The Maryland "Odyssey" Project
The Maryland Odyssey Pilot Project & Symposium was an innovative, grant-funded initiative that introduced a groundbreaking new translation of Homer’s Odyssey into three high school classrooms in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Working with their teachers, 132 students in grades 9, 10, and 11 wrote poetry and speeches, compose original dramatic, dance, and visual arts work, and learn about period history and society, all in response to this new text. To generate awareness of the project and the text, Odyssey translator Emily Wilson (a Macarthur Foundation “genius” grant awardee) was invited as the guest speaker along with a panel of local academicians to discuss the challenges of translating this work. This standing-room-only symposium was free and open to the public on Oct. 12, 2018. A professional video highlighting several students’ reflections and work on the Odyssey was prepared to memorialize the project. The project was featured in Humanities Magazine. Amy L. Bernstein conceived, produced, and obtained funding for the project.