Governor Andrew Cuomo is taking a tougher stance with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In a cease-and-desist letter sent last Wednesday, Cuomo called out ICE on recent actions in the state, threatened to follow with legal action, and announced modification of an executive order to prohibit ICE from making arrests in state facilities […]
Jake Clapp
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester’s poverty talk has to include evictions
New York State reported 38,055 evictions in 2016 and according to Rochester City Court information, there were 3,510 evictions in Rochester in 2017.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Poor People’s Campaign creates new movement against poverty
Last week’s Truth Commission on Poverty was an early, local event of the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement against poverty taking place in cities in 41 states across the country.
Posted inNews & Opinion
New bill in Assembly expands access to driver’s licenses
Access to driver’s licenses has been a recent focus for immigrant rights groups in Upstate New York. The state’s farms rely heavily on migrant workers, and it’s often tough to find transportation in rural areas. A bill recently introduced into the New York State Assembly would make it easier for the state’s undocumented residents to […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Grassroots group plans arts series at Parcel 5
A new arts-focused, grassroots campaign wants to put a community vision for Parcel 5 into practice. The Parcel 5 Community Programmers, spearheaded by arts activist Ray Ray Mitrano, will collectively organize and fund a series of monthly events at the controversial downtown space. The idea is to gather together a group of individual city residents […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DANCE | ’50Live’
SUNY Geneseo is celebrating 50 years of dance with a performance that will bring together former students from across four decades for a program of original works by alumni, faculty, current students, and guest artists. Alumni from 1976 through 2017 will join the Geneseo Dance Ensemble for “50Live: Dancing Past to Present Celebrating 50 Years” […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
THEATER | ‘Natural Shocks’
In an act of theater activism against gun violence, playwright Lauren Gunderson (who at 36 is already the most produced playwright in the US) has organized a nation-wide campaign of royalty-free readings of her unpublished, new play “Natural Shocks.” By the end of March, more than 50 readings were already planned, most intentionally taking place […]
Posted inMusic
SPECIAL EVENT | Rochester Music Hall of Fame Induction
The Rochester Music Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony, each year, is a good reminder that there’s a lot of music history in the area to be proud of, and the event always ends up being an education packaged in a rockin’ showcase. The 2018 ceremony will induct percussionist, composer, and Eastman School faculty member John […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
LECTURE | ‘A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time’
While Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are Rochester’s most well-known social reformers, the region’s history as a hotbed for abolitionists, suffragists, and justice-seekers means there are countless stories of people who lived a life worth learning about. Julia Wilbur led a courageous life. Born in 1815, Wilbur was a part of a Quaker family […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
THEATER | ‘Family Affairs’
Black Sheep Theatre this weekend and next will take on two, unique one-act plays, each with interesting takes on what it means to be family and confronting the past together. In Downstate New York playwright Albi Gorn’s “Othertown,” two siblings — and former child TV stars — reunite to settle their mother’s estate after her […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DANCE | ‘Awaken and Arise’
More than six months after Hurricane Maria thrashed through Puerto Rico, more than 50,000 people — US citizens — are still without power. And help from the federal government has been slow to come. Borinquen Dance Theatre, in its 37th anniversary performance, “Awaken and Arise,” will pay tribute to those families preserving in Puerto Rico. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Blackfriars Theatre announces 2018-19 season
With each new season, Blackfriars Theatre seems to further test its own boundaries. In its 2017-18 season, the company set a mission to focus on more women artists and women-centered stories — to great success with its all-female “Twelfth Night,” its holiday show, “Little Women,” and the recent “When We Were Young and Unafraid.” The […]
