Cover Story
Dissecting the coffee wave
Rochester’s unique cluster of third wave coffee shops has grown into an intertwined family tree
Mark IV plans apartment complex for Karges Place in Swillburg
Mark IV Enterprises wants to build a 101-unit, four-story apartment complex on Karges Place, next to 490 at the Goodman exit. The project site is in the Swillburg neighborhood on vacant land that once held a shoe factory. Mark IV bought the land from the state. The complex, which is temporarily being called 601 South…
There’s no ‘quit’ in him: remembering Tom Frey
In one respect, Tom Frey has been out of the public eye for decades. He left his last government position in December 1991, after failing to win a second term as Monroe County Executive. He’s been as active in public service since then as he was previously, but it has been in quieter efforts –…
Week ahead: Events for the week of Monday, February 13
Local workers, led by the Fight for $15 movement, will rally at McDonald’s, 420 Monroe Avenue, at 5:30 p.m. today to protest President Donald Trump’s labor secretary nominee. Andrew Puzder’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Puzder is CEO of the company that owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains and he’s been…
Malik Evans is running for City Council
Evans first won election to the Rochester school board in 2003. He has been on the board ever since.
Civic leader Tom Frey has died
Former Monroe County Executive Tom Frey died in hospice care at Isaiah House this morning. The cancer that struck him without warning in November took the life of a passionate, tireless public servant who left his mark on everything from public schools, city sidewalks, and trash disposal to public art and an urban trail that…
This week in the mayor’s race: What will Warren do?
I’m sitting here marveling over the pithy brilliance that was Team Lovely Warren’s reaction to Rachel Barnhart’s candidacy. Shortly after Barnhart announced her mayoral bid earlier this week, the Friends of Lovely Warren Committee sent over this brief rejoinder: “Last year, Miss Barnhart ran for the State Assembly. This year she has announced her candidacy…
Rochester’s four-year graduation rate still below 50 percent
The graduation rate for students in the Rochester City School District increased slightly, though it continues to lag behind the rest of the state’s “Big Five” urban districts. Rochester’s graduation rate went from 45.5 percent to 47.5 percent, an increase of two points for students who entered ninth grade in 2012 and graduated in June…
Rochester recommits to sanctuary city status
Rochester City Council is poised to reaffirm Rochester’s status as a sanctuary city. A proposal put forth by Mayor Lovely Warren was unanimously approved by a committee yesterday and will be voted on by City Council on Tuesday night. It’s expected to pass. The move comes after President Donald Trump’s executive order to block federal…
Film review: “I Am Not Your Negro”
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Academy Awards, Raoul Peck’s extraordinary “I Am Not Your Negro” uses as its framework an unfinished 30-page manuscript by author and essayist James Baldwin. The book proposal was started in 1979, and the final work was to explore the experience of being black in America viewed through…
Film review: “Julieta”
The latest from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, “Julieta” finds its inspiration in a trio of connected short stories by author Alice Munro that center around the titular woman as she reflects on her life and her relationship with her long-lost daughter, Antía. The story is a Douglas Sirk melodrama by way of a Hitchcockian thriller,…
Broadway sensation Sutton Foster comes to Rochester
Broadway star Sutton Foster sings with exactly the kind of bright-eyed conviction, poise, and exuberance you would expect from a two-time Tony Award winner (for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Anything Goes”) and originator of roles like Fiona in “Shrek The Musical.” But Foster’s also the kind of performer who relishes breaking out from behind the…
Theater review: “The Lake Effect” at Geva
Sometimes the person you need to meet is not the person you’d choose to encounter. That is, in essence, the premise of “The Lake Effect,” the 2013 play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph. A beautifully unfolding chamber drama, directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, “The Lake Effect” gives audiences an unflinching glimpse into a family fractured…
THEATER | “The Norwegians”
It sounds like a long shot, but hiring Norwegian hit men to get rid of an ex-boyfriend might just result in new love. In C. Denby Swanson’s dark comedy, “The Norwegians,” two Southerners, Olive (Lynne Sanchez-Fries) and Betty (Gretchen Woodworth), find the perfect pair of Scandinavian gangsters, Gus (Tom Bigongiari) and Tor (James Heath), to…
DANCE | “The Bollywood Musical Revue”
In Taj Express’ “The Bollywood Musical Revue,” the sounds, colors, and dances of India’s Bollywood culture erupt in a performance that crosses traditional and contemporary, with authentic costume designs and graceful choreography. Produced, directed, and choreographed by sisters Shruti and Vaibhavi Merchant — both accomplished Bollywood dance choreographers — and combined with scores composed by…
ART | “Things Which are Not Seen”
Rochester-based artist and New York Figure Study Guild founding member Margot Fass creates vibrant mixed media works that combine painted figure studies and portraiture with photos, colorfully patterned paper and fabric, and beads. The resulting work is whimsical and joyful, but Fass often includes serious messages about love and ecological preservation. She’s passionate about endangered…
THEATER | “The Whale”
In Samuel Hunter’s play “The Whale,” a morbidly obese, reclusive man living in rural Idaho is on a slow descent of self-destruction as he eats himself to death. But as he begins to prepare for the inevitable, he reaches out to his estranged teenaged daughter in an effort to mend fences and finds he may…
Urban Action 2/8
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. McMickle to discuss racism and religion Downtown United Presbyterian Church will present “The Church: Where We Have Been and Where Love Can Take Us,” a talk by the Rev. Marvin McMickle, president of…
