Rochester: The Dark Side was created at Monroe
County Jail as a means for the incarcerated youth to
reach out and share their insights and observations on
their neighborhoods with their community. A NYSLC writer
and scholar and a Rochester City School District teacher
worked with the youth. An artist intern from Visual
Studies Workshop was a integral part of this project.
Rochester: The Dark Side was made possible with
funding from the Rochester City School District, the
Office of The Sheriff, County of Monroe, and the New
York State Council on the Arts.
NYSLC's Arts, Literacy, and The Classroom Community, a Video by Melanie Hibbert,
Ed-Lab,
Teachers College, Columbia University
WXXI News Good News Series: Youth Inmates Share Their Storieses By Hélène Biandudi
Nowadays some people have problems at home, then they come to school with
their problems, then they just don’t care about school,
then they just go to school to hustle and smoke weed.
These things affect people and keep them from going to
school. They give up on themselves.
It’s like this, when people have their houses shot at, when people’s
family members die, you just don’t know what you want to
do with your life.
Some people will rob you to get what they need. Some people just need
someone to take care of them and talk to them like they
really care about them and what goes on in their lives.
If we really had people who cared about our lives, maybe
we would go back to school. All we need is someone to
believe in us, to help us, and to help us want to help
ourselves.
The New York State Literary Center (NYSLC) is a
Rochester, New York based arts organization that
serves adolescents at the highest risk for
educational failure in schools, residential
placement, long term suspension, juvenile
justice facilities, and jails through
interdisciplinary, collaborative, strength based
arts programs that improve basic literacy
skills, inject a sense of community belonging,
give young people power over the narrative of
their lives, enable young people to reach out
with strong, clear voices on personal and social
identity and articulate a compelling vision of
how communities and schools can be better
places. The NYSLC is committed to deepening
adolescents understanding of the forces that
shape their lives and to help adults better
understand the needs and concerns of all
children.
The NYSLC believes in the potential of all young
people and believes that hip-hop is one of the
greatest and most exciting art forms of our
time. The NYSLC connects the rhyme book to the
classroom.
Your donations
will help to ensure this vital program
continues.
The New
York State Literary Center
is made possible by the New York State
Council on the Arts with the support of
Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New
York State Legislature.
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