Sappho on Tour: How a “Pop Star” of Ancient Greece Influenced Modern Culture

What does an ancient Greek poet's life reveal about modern culture, identity, and who gets to tell history? In this free Aggie Talk, USU researcher C. R. Grimmer introduces Sappho on Tour, a project that maps the poetry and legacy of Sappho, a "pop star" of ancient Greece, across her home island of Lesvos. Using digital reconstruction and place-based storytelling, Grimmer shows how Sappho's work still shapes literature, identity, and cultural memory today, reaching communities far beyond the archive, from the LGBTQIA+ community to Taylor Swift.

Grimmer is a poet, scholar, and educator at Utah State University who studies how poetry moves through place, memory, digital media, and public life. They are the author of The Lyme Letters and O–(ezekiel's wife), and author/editor of Poets as Public Scholars. 

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