Classical Studies Program and DoC Inclusion Grant Present
Phuc Tran ’95, Author of SIGH, GONE: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Online Event
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
I was born in Sài Gòn Việt Nam, my family fled to America in 1975, and I grew up in Carlisle PA. Reared on a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons, John Hughes, Star Wars, Bones Brigade videos, and bootlegged cassettes of Minor Threat and TSOL, I graduated high school in 1991. I majored in Classical Languages and Literature at Bard College—how did no one talk me out of that?—got my Master’s Degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and then moved to New York City in 1997. There I apprenticed to be a tattooer while teaching Latin during the day, and I’ve been teaching and tattooing ever since. I’ve never been good at staying in one lane—ask my wife about my driving.5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Following in the footsteps of E.B. White (who was neither a tattooer nor Latin teacher), my wife and I left the city and moved to Maine in 2003 (she’s an honest-to-goodness Mainer) where we opened our shop, Tsunami Tattoo.
In 2012, I delivered a TEDx talk which was highlighted by NPR’s TED Radio Hour. The TEDx talk and its reception planted a seed in me for sharing more of my story as a refugee (of which I’d shared very little). I embarked on writing my memoir in 2016, and in April 2020 SIGH, GONE was published by Flatiron Books. You can read the memoir to get all the gory details of my childhood and adolescence, but spoiler alert: I do somehow survive.
And here I am at present, deeply grateful to be following this brambly path to its unknown destination.
As Joe Strummer said, the future is unwritten.
Zoom Link: https://bard.zoom.us/j/87931638633?pwd=Y3FJQ1VydHhJVjA0VE4xUVpwbHMvZz09
Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.
*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://bard.zoom.us/j/87931638633?pwd=Y3FJQ1VydHhJVjA0VE4xUVpwbHMvZz09.
Time: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Online Event