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CITY News
Harvest Moon Festival aims to bring AAPI communities together
Organizer and martial artist John Ra seeks to expand the cultural fair, now in its second year. Rochester boasts, among its many other distinctions, a reputation as a festival city. John Ra clocked that quickly after moving here from Los Angeles in 2006. “There’s a Puerto Rican festival, a Ukrainian festival, a Greek festival,” Ra said. “Early last year, I...
Valley Rising aims to showcase Geneseo as a music destination
Organizers of the new one-day festival on Sept. 7 bring regional heavy hitters to an emerging culture hub. Joel Fedkiw didn’t think much would come from a gig his band, Dirty Blanket, booked in Geneseo one March evening. It was during school break in a college town, and he wasn’t sure if the group’s bluegrass-jam stylings had much draw, even 30 miles west of their Canandaigua home base. ...
ROCHESTER TEN
Meet the 2024 cohort of CITY neighbors making art – and a difference. There’s an old saying that goes something like, “Give people their flowers while they can still smell them.” In our annual Rochester 10 issue, that’s precisely our aim. In the following pages, we’ve profiled 10 people who are giving back to the community, building a stronger city and making art in different ways. You will find...
Auditorium Theatre becomes West Herr Performing Arts Center under naming-rights deal
The Buffalo-based car dealership contributes to Rochester's theater scene. The Auditorium Theatre is now the West Herr Auditorium Theatre and Performing Arts Center under a new naming-rights deal between the venue’s owner and the multibillion-dollar car dealership West Herr Automotive Group. Representatives of the Rochester Broadway Theatre League, which owns the theater, and West Herr announced the sponsorship deal outside the East Main Street...
The Reverend Peyton breaks free from the times
The Indiana-based trio plays Sunday night at Iron Smoke Distillery. He is always to be addressed as 'Reverend.' Or, when in a hurry, “Rev, what my mom calls me,” said Reverend Peyton. And from here on out, an additional courtesy title of “The.” Typical of a musician who plays what The Reverend Peyton estimates as 250 gigs a year, he’s...
These 3 Black women photographers have a new perspective on Image City
Cocoa Rae David, Jackie McGriff, and Erica Jae aim to change the landscape of the local photography scene. “Image city,” the “photo capital of the world” – all variations on nicknames for Rochester, New York, and a testament to how Eastman Kodak Company has made a mark on the city’s culture. But what legacy will the city leave for the photographers who call this place home? For local Black women photographers,...
Andrew Scott’s viral art breaks out of the box
Insta-fame is the last thing the illustrator expected from posts of his drawings "destroying" their own frames. Earlier this year, Andrew Scott went viral. But not the actor who played “Sherlock” arch nemesis Moriarty and the “Fleabag” character that everyone just refers to as ‘Hot Priest.’ This is the Rochester-based artist whose clever digital illustrations started getting real attention when he began posting Instagram reels and TikToks of him busting...
Mobile tomes
'Bookstagram biz' The Secondhand Librarian launches trailer pop-up Archivist Books. The used book business The Secondhand Librarian, founded in 2020 by 29-year-old Taylor Thomas (she/they), is launching a mobile bookshop and literary events business called Archivist Books. The business’s new ‘home’ will be a renovated 15-foot 1968 Globestar trailer that Thomas scouted on Facebook Marketplace and traveled to Port Huron, Michigan to purchase. That purchase took place in...
Up-and-coming opera singers journey through the Glimmerglass Festival
The 2023 Young Artists Program is stacked with Eastman School alums and Lotte Lenya Competition winners. It’s officially the off-season for opera, which means institutions such as Eastman School of Music and its opera program take a breather while summer stock companies like Finger Lakes Opera and high-profile festivals like Glimmerglass in Cooperstown take center stage. But that...
Kindred Spirits
Rohrbach Brewing Company and Black Button Distilling's partnership undergoes a natural expansion. When Black Button founder Jason Barrett set out to open Rochester’s first distillery since Prohibition, it found a home in an unused portion of Rohrbach’s building on Railroad Street, sandwiched between the brewery’s production space and taproom on one side and a storage and lab space on the other. That was in 2013; Black Button has since grown to...