HIP-HOP | Dave East
If hip-hop icon Nas is looking for ways to get in touch with you, you’re probably doing something right. Harlem rapper Dave East had been working hard for several years — he had released six mixtapes between 2010 and 2013 — before Nas found his music in 2014 and signed East to Mass Appeal Records…
Feedback 2/8
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. Homegrown terrorists…
ROOTS | MarthaPalooza Unplugged
As Rochester visual artist Martha Schermerhorn has found out, you can throw your own palooza. So she got ex-Reporter member Richard Greene, classically trained fiddler Sarah Wetherbee, the fingerstyle guitar of The Tree Shakers, blues and roots with The Rootones, and some tall in the saddle Americana from High Lonesome for an unplugged party at…
Towns may end energy incentive
Some Monroe County towns might opt out of a state incentive for solar, wind, and farm waste-to-energy projects. A section of state law currently shields property owners from local property tax increases when they install wind, solar, and farm-waste energy systems; the systems can add to a property’s assessed value. The law has been on…
FOLK | Low Lily
Formerly known as Annalivia, the two gals and one guy in Low Lily explore folk music with the simplest of tools: fiddle, guitar, and mandolin. And while slinging those tools, they warble in three part harmony. You’ll hear a little Irish, Scottish, and English among other genres that intertwine with the Appalachian sound. Low Lily…
The stained-glass ceiling
Not everyone can talk about God and get others to listen. But there’s something about the Rev. Myra Brown’s voice that perfectly suits her line of work; her calm and reassurance connects. Brown, 51, is a fixture in the Rochester-area spiritual scene, spanning everything from being a young altar worker at black Catholic revivals to…
VOCAL | Sutton Foster
Sutton Foster has accomplished a lot in her career as a performer: a winner of two Tony Awards, she has originated characters on Broadway in such shows as “Shrek The Musical” and “Young Frankenstein”; she has also starred in the TV shows “Younger” and “Bunheads.” On Friday and Saturday, Foster takes the Kodak Hall stage…
Fate uncertain for South Wedge church
The future of Calvary St. Andrews Church in the South Wedge — if it has one — should become clearer in the coming months. On the table: closing the church and disbanding the congregation, moving the congregation somewhere else, or rebooting the church on its current site. Like many urban churches in recent years, Calvary…
JAZZ | Nick Finzer
Since graduating from the Eastman School of Music, trombonist and composer Nick Finzer has performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Gil Evans Project, Lewis Nash, Slide Hampton, and many others. Finzer has just released a new album, “Hear & Now,” expressing his feelings in music about the turbulent state of affairs in…
A shot of Sambuca
When Massimo Albano and his partners, Fausto Albano and Stephen Dimassimo, were looking for a location for the casual counterpart to their successful East Rochester Italian eatery, Lemoncello, they didn’t have to look farther than across the street. After renovating the space to create more of a gastropub atmosphere, while using similar textures to their…
TRADITIONAL IRISH | Séamus Begley and Oisín Mac Diarmada
Irish musicians sure can throw a party, right? Séamus Begley & Oisín Mac Diarmada are back in Rochester for a night that will have you dreaming of the Emerald Isle. Begley, an accordionist and singer, is a bon vivant, a quintessential storyteller known for his wit and famous for making merry on the squeezebox. Fiddler…
Album review: ‘That Is Not Dead…’
Rotten UK “That Is Not Dead…” Hell’s Headbangers Records rotten-uk.bandcamp.com Rochester punks Rotten UK play a whole lot tighter than the genre requires on its new CD, “That Is Not Dead…” Not to worry, there’s plenty of minor-keyed slop and sleaze served up throughout with a snotty sneer. It’s got something from all of the…
Album review: ‘Hey Mr. Ferryman’
Mark Eitzel “Hey Mr. Ferryman” Merge Records facebook.com/markeitzel Former American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel’s “Hey Mr. Ferryman” is more than simply an album. It’s a sweeping gesture: 11 sweeping gestures, at times both grandiose and simple. The record is mellow to be sure, but it doesn’t get mired down in melancholy. It’s lyrically sound…
Women artists take on the world at Main Street Arts
The bulk of art history is a testament to what man makes of his experience in this strange mortal coil. But Main Street Art’s current exhibit, “Trying to Understand the World,” reveals two examples of the female gaze — one is a literal look at the sights of the city, and one is storytelling based…
FILM | The Banff Mountain Film Festival
RIT Outdoor Education will host the Rochester-area showings of The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour on Friday, February 10, through Sunday, February 12, at the Ingle Auditorium in the RIT Student Alumni Union (113 Lomb Memorial Drive). Presenting selected short films from the 41st Banff Mountain Film Festival in Alberta, Canada, the program highlights…
ART | “Light Spill”
The Memorial Art Gallery is offering a unique perspective on the film viewing experience with two works from artists Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder. In “Threadbare” and “Light Spill,” Gibson and Recoder deconstruct the basic elements of cinema (celluloid, projector, screen, and light) and ask viewers to consider the art of the moving image once…
RPO announces 2017-18 season
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has announced its 2017-18 season, and its “best-of-both-worlds” approach has a lot to offer, including plenty of classic blockbusters and big names, from Perlman to Potter, and some pleasant surprises. The season will start on September 12 with an appearance from Itzhak Perlman, a violinist who truly does deserve to be…
The risks we face in the next race for mayor
The last thing this community needs right now is major division among Rochester Democrats. But the division is there.
Film preview: 2017 Oscar-Nominated Shorts Program
ShortsHD and Magnolia Pictures bring all 15 of the year’s Oscar-nominated short films to theaters this week
