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Conversation and Book Launch with Jim St. Germain
July 13, 2017 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Join us for a special conversation and book launch with the author of A Stone of Hope, Jim St. Germain.
Born into abject poverty in Haiti, and now a local inspiration and national juvenile justice activist, Jim St. Germain moved moved with his family into an overcrowded apartment in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood when he was a young boy. He quickly adapted to street life and began stealing, dealing drugs, and growing increasingly indifferent to despair and violence. By the time he was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, he had been handcuffed more than a dozen times, and by the age of fifteen, the walls of the system were closing around him.
St. Germain was placed in “Boys Town,” a non-secure detention facility designed for rehabilitation instead of prison. Surrounded by mentors and positive male authority who enforced a system based on structure and privileges rather than intimidation and punishment, St. Germain slowly found his way, eventually getting his GED and graduating from college. Then he made the bravest decision of his life: to live, as an adult, in the projects where he had lost himself, and to work to reform the way the criminal justice system treats at-risk youth. His poignant memoir, A Stone of Hope is an inspiring challenge for every American, and is certain to spark debate nationwide.
Doors open at 7:00 PM
Co-sponsored by: CBE, Brad Lander, City Council Member, Michael Farber, Breakout, Khaair Morrison, V.O.Y.C.E, Diana Richardson, Assemblywoman, Community Bookstore