Chow Hound: What's happening in Rochester's dining scene
A Syrian comfort foods joint opens at Mt. Hope, a fresh smoothie biz hits the Temple Building, and Laughing Gull offers rare 'Jaguar' chocolate. BITE-SIZED NEWS A beloved Thai and Vietnamese mainstay since 1984, Mamasan’s Noodle Caboodle has moved to what the owners are calling its ‘permanent home’ at 1400 Mt. Hope Blvd. in College Town. The menu features spring rolls,...
ROCHESTER TEN
Meet a cohort of CITY neighbors making art, culture – and a difference. The tagline for this issue, in the past, has been ‘behind-the-scenes Rochesterians doing great things that you should know about.’ While that’s still very much the theme here, CITY’s shift to primarily arts + culture...
Call for creatives — August opportunities
Auditions, calls for submissions, grants, residencies, and more. AUDITIONS “The Wickhams Christmas at Pemberley” Audition date: 6 - 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 26 | Blackfriars Theatre Directed by Lindsay Warren-Baker. By appointment only; email info@blackfriars.org to schedule. Callbacks will be held from 6 - 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27. Initial auditions will take place in one-hour increments and consist of cold-reads from the script, which is available at the...
Monroe County invites arts groups to apply for $900,000 in grants
Monroe County has expanded eligibility requirements for arts groups seeking funding. Monroe County on Monday invited small and mid-sized arts groups to apply for grants from the county through an online portal, and announced that eligibility requirements have been expanded. The portal launched last year, but has since been revamped to accept applications from groups with annual operating budgets from as small as $50,000 to as large as $4 million. The portal...
The pop and peculiarity of Regina Spektor
The singer-songwriter, who plays Kodak Center on August 1, waxes poetic on forgetting the lyrics, butterfly chasing, and her Russian homeland. There is no escaping Regina Spektor; especially for Spektor. “My YouTube algorithm thinks I’m my own biggest fan,” she said. Google Spektor, and an unrelenting picture emerges. There are her 10 albums. And songs you may not even...
Christopher Mannelli to step down as executive director of Geva Theatre Center
The Long Island native will join Boston theater company The Huntington this fall. Geva Theatre Center has announced that Christopher Mannelli — executive director for the past eight years — will leave the company in October to take on the same role at Boston-based theater group The Huntington. Mannelli’s decision comes as Geva prepares for its 51st season, the second under Artistic Director...
Bookeater Cafe: Where literature meets lunch
Rochester’s newest staple is one for the books. On a bustling street in Rochester’s Swillburg neighborhood lies a hidden oasis filled with colorful bookshelves and cozy reading spaces. Between the sound of the rustling of pages turning and the smell of freshly made comfort food, it’s impossible to not want to spend the day there, curled up with a good book and tasty breakfast sandwich. It’s precisely this fusion of literature...
Take out at the ballpark
Dine like a pro at Innovative Field. Leave the peanuts and Cracker Jacks at home and bring an appetite to the next Red Wings game. You’ll find traditional ballpark fare like hamburgers and hot dogs (Zweigle’s, of course) at Innovative Field, but General Manager of Food and Beverage Jeff DeSantis and his team created a concessions lineup that will have you (almost) forgetting there’s a baseball game. ...
With 'Roll the Credits,' Danielle Ponder delivers another potent, catchy single
The golden Rochester soul singer continues to shine on her latest anthem of self-empowerment. Danielle Ponder released the new studio single “Roll the Credits” back on May 5, but it’s hard not to hear the soul singer-songwriter’s latest song about self-actualization and love’s transcendent power over life’s obstacles in the context of the recent Canadian wildfires that left the East Coast literally on fire. ...
Hide and seek
A mural scavenger hunt through the city. With so much mural art throughout Rochester that we ride and walk by daily, we thought it would be fun to take you to a few favorite hidden treasures throughout the city with a lighthearted scavenger hunt. Want to play? All you have to do is find all seven murals using the clues, take a photo of the full walls, then drop...
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