CITY April 2022

NEWS. ARTS. LIFE. | APRIL 2022 | FREE | SINCE 1971 RANDOM ROCHESTER

WHAT ALES ME

DUCK AND COVER

KINK OUTSIDE THE BOX IN A TROUP ST. DUNGEON

YEAH, KOLSCH IS BACK, BUT BOCK IS BETTER

REDISCOVERING ROCHESTER’S FORGOTTEN FALLOUT SHELTERS

OWNING THE FUTURE HOW FIVE ROCHESTER BUSINESSES WERE BORN AMID A PANDEMIC

ARTWORKROC.COM

INBOX WANNA SAY SOMETHING? CITY wants to hear you rant and rave. Your feedback must . . . . . . be no more than 250 words . . . respond to CITY content . . . be engaging CITY reserves the right to edit for accuracy, length, and readability.

Send your rants and raves to: feedback@rochester-citynews.com

with support from

CITY, 280 State St., Rochester, NY 14614 (ATTN: Feedback) BRIDGE IT CITY has written much about the Inner Loop and how it disconnects downtown.

What about the disconnection between Irondequoit and Webster? I live in West Webster and fixing the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge (the IBOB) would make access to the city of Rochester much better for cyclists and walkers like me.

Since 1985, year-round traffic has not been possible at the Irondequoit Bay Outlet. That inspired a slogan among many residents of the area: “Bridge It.” A century ago there were two

bridges there, both offering yearround direct transportation. One was a railroad bridge, the other was a road bridge. Today we have a seasonal bridge, the IBOB, that fails to offer a road between Irondequoit and Webster for seven months a year.

It is inconceivable to me that the designers of the IBOB had the public interest in mind. If they had constructed it just 10 to 20 feet higher, the bridge could serve year-round for Seaway Trail traffic and would still be available for ondemand opening for whatever specialpurpose boat traffic didn’t fit under it.

See the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge Feasibility Study for more details (www. irondequoit.org/irondequoit-bay-outletbridge-feasibility-study).

I enjoy bicycling and am looking forward to warmer weather.

Unfortunately, the IBOB is unlikely to be available to bike or walk across this season, as it has never been available for warm-weather use. If public officials want to serve the public, they should extend the operating season of the IBOB, plan a second year-round bridge with a fixed position, and plan to improve the IBOB itself.

In short: “Bridge It.” Dave Malecki, West Webster

PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

NEWS. ARTS. LIFE. APRIL, 2022 Vol 50 No 8 On the cover: Photograph by Lauren Petracca 280 State Street Rochester, New York 14614 feedback@rochester-citynews.com phone (585) 244-3329 roccitynews.org PUBLISHER Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, Norm Silverstein, chairman FOUNDERS Bill and Mary Anna Towler EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT themail@rochester-citynews.com Editor: David Andreatta News editor: Jeremy Moule Arts editor: Daniel J. Kushner Life editor: Rebecca Rafferty Staff writer: Gino Fanelli Calendar editor: Katherine Stathis Contributing writers: Amanda Chestnut, Roman Divezur, Geary Ann Lewin, Steve Orr, Lauren Petracca, Mona Seghatoleslami, Jeff Spevak, Racquel Stephen CREATIVE DEPARTMENT artdept@rochester-citynews.com Creative director: Ryan Williamson Designer/Photographer: Jacob Walsh ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT ads@rochester-citynews.com Sales manager: Alison Zero Jones Advertising consultant/ Project manager: David White OPERATIONS/CIRCULATION Operations manager: Ryan Williamson Circulation manager: Katherine Stathis kstathis@rochester-citynews.com

CURATION + CONVERSATION + CULTURE =

CITY is available free of charge. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased by calling 585-784-3503. CITY may be distributed only by authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of CITY, take more than one copy of each monthly issue.

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APRIL 2022

FRAME UP The article in the March edition of CITY about the frames at the Memorial Art Gallery (“Completing the Picture”) was spot on for me.

I had to laugh when reading it because I had just recently taken a tour of the museum and remarked to the docent that I’d almost like to study the frames around the paintings as much as the paintings. They’re so interesting.

It blew me away that CITY had an article on the same topic. The cost of some of those frames blew me away too!

Tricia Bonofsky, Fairport

CITY (ISSN 1551-3262) is published monthly 12 times per year by Rochester Area Media Partners, a subsidiary of WXXI Public Broadcasting. Periodical postage paid at Rochester, NY (USPS 022-138). Address changes: CITY, 280 State Street, Rochester, NY 14614. Member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the New York Press Association.

Copyright by Rochester Area Media Partners LLC, 2021 - all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without permission of the copyright owner.

WXXI Members may inquire about free home delivery of CITY including monthly TV listings by calling 585-258-0200.

@ROCCITYNEWS

IN THIS ISSUE OPENING SHOT

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Congressman Joe Morelle share a laugh with Mayor Malik Evans while announcing funding to help restore the Congregation B’nai Israel synagogue into the Joseph Avenue Center for Visual and Performing Arts. See page 20 for the full story. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

NEWS

6

ON THE COVER

VIRAL BUSINESSES

ARTS

LIFE

18

40

Small businesses were crushed by the pandemic, but millions lifted off.

How five local entrepreneurs launched their futures.

BY LAUREN PETRACCA

12

SOLAR FLARE UP

16

SMELL TEST

ART-IFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

BY GINO FANELLI

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

20

THE ROUNDUP OF ROUNDUPS

What’s here, what’s hot, what’s coming and what’s news on the local arts scene.

42

A group of Perinton residents try a novel legal approach to shut down the town dump.

BY GINO FANELLI

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

AN ‘OZ’ FOR THE TIMES

Brian Quijada tells his mother’s immigration story through the lens of “The Wizard of Oz.”

BY KATHERINE VARGA

RANDOM ROC

KINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

We visited a kink “dungeon” on Troup Street. It was a lot like therapy.

BY CITY STAFF

36

WHAT ALES ME

ALL HAIL BOCK

Genny’s Spring Bock and Ruby Red Kolsch are great, but Bock reigns supreme.

