A youth talent show Friday at I-Square in Irondequoit aims to honor the lives impacted by violence in Rochester. The event celebrated the life of Lysaun Curry and marks one year since his death.

Lysaun was shot on Trenaman Street in Oct. 2020, and was only 18 years old.

In 2018, he was the host for the annual talent show and was a big help to organizer Erica Colon. Colon was once Lysaun’s school counselor when he attended Fredrick Douglas Preparatory School. She reached out to his mom, Titiana Bogar, to make the event this year honor him, and recognizing victims of violence since 2020.

Both said the event will be an opportunity for young people to express themselves and to come together to spread love.

"Once we decided that it was going to be in honor for him, I felt pretty good,” said Bogar. “Because this is who he was. Everyone will get to see exactly who Lysaun was."

"Today is the day to kind of put that judgment aside and really listen without judgment,” said Colon. “Because they have a lot to say and they say it through their talent."

The event will showcase rapping, singing and dancing, as well as vendors and educators on victim awareness.

A year later, Bogar is working hard to keep her head up.

"I play that 8 o'clock call in my head every night," she said. "Every day."

She said she will never be able to move on from the loss of her son to senseless gun violence.

"Everyone sees a parent, a mother, a father, that lost a child just going on with their life,” said Bogar. “But nothing is the same anymore. We have to live on because there's other children we have to take care of, there's other family members we have to take care of. But inside we're dying. We lost a part of ourselves forever. That's never coming back."

The past two years have been two of the most violent years in the last decade in Rochester. Since 2020, 22 people under the age of 21 have lost their lives, according to the Rochester Police Open Data Portal. That's 12 last year, including Lysaun, and 10 so far this year.

Bogar said it is triggering whenever she sees another young man killed on the news.

"A lot of the kids that have died were at my son's funeral. Knew my son. So it's painful. It hurts,” said Bogar.

In Feb. 2021, Jonathan Spinks was arrested for the shooting and death of Lysaun. Bogar said she still wants more answers, but she believes she knows where the violence stems from.

"Anger. It's anger. It's competition. It's, 'I'm better than you or you're better than me.' They don't know how to use their words,” said Bogar. "Our children need us to see that it's OK to be in pain. A lot of it is, boys are not allowed to cry. Girls can't be tough. Well that's not it. And this is why our kids are having problems with each other. Because we're making them be one way when they should just be who they are and not be able to turn to violence because they can't feel this way or they can't feel that way."

A memorial will be held for Lysaun on Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m. at Maplewood Park in Rochester.

Bogar also said she is working to start a nonprofit called Mothers with Sons Against Violence. The goal is to create a support system for other moms going through what she's going through.

"No one should have to feel that pain,” said Bogar. “No one should feel like their life is over because someone senselessly took their child's life away."