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Franklin Florence on Rochester and racism: Little has changed
Civil rights leader Franklin Florence on Rochester and racism
RMSC names its new director
The Rochester Museum and Science Center has picked a Rochester-area native with deep experience in museum leadership for its new director. She is Hillary Olson, an Ogden native and a graduate of Brockport High School. Olson will succeed Kate Bennett, starting work in November. She is currently vice president of audience and community engagement at…
The F Word: Eating the ALPO
The question I get asked the most is whether or not I like everything I hear. The criterion is simple: I don’t have to love it, but I have to believe it. It’s easy to like a band because it sounds good or plays in a style you inexplicably love. However, hating a band or…
Fresh Cut: ‘Pedaling’ by The Able Bodies
The new video from The Able Bodies’ “Pedaling” casts the synth-pop duo as fitness enthusiasts, and the track spins toward pure bliss.
INDIE FOLK | The Western Den
You don’t just hear the beguiling music of folk outfit The Western Den — you feel it. Anchored by the creative tandem of Chris West and Deni Hlavinka (I see what you did there), these are the kinds of tender, wistful songs you might listen to by candlelight, with a bittersweet tear in your eye.…
ROC Game Dev gets its own space
For its three-year existence, ROC Game Dev hasn’t had a true home base. It started at the Irondequoit Public Library and for the past two years has operated out of the multi-disciplinary MAGIC Center at Rochester Institute of Technology. But ROC Game Dev, an organization that supports and promotes indie game development in Greater Rochester,…
REGGAE | Noble Vibes
Noble Vibes is a six-piece band of veteran musicians making bouncy, light-hearted music with a carefree feeling that anyone can dance to. The reggae group keeps its music fresh with non-repetitive, melodic hooks and clever echoing between the instruments and vocals. Emerging onto the scene with the release of its self-titled, debut album in 2013,…
Jazz | Brian Charette Trio
Over the decades, Brian Charette has brought his soulful Hammond B-3 organ sound to a wide variety of artists, ranging from jazz greats like Lou Donaldson and Houston Person to pop stars, including Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. As a bandleader, he’s topped the Downbeat Critics Poll as “Rising Star Organist,” and he’s been nominated…
JAZZ | The Rita Collective
When Rage Against The Machine wrote “Killing In The Name,” the rap-metal band could not possibly have imagined that the tune would be played urgently by a smartly dressed quartet featuring bass clarinet and marimba. The Rita Collective will not only surprise you with unlikely covers like Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror,” it will…
OPERA | ‘Bravo Nights’
“Bravo Nights,” — presented by the Opera Guild of Rochester — combines your favorite, memorable opera arias and musical theater songs with the intimacy of a café setting. This Thursday at The Little Café, soprano Kerri Lynn Slominski and tenor Daniel Kamali will sing classics from the repertoire like Mozart’s “Queen of the Night Aria”…
SYNTH-ROCK | Circuit Juicebox
Circuit Juicebox is a mysterious new duo in town that has largely flown under the radar, yet its music is refreshingly different from most other Rochester bands. Having released its first single “Wait for Tomorrow” earlier this year, Circuit Juicebox is now emerging onto the scene with its slow-cooking, synth-rock grooves. Sean Healey’s baritone vocals…
LITERATURE | Dine & Rhyme
BOA Editions’ 21st Annual Dine & Rhyme fundraiser this year features poet, photographer, and filmmaker Kai Carlson-Wee. Formerly a pro rollerblader and currently a Stanford University lecturer, Carlson-Wee’s book of poetry, “Rail,” was published by BOA earlier this year. After suffering his first mental breakdown at 22, he began riding freight trains across the American…
ART | ‘The Blues’
Brockport native and WALL\THERAPY alum Nate Hodge this month presents his new body of work, “The Blues,” at AXOM Gallery & Exhibition Space for Contemporary Visual Arts. The exhibit includes not only the drawings and paintings of flowing shapes and structures that Hodge is known for, but also installations of constructions that represent his aesthetic…
DANCE | ‘Tutus & Tango’
Rochester City Ballet’s upcoming aesthetic-blending “Tutus & Tango” performance includes three short ballets. In the sultry “Quizás,” Artistic Director David Palmer spotlights Buenos Aires’ Nuevo Tango. Benjamin Rabe’s original choreography in “The Golden Hour” features all of the moody emotion of its namesake, and the classical ballet “Raymonda Act III” is the finale in the…
FESTIVAL | I-Square Fall Festival
It’s all things autumn in Irondequoit this weekend, at the annual family-friendly I-Square Fall Festival. The event features the classic seasonal perks of hayrides, donuts (from Ridge Donuts, of course), cider, and homemade apple crisp, as well as a pie eating contest and free activities (pumpkin painting!) and games. A pop-up art market by Create…