Eryk Salvaggio of Irondequoit creates digital images and video pieces using artificial intelligence systems.

Community solar subscribers in the suburbs are hot under the collar over an epic billing foul-up.

BY STEVE ORR

REVEL IN THE DETAILS

50

FLAVOR OF THE FLOWER

Local edibles makers refine their cannabis recipes and dispel the stoner stereotype.

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

MORE NEWS, ARTS, AND LIFE INSIDE

roccitynews.com

CITY 3

WELCOME

Introducing the “Daily To Do” With spring comes change and hope for better things.

This month, regular CITY readers will notice a change in how we’re approaching our calendar of events. We’re calling it the “Daily To Do” and we hope you’ll find it a big improvement.

We’ve always been proud of our calendar, which is second to none in the Rochester region in depth and breadth.

What other calendar is a catch-all for live music, classical concerts, the performing arts, cultural events, art exhibits, dance recitals, comedy, lectures, and more?

All of that lives online at roccitynews. com under the handy “Calendar” tab on the homepage, where visitors can search events by type, date, venue, and even “most shared.”

But the way we had been presenting that information in the magazine wasn’t very useful.

Our “Daily To Do” debuts on page 24.

For one thing, the events were listed by genre as opposed to chronologically like, you know, a calendar. Secondly, the listings were bare bones — event name, cost, date, and time.

One would never know from such a list that Geva’s “Somewhere Over the Border,” playing this month, is a world premiere musical based on a true story of young mother’s immigrant journey from El Salvador to America, or that blues singer-songwriter Selwyn Birchwood, who’s stopping by Abilene Bar and Lounge for a set in April, is considered a rising visionary in the scene.

We think details like those are fun to read and help you make more informed choices about the diverse cultural attractions our city has to offer.

That’s what the “Daily To Do” is all about. It presents detailed descriptions of events for every day of the month — sometimes two and three events a day, from live music to film and sports to stand-up comedy — curated and written by CITY and WXXI staff.

Of course, there are limits to having such a smorgasbord in print. Not every event in town can get the “Daily To Do” treatment. While we list fewer events this month than last, we’ve doubled the number of pages devoted to highlighting events. We think the quality of the “Daily To Do” outweighs the quantity of the past.

And remember, if it’s quantity you’re after in your calendar, CITY has it in abundance online right under that handy “Calendar” tab on the homepage mentioned earlier.

We’d love to know what you think of the “Daily To Do.” Hit us up at feedback@rochester-citynews.com.

HELP US HELP YOU Speaking of that handy “Calendar” tab, we strongly urge anyone who has an upcoming event to use it to enter their event into our calendar. That especially means you, live music venues and promoters! We want to help you promote your bands, but chasing you down isn’t easy.

Help us help you.

Entering an event is simple. Just hover over that handy “Calendar” tab and click on “Submit an Event” in the dropdown menu. The rest is self-explanatory.

A BIG THANK YOU Lastly, we want to thank the dozens of people who responded to our plea last month for drivers to help distribute CITY. It warmed our hearts to know so many of you wanted to be a part of our team. We’re in the process of hiring now.

Here’s to better things to come.

David Andreatta, Editor

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APRIL 2022

roccitynews.com

CITY 5

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APRIL 2022

Sam LeBeau, owner of Yeah Baby! Bakes, gets playful with macarons in her bakery in Spencerport.

LeBeau left her teaching job in March 2021 to open the bakery. PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

Owning W the future

STORY AND PHOTOS BY LAUREN PETRACCA

hile droves of small businesses across the country were crushed by the pandemic, millions were propelled to lift off.

The hardships of the health crisis unleashed a tidal wave of entrepreneurship and broke the country out of a start-up slump that had dragged on for decades.

A record number of more than 5.4 million people in the United States filed to start businesses in 2021 alone, according to the Census Bureau.

No two stories of the journey to self-employment are the same. But there are similarities. Some entrepreneurs were spurred by being laid off. Others were fueled by boredom. The trauma of the pandemic prompted many people to reevaluate what was important to them and take a leap of faith.

Whatever the motivation, countless people in greater Rochester are today making their living from businesses that were little more than passion projects or hobbies prior to the pandemic.

These are the backstories behind five of those businesses.

How five Rochester businesses were born amid a pandemic.

Yeah Baby! Bakes: A stressed-out teacher makes the side-gig shift For as long as she can remember, Sam LeBeau has always had a side gig.

When she was a child, she set up Kool-Aid stands at garage sales. She once harvested her dad’s entire vegetable garden without his knowledge and sold the contents out of a wagon for $5.

As deep as her entrepreneurial streak ran, though, LeBeau never imagined leaving the stability of her job as a middle school teacher to pursue one of her side hustles. Then came the pandemic.

In March 2020, LeBeau was teaching virtually out of her home and taking care of her toddler. To avoid going stir crazy, she began baking. She posted her creations on Instagram under the handle @yeahbabybakes and her business, Yeah Baby! Bakes, was born. Friends began placing take-out orders.

When she returned to in-person teaching, LeBeau kept up her business at night, baking macarons in a rented space on South Union Street in Spencerport.

Fruity Pebbles, brownie batter, Dunkaroo, and lemon raspberry are among some of her most popular flavors. One of her more adventurous creations is an everything bagel macaron, featuring a cream cheese base with everything seasoning on top.

She ran the numbers and realized she could make more baking full time than teaching. In March 2021, a year after the pandemic hit, she packed in teaching for the bakery.

“I’m just so happy and less stressed,” she said. “I feel so bad for any teachers and nurses out there right now. They’re so overworked and underpaid.”

LeBeau keeps the same hours as she did when she was a teacher. While the storefront isn’t open for walk-ins, customers can place orders through her website and pick them up on Saturday mornings.

“I think this is going to keep happening,” LeBeau said. “I think people are going to start leaving for their side hustles because they’re being so overworked.”

From left, Erick Florez, Adam Scheffler, Dalvin Potter, and Krist Kaiser inside their new men’s supply shop, Golden Supply & Mfg Co. PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

Golden Supply & Mfg Co.: Four friends, four journeys Circumstance brought the four owners of Golden Supply & Mfg Co., a men’s supply and home goods store, to open a storefront on Monroe Avenue in Rochester.

