Cover Story
Annual Manual 2018
Compared to some cities in the US, Rochester’s not very old. But boy, do we have history. And what happened in the past has shaped what we are today, in many ways.
Art/WORK
Season 2 – Premiering February 4, 2022 art/WORK is a video series that spotlights those working in the arts sector in Rochester. In the past we have focused on creatives of all kinds, but in this season we explore the role of the curator, who serves as the bridge between artists and audiences. In these…
State appoints consultant to help Rochester school district improve
State Education Department Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has appointed a Distinguished Educator for the Rochester school district, a response, she said, to the district’s persistent problems. Elia appointed Dr. Kenneth Eastwood, whose 30 years of experience include service as superintendent of the Oswego and Middletown, New York, school districts. He’ll work with Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams, the…
The F Word: He ain’t heavy
The F Word. An online column for Frank De Blase to pontificate, ruminate, placate, and salivate.
Morelle announces House run
State Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle is officially running for the late Louise Slaughter’s House seat. Morelle, an Irondequoit Democrat who’s served in the Assembly since 1991, announced his candidacy this morning at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 13 meeting hall on Mt. Read Boulevard; Morelle said his father was a member of the union…
The Monday report
A look at the coming week’s news: politics, politics, politics. After staying quiet until the community held a funeral service for Representative Louise Slaughter, local Democrats have begun expressing interest in the seat. Also coming up at CITY: an interview with a descendant of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington and a feature on “sensory…
March for our Lives Rochester rally packs Washington Square Park
The Rochester rally against gun violence drew a massive crowd to Washington Square Park
Louise Slaughter: Political leaders and the public praise her service
Representative Louise Slaughter’s funeral service drew two planeloads of Congress members, a former president — and around 2000 Rochesterians for whom the Kentucky transplant had become a beloved neighbor
WATCH: WXXI streaming Slaughter’s funeral service
Public funeral services for the late Representative Louise Slaughter start at 11 a.m. Friday. The services are being held at Kodak Hall in Eastman Theatre and they are open to the public, though it is not a ticketed event and seating is limited. Check in begins at 9 a.m. and doors open at 10 a.m. Overflow…
Classical review: RPO performs ‘Tchaikovsky 5’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra lately seemed to be reverting back to the conservatism that had dominated its programming before Music Director Ward Stare’s arrival. Yesterday at Kodak Hall, however, Stare and the RPO presented its boldest concert in recent memory. The evening began with Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 22. Stare took a brisk, stately…
Local immigration rights advocates call on Greyhound to stop bus raids
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday issued an open letter to the president and CEO of Greyhound, calling for them to refuse Customs and Border Protection permission to conduct bus raids without a warrant. The letter cited instances in Washington, California, Vermont, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and here in Western New York of border patrol agents…
Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Auditorium Theater
Maybe it’s a side effect of watching movies for a living, but I can’t help seeing ways the Hollywood franchise mindset has wormed its way into other art forms — Broadway being no exception. The prequel, sequel, and spin-off mentality of modern entertainment has led to a compulsive need to explain everything and provide backstory…
Speakers announced for Slaughter service
They include House Representative John Lewis, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Fresh Cut: ‘Ordinary Life’ by The Able Bodies
For The Able Bodies, this is a grand pop cut full of epic atmosphere and joy.
Growing pains
Farms and orchards helped build the region. And they’ve changed with the times.
Feedback 3/21
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. For our print edition, we select comments from all three sources; those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in…
Rochester Confidential
Here’s to the bad old days and to those who made it that way
Urban Action 3/21
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) ROCLA celebrates advocacy The Rochester Committee on Latin America will hold its 30th annual Gala Dinner and White Dove Awards on Friday, April 6. This year’s International White Dove Award winner is M.…
CLASSICAL | ‘Tchaikovsky 5’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra this week will premiere the first of two new works the orchestra will tackle this spring. Music Director Ward Stare will lead the RPO in composer Allen Shawn’s Oboe Concerto, featuring RPO Principal Oboe Erik Behr as soloist for these first-ever performances. Shawns’s style can be enigmatic and moody, but his…
Students rally community against gun violence
Students want to feel safe when they’re in school, which is why so many are loudly telling lawmakers to help reduce gun violence by reforming gun laws. Last week, more than one million students across the country – including many throughout the Rochester region – walked out of their classrooms to send that message. Another…
Development of a Photo City
Photography moves out of industry and into the galleries
Rochester youth find consequence and conscience in ‘Macbeth’
The three teenage actors on stage are working through Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” a crucial scene in the tragedy. Lady Macbeth, tormented by guilt and sleepwalking, can’t clean her hands of the deaths of King Duncan and others who have stood in the way of the ambitions of her and her husband.…
Eight days a week
Whether its rock ‘n’ roll or classical music, Rochester has a concert for everyone
FOLK | Marty O’Reilly & The Old Soul Orchestra
Santa Cruz singer-songwriter Marty O’Reilly plays it dirty, gritty, and raw. As his band lays out its lopsided, sepia-toned waltz, he sings each line as if it’s his last. The emotion is genuine. Initially O’Reilly paints a dark picture as if he were dwelling in a Nick Cave, before vacillating into astute, poetic stuff. When…
INDIE POP | Future Generations
Future Generations is feel-good music at its best. With lyrics about living life to its fullest, love, and the fun of being young, the band’s electronic textures add a hint of youthful nostalgia, all complemented by anthemic choruses and catchy melodies. Future Generations began as a quartet in New York City, and developed into an…
GOSPEL | Blind Boys of Alabama
The Blind Boys of Alabama are an institution and a tradition that they themselves break from in order to give the music room to breathe. The six-time Grammy Award winners take spirituals and gospel standards and give them a secular twist — or the other way around with songs by artists like Tom Waits or…
FOLK PUNK | Luke Cornwell Trio
The Luke Cornwell Trio formed in January when longtime friends and bandmates Luke Cornwell and Noah Boss decided to round out their sound by adding bassist Corinne Cummings. Based out of Rochester, the trio combines a punk sound with freak folk lyrics, creating a flurry of light-hearted distortion. While Cornwell can be found walloping on…
BRASS HOUSE | Too Many Zooz
Brass house: It’s like electronics-less EDM made by a brass trio with inhuman tongue dexterity. Too Many Zooz — bari-sax player Leo Pellegrino, trumpeter Matt Doe, and drummer David “King of Sludge” Parks — started in 2014 as a way for the trio to have fun and make a little extra cash busking in the…
EXHIBIT | ‘Frederick Douglass’s Rochester: Mapping His Tracks in Our City’
As part of the year-long 200 Years of Douglass celebrations, the Rochester Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Division has put together a mini exhibit, “Frederick Douglass’s Rochester: Mapping His Tracks in Our City.” The display spotlights such notable spaces as the Talman Building, where he founded his Abolitionist paper the North Star, and Corinthian…
The great women in Frederick Douglass’s life
Behind every great man there’s a great woman. In some cases, it’s many women bolstering the great man, whether they are mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, colleagues, or friends — and throughout history few of them have been properly credited for their roles.
