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The library,
writing, and publishing center in Monroe County Jail is named in
honor of Jimmy Santiago Baca. The Jimmy Santiago Baca Library,
Writing, and Publishing Center is part of Arts, Literacy, and
The Classroom Community, an Empire State Partnership, funded by
The New York State Council on The Arts, between The New York
State Literary Center and Rochester City School District's Youth
and Justice Programs, in collaboration with the Office of The
Sheriff, County of Monroe. The library, writing, and publishing
center was funded by The Palma Foundation, Penfield, New York.
Born in New
Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was
raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage.
A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five
years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his
life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a
voracious passion for poetry. Instead of becoming a hardened
criminal, he emerged from prison a writer. Immigrants in Our
Own Land was published in 1979, the year he was released
from prison. He earned his GED later that same year. He is the
winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the
International Hispanic Heritage Award and for his memoir A
Place to Stand the prestigious International Award. In 2006
he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award. The national award
recognizes one GED graduate a year who has made outstanding
contributions to society in education, justice, health, public
service and social welfare. Baca has devoted his post-prison
life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship.
Student /
Inmate Writing
On The Jimmy Santiago Baca Library, Writing, and Publishing
Center
I am
introducing myself and my writing. I want you, the reader, to
know how Ms. Dale Davis' poetry class opened my mind and also my
heart on paper. Working here in The Jimmy Santiago Baca Library,
Writing, and Publishing Center furthered my writing and reading
skills. My poetry is mainly about my life and what I've been
through and what I have felt as a teenager on the cold streets
of Rochester. As I've been writing and putting my thoughts on
paper, I've seen where I went wrong. This poetry class has
changed my whole demeanor as a young man. I feel like a
caterpillar waiting to sprout to a butterfly on a hot, sunny
day. My life has been rough like a rock skipping across the
ocean, not in my home but on the streets. As I was growing up,
my intentions were to be a general, constructing an army,
because I was always told never to be a follower. In my heart, I
was only trying to have the world and everything in it like
cars, money etc. Now I can see I was reaching for something that
can't be reached. It was going to only end with death or prison
time.
Many of us
die, many of us go to prison, but few of us make it. My two
years of being incarcerated has given me a new outlook on the
crimes I used to do that didn't amount to anything. Now I'm
taking this time to get my mind and body right so when I get
released I can further my education and do right by my family. I
want to be one of the examples of the black man who has broken
the tradition and changed his life around. I don't want to come
back to the white man's prison and live under his rules. I've
marked my mistakes, and I have learned from them.
By Chaunte
As I was
growing up in the poverty-stricken streets of Rochester, NY,
adults always told me I had a marvelous gift. Although I've
always had a hard time looking for my talent and even became
bewildered at some times trying to find my gift, I always knew
there was something unique about me; I just needed some help
finding it. On December 11th 2007 I came to Monroe
County Jail for a felony charge. During my stay downtown there
were a lot of crucial decisions I contemplated deeply. I had
four choices to choose form, the legit successful road, prison,
institutions or 'Death'. Seeing that I wanted to get my life
together and stay out of the system, I came to the decision that
I would not let my mistake become a burden in my life. While
incarcerated I started reading more than ever and I also started
taking writing classes in The Jimmy Baca Santiago Library with a
lady named Dale Davis. That class really got me on track and it
also helped me discover that I had a gift for writing and a
passion for words. Ever since I first came to the class I have
put my life on a straight road and now I'm more determined than
ever to stay on a path of success. Here of some of my pieces of
work, I hope you like them.
By David G.
The Jimmy
Santiago Baca Library, Writing, and Publishing Center is very
unique. I have learned a lot about myself, how creative I can be
and what I am capable of. I think better and can express the way
I feel about the world, the problems I have, and the life I
live. There needs to be more rooms just like this so more kids
can express themselves and use their minds creatively.
The best
thing about this library is that you don't just learn, but you
also write to keep the stress limit down. You tell other people
your thoughts and help yourself by telling the truth.
By William
To me The
Jimmy Santiago Baca Library, Writing, and Publishing Center is a
place of peace. It is somewhere I can come and open my mind and
put it on paper. This room helps me. There is a lot of
inspiration in the room. The walls, the works of others, It's
good this room is put together.
By David M.
The Jimmy
Santiago Baca Library has helped me discover I have a talent for
writing. The peers I am with up here, we are all able to connect
in a more positive way. I believe this poetry program should
expand even more. I think more jails should have programs like
this.
By Tarkan
In The Jimmy
Santiago Baca Library, Writing, and Publishing Center I learned
that my peers have another side to them, the freedom of their
writings. I have learned how to express myself more and I have
become more motivated in my work.
By Donkavius
The best
thing about the Jimmy Santiago Baca Library is somebody really
cares about us and wants to teach us something that we never did
before. That's the best thing about the library.
By Gregory
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