For Erick Florez, the move became a necessity after his former employer eliminated his web developer job due to the pandemic.

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roccitynews.com

CITY 7

“I had four days to figure something out,” Florez said. “It upended my life.”

He struggled to find work that paid the same amount as his previous job.

“With my life, with my son, we can’t live worried that that’s going to happen again,” he said. “I need to take things into my own hands and have control.”

A single father of one, he decided to pursue his side business of making and designing pennants, called Golden Pennant Co., full-time.

Adam Scheffler had an experience similar to Florez’s, which led him to become a partner at Golden Supply & Mfg Co. When the pandemic began, he was laid off from his restaurant job. He then lost his second job working for a compost company.

“I took it as a sign that we probably shouldn’t put all of our eggs in one basket,” Scheffler said.

He concentrated on his screen printing and chain stitch embroidery business, Outer Heaven, which he operated on the side with two friends who had worked at the restaurant with him, Krist Kaiser and Dalvin Potter.

When Florez, Scheffler, Kaiser, and Potter met, they realized their common interest and began spitballing ideas to collaborate. They hosted a pop-up at the Rochester Public Market and, from there, Golden Supply & Mfg Co. came to be.

“We were kind of flying blind, but everything actually made sense when you stand back and look at it,” Scheffler said.

Pennants designed and made

by Florez hang on the walls. Below a colorful display of thread is an embroidery machine, operated with a hand crank by Scheffler. Sweatshirts and hats printed with designs inspired by the city are displayed throughout the store.

“Golden Supply definitely opened out of opportunity and circumstance,” Scheffler said.

Florez isn’t pulling in the income he did at his previous job, but he said he sees potential.

The operation grew so fast since opening in January that it has expanded to a second space focused on production.

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APRIL 2022

Eliza Page and John Fioravanti, owners of MidCentury585, with some of the furniture they sell inside of their space in the Refinery building.

PHOTOS BY LAUREN PETRACCA

MidCentury585: Furnishing a new lifestyle For Eliza Page, the seed of starting her own business was planted in January 2021 as she was quarantined with the coronavirus.

She found it hard to move around without exhausting herself, so for an entire week she spent 10 hours a day, as she tells it, researching how to build a website. Six months later, she formed the furniture business MidCentury585 with her partner, John Fioravanti.

The road to opening the business wasn’t smooth. From the start of the pandemic until the beginning of 2022, Page worked full-time at a local furniture store.

But when supply-chain issues put furniture on back-order, Page’s pay, which depended greatly on commissions, was cut significantly. Fioravanti lost his job as an electrician, too.

She asked him if he wanted to pursue MidCentury585 full-time and he agreed, trusting his partner’s vision.

At first, the couple worked out of Page’s home refinishing mid-century furniture they found on Facebook Marketplace and at estate sales.

Customers soon began asking for showroom hours.

“It just got to the point where the demand was so high,” Page said. “I need to be here all the time and so I quit my job.”

Now, Page says she feels like she’s helping to solve a supply chain problem created by the pandemic. By refinishing older furniture, customers are able to receive their purchases right away. At her previous job, the average wait time for a piece of furniture was around 10 months.

MidCentury585’s space in the Refinery building on Exchange Street is only available by appointment, but

Page and Fioravanti are renovating the space and plan to open a showroom to the public.

Once that is done, Page hopes to make her own custom wood furniture while Fioravanti concentrates on making custom lighting.

“I’m very grateful for COVID,” Page said. “I would not have taken that plunge if something hadn’t stirred things up and made my job unsustainable.”

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roccitynews.com

CITY 9

Raquel Wellness Massage Therapy: Branching out after a forced ‘time out’

Raquel Walker, owner of Raquel Wellness Massage Therapy, in her space inside Plushh Salon & Spa in Greece. PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

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Raquel Walker’s first experience with massage was rubbing her firefighter husband’s ankle after he injured it on the job. She began practicing Reiki, an energy healing technique meant to promote relaxation and stress reduction, and felt called toward touch.

She decided to go to school for massage therapy while working as an office coordinator for a local nonprofit.

Walker believes there aren’t enough spaces where people get the opportunity to talk and be real. She hopes that her space provides those things.

Her clients include, but are not limited to, teachers, nurses, and first responders.

“I look at touch as something that you’re taking care of the entire person,” she said.

She’s helped parents talk through situations with their children. She’s worked with victims of sexual abuse and helped them be able to receive touch again.

“Being alive during this time,” she said, “I think that despite everything that has gone on in the world, what we’re realizing is people do need safe spaces, people do need rest.”

Walker said she found her safe space and rest through managing her own business. Being her own boss allowed her to prioritize her own needs so that she can also care for her clients, she said.

“I specifically wanted to work in a field that would allow me to have self-care and self-love be my lifestyle,” she said.

The pandemic wasn’t the reason Walker started her own business, but it was the catalyst that made her move her practice into a salon. With two teenage boys attending school remotely, it became difficult to operate a business from her home.

She now sees clients in her own space in the back of Plushh Salon & Spa in Greece and is able to carve out time for herself and her family.

“Everyone needs to become more reflective and take that time out,” she said. “COVID was that forced time out.”

Petite Paper Stories: Tiny creations open a big world On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Laura Homsey was in her space in a small office building on Monroe Avenue in Brighton, using tweezers and small sewing weights to glue down miniature pieces of paper as she created a scene of a hedgehog in a living room. Next to the creature was a small sign that read, “I’m just a little on hedge today.”

She was commissioned to create the piece by a customer who recently lost their pet.

Two years ago, Laura Homsey ran recreational services for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Today, she owns Petite Paper Stories, a business focused on creating one-of-a-kind miniature paper art for customers all over the world.

And she’s booked out for months.

When schools closed in March 2020 and youth programs were put on pause, Homsey was given the option of continuing to do her work in the agency’s adult homes. But her concern for her safety prompted her to leave.

To fill her time, Homsey made a goal to create one piece of paper art every day and post it on social media. Friends began reaching out asking her to make paper portraits of their families. She started a website and moved into an office space in Brighton, which she shares with her partner, an audio engineer.

