New York State Literary Center

In the eighth year the New York State Literary Center's Incarcerated Education Program was located at Monroe Correctional Facility. The students in NYSLC's Incarcerated Education Program were two classes of adult men and two classes of adult women incarcerated there. How To Get From Here To The Rest of The World was both the theme and title of the program. How To Get From Here To The Rest of The World included introducing, reading, and discussing "Poverty and The Concentration of Poverty in the Nine County Greater Rochester Area" by Edward Doherty the Principal Author and Researcher (Rochester Area Community Foundation and ACT Rochester. Rochester Area Community Foundation, December 2013) https://www.racf.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/News/Publications/RACF-Poverty-Report-Update-2015.pdf. Dale Davis, also, compiled a Reading List of successful reentry projects where the arts played an integral part http://www.nyslc.org/readinglisteighthyear.htm

Hakim Bellamy, National and regional Poetry Slam Champion
Dale Davis, Writer, educator, scholar, founder and Executive Director of The New York State Literary Center
Juliana Muniz, Visual artist
Sally Parker, Writer
David Shakes, Actor and director

The cold-hearted city,
the rhythm, the pain, no pity, just tears,
and leaks,
from a mother screaming in vain.
The top is white, the bottom is green.
People are around but no steam.
Don't know if I really like it, but this is me,
from the bottom of the bricks
to the crumble of a stick,
might be the city inside me.
The strong, the weak, the poor,
the drug dealer and the addicts outside the store.
The city inside me,
will I ever meet the end.
Just weird thoughts I wrote with this pen.

I want to think about my future.
I want to put my past behind me,
but my heart is in the streets.
I am away from my seeds,
aggrieved,
praying to God on my knees.

Rochester, New York is where you find me.
Rochester,
filled with so much pain.
Rochester, the city inside me.

How To Get From Here To The Rest of The World included a play, What Do We Do Next, adapted by Dale Davis from the writing of the inmates, directed by David Shakes, performed on December 19, 2013 at Monroe Correctional Facility. Juliana Muniz videotaped the performance https://www.nyslc.org/whatdowedonext.htm.

I just want to ask a question
Who really cares?
To save a world in despair
Who really cares?
There'll come a time, when the world won't be singing
Flowers won't grow, bells won't be ringing
Who really cares?
Who's willing to try to save a world
That's destined to die
When I look at the world it fills me with sorrow
Little children today are really going to suffer

Is anyone really listening?
Who waits for a question in a monotone?
Do you hear me screaming?
What about the cry for help?

The constant flow of waterfalls from our faces
is rhythmic
to the hard concrete.
It thumps into puddles.

Attendees are in line waiting with pay
to fill broken hearts.
All it takes is someone with courageous lion compassion.

What about the man who punished the boy
for being afraid of the dark?
Who is the main character performing for those
who silence themselves, forgetting the lambs?

Who will be nourished by consuming the fruits of labor?
Who will work for food until everyone is full?

What Do We Do Next gave us the opportunity to use theater and performance to try engage our Rochester community.
Craig

I appreciate the opportunity of being in this class and learning to work hard to achieve goals for myself and or making it better for the way I present myself.
Angel

Putting your mind into your heart and giving it your all. I really liked best our partnership with each other.
Jermaine

David Shakes as a person, and his will to work with us. He inspired me to want to do this more and to help other people.
Phil

The incarcerated men grappled with how to communicate that the men and women who are in Monroe Correctional Facility are part of the American dream. This was their response to How To Get From Here to The Rest of The World.

My dream is for my children to grow up smarter and wiser than I was as a child. My dream is for them to graduate from high school and earn a college degree. My biggest fear for my children is for them to turn out like me and get into the stress of living in Rochester. If I can find a job when I get out it will help me stay on the right path.
Alfonso

I am sick of being hungry, hungry for a new, better life. I have been starving to do something different. Things have to change for me. I am hungry not to let anyone down, not to hurt the people who love me, not to remove myself from people's lives because I am in jail.

When I walk the streets hungry because I need something to eat, do you feel my pain? What do you feel for the young Black man? Do I exist to you? I know my life will never be the same as yours. I want the world to know I hunger for more.

Living in a world where hate divides us and me on the block trying to raise the slate, hoping I don't get killed or locked up or get taken away from my kids. My life is messed up because of this, but I want you to know I hunger for more.

I've learned that life is what you make it. Can I put the blame on anyone but myself? It hurts to be lost in a world I don't understand. I know what it takes to be a man. I want my kids to be better than me. I want them to love life and live comfortably. I don't want the walls to close. I hunger for more.
Martin