Mychal Pagan,
Resident scholar at Ignacio of House of Studies & NYU student
Mychal is a recipient of the NYU Cities Collaborative Undergraduate Urban Humanities Research Fund for his film project on prisons and financial insecurity. He currently is a sophomore at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study pursuing his Bachelor's in documentary photography, filmmaking, and community-based research.
Six students at Wallkill Correctional Facility were published in this year’s Gallatin Review, an annual student journal at NYU. Two students have earned first prize awards. We are proud to share that Mychal Pagan won first prize in poetry for “Stigmas of the Caged” - a poem we now have painted onto the wall of our communal dining area at Ignacio House.
182. Irreparable
182.10 Hateful: An intolerable eyesore, he must be spurned. Let the shadows forever bind his spirit. He must never rise from his carceral abyss.
182.11 Depraved: A low-minded villain, who forfeited his right to life, who has no place among the free, among the living.
182.12 Insensitive: A heartless beast, with winter in his soul. He must never know warmth of summer. Waste not your light upon one deaf to reason.
182.13 Jailbird: A bane to society, capable of the vilest violence. Let him rot in his cage. Let its darkness consume him; let its railings destroy his fight. For as he has sown, so shall he have the fruit of his way.
182.14 Of no value: A hopeless wretch, incapable of courage. If he by chance escapes, let the stench of the signs betray him. Let him be clothed with nothing but the meanest garments.
182.15 Disgraceful: A shame to humanity, lost to all honor and love. Avoid him as you would the plague.
182.16 Not to be trusted: An inveterate liar, dead to all truth. Reserve your faith for those more deserving. For, once treacherous, always treacherous; he is beyond the reach of light. He is irredeemably lost.
what does your precious freedom actually mean?
what can a change really redeem?
could be free from the cage, free to soar to distant shores,
free to nibble on life ‘s sweetest rewards
even still, never free from the shadow that darkens the present,
never free from the images, the blemishes of a soiled past