Her work goes deeper than creating colorful, playful scenes. She spends hours learning details about her clients lives and scrolling through their social media profiles to tell a more personal story with her artwork.

“I like to think that my customers take me on these stories,” she said.

She has been commissioned by a family in Germany to recreate their time spent together in their living room while quarantined. She was also hired to illustrate a husband and wife cooking together in a kitchen after the husband passed away and left his family with his famous recipe for navy bean soup.

Without the pandemic, Homsey doesn’t think she would have ever made the leap to self-employment.

“I don’t think I would ever come to terms with my love and my passion to this extreme,” she said. “I think it would always be on the sidelines and I’d just be happy enough with that.”

Laura Homsey, owner of Petite Paper Stories, holds a piece she made for a client who commissioned her when their pet hedgehog died.

PHOTO BY LAUREN PETRACCA

roccitynews.com CITY 11

NEWS

SOLAR FLARE

Dark days for solar subscribers in the suburbs

ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB WALSH

They thought their community solar program was a dream.

Then came the nightmare of $1,000 energy bills.

BY STEVE ORR

F

@SORR1

or many people like me who enrolled in a new Rochester-area community solar program, the early months of the initiative seemed too good to be true: dirt-cheap RG&E bills, or sometimes no bills at all.

The bills for the two-bedroom cape where my wife and I live in Brighton were crazy low at times. For the three months beginning in July, we paid a total of $50.19.

As it turned out for me and hundreds of others, it was too good to be true.

12 CITY APRIL 2022

In time, the bills began to swell.

Many people were hit with giant RG&E bills out of the blue, some of which inconceivably topped $1,000.

This has been the shared experience of what state regulators estimate are at least 1,600 utility customers in Brighton, Canandaigua, Victor and other locations who joined municipally-sponsored community solar programs administered

by Source Power Company that launched in January 2021 with a guarantee to save them money.

Many customers have endured a year of RG&E bills that yo-yoed up and down for reasons that were never explained and now face hefty past-due RG&E bills. Despite promises otherwise, they also face large bills from Source Power, a small energy company based in Westchester County.

The erratic billing has angered customers and municipal officials, and triggered an investigation by the state Public Service Commission, although the

agency has kept its progress on the probe under wraps.

“I’ve been frustrated that I haven’t heard more from the PSC,” said Brighton Supervisor William Moehle. “No customer should ever open up a bill and see the kind of thing they were seeing on these bills. That should never happen.”

Moehle said he suspects Source Power is to blame for the charges that led to sky-high bills and blamed RG&E for not blocking them.

“They sent out bills, or didn’t send

out bills, without scrutinizing in any way what was happening,” Moehle said.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I filed a complaint with the PSC about the billing problem before being asked to write this story for CITY. The complaint led to a call from an RG&E representative, who told me the utility was not at fault for the large bills that some received.

The PSC, Source Power, and RG&E all declined to answer questions from CITY, although some of what transpired and some of what is being done about it can be gleaned from a brief statement the agency issued in response to questions and correspondence RG&E shared with customers, including me.

In its statement, the PSC promised customers will be “held harmless” and responsible parties will be held accountable.

Meanwhile, affected customers recently began receiving letters from RG&E that explained the swollen bills were the result of adjustments that shouldn’t have been made. The letters read that separate bills for pastdue amounts would be coming from Source Power, and that a new means of collecting money for Source Power has been devised.

RG&E wrote that it has a 60-day “hold” on the accounts of affected customers.

I’m one of those customers. Our last bill, which was not abnormally high, was issued and paid in late December.

But Moehle said he has heard from residents who claim they have continued to receive new inflated bills despite RG&E’s apparent freeze on them. He also said he has heard from people who swear they never signed up for the community solar program.

Roughly 1,000 Brighton residents opted into the town’s community solar program, according to the town. Moehle said the town filed a complaint with the PSC after officials began hearing of widespread billing problems.

Brighton resident Sarah Rosenberg is one affected customer.

She recalled being “horrified” when she viewed her monthly bill on her RG&E phone app in February and saw that she owed $1,267.37. Threequarters of that sum comprised a mysterious “adjustment” charge due to Source Power.

MORE INFORMATION The Public Service Commission has created a docket for material related to its investigation of the billing problem, though at press time it was empty.

To check for documents or to submit a comment to the PSC, go to www. dps.ny.gov, open the search window and enter the docket number, which is 22-00567.

ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB WALSH

“I said to myself, ‘There’s no way that could be correct,’” she said. “Within five minutes of opening the app, I was on the phone with RG&E. And then it snowballed from there.”

She said an RG&E representative told her to ignore the Source Power charge, which she said she did.

But the former auditor and certified public accountant wanted to understand where the charge had come from. So she analyzed a year’s worth of bills and determined that an unusually large bill in the spring, explained away by RG&E as routine, had in fact been caused by Source Power tacking on charges.

Rosenberg concluded she does owe Source Power money but can’t be sure how much because her bills included so many credits and charges from the company.

“To this day I have absolutely no idea or explanation for what any of these are,” Rosenberg said recently.

A GROUPON FOR SOLAR POWER The roots of the billing problem lie in the convoluted way community solar programs are financed.

These programs guarantee lower monthly electric bills to consumers who join together in support of a local solar farm. In the case of the Source Power program, for instance, the company promised consumers savings of roughly 5 percent from what they would have otherwise paid each month.

The programs give participating

consumers credits that are applied to reduce the monthly electric bill from their utility. The size of the credits varies month to month depending on how much electricity the solar farm generates, but they can be considerable — far more than is needed to bring about the guaranteed savings.

Customers, then, pay the program operator, like Source Power, monthly sums equal to the value of the credits that aren’t used to bring about the guaranteed savings.

Think of it like a Groupon.

Customers are given a $30 coupon but spend $25 to get it.

Community solar programs had been billing consumers monthly to recoup the necessary funds, but many consumers found this method inconvenient and confusing.

To ease customers’ frustration, the PSC ordered utilities to develop systems through which the monthly allocation of solar credits and claw-backs were done automatically through the utility.

