Graduate Student Association: Noor Tannir MFA ’26

Good morning fellow graduates, parents, faculty, and guests. I have the honor of speaking on this stage today, and I want to use it as a tribute to our community.

I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, dreaming of New York. I came to Sarah Lawrence College to write my story of the woman who raised me, who knew about my dreams and believed in them before I ever could. She is not here today, but I see pieces of her face in the crowd right now, in the classrooms I was in, outside, in the green of our beautiful campus. Being at Sarah Lawrence has granted me the opportunity to enrich my writing, meet incredible authors, and learn, but more so, it has allowed me to write about grief, and to make something artful out of it.

At Sarah Lawrence, this place that I came to with so much grief and so much to say and to become, I met people who brought me closer not only to where I am from geographically, but to where I physically came from, my mother.

We are so lucky to be here today, with the people we got to share this deeply special time with. Today, we are graduating with a degree that we dreamed of, that we fought for so ferociously, to sit in workshops and conferences and breathe in all that this place has to offer. I know I speak on behalf of all graduate students when I say this was not just a fantasy or a dream for some, but an inevitable choice: to devote ourselves, with pure intention and power, to move from far away cities, states, continents to this place for years, to make beautiful things, meet beautiful people.

We are leaving with a world of friendships, a community that spans cultures and oceans, mentors who challenged and nurtured us, and mothers, in art, in science, in poetry, in theatre, in film. This day is for us, and for them. Congratulations Class of 2026!

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