Cover Story
WallByrd flies the coop
Virginia Monte and her theater company, WallByrd, have produced successful, unique interpretations of classic theater works. The group is now preparing for an exciting 2017
LDC trio is in its last days
State Supreme Court Justice Craig Doran signed off on a court order that clears the way for three county-linked local development corporations to dissolve, says County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo. Each LDC has its own board, which must meet and agree to dissolve the entity and transfer assets and contracts to the county. Dinolfo asked each…
Day of black affirmation sought for city schools
The Rochester Teachers Association will debate a resolution later today on whether to support a day of education, dialogue, and action in city schools around Black Lives Matter. The effort is called “Black Lives Matter At School” and is planned for Friday, February 17. Black Lives Matter At School is not affiliated with the broader…
Jazz Fest announces rest of 2017 headliners
The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival has announced the remaining four headliners of its 2017 edition. King Crimson, Joss Stone, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, and Maceo Parker performing a tribute to Ray Charles join previously announced headliners Mavis Staples and Sheryl Crow. The Jazz Festival, now in its 16th year, will take place June 23…
WEEK AHEAD: Events for the week of Monday, January 16
Can’t get to Washington to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration? Do it here. Many local groups have joined together to organize the People’s Solidarity Rally on Saturday, January 21. (Trump’s inauguration is Friday, January 20.) The rally is from 11 a.m. to noon in Washington Square Park, 181 South Clinton Avenue, and it will be followed…
Sheppard kicks off mayor’s race
We’ve got ourselves a mayor’s race, Rochester. James Sheppard made it official this morning at a press conference at the Workers United union hall on East Avenue. It was an exuberant affair with an hour’s worth of speakers praising Sheppard’s integrity, commitment, compassion, and work ethic. They included preachers, union leaders, an East High teacher, a…
RCSD’s Deane-Williams lays out priorities
It’s not just that Rochester schools Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams is between a rock and a hard place; it’s that the rock keeps getting bigger and the place keeps getting harder. Deane-Williams’ presentation last night of the results of her months-long listening tour rehashed some of what’s already known about city schools. (The tour involved a…
Classical review: RPO with James Ehnes
In the classical music world at least, waltzing is a highly accepted way to begin the New Year. Ward Stare must feel the same way: Stare’s opening program of 2017 with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra gave plenty of time to two large-scale showpieces that offered sophisticated treatments of the dance in three quarter time. Stare…
The top 15 movies of 2016
You know how this works. A ton of movies were released in 2016, and these are film critic Adam Lubitow’s picks for the cream of the crop
Bill Stephens draws from within
Artist and educator Bill Stephens retired in 2014 after 40 years of teaching art at Webster Thomas High School. “Since the day I retired I’ve been drawing every single day,” he says. This practice has culminated in a solo show of his work, “Drawing from Within,” currently on view at Williams-Insalaco Gallery at FLCC. Stephens’s…
JAZZ/BOOGIE | Davina and the Vagabonds
Minneapolis’ Davina and the Vagabonds lay it down with vintage instrumentation — piano, horns, bass, and drums — and hi-tone retro ambition. It boogies and woogies as if spilling out of Preservation Hall — or more like the parlor music heard in New Orleans’ brothels of yore. Leading the parade, parked behind the piano, is…
THEATER | “The Last Romance”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This event has been cancelled. If you would like to start your theatergoing year with the stage equivalent of tasty comfort food skillfully prepared, we recommend the Basement Players’ “The Last Romance,” presented this weekend at MuCCC. The play, by Tony Award-winning writer Joe DiPietro, has an honest title: it’s a bittersweet comedy…
HARDCORE | Jesus Piece
While even the smallest reference to religious idolatry tends to make hardcore kids recoil in terror, Pennsylvania bruisers Jesus Piece have had no trouble finding an audience. Combining Eastern religion atmospherics with pummeling metalcore that evokes everything from 108 to One King Down, Jesus Piece comes across as a laboratory experiment that set out to…
COMEDY | Vermin Supreme
Aside from being a social anarchist, performance artist, political activist, author, and self-proclaimed “friendly fascist,” prankster Vermin Supreme has run for President of the United States four times. If elected, he promised every citizen a free pony and would pass federal law requiring mandated oral hygiene. This discordian legend can be found at protests and…
CLASSICAL | RPO with James Ehnes
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Ward Stare returns to the podium this week to begin the year auspiciously. He’ll be joined by the excellent, Grammy-winning Canadian violinist James Ehnes to perform one of the greatest (if not the greatest) concertos in the violin repertoire: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, a perfectly balanced model of classicism. To…
THEATER/KIDS | “Bad Kitty on Stage”
Bad Kitty, the mischief-making housecat from the New York Times bestselling series by Nick Bruel, stumbles upon surprise after surprise in “Bad Kitty on Stage,” which will be produced by TYKEs for its first performances outside of California and Oregon. A new puppy and a newborn baby take over Bad Kitty’s once calm household and…
BLUES | Joe Louis Walker
When Joe Louis Walker’s roommate, Mike Bloomfield, met with an untimely death in 1981, Walker used that as motivation to quit the blues and go back to school. He got a degree in music and English, and turned to playing gospel. But the blues wouldn’t be denied. A set he performed at the New Orleans…
ACTIVISM | Rochester Activism Fair
For those in Rochester looking to fight for social and political change, the Rochester Activism Fair can help point you in the right direction. Several local organizations are gathering at Visual Studies Workshop to promote activism across a broad range of areas, including climate change and environmental sustainability, LGBTQ rights, law enforcement accountability, poverty, and…
Guitarist Kim Simmonds comes through Rochester solo
When talking with living legends in the blues or rock idiom, you’re bound to encounter some change-up in the lineup. Somebody comes; somebody goes. It’s kind of like fantasy football, except cool. Original lineups just don’t always weather the storm that comes from being in a band.