ART | ‘Transformation’
Though their artistic styles differ greatly, both Bill Stephens and Paul Brandwein each work intuitively with little or no planning before setting pen to paper or brush to canvas. At times subtle figures and structures arise from the many layers of lines in Stephens’s ink drawings, while Brandwein’s richly hued paintings contain suggestions of forms…
SPECIAL EVENT | Rochester Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
Though the focus is raising awareness and funds for men’s health, this weekend’s Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride isn’t a boys-only affair. On Sunday more than 100 dapperly-adorned men and women will rev the engines of their classic and vintage-styled motorcycles and participate in the 28-mile ride for charity. Rochester is one of more than 600 cities…
ART | ‘Monroe & Vicinity Biennial’
The “Monroe & Vicinity Biennial” spotlights the wealth of artistic talent in our region, and this year’s show, which opened in early September, features dreamy abstracts and expressive realist work by muralist and painter Brian O’Neill (Rochester), photographs by documentary photographer Meredith Davenport (Rochester), intimate and quirky mixed media works by Katarina Riesing (Alfred), and…
Feedback 9/26
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. We edit selections for publication in print, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. New translations In her article “Voice Matters,” Rachael Crawford stated that translations of classic literature have been male dominated. There…
Urban Action 9/26
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Growing up Muslim The Moving Beyond Racism Book Group will discuss “Muslim Girl A Coming of Age” on Monday, October 1. Author Amani Al-Khatahtbeh was 9 years old on September 11, 2001. Like…
CLASSICAL | RPO with Jean Thibaudet
No American composer has merged jazz and classical music as successfully as George Gershwin. On Wednesday, illustrious French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will join the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Ward Stare in an all-Gershwin celebration. Thibaudet’s elegant and majestic playing style will be an ideal fit for “Concerto in F,” which Gershwin largely composed…
Northwest neighborhoods will get a ‘history survey’
Rochester has an unusually large number of older buildings: homes, small commercial buildings, houses of worship, former factories. And street by street, the Rochester-based Landmark Society of Western New York has been documenting them. The next stage: surveying part of northwest Rochester, including the Brown Square, Edgerton, and Lyell-Otis neighborhoods. City Council approved the study…
Sticky Lips will close city location
After a nearly 15-year run at its Culver and Atlantic location, Sticky Lips Pit BBQ will close its doors for good on October 9.
Interview: Mroztronium’s Martin Freeman
Electronic musician Martin Freeman is a mad scientist of sound. A longtime fixture in Rochester’s experimental music scene, Freeman also sells original, made-from-scratch instruments through his company Mroztronium.
Police Accountability Board is essential for public trust
The current process has to change, for the good of the public and the police, and the integrity of the criminal justice system.
Film preview: ‘Smallfoot’
At the film’s center are themes involving the importance of thinking critically about the world around you, learning to question established norms, and the realization that keeping people fearful can be a powerful governmental tool to control the population.
Relish refocuses on Parisian fare
Stephen Rees opened the doors of Relish on 651 South Avenue in the spring of 2017 as a catering business and has recently turned it into a quaint, Parisian dinner restaurant.
Former roster of Young Audiences form Teaching Artists ROC
More than 20 artists and ensembles — including dancers, musicians, storytellers, and variety artists — will take part in a free showcase for educators on Thursday.
Album review: ‘Ask for Chaos’
Gilad Hekselman “Ask for Chaos” Motéma Music giladhekselman.com It has a decidedly odd title and only lasts a few seconds, but “prologu00001101” — the wonderfully crazy opening track from guitarist Gilad Hekselman’s newly released “Ask For Chaos” — lets you know in no uncertain terms that this will not be a run-of-the-mill jazz album. Hekselman…
Film review: ‘Lizzie’
Even if only through the indelible children’s folk rhyme, most people have at least a vague knowledge of Lizzie Borden and the infamous murders she stood accused of. The heart of the story lies in Lizzie’s relationship with her family’s live-in maid, who moves into the Borden house six months before the murders.
Album review: ‘Picture in Black and White’
Concept albums are common in rock, but rare in the jazz realm. Tessa Souter’s “Picture in Black and White” –set for release on October 5–breaks that mold.
