Culture

Age: 50Hometown: RochesterCurrent residence: RochesterOccupation: CEO and co-owner, Fee Brothers Jon Spacher doesn’t come across as someone eager to be the face of anything. Gregarious but understated, he’s more at ease talking about Fee Brothers than his own role spearheading it all. But as CEO of the esteemed Rochester cocktail ingredient company founded in 1864, […]

Age: 64  Hometown: Staten Island Current residence: Pittsford Occupation: President and founder of The ShermanEDGE; author Before Pam Sherman wrote two books, she was traveling the world building a coaching business based on her experiences. Before that, she landed a syndicated newspaper column by making an editor’s wife laugh in a dressing room. Before that, […]

Age: 73 Hometown: Rochester Current Residence: Rochester Occupation: Artistic director and founder of Borinquen Dance Theatre Nydia Padilla-Rodríguez loves dance: from salsa to tap to Garth Fagan technique, she has a passion for all styles and appreciates how movement celebrates culture. But what Padilla-Rodríguez loves even more than dance is people. Her company, Borinquen Dance […]

Age: 49 Hometown: Greece Current residence: Greece Occupation: Owner of Bella Events Group On a blustery night in December, the winds from a winter storm scattered Jenna Manetta-Knauf’s igloos across downtown Rochester. One was in the middle of the ice rink. Another was halfway down Court Street. Some of the domes had splintered into pieces […]

Age: 48 Hometown: Chicago Current Residence: Rochester Occupation: Frederick Douglass professor and founding chair of the Department of Black Studies at the University of Rochester Rye old fashioned with extra cherries — a spirit-forward drink that balances spice and sweet, the perfect preamble for great storytelling.   That’s Jeffrey McCune’s drink order, and it mirrors the […]

Age: 45 Hometown: The Bronx Current resident: Rochester Occupation: Executive director, Father Tracy Advocacy Center Shortly after 10:30 on a weekday morning, people are already gathered outside the Father Tracy Advocacy Center at 821 N. Clinton Ave. By the end of a typical day, about 200 people will have passed through the building. A woman […]

Age: 61 Hometown: Binghamton Current residence: Penfield Occupation: Digital content creator During a recent MRI, John Kucko laid inside a tube with a cylinder resting inches above his face. Physically, he remained still for about 30 minutes while the machine captured images of his brain. But mentally, he took a trip to the Adirondacks. “I […]

Age: 35 Hometown: Rochester Current residence: Rochester and Washington, D.C. Occupation: Co-owner, WDKX; actor, writer and producer Andria Langston freely admits that she does not know how to relax. Perhaps it’s because she is the only child of the only child of Andrew and Gloria Langston, who came to Rochester 52 years ago with next to […]

Age: 32 (33 on Aug. 16) Hometown: Webster Current residence: Rochester Occupation: Software engineer at Applied Materials; station manager at WAYO 104.3 FM Long before Max Kelley helped establish one of Rochester’s most beloved community institutions, he was sitting beside his Italian grandfather, listening to voices travel across an ocean through an old Grundig shortwave […]

Age: 29 Hometown: Morristown, NJ Current Residence: Rochester Occupation: Musician, artist, caregiver A world where souls turn into stuffed animals so they can be protected against the Very Bad Normal Man and his terrible contract. A campy puppet folk opera at the crossroads of psychedelic rock and twee. A handmade cardboard set with a mind […]

It’s 1986, and Gene Baur is selling vegan hotdogs at Grateful Dead shows. Surrounded by the sounds of Jerry Garcia and company, Baur spends his time educating fellow “Deadheads” about the cruelties of animal agriculture, providing firsthand accounts from his investigations at factory farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses.  Then Baur finds Hilda, a discarded sheep left […]

It’s a Wednesday night in Seneca Falls, and a group of women prepares for another busy weekend of performances. In a few days, they’ll don pointy hats, grab their broomsticks and dance into their roles as modern-day witches. But they aren’t just dancing for spectacle —- they’re raising awareness.  The Witches of the Water’s Edge, […]