FILM | “The Life and Art of David Bowie”
It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since Major Tom left Starship Earth. David Bowie’s death in January 2016 had such a worldwide impact, people have joked that it kicked off the rest of last year’s many horrors. One tweet in particular kept resurfacing on social media: “I’m not saying David Bowie was…
Album review: ‘Moving Forward’
Brent Gallaher “Moving Forward” V&B Records brentgallaher.com New York isn’t the only place producing top-notch jazz musicians. Although it may not be high on the radar screen, Cincinnati has a thriving jazz scene, and saxophonist Brent Gallaher has been a vital part of it for more than 25 years. He’s toured with the Glenn Miller…
SPECIAL EVENT | “Winter Warmth: A Soup(er) Benefit”
On Friday, January 13, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the annual “Winter Warmth: A Soup(er) Benefit” returns to Cat Clay (Suite 242, Hungerford Building, 1115 East Main Street; take door 2, by the loading docks). The beloved charity event donates 100 percent of proceeds to the Healthy Sisters Soup & Bean Works, a non-profit…
Album review: ‘Stabilimento’
Roberto Occhipinti “Stabilimento” Modica Music robertoocchipinti.com You may not know his name, but if you’ve walked down Gibbs Street during the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, you’ve probably heard one of Roberto Occhipinti’s bands, Soul Stew. You may have also caught him with Manuel Valera or one of the many other artists he’s played with…
Feedback 1/11
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Americans are…
Paul Garland’s broken symmetry
Nearly half a century has passed since Paul Garland’s first professional solo exhibition of paintings, which was held in February 1967 at Rochester’s since-closed Janus Gallery. In celebration of Garland’s five decades of intensive studio work and numerous solo shows in New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Buffalo, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, AXOM Gallery is currently presenting…
Urban Action 1/11
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Schools to show anti-racism film Area school districts will show the documentary film “I’m Not a Racist…Am I?” by director Catherine Wigginton Greene. The film follows 12 New York City teens in a…
What housing downturn?
The much-hyped resurgence of Rochester’s downtown is being built on housing, both new developments and conversions. So any hint of a slowdown in the housing market is worrisome. But the January 3 article in the Wall Street Journal, “Luxury Apartment Boom Looks Set to Fizzle in 2017” shouldn’t overly concern Rochester officials, says Heidi Zimmer-Meyer,…
School choice lapse complicates space questions
Closing public schools, even failing public schools, is almost always a complicated, emotional business fraught with pitfalls. Rochester school board members heard the outcry from Charlotte High School parents, teachers, and some members of the public when they decided to phase out the school shortly after the building underwent improvements. They heard it again recently…
Opioid crisis spares no one
Sometimes, it seems as if drugs have declared a war on us. The United States has gone through a few heroin epidemics since the drug was first synthesized in the closing years of the 19th century. Crack cocaine ripped through cities in the 1980’s and 1990’s. And meth is a modern-day plague in some Southern…
Branca breaks bread in midtown
If you’ve ever worked downtown, you know that options for grabbing something to eat are limited. If you’re looking for a drink after work with your co-workers, the choices are even fewer. And while there are plans (and many construction vehicles) in place to breathe new life into downtown, it’s hard to picture what it…
ALTERNATIVE | Phantogram
Phantogram is the Rolls-Royce of sultry, dark electropop. The duo’s tunes, such as “Fall in Love” and “When I’m Small,” are impeccable, danceable, and slightly melancholic, and have raised the bar for the genre. Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards) and Josh Carter (guitars, vocals) met in junior high school and eventually formed the band in 2007, and…
JAZZ | Jake Wark Trio
Tenor saxophonist Jake Wark earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Nazareth College where he studied with Chisato Eda Marling and Paul Smoker. Since then, he’s paid his dues on the Chicago scene, where he also performs with another trio, Four Letter Words. Last year, Wark recorded his debut album with Phil Haynes on drums and Drew…
Democracy is fragile: learning from history
Waiting for Donald Trump: Fourth of a series on the 2016 presidential election and what comes next.
Film review: ‘Elle’
If you’re at all familiar with the career of Paul Verhoeven, from the lurid eroticism of “Basic Instinct” to the bloodsoaked violence of “RoboCop,” you know that the filmmaker takes great pleasure in shocking his audience. Verhoeven’s films have a nihilistic tinge, containing layers of cruelty and inhumanity which the director often presents with a…
Theater review: ‘The Devil, The Witch, and The Blacksmith’
Now in its second season, The Kingfisher Theater is hoping to carve a niche in the Rochester theater landscape as it produces new works based on classic literature and plays. The new company also has an annual production that it hopes will become a holiday tradition. Directed by Artistic Director Kevin Dedes, “The Devil, The…
