The Trojan Women Project
Conceived and executed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as a remote learning course in which incarcerated females learned video-making, The Trojan Women Project is an empowered talk-back to oppression.
Euripides' ancient Greek play, Trojan Women, follows the fates of the women of Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and their remaining families are about to be taken away as slaves. It plunges the reader into human suffering, courage, and struggle, furnishing context for imprisoned women who've experienced personal, social, and political victimization. In this project, however, participants examine the narrative seeking a way up and out from inevitable tragedy. They leverage the tragic heroines' stories as start-points for making changes and strategizing–through writing, acting and digital media–ways to build new, productive outcomes from the ashes of Troy.
As artist-activists, the participants regard war wounds not as permanent sites of condemnation and stigma, but as sources of reimagining and healing.
The Trojan Women Project deploys social justice in action as youth-centered, youth-led exercises yield short films inspired by digital storytelling. It teaches creativity, personal voice, media literacy, technical skills, social change, and civic engagement.
“I stand here honoring Hecuba, Helen, my friends, my grandmothers, my cousins, my aunts, my mother, myself. You do not have permission to hurt me anymore.”
– Angelita
The project first partnered with the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in 2020. It brought together criminal justice experts, students, and faculty from the University of California Santa Barbara and the University of California Davis with the incarcerated youth.