversation and transformative engagement between diverse audiences about what defines us as human beings. My project provides a platform for the voices of the formerly incarcerated to be heard, and a chance for all to engage in a communal conversation that helps build civic bridges by raising concepts essential to the healing and greater cohesion of our communities: human dignity, justice, and resilience. Our conversations address systemic structural, legal and social issues directly and indirectly, by way of the timeless poetic works of Sophocles and Euripides. We take on the critical issue of mass incarceration from a novel angle, by presenting a counter-narrative to punitive criminal justice, putting the shared humanity of all front and center.