The development of such systems has been slow and riddled with errors.

Jessica Stromback, chief executive of Joule Community Power, a company that has worked with Brighton, Canandaigua and Victor on another renewable energy program, said the PSC had not authorized companies like Source Power to use this so-called “net crediting” system.

She added that it appeared Source Power tried to use the system anyway.

Attempts to tack on monthly charges to RG&E bills early in 2021 ended due to technical problems, Stromback said.

The huge “adjustments” on bills early this year — to which RG&E’s letter referred — seem to have been Source Power trying to collect past-due amounts in one fell swoop.

The RG&E letter also suggested Source Power will be given another chance to collect from customers by adding community solar “subscription fees” to participants’ monthly RG&E bills.

The billing problems have led some customers to quit community solar and raised skepticism of governmentsponsored renewable energy programs.

But Moehle pointed to a positive experience his town has had with the other clean-energy program provided to consumers in Brighton, Canandaigua and Victor — community choice aggregation, or CCA. In a CCA program, a municipality solicits bids in the electricity market for a dedicated supply of power for residents and small businesses. Their aggregated buying power can command good prices in the marketplace.

Brighton, Canandaigua and Victor customers, working with Joule, contracted for hydroelectric power from facilities in the state. Rates are fixed for the contract’s two-year life.

Icon/Source was the winning bidder and offered a community solar add-on with the municipalities’ blessing.

Residents and small-business customers were enrolled in the CCA unless they opted out, and about 10,000 Brighton residents stayed in. There have been no problems reported with CCA billing, which is relatively straightforward.

The hydropower rate was slightly below the average rate offered by RG&E at the time of the bidding.

Since then, the price of electricity has shot up due to market, weather and geopolitical factors, and the CCA’s fixed rate is proving a bargain.

Moehle said Brighton’s townsponsored CCA program has saved ratepayers more than $1 million in 15 months. Its fixed rate is about 20-percent lower than what RG&E currently charges.

“The CCA really has performed incredibly well,” Moehle said. roccitynews.com CITY 13

NEWS

BOMBS AWAY

“Fallout Shelter” signs still hanging in there

Timeworn signs denoting the location of former fallout shelters, like this one on Bragdon Place, cling to building facades like relics more than 60 years after being posted.

PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

Once an ominous emblem of the times, fallout shelters are now kitschy relics.

BY DAVID ANDREATTA

S

@DAVID_ANDREATTA

ixty years before Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the specter of nuclear war with his invasion of Ukraine — and President Joe Biden told Americans not to worry about it — iconic yellow and black signs marked “Fallout Shelter” began popping up in the streets of Rochester.

They were affixed to hundreds of buildings in and around the city — schools, offices, apartment complexes, warehouses — that the Army Corps of Engineers had determined offered the right amount of “radiation shielding.”

Back then, it was the Russians and the Cuban Missile Crisis that had pushed

14 CITY APRIL 2022

DANDREATTA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

the Cold War simmer to a boil, and those yellow and black metal signs were seen as an ominous emblem of the times. Today, those signs are seen as kitschy relics of a different era.

The few signs still hanging around have been corroded by rust and time, and the spaces they advertised — once stocked with foodstuffs, first aid kits, canned water, toilet paper, and bedding — were long ago repurposed into storage rooms for who knows what.

They cling to places like the Ohio Street entrance to East High School, the back of a former State University at Brockport building on Bragdon Place

downtown, and the brick façade of Turcott’s Taproom on Monroe Avenue.

One sign on the side the Salvation Army building on Liberty Pole Way still notes the capacity — 590 souls.

There is no telling precisely how many public fallout shelters existed in Monroe County. A county spokesperson acknowledged that the county stopped maintaining public shelters after what was known as the federal Office of Civil Defense was dissolved in the 1970s, and that a list of shelter locations has been lost to time.

Archives of news articles and Civil Defense newsletters that were issued

quarterly offer the best estimates of the number of shelters. By those accounts, there were anywhere from 400 to 600.

A Civil Defense newsletter from January 1964 read that there were 390 “fully-stocked shelters” in the county that could sustain 192,130 people for two weeks. Ten years later, the county’s Civil Defense shelter officer told the Democrat and Chronicle there were 584 shelters with enough room for 376,534 people.

“And you can rest assured that if the bomb was dropped tomorrow, they’d be ready,” the newspaper reported.

Tomorrow came and went. Two years later, the county Civil Defense agency

determined that most of the food inside the shelters was rancid, a fact it reportedly learned after “derelicts had gotten into shelters and became sick from eating the food.” By 1978, the office had been disbanded and the shelters were cleared out in a massive public undertaking.

The fallout shelter initiative in Rochester hit its stride after Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — a zealous proponent of shelters who built his own $3.5 million bunker in Albany — launched a state shelter program in 1960.

Rochester, it was reported often and urgently during the era, was a target due to its technology sector led by Eastman Kodak Co. and Xerox.

The back cover of a Civil Defense manual on do-it-yourself home fallout shelters issued to county residents reinforced the message. “ROCHESTER CAN-BEBOMBED!” screamed the headline over a cartoon image of a shadowy bomber plane spanning the globe 3,719 miles from Siberia to Rochester.

“Estimated Time of Arrival: ???”

“It was a really scary time and I remember being afraid of the Russians,” said Kate McBride, 68, who recalled building a shelter in the basement of her childhood home on Nunda Boulevard with her father, Jim Borden, in the early 1960s.

She described her father as a Kodak engineer and a World War II veteran who was stationed in occupied Japan and witnessed firsthand the devastation of the atomic bomb.

“I can remember putting the cement between the cinder blocks and helping him build it,” she said. “He took it on as a project and he wanted to protect his family.

“You have to put this in historical context,” she went on. “You think about it now and you think how is that really going to protect anybody?

But at the time, I think people took it seriously because the government really took it seriously.”

As Cold War tensions eased, her family’s fallout shelter, which she recalled as being 8 feet-by-8-feet and outfitted with bunk beds and shelves stocked with food and other supplies, became a place for her and her friends to play and sleep.

