Sanibel Island’s unofficial poet laureate Joe Pacheco is a proud Newyorican and former New York City school district superintendent. He and his wife Marjorie Pacheco moved to Sanibel Island 25 years ago.
He became a national prize-winning poet at the age of 18, but then took a 50-year break from writing poetry until his muse of inspiration was re-awakened in retirement, and his writing and his work to inspire a love of poetry in others has remained prolific.
He’s the organizer PoetryFest, co-founder of ArtPoems and is a past recipient of the Alliance for the Art’s Literary Artist of the Year award. He’s hosted poetry contests for the News-Press as well as spoken word open mics and other events to foster and promote the art of poetry here in Southwest Florida.
His poetry has been featured nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition and Latino USA. His work has also been featured here on WGCU-FM over the years. His work has appeared in many print and online journals in English and in Spanish.
Pacheco’s published works of poetry include “The First of the Nuyoricans: Sailing to Sanibel,” “Alligator in the Sky,” and “Sanibel Joe’s Song Book.”
At the age of 91, Pacheco continues to produce the Sanibel Islander’s weekly poetry column “Poetic License,” and his poem titled, “No More Heavy Poems” was recently accepted by the literary journal Passager.
Pacheco joins us to share some selected works from his extensive poetry portfolio.
We’ll also be joined by legendary conductor, composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram for a jazz/poetry collaboration of Pacheco’s poem “The Night Charlie Parker Played Tenor at Montmartre Café in Greenwich Village.”