“La poesía es más grande que yo”

“Poetry feels grander than me”

Lady Laureate Stephanie Pacheco publishes new ode

She is a wordsmith, a storyteller, and an advocate.

In her own words, she is “a Black Latinx student from the South Bronx going to school in Harlem.”

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) student Stephanie Pacheco, the 2024-25 National Youth Poet Laureate, has written “Dear CUNY,” a poem highlighting her experience at The City University of New York (CUNY) and her perspective on the University’s uniqueness.

The poem was unveiled in commemoration of National Poetry Month. CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez joined Pacheco on a visit to Queensborough Community College to launch the poem and share her overall experience as a successful poet.

“There is no better way to have begun National Poetry Month than with this beautiful work of poetry that perfectly illustrates the great impact that CUNY has across New York,” said Matos Rodríguez in a statement. “We are incredibly proud of our very own Stephanie Pacheco, whose talent has elevated her to be the nation’s leading youth poet, and look forward to a month that will undoubtedly bring to light the many poetic voices that are connected to our community.”

Pacheco studies writing and literature at BMCC. She has previously served as the 2023 New York City Youth Poet Laureate and is also the first-ever New York State Youth Poet Laureate.

“CUNY taught me there was room enough for all of us,” said Pacheco. “I sat down with classmates that were twice my age, parents who had kids that were my age, people who took breaks from school and decided to come back. Every single one of us is special and that is some of what I wanted to uplift.”

Pacheco is the eighth recipient of the National Youth Poet Laureate award, joining notable figures such as Amanda Gorman. Gorman, the first laureate named in 2017, gained recognition in 2021 after delivering her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration. The National Youth Poet Laureate is an annual honor that celebrates youth at the intersection of artistic excellence and civic engagement.

Pacheco joins several iconic poets hail from CUNY, including Pulitzer Prize winners Gregory Pardlo (2015) and Tyehimba Jess (2017); Sonia Sánchez, a Hunter College alumna and pioneering figure in the Black Arts Movement; Queens College Distinguished Professor Kimiko Hahn, a well-lauded poet who received a Guggenheim Fellowship and won an American Book Award; and Ocean Vuong, a Brooklyn College graduate who is the author of The New York Times-bestselling poetry collection Time is a Mother.

“If you’re an aspiring poet, you’re probably already a poet,” said Pacheco. “Poetry feels grander than me, grander than us, and I feel we’d be doing a disservice if we just say it’s a bunch of words on a page. If you are able to create your own language, you’re able to craft your story brick by brick.”

In further celebration of National Poetry Month, Hostos Community College will host a “Peace and Poetry” event on April 22, where attendees from the community will read aloud poetry with a theme of unity.

A shortened performance by Pacheco is available on the CUNY YouTube channel at https://shorturl.at/Tjo3W, and the full poem can be read below.

For more, visit https://www.cuny.edu.  

Dear CUNY

By Stephanie Pacheco

Dear community college,
I can’t talk about you
Without a train rattling the earth in the background.
Without the post-class hangout spot coming into the conversation
I can’t paint your graceful portrait
Without the mention of the
The campus lawns we lay on
That hold us warm in our presence,
And write of us in our absence

I can’t talk about you
Without mentioning our mascot
I met him in the gym once
At a club fair.
And it was insane.
A larger-than-life panther,
A body composed of the spirit of all of our beating hearts.
Our mascot the breakdancer,
the once in a blue moon guest star appearance.

Dear community college,
You taught me the art of learning how to fall asleep anywhere
In lounge chairs
On the 2 train
On my homework.
You taught me the art of making any place
My home.

Dear community college,
I want to tell you about my mom
Who dreamt of attending a college like mine
Who told me when I walked on my campus,
to whisper to the hallways and ask if they remembered her.
Who told me if the bathroom tiles forget her name,
If the chalkboards told me they cannot pronounce the syllables of her body,
Then I must be the one to carry her memory like lecture.
My school,
Of impossible nostalgia

Dear community college,
You taught me about how beautiful the city is when it sleeps
The brightest galaxies in the sky are our city lights
When they replace the sun,
Nothing is between us and the future,
No plane of existence can swallow me here.