In addition to spending millions on carving out space for public shelters,

The fire pit in Alison Livada’s backyard used to be the entrance to an underground bunker. Her home on Hartsen Street is one of nine in Rochester that receive a fallout shelter tax abatement. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

the state fallout shelter program offered property tax incentives to homeowners who prepared for a Soviet attack.

There are still nine houses on the city tax roll that receive a tax abatement of between $150 and $200 for having a fallout shelter. One of them is McBride’s childhood home.

Another is around the corner on Hartsen Street that has belonged to Alison and Jovan Livada since December 2019.

“When we toured the house, the realtor was like, ‘I think there may be a bunker in the backyard,’ and we were like, ‘No way! What?’” she said.

The shelter had been filled at some point before the Livadas bought their home and, as far as they can tell, its remaining underground cavities are today a refuge for groundhogs and squirrels.

The only evidence that something is, or once was, underneath their backyard lawn is a square brick fire pit that juts from the grass like a chimney.

“It’s always been a joke to just say to friends, ‘You know, when World War III happens, you can help us dig it out, grab your shovel and come on over,’” Livada said with a laugh as she inspected the ground. “We don’t know what’s underneath here, but we’re ready to go.”

There was no shortage of doomsday propaganda during the Cold War. A local Civil Defense manual on building a home fallout shelter warned of Rochester’s proximity to Russia. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE roccitynews.com CITY 15

NEWS

SMELL TEST

A landfill fight becomes a constitutional battle

A Waste Management truck collects recycling in a Perinton neighborhood that backs up to the High Acres Landfill operated by Waste Management and straddles the towns of Perinton and Macedon.

PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

Constitution assures right to clean air and “a healthful environment.”

BY GINO FANELLI

T

@GINOFANELLI

he sour scent of rot hung over Perinton Parkway one early spring day.

The parkway meanders southeast off Route 31F at the edge of town, through an office park, marshlands, athletic fields, and cow pastures. To the north, a residential neighborhood rises in the distance.

16 CITY APRIL 2022

GFANELLI@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

To the south, is the source of the smell: hulking Waste Management’s High Acres landfill.

The dump is a rolling landscape of trash, grassland, and methane-release pipes jutting from the ground.

“There’s two different odors, there’s the gas odors, and then there’s the garbage odors coming from when

they open the landfill and are actually dumping, or the trains unloading from New York City,” said Gary McNeil, president of citizen’s group Fresh Air for the Eastside, which formed in 2017 in response to the foul smells from the dump. “That gets a little worse in the summer, you’ll smell a much more pungent waste odor.”

The two sides are no strangers to litigation. Fresh Air for the Eastside has two lawsuits against Waste Management pending in both federal and state courts.

But early this year, Fresh Air escalated its efforts when it filed a parallel lawsuit to press the boundaries of a nebulous new amendment to

the state Constitution that gave New Yorkers the right to “clean water, clean air, and a healthful environment.” In its complaint, the group contends the landfill, which has a permitted footprint of 360 acres and a permitted volume of 71.5 million cubic yards, is running afoul of the amendment.

Voters approved the so-called Green Amendment during the 2021 election and it took effect at the start of the year. The latest Fresh Air lawsuit, which was filed in January, is widely believed to be the first in New York to take on the constitutional amendment.

For Fresh Air members, the end goal is to close the portion of the landfill that sits in Perinton and cap it with a clay barrier. The landfill straddles the border between Perinton and Macdeon in Wayne County to the east.

“We felt that the facts and the data we have in this case rises to the level of, it’s so egregious that yet another state case should be brought specifically under this new right to clean air,” said Linda Shaw, an environmental attorney who lives about a mile from the landfill and represents Fresh Air for the Eastside in its federal and state lawsuits.

“It’s ongoing, it just hasn’t stopped for four years.”

The latest state lawsuit has received some attention in legal, environmental, and waste industry circles. Some groups believe it will have implications for combating climate change at the state and local levels.

Residents have complained steadily and loudly about the odor problems at High Acres for years. Fresh Air for the Eastside filed its first lawsuit, the federal one, in 2018. “(Waste Management) is also causing an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment as a result of its past and present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of solid waste because of continued odors and landfill gas emissions impacting the community,” read the federal lawsuit complaint.

The group has voiced its loudest objections over the hundreds of thousands of tons of trash hauled each year to High Acres by train from

High Acres Landfill spans 360 acres and the capacity to store 71.5 million cubic yards of trash. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

New York City, something members specifically blame for the odors.

Still, in August, the Perinton Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a five-year special use permit to allow Waste Management to keep operating the landfill. A few months later, in December, the town and Waste Management signed off on a new host-community agreement that stipulated no more than half of the trash dumped at High Acres annually could come from New York City. In practical terms, it means the amount of trash coming in from downstate per year is capped at 536,000 tons.

The agreement, which contains an eight-point odor reduction plan, also calls for continuous monitoring at three sites in the landfill for hydrogen sulfide — a gas that emits a scent akin to rotten eggs — and a direct bureaucratic process for holding Waste Management accountable for failing to contain odors.

The approvals set the stage for the new state lawsuit, in which Fresh Air asked the court to invalidate the town permits and the host community agreement.

Residents’ odor complaints are still common, according to the lawsuit.

As part of a plan to collect data on how the landfill is affecting its neighbors, Fresh Air launched an app that allows community members to

lodge complaints about odors. The group tallied 1,778 complaints over the first half of 2021, according to the lawsuit. For all of 2020 there were 4,604 complaints, some from as far away as the village of Fairport, which sits about four miles west.

“It’s correlated with wind direction, it’s correlated with weather,” Shaw said. “You can correlate in the data that, okay, all the people on the west side of the landfill reported today because the wind was blowing in their direction.”

Garrett Treirweller, public affairs director for Waste Management’s Upstate New York and New England market, said in a statement that the company is currently reviewing the new state lawsuit.

“Waste Management is committed to addressing any open issues and to bring these cases to a satisfactory conclusion for all interested parties,” the statement read.

For Perinton Supervisor Ciaran Hanna, the town’s relationship with Waste Management is one of pros and cons.

Because of High Acres, Waste Management pays the town up to $1 million in royalties each year and additional payments. The town has also developed a “tech team” that regularly meets with Waste Management, and the town’s

administration now holds monthly meetings with the company.

