Cover Story
Education… means emancipation
What would Frederick Douglass think now of the state of education in the city he loved? Seven Rochesterians – community leaders, students, and parents – offer their assessment and their advice.
Steve Miller Band added to 2019 Jazz Festival
Steve Miller Band has been named the final headliner of the 2019 CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival, which runs from June 21 to 29.
North Winton may finally get its Aldi
After a scrapped attempt several years ago to build an Aldi in North Winton Village, all indications are now looking good for a new store coming to the area, says Mary Coffey, a long-time neighborhood leader. Aldi will occupy half of the former Tops market, a 44,000 square-foot building located at the corner of North…
County exec race will be Dinolfo versus Bello
County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo has received the Republican Party’s official backing for her reelection bid, and Democrats have designated County Clerk Adam Bello as their candidate against her. Both parties made the designations during their conventions Wednesday night, officially solidifying the match up that many in local politics and media have expected for a couple…
CLASSICAL | Society for Chamber Music in Rochester
In the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester’s “German Genius and Joker” program on Sunday, Beethoven’s Septet represents the genius here, while the joker is Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders!” Strauss’s witty, virtuosic orchestral tone poem sounds even wittier and more virtuosic in this quintet arrangement by Franz Hasenorhl. The players’ roster on Sunday…
Feedback 2/13
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. Whole Foods…
Urban Action 2/13
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Discussing racism with young readers The Rochester Public Library Monroe Branch and the Monroe Family YMCA will present “Monroe Reads to End Racism” on Saturday, February 16. Attendees will discuss Angie Thomas’s young-adult…
Blackfriars Theater announces 2019-20 season
Blackfriars Theatre celebrates 70 years of downtown arts engagement with the release of its coming season lineup.
THEATER | ‘Vinegar Tom’
Despite the fact that locations of the historic witch trials are thriving tourist destinations, it’s fairly well known that there was nothing supernatural going on (right?). The women and men caught up in the witch hunts were subject to a systematic oppression and demonization of women. Centuries-old medical practice was removed from the hands of…
THEATER | Bronze Collective Theatre Fest
Celebrating 5 years this week is the annual Bronze Collective Theatre Fest, presenting a week of African American theatrical arts that includes a series of spoken word and storytelling performances, capped at the end with a community forum at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center. Kicking off the fest on Monday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m.,…
ART | ‘A Day’s Gonna Come
The inaugural season of shows at RIT’s downtown City Art Space continues this month with an exhibition of work by emerging artists Zach Dietl and Jacquelyn O’Brien as part of the Alumni Spotlight Series. Both recent graduates of RIT’s Fine Arts Studio MFA program, the duo will show recent work featuring form-focused mixed media installations…
DANCE | ‘Challenging Convention’
This week the Department of Dance at The College at Brockport will present “Challenging Convention: An MFA Thesis Concert,” featuring a program of two students’ thesis work. Zhongyuan Fa’s “Unabridged Emotions” is a mixed-reality dance performance created in collaboration with RIT students that includes projected facial avatars controlled by off-stage users. The second performance, “Spectrum”…
KIDS | February Fun Week
If figuring out what to do with the kiddos during February school recess is looking like a challenge, take a look at Ganondagan’s family programming. With daily participatory learning opportunities, you can keep those young minds primed while school’s out. Each day features a different make-and-take activity paired with a traditional story, and Seneca dancer…
RTS is thinking about creating ‘mobility zones’
As early as summer 2020, RTS could be providing public transit in some key suburban areas through smaller buses and more flexible routes. RTS has been working its way through Reimagine RTS, an effort to improve and modernize the Monroe County’s public transit system. The agency and a consultant already developed a plan to revamp…
Unlocking Alzheimer’s blood-pressure connection
Last year, more than five million people in the US were living with Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of dementia, and that number is expected to grow to 14 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of adult deaths in the US, more than breast and prostate cancer combined. And the cost…
WORLD | Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Established in the early 1960’s, Ladysmith Black Mambazo draws from Isicathamiya, a choral singing style developed in the mines of South Africa, where migrant workers used the songs as an expression of their struggles. Ladysmith Black Mambazo launched onto the international scene in 1986 with the release of Paul Simon’s landmark album, “Graceland.” Since then,…
CLASSICAL | ‘Choral Prism’
On Sunday, the Greater Rochester Choral Consortium will present an extraordinary number of choirs – 15 in all – in a program that features lesser known but no less powerful music by Sergei Rachmaninoff. “Priidite, poklonimsya” and “Bogoroditse Devo,” both from the composer’s “All-Night Vigil,” have a power and mysticism that’s well-suited to the sacred…
BLUES | Jontavious Willis
Inspired by his discovery of Muddy Waters at age 14, Jontavious Willis released his debut album “Blue Metamorphosis” in 2016, demonstrating a mastery of the craft and proving that the spirituals of the Jim Crow era are still relevant today. Willis performs a mix of Delta, Piedmont, and Texas blues, telling stories about love and…
JAZZ | Banjo Juice Jazz Band
With instrumentation that includes clarinet, trumpet, and sousaphone, Banjo Juice Jazz Band sounds like a bunch of Dixieland dandies on the mischievous make. Clammering calamity collides on stage a la Django, with a rhythmic sweetness that is the music’s claim. This is another Tyler Westcott joint, so you know it’s gonna be good with a…
POST-ROCK | El Ten Eleven
As the duo El Ten Eleven, drummer Tim Fogarty and bassist Kristian Dunn concoct a compelling mixture of acoustic and electronic textures, resulting in dreamy rock soundscapes. The band puts a twist on post-rock music by adding fretless bass, heavy looping, and effects pedals. Sometimes stark and dreary, other times inspiring and sunny, El Ten…
‘#Mobilize’ summons traces of social movements
Using GPS info from tweets with social justice hashtags, art collective Larson Shindelman creates images at the sites where the tweeter stood. The duo’s images are on view at Eastman Museum.
Rochester school board shows off its problems
Even before the vote on a crucial report was taken, the board demonstrated, almost on cue, one of Aquino’s biggest concerns.
Album review: ‘Photo’
Chrissie Romano Band ‘Photo’ Self-released chrissieromano.com Chrissie Romano’s voice rings out clarion-clear over her band’s smooth groove on the new album “Photo.” She doesn’t waste any time shouldering her unplugged guitar and getting to the heartbreak at the heart of it all. That’s not to say that Romano is just a young woman with a…
Film preview: ‘Capernaum’
The Lebanese drama “Capernaum” is a sometimes heavy-handed, but nonetheless powerful tale of poverty and adversity, written and directed with unflinching naturalism by Nadine Labaki.
Diner series: Mt. Hope Diner
Hitting 53 years in business, Mt. Hope Diner is a family-owned and -run spot that hits all of the markers for enduring success.
Album review: ‘Simple Case of the Blues’
Rosie Flores ‘Simple Case of the Blues’ The Last Music Company roseieflores.com So they’re calling it a blues record, huh? Well I’m here to tell ya it’s so much more. Rosie Flores’ brand-new “Simple Case of the Blues” touches upon everything that makes us like the blues and love Flores. The epitome of it all…
Interview: Dr. Dog
Admired by indie rock and jam band audiences alike, Philadelphia band Dr. Dog plays music with fun vocal harmonies hovering over punctuating guitar lines, melded together with warm bass tone and unobtrusive drumming.
Film review: ‘The LEGO Movie 2’
The sequel maintains the first film’s central core of sweetness, and though it doesn’t feel as effortless this time around, it manages to juggle a number of potent ideas beneath its bright and candy-colored exterior.