This is for the professors who taught me how to laugh in a classroom
Who in me saw a dream.
Who said don’t nobody got anything on us.
Said envision the world I want and be bold enough to write it.
Who gave me printed versions of their syllabus
to write my poems on the back of

Dear CUNY,
I don’t know of any other school that runs its city like you
That paints its town with its face
like you
Everywhere I turn, every building is a student
Every train cart is a classroom
CUNY students are the real mayor of New York
Every leader I need already lives in me
Every philosopher I know wears a tote bag and hangs out at my library
My favorite scriptures are those I have to reserve
Using my school library’s website.

This is for my librarians
You know, sometimes I ignore the emails
about my overdue books
They tell me I renew too often.
They actually tell me I haven’t renewed my loan at all.

But at least the only loan I’ve acquired
Is at my school library
The only debt I owe is to them.
To you all, the magnificent holders of knowledge
You all, who remind me to dream like our city lights.
To be that kind of impossible.

To the impeccable cleaning staff and cafeteria chefs,
The people who built pyramids in Egypt,
Modeled their precision after you.
I thank you for your hands.
I thank you for what they have created for me to live in.
You know, I remember
When it would be 11pm and the only thing between me and my sleep
Was an essay that I knew I wouldn’t do if I went home.
It would just be us on the entire campus.
Just me and these folks who made everything they touched shine,
Who are responsible for the creation of stars.

This poem is for everything that keeps a boat floating
For the makers and shakers
For the thinkers,
The dreamers,
For those of us who dare.

For everyone whose parents bet their life on the ocean between their homelands and here,
And prayed for children on the way
For those who live by train tracks,
In the spaces below coming and going,
Who bet their lives on possible destinations
For those of us who are determined
To create a colosseum in the collective
For those of us who write, and sing, and study, dance, build, teach, care, and love Like our breath depend on it
Because they do
We are no one’s lower class
We are nobody’s other

Come join me in the sanctuary we’ve got for now
In our classroom turned temple
We’ve got work to do.

“La poesía es más grande que yo”

La laureada Stephanie Pacheco publica una nueva oda

Es artífice de la palabra, narradora y defensora.

Es, en sus propias palabras, “una estudiante negra latina del sur del Bronx que va a la escuela en Harlem”.

La estudiante del Community College del condado de Manhattan (BMCC, por sus siglas en inglés) Stephanie Pacheco, Poeta Nacional Juvenil 2024-2025, ha escrito “Querida CUNY”, un poema que destaca su experiencia en la Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York (CUNY, por sus siglas en inglés) y su perspectiva sobre las particularidades de la Universidad.

El poema fue presentado en conmemoración del Mes Nacional de la Poesía. El canciller de CUNY, Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, acompañó a Pacheco en una visita al Queensborough Community College para presentar el poema y compartir su experiencia general como exitosa poeta.

“No hay mejor manera de haber comenzado el Mes Nacional de la Poesía que con esta hermosa obra poética que ilustra perfectamente el gran impacto que CUNY tiene en Nueva York”, dijo Matos Rodríguez en un comunicado. “Estamos increíblemente orgullosos de nuestra Stephanie Pacheco, cuyo talento la ha encumbrado como la poeta juvenil más destacada del país, y esperamos un mes que sin duda sacará a la luz las muchas voces poéticas que están conectadas con nuestra comunidad”.

Pacheco estudia escritura y literatura en BMCC. Anteriormente fue la Poeta Laureada Juvenil de la ciudad de Nueva York 2023 y también es la primera Poeta Laureada Juvenil del estado de Nueva York.

“CUNY me enseñó que hay espacio suficiente para todos”, dijo Pacheco. “Me senté con compañeros que me doblaban la edad, con padres que tenían hijos de mi edad, con personas que se tomaron un descanso de la escuela y decidieron volver. Cada uno de nosotros es especial y eso es algo de lo que quería destacar”.

Pacheco es la octava galardonada con el premio Nacional al Poeta Juvenil, uniéndose a figuras notables como Amanda Gorman. Gorman, la primera laureada nombrada en 2017, obtuvo el reconocimiento en 2021 tras pronunciar su poema “The Hill We Climb” en la toma de posesión del presidente Biden. El Premio Nacional al Poeta Juvenil es un galardón anual que rinde homenaje a los jóvenes en la intersección de la excelencia artística y el compromiso cívico.