Ultimately, Hanna said, the town has little recourse against the landfill since the dump is permitted to operate by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We’re not the regulatory body, we can’t shut them down,” Hanna said.

“The only thing that we can do is try to do the best for our residents to make sure that these odor events are few and far between, or non-existent.”

McNeil called that assertion “a lie.”

“In order to operate the landfill, Waste Management not only needs the permits from the state, but the permits for land use from the town,” McNeil said.

When asked if he had the power to simply halt operations at the landfill’s Perinton side, Hanna paused to contemplate before providing an answer.

“I’ve lived here for well over 20 years, I see the benefit the landfill brings, and I’ve seen the problems it brings,” Hanna said. “It’s a hard question, I would have to say, I will stand by our (Zoning Board of Appeals) and the research they did, and they felt it was appropriate to issue the permit. Ultimately, I guess the answer would be no.”

roccitynews.com CITY 17

ARTS

REVEL IN THE DETAILS

In 2019's “Costică Acsinte Dataset,” artist Eryk Salvaggio used Acsinte's original portrait photography like the image on the left to create new, computer-generated images. IMAGES PROVIDED

ART-IFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Eryk Salvaggio reimagines art through AI and machine learning systems.

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

M

@DANIELJKUSHNER

any people thinking of an artist at work might imagine a painter poring over preliminary sketches or a sculptor shaping clay into the perfect pot.

But what, then, are we to make of artists like Eryk Salvaggio of Irondequoit, who spends hours turning digital information and computer datasets into collages of images, text, and sound?

Salvaggio is a multidisciplinary artist-researcher who explores how we use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems to communicate with technology. But in true artist fashion, his work is more concerned with asking questions than answering them.

“My work isn’t about coding, it’s about decoding,” Salvaggio says.

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DKUSHNER@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

“And so it’s about looking at what machines are sort of presenting to us, and trying to figure out how the machines came to those conclusions, or came up with those ideas.”

Salvaggio grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and attended the University of Maine to study new media and journalism. He went on to earn graduate degrees in media and communication as well as applied cybernetics from the London School of Economics and Australian National University, respectively, before settling in Rochester last year after his partner took a job teaching at The Harley School.

His web-based art has been featured in The New York Times, he has been a Wikipedia Visiting Scholar at Brown University, and he

has collaborated with organizations including the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Though Salvaggio’s projects vary in focus, his recent work makes use of photographs that he filters through an artificial intelligence program to make new images.

Salvaggio has a healthy skepticism about the extent to which humans cede decision-making power to technology, such as allowing computers to make important decisions about someone’s credit history or ability to buy a house.

The question fueling his work asks what gets lost when we put our faith solely in algorithms that value binary approaches — yes or no, if x then y, and so on — instead of people.

“It’s not analog versus digital for

MORE ONLINE To see more of Eryk Salvaggio’s work visit his website at; cyberneticforests.com

me,” Salvaggio says. “But when we are thinking about other products, and the way we build other stuff, it just tends to be that we see a digital solution. And we go all in on that digital solution. And we start cutting out points of analog interaction, meaning literally like conversation, like two people talking.”

Humans bring flexibility to problem solving and tactile processes that computers can’t understand.

Consider a photographer making a print by hand in a darkroom.

Salvaggio explored technology’s limitations when he ran digital images of pictures taken by the 20th-century Romanian portrait

Salvaggio's 1,000 photographs of the beach at Chesapeake Bay became the basis of the AI-produced images in "Infinite Barnacle," including the one above.

PHOTO PROVIDED

photographer Costică Acsinte through complex artificial intelligence and machine learning models to create new images. The 2019 project, “Costică Acsinte Dataset,” revealed the limits of technology.

Acsinte’s pictures had signs of wear due to improper storage in a warehouse. Salvaggio ran Acsinte’s images through a machine learning model known as a generative adversarial network (GAN), which was designed to create a new portrait of a hypothetical person using characteristics of people in the original photographs.

But Salvaggio found that the images produced by AI were only as good as the data that the computer was given to process. Because the quality of the portrait photos had already begun to deteriorate, the new images created by the GAN were even more warped, with the subjects’ faces smeared or obscured altogether.

A person, on the other hand, might have accounted for the imperfections and retouched the photos accordingly.

Salvaggio has also used his work to point out other shortcomings in technology, including racial bias.

As he undertook an effort to upload AI-generated images of faces to the free media repository Wikimedia Commons, Salvaggio used a group of thousands of portraits sourced from the photo sharing site Flickr and a prominent machine learning model, known as StyleGAN, designed to create new portraits from the existing ones.

The art and research of Salvaggio, seen here in his home office, questions the way society and artificial intelligence interact.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

But the AI was unable to accurately generate faces of Black people, particularly Black women.

He concluded that Black people were underrepresented in the collection of Flickr photos, a flaw which caused the model to produce distorted images of Black faces. As a result, Salvaggio had to artificially create many more images via the GAN to arrive at an accurate replica of Black skin tones and facial features then he did to generate artificial portraits of white faces.

Salvaggio’s research into the intersection between society and technology has also yielded conceptual art with absurdist tendencies.

That was the case with the 2021 project “Toward a Situationist Blockchain,” in which he collaborated with artist Serife Wong to imagine how modes of governing in the pre-digital age might be applied to today’s online communities.

They focused on the Situationist International, a French anarchistart movement prominent from the late 1950s to the early 1970s whose

practitioners believed that people were being robbed of their time and energy by spectacle and illusion.

Salvaggio and Wong decided to imagine what the Situationists would build if they were creating a blockchain-based app used to manage cryptocurrency — an idea Salvaggio admits is ridiculous.

The result was LutteCoin, derived from the French word for struggle. Theoretically, if you were to download the cryptocurrency wallet for LutteCoin, it would use up all of your device’s resources and “brick” your phone or computer, rendering it nothing more than an expensive paperweight.

All of the computing power would go toward mining LutteCoin, but the user would never be able to actually obtain it. The idea is that the user could go on with his life, unshackled to his device and the digital world.

