Free Concert: The Blues of Achilles by Joe Goodkin

University of Arkansas

Informational poster for The Blues of Achilles by Joe Goodkin

The Classical Studies Program and the Beta Pi Chapter of the Eta Sigma Phi National Classics Honor Society warmly invite you to a free concert performed by Chicago-based musician and rhapsode, Joe Goodkin, who will be performing his new album, The Blues of Achilles (2022), a folk-opera reimagining of Homer's Iliad.

Goodkin's music is steeped in ancient and modern war literature, as well as his extensive experience interviewing and working with veterans experiencing PTSD and other related war traumas. His first-person songs capture the horror, grief and love that permeate the Iliad and the combat experience. Sung from diverse perspectives that give voice to the voiceless, The Blues of Achilles evokes "the truths that the Iliad conveys [through] songs that [are] real and now," in the words of Tom Palaima, the Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin.

The performance will be will be 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, in Giffels Auditorium of Old Main, followed by an interactive discussion with the artist, classical studies faculty, students and audience members. 

Goodkin has performed his award-winning Odyssey over 300 times around the globe, including at the U of A, and we are very pleased to welcome him back to campus to experience his new work. An open reception at Carnall Hall will follow the performance (7:30-8:30 p.m.). For more information, please contact Daniel Levine (dlevine@uark.edu).