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Pamela L. Laskin, the award-winning poet, children’s book author, and English lecturer at CCNY, is the guest poet at CCNY’s 52nd annual Poetry Festival 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. May 10 in the Aaron Davis Hall’s Marian Anderson Theater. Dubbed “the Woodstock of the Spoken Word,” the festival is New York’s longest-running poetry celebration. 

"The City College Poetry Festival is the democratic voice of poetry in New York City public schools,” said Laskin, who is also the long serving director of the CCNY Poetry Outreach Center, which produces the festival. “Its assumption is that there are many poets, and they all have terrific stories to tell. This would make Walt Whitman proud." 

Upwards of 150 students from as many as 50 schools are expected to recite their poems at this year’s festival. The festival is “something the children always look forward to,” said Deborah Newman, a former teacher at P.S. 368 in Brooklyn, who had been attending the festival for over 13 years. “It’s a blessing, something that is real to them, and it’s an entire year of poetry for the children, leading up to this celebration. The teachers and the administrators love it, too.”

Some of the children who participated in the festival’s early years are now teachers who bring their classes. “In 1975, I introduced a third-grade student to the audience of 400 cheering students, teachers, friends and family; in 1996, this same individual returned to the festival at City and introduced the readers from her fourth grade class,” recalls Barry Wallenstein, CCNY professor emeritus and former festival founder. “Over the past four decades, this event has become a place of reunion and affirmation for City College alumni, returning teachers, student-poets and friends of the College.”

In addition to the readings by students, each year the festival invites one or more prominent poets to read their work. Among those who have appeared are Paul Simon, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Billy Collins, Major Jackson, Kimiko Hahn, Cornelius Eady, Patricia Smith, Richard Tillinghast, Tom Sleigh , Marilyn Nelson, Elana Bell and Aracelis Girmay, Tracy Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Jacqueline Woodson, Nicole Cooley, David Groff, Estha Weiner, Nathalie Handal and Reginald Dwayne Betts, Vasyl Makhno and, most recently, Gloria Mindock.

The event commences with readings by elementary school students, followed by poets from junior high schools. Beginning around noon, the winners of the festival's citywide high school poetry contest will recite their poems, with the top three winners receiving the Poetry Prize, which are cash prizes. 

A reading by Laskin, will highlight the day’s festivities.

The festival presents a special award for the best poem in a language other than English. Submissions have come from 20 different languages over the festival’s history, reflecting the diversity of both New York City and of CCNY.

The festival is supported by the American Academy of Poets and CCNY’s Division of Humanities and the Arts. Sponsors include CCNY President Vincent G. Boudreau and Dee Dee Mozeleski, vice president, Office of Institutional Advancement & Communications. Click here for a complete list of all the sponsors.

About Pamela Laskin 
Director of CCNY’s Poetry Outreach Center for nearly 20 years, Laskin is a poet and children's book author, with numerous publications. She is the editor of two anthologies, “” (Linus Publications, 2009), and “The Heroic Young Woman” (Clique Calm, 2006). She is the author of two young adult novels, “” (Harper Collins, 2017), and “” (Leapfrog Press, 2019). The latter won the 2018 International Fiction Prize.

Laskin’s other publications include “BEA,” a picture book that was a finalist for the Katherine Paterson Prize for Children’s Fiction in 2018; “,” “,” “,” “,” and “.”

Laskin was the recipient of a 2022 Freedom Through Literacy Board Option Award for her work to enable children to unload their grief and to empower voices through poetry.

Follow her on X: twitter@RonitandJamil and her blog:

For more information about the 53rd CCNY Spring Poetry Festival, please contact Alyssa Yankwitt at ccnypoetryoutreachcenter@gmail.com , or click here to visit the Poetry Outreach Center.