Although LutteCoin is not a real cryptocurrency, luttecoin.com is functional.

Salvaggio sees the “Situationist Blockchain” as a way to reconcile the extremes of the radically analog Situationists, for whom nothing

should be coerced and everything is voluntary, with a blockchain paradigm that enforces a stringent use of computer code and rules.

At the heart of the project was a critique of what author Jenny Odell referred to as the “attention economy,” in which apps and other online technologies are designed to get us to use our phones regularly, so that an algorithm can track our activity and location.

“Is our technology capturing the joys and the pleasures that we are getting out of those interactions and delivering them to us?” Salvaggio asks. “Or are they taking us away and trying to distract and sort of mediate those interactions?”

Salvaggio wants to arrive at a more natural connection between the analog and digital.

“I’m not saying, ‘Let’s all go raise sheep and end this digital tyranny,’” he explains. “I’m just saying, ‘Let’s think about ways to bring in a more organic and naturally human way of being, into these technologies.’”

roccitynews.com CITY 19

ARTS

ROUNDUP

JOSEPH AVENUE ARTS CENTER PROJECT GETS FEDERAL BUY-IN The old synagogue on Joseph Avenue, built in 1928, is a ruin of broken windows, fractured brick and an uninhabitable interior. But for years, some community leaders have had a vision of converting the building into the Center for Visual and Performing Arts.

Now, they’re $400,000 in federal funding closer to that objective.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stopped in Rochester in March to announce the cash infusion, which he said was part of $200 million in federal money allocated to the Rochester and Finger Lakes region.

“We’re going to breathe new life into this crumbling landmark and turn it into a performing and visual arts center that will serve families and children throughout the Rochester area for free,” Schumer said as he stood against a backdrop of 20 local leaders lining the former synagogue’s decaying front steps.

The senator and other speakers made clear that the stretch of Joseph Avenue needed help.

Sadie Redfield, who lives two houses away from the former Congregation B’Nai Israel synagogue near Loomis Street, watched as the lofty plans were unveiled, complete with artist renditions on easels, displaying what the new cultural center would look like.

“Right here is where the drug addicts hang and everything,” the retired Eastman Kodak employee said.

Collaboration was the theme — not only between local, state and federal government, but also in visions of a partnership with the Center for Visual and Performing Arts and, just a block away, The Avenue Blackbox Theatre.

- BY JEFF SPEVAK 20 CITY APRIL 2022

Art collective Muck Duck Studio provides sanctuary for creatives

Muck Duck Studio is led by Stephe Ferm, Sally Louise, Casey Arthur, and Ambar de Santiago. PHOTO BY SHAWN THOMPSON

BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

@DANIELJKUSHNER

DKUSHNER@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

B

efore there was Rochester’s newest art collective, Muck Duck Studio, there was artist Casey Arthur living in a small art studio at the Blossom Business Center and looking for connection during the pandemic.

Arthur — who goes by the moniker Miss Casey — began inviting like-minded people into her space.

There was yoga instructor Ambar de Santiago, who helped Arthur stage meditation and wellness workshops out of her studio. Not long after, Arthur welcomed singersongwriter and vocal coach Sally Drutman, who performs as Sally Louise, into one of the studio’s extra rooms for teaching lessons. Then along came painter and musician Stephe Ferm.

By November 2021, the collective — whose core members call themselves “mama mucks” — moved into its current space in Suite 319 of the same building at 595 Blossom Road.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

“Ultimately, what I realized is there’s a lot of powerful, creative people in our town and in our city who don’t have a space that’s safe or secure enough to do what they love,” Arthur says. “And I wanted to provide that secure base for as many people as I

could, including myself, because I knew my needs. And I knew I was not alone in that.”

Arthur describes the space as a supportive environment in which artists feel motivated and can create without fear of judgment, a place where people can share their

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

struggles and heal from “the muck in their life.”

“The need for physical space is just so that people can feel the connection that rolls between one person and another person,” she says.

“Ideas can feed off of each other, and we can take it in any direction we choose when we’re together.”

Achieving social and emotional wellness through art is at the heart of Muck Duck’s mission.

“We all feel like we haven’t quite fit in a mold,” Drutman says. “And we’ve created our own molds, and so we kind of celebrate that.”

The studio is equipped to accommodate up to 15 people at a given time, but more than 100 visitors showed up for the collective’s 12-hour grand opening on Jan. 15.

Arthur was previously a humanitarian aid worker with the United Nations, where she assisted at a Bangkok refugee camp, and has worked in Washington, D.C., on behalf of child refugees detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. She has plans for a refugee outreach program in Rochester called Witherless, which would use art as a vehicle for wellness. Her ultimate goal is to help refugees who have settled in Rochester to tell their stories and become more visible in the community.

“The Muck Duck really is just a group of people who didn’t quite fit in the general society or the norms, or couldn’t follow the trends,” Arthur says. “They just kind of found themselves left out. And we’re kind of making a hub for everyone who felt just a little bit displaced, which really pairs well with working with refugees, because they are globally displaced.”

For the latest on the art collective, including upcoming events, go to instagram.com/muckduckstudio.

MAG AND ROCO EXHIBITS HAVE STORIES TO TELL Memory is a slippery thing, but finding ways to tell and preserve stories is as old as time. Storytelling — particularly in the form of electronic archives created in response to incidents of great upheaval — is central to two current shows at local galleries.

At the Memorial Art Gallery, “Sky Hopinka: Memories of Movement” will be on display through July 17. Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

The exhibition features new works, including an etched photograph, a large-scale text-based image, and a 13-minute video titled “Here you are before the trees.”

The video, photo, and text installation is presented across three screens, each focusing on a different Indigenous homeland: the Hudson River Valley, areas in Wisconsin, and the landscapes along the highways that link the two.

The work explores Indigenous identity with regard to diasporas and people’s homelands, as well as the role of language and visual symbolism in documenting Indigenous cultures and experiences.

It also incorporates the complex relationships — historic and ongoing — the three landscapes have with power and institutional oppression.

Hopinka links his subjects through personal and historical narratives. Each video channel’s soundtrack includes archival audio recordings and recent interