"How To Get From Here To The Rest of The World."  NYSLC'S theme this year is "How To Get From Here To The Rest of The World." We are exploring this theme at Monroe Correctional Facility.  As part of our projects we are discussing Rochester Community Foundation's 2013 report, "Poverty and the Concentration of Poverty in the Nine County Greater Rochester Area."  Rochester is the fifth poorest city in the U.S. among the 75 largest metropolitan areas; Rochester ranked third for the highest concentration of extremely poor neighborhoods among cities in the top 100 metro areas; While the overall City of Rochester poverty rate is 31.1%, the poverty rate for children (under 18) is 46%. What Do We Do Next The inmates at Monroe Correctional Facility wrote What Do We Do Next with Dale Davis in response to the theme. The performance piece was directed by David Shakes and performed twice with lively discussion following each performance on December 19, 2013.  What Do We Do Next? (Performed at Monroe Correctional Facility December 19, 2013) "I want to thank the NYSLC for giving us this opportunity. I hope others will be able to do this in the future as well. Working on this has really inspired me."             Alfonso  ROC Hunger Dale Davis and Matthew Roberts are now working with words and images, in ROC Hunger, to personalize the Community Foundation Report through the eyes of the inmates. Look deep into the jail and tell me what do you see? Look into my eyes and tell me what do you see, a man lost in a cold world surrounded by a lost nation. Markeef, February 23, 2014, Monroe Correctional Facility Take a tour of our website http://www.nyslc.org/

NEW YORK STATE LITERARY CENTER (NYSLC)  The New York State Literary Center Celebrates 35 Years! The New York State Literary Center (NYSLC) is celebrating 35 years as a thriving arts education organization. NYSLC is celebrating 35 years of its belief that all children can be inspired to learn. Founded in 1979, NYSLC was one of the first upstate New York arts education organizations to send writers and artists into educational settings to teach. In the past 35 years, over 400 writers and artists have worked with over 33,000 young people in more than 600 different sites that span from rural, suburban, and urban schools to alternative educational settings, long term suspension, residential placement, juvenile detention facilities, jails, and correctional facilities.  Artists and writers who have participated in NYSLC's projects include Homero Aridjis, William Bronk, Kenneth Burke, Robert Creeley, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Duncan, Robert Fitzgerald, Jonathan Galassi, Michael Harper, Hugh Kenner, Ted Kooser, James Laughlin, Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Octavio Paz, William Stafford, Eliot Weinberger, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jonathan Williams.  Thank you New York State Council on the Arts! Thank you Guido and Ellen Palma Foundation! Thank you to all of our donors! You make our programs possible.  NYSLC's first program in 1979 was a fifth grade interdisciplinary project on Latin America. The program received a commendation from Mexico's Ambassador to the United States. Homero Aridjis, Octavio Paz, and Emir Rodriguez Monegal worked with Dale Davis  in two elementary schools. What was it like to have Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz work with fifth graders. Denise, a fifth grader, wrote a poem following his visit. Naming para Octavio Paz I feel, I prove, I look, I seek but, too many, many which one myself., My thoughts fly, fly. My pencil will not write, try is my word, try, try, try and keep on, try. I see, I know what I see, things that say. a bunch of words that no one knows until they read, hear you, person, poet, poet, poet, poetry forever, skin, blood, bones, mind, poet, poet, poet. Denise  Octavio Paz reading student poems in the school library. NYSLC's interdisciplinary, strength based arts programs improve literacy, reading, and listening skills; inject a sense of community belonging; give individuals power over the narrative of their lives; reach out with strong, clear voices on personal and social identity; and articulate a compelling vision of how communities can be better places.  To make a tax-deductible contribution to NYSLC click the button below.