LITERATURE | Kaveh Akbar Reading
Each year The Brockport Writers Forum reading series invites major contemporary writers to read their work and discuss their craft. The series this week brings Tehran, Iran-born poet Kaveh Akbar to town. Akbar’s work is a dreamy, poignant blend of sensory experience and existential grappling. He is the author of the recent collection, “Calling a…
LECTURE | Anthony Mascioli Rainbow Dialogues
This week’s Anthony Mascioli Rainbow Dialogues: “A Bridge From the Past to the Present” is the first program to feature special LGBTQ collections that have been permanently transferred to the Rochester Public Library from the Out Alliance. Provided info states that the series seeks to demonstrate the relevance of LGBTQ history and archival documents in…
KIDS | Superheroes Weekend, Imagination Destination
It’s a great time for superheroes. Marvel’s “Black Panther,” which opened in February, was a massive hit — not to mention an energetic, major cultural celebration for its African and African-American representation on screen — and April will bring the biggest superhero movie yet, “Avengers: Infinity War” (seriously, there’s at least 30 characters lined up).…
ART | More Fire Glassblowing Demonstration
Glassblowing is a mesmerizing artform, but if you’ve spent any time watching an artist craft molten glass into a beautiful new work, you’ve probably thought: “What just happened?” Sculpting, stretching, and twisting glass from a basic form into a new work is a fascinating process. If you want a closer look at how it’s done,…
LITERATURE | M.J. Iuppa Reading
Rochester poet and teacher M.J. Iuppa has had — and continues to have — a long, poignant career: She has four full-length poetry collections and five chapbooks published; she is a lecturer in creative writing and the director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor Program at St. John Fisher; and she’s earned numerous accolades…
Building a ‘progressive’ city
The home of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and countless social reformers, Rochester has long been labeled ‘progressive’
JAZZ | Loren Stillman Quartet with Gary Versace
Brooklyn-based saxophonist Loren Stillman is one of the finest young hard-bop players on the scene today. He’s enhanced the bands of Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Carla Bley, John Abercrombie, and others, and is now making a name for himself as a leader. When he brings his quartet to the Bop Shop, he’ll be featuring the…
From flour to photonics
Today’s tech businesses have roots in the city’s river-powered mills
Album review: ‘Loop Paintings’
Seth Faergolzia “Loop Paintings” Self-released faergolzia.com Seth Faergolzia is a creative chameleon. The songwriter’s expressive versatility spans multiple projects, including the freak folk chamber band 23 Psaegz, the idiosyncratic art rock quartet Multibird, and experiments with vocal looping and digital sound manipulation, which he showcased at last year’s Rochester Fringe Festival. It’s that last venture,…
Album review: ‘Live From The Metropolitan’
Claude Bennington’s Fever Dream “Live From The Metropolitan” Self-released facebook.com/claudebenningtonsfeverdream “Live From The Metropolitan” is an intriguing calling card, a fitting first impression for those previously unfamiliar with the quintet Claude Bennington’s Fever Dream. One of Rochester’s most exciting emergent acts, the group creates a charming hybrid of hip-hop and jazz that’s never forced and…
Film preview: ‘The Leisure Seeker’
Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren star in the alternately touching and enervating comic drama “The Leisure Seeker,” about Ella and John Spencer, who’ve been married for 50 years when they decide to set out on one final road trip in their beloved 1975 Winnebago, the name of which lends the film its title. With nary…
Eastman Audio Research Studio presents Image/Sound Festival
The brand-new Rochester event seeks to bring together audiences with an appreciation for experimental film, music, and avant-garde art in a two-day celebration of image and sound, and is presented by Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS).
Savoring simplicity at Pat’s Coffee Mug
A South Clinton Avenue diner staple since 1992, Pat’s offers a healthy helping of hospitality and good, pretense-free meals that won’t burn a hole in your wallet.
Top pianists honor a jazz pioneer
The Kodak Hall stage will be occupied by seven excellent pianists the night of Friday, March 23: Monty Alexander, Renee Rosnes, Bill Charlap, Harold Danko, Bill Dobbins, Tony Caramia, and Gary Versace. But another great pianist, who is no longer with us, will be on everyone’s mind. Marian McPartland (who lived from 1918 to 2013)…