Pacheco se une a varios poetas emblemáticos procedentes de CUNY, como los ganadores del Premio Pulitzer Gregory Pardlo (2015) y Tyehimba Jess (2017); Sonia Sánchez, ex alumna del Hunter College y figura pionera del Black Arts Movement; Kimiko Hahn, profesora distinguida del Queens College y poetisa aclamada que recibió una beca Guggenheim y ganó un Premio American Book; y Ocean Vuong, graduada del Brooklyn College y autora del poemario más vendido del New York Times, Time is a Mother.

“Si aspiras a ser poeta, probablemente ya lo seas”, dijo Pacheco. “La poesía es más grande que yo, más grande que nosotros, y creo que haríamos daño si nos limitáramos a decir que es un montón de palabras en una página. Si eres capaz de crear tu propio lenguaje, puedes elaborar tu historia pieza por pieza”.

Para seguir celebrando el Mes Nacional de la Poesía, Hostos Community College celebrará el 22 de abril un evento de “Paz y Poesía”, en el que asistentes de la comunidad leerán en voz alta poesía con el tema de la unidad.

En el canal de YouTube de CUNY puede verse una versión abreviada de la actuación de Pacheco en https://shorturl.at/Tjo3W, y el poema completo puede leerse a continuación.

Para más información, visite https://www.cuny.edu.   

POEMA EN INGLES

Dear CUNY

By Stephanie Pacheco

Dear community college,
I can’t talk about you
Without a train rattling the earth in the background.
Without the post-class hangout spot coming into the conversation
I can’t paint your graceful portrait
Without the mention of the
The campus lawns we lay on
That hold us warm in our presence,
And write of us in our absence

I can’t talk about you
Without mentioning our mascot
I met him in the gym once
At a club fair.
And it was insane.
A larger-than-life panther,
A body composed of the spirit of all of our beating hearts.
Our mascot the breakdancer,
the once in a blue moon guest star appearance.

Dear community college,
You taught me the art of learning how to fall asleep anywhere
In lounge chairs
On the 2 train
On my homework.
You taught me the art of making any place
My home.

Dear community college,
I want to tell you about my mom
Who dreamt of attending a college like mine
Who told me when I walked on my campus,
to whisper to the hallways and ask if they remembered her.
Who told me if the bathroom tiles forget her name,
If the chalkboards told me they cannot pronounce the syllables of her body,
Then I must be the one to carry her memory like lecture.
My school,
Of impossible nostalgia

Dear community college,
You taught me about how beautiful the city is when it sleeps
The brightest galaxies in the sky are our city lights
When they replace the sun,
Nothing is between us and the future,
No plane of existence can swallow me here.

This is for the professors who taught me how to laugh in a classroom
Who in me saw a dream.
Who said don’t nobody got anything on us.
Said envision the world I want and be bold enough to write it.
Who gave me printed versions of their syllabus
to write my poems on the back of

Dear CUNY,
I don’t know of any other school that runs its city like you
That paints its town with its face
like you
Everywhere I turn, every building is a student
Every train cart is a classroom
CUNY students are the real mayor of New York
Every leader I need already lives in me
Every philosopher I know wears a tote bag and hangs out at my library
My favorite scriptures are those I have to reserve
Using my school library’s website.

This is for my librarians
You know, sometimes I ignore the emails
about my overdue books
They tell me I renew too often.
They actually tell me I haven’t renewed my loan at all.

But at least the only loan I’ve acquired
Is at my school library
The only debt I owe is to them.
To you all, the magnificent holders of knowledge
You all, who remind me to dream like our city lights.
To be that kind of impossible.

To the impeccable cleaning staff and cafeteria chefs,
The people who built pyramids in Egypt,
Modeled their precision after you.
I thank you for your hands.
I thank you for what they have created for me to live in.
You know, I remember
When it would be 11pm and the only thing between me and my sleep
Was an essay that I knew I wouldn’t do if I went home.
It would just be us on the entire campus.
Just me and these folks who made everything they touched shine,
Who are responsible for the creation of stars.

This poem is for everything that keeps a boat floating
For the makers and shakers
For the thinkers,
The dreamers,
For those of us who dare.

For everyone whose parents bet their life on the ocean between their homelands and here,
And prayed for children on the way
For those who live by train tracks,
In the spaces below coming and going,
Who bet their lives on possible destinations
For those of us who are determined
To create a colosseum in the collective
For those of us who write, and sing, and study, dance, build, teach, care, and love Like our breath depend on it
Because they do
We are no one’s lower class
We are nobody’s other

Come join me in the sanctuary we’ve got for now
In our classroom turned temple
We’ve got work to do.