November New York State Literary Center News  Greetings, PICTURING OUR DREAMS Rochester City Hall's Link Gallery  November 1 - December 12, 2011   Reception, Friday, November 18, 2011 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.   Artwork By Incarcerated Youth from the New York State Literary Center's partnership With Rochester City School District's Youth and Justice Programs and the Office of The Sheriff, County of Monroe At Monroe County Jail and Monroe Correctional Facility   "My dream is to make it to twenty-one"    "My dream is that someone will listen to us and hear our dreams"   "My dream is for the Rochester community. It is for crime and poverty to go on a decline. My dream is for people to stop looking at Rochester as a ghost town and maybe attract tourists and new residents to this once great city."       Downtown Community Forum Monday, November 7, 2011 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.   St. Mary's Church, 15 St. Mary's Place, Rochester, NY 14607      St. Mary's Church is near the intersection of South Avenue and Woodbury Boulevard   The New York State Literary Center's partnership with Rochester City School District's Youth and Justice Program, and the Office of Sheriff, County of Monroe is a nationally recognized arts education program at Monroe County Jail and Monroe Correctional Facility that inspires and challenges incarcerated youth to learn, to read, to communicate, and and to interpret and respond to their world.    The Downtown Community Forum will present the three partners in this successful program: Dale Davis, Executive Director of The New York State Literary Center; Margaret Porter, Administrator, Rochester City School District's Youth and Justice Programs; and Edward Ignarri, Director of Rehabilitation, Office of The Sheriff, County of Monroe in a roundtable discussion of their work together. Rochester City Councilman At-Large Dana Miller will moderate the discussion. Examples of the writing, visual art, plays, and music will be part of the discussion on why the partnership is doing what it is doing.   The partnership, Arts, Literacy, and the Classroom Community, is a unique academic program designed to meet the needs of young people who have not been engaged academically, who have not had successful school experiences, and for whom traditional methods of instruction have not worked. NYSLC's Arts, Literacy, and The Classroom Community reaches youth through interdisciplinary programs that use writing, theater, visual art, and music in a learning environment designed to foster literacy and enable the youths' dreams, ideas, and concerns to be heard and shared.        You see me, a young man who has been through the struggle,  and who was always in trouble,   who was always getting put down,   who did not know which way was up.    When I went to sleep, all I wanted was to be hugged.   My family was all out of shape,   misplaced and misguided.   I walked around with a lot of hurt,   tried to hide it,  denied it.   The fact was I was by myself,   had no food,   no love,   no wealth.   I dreamed of no more drama, but it never came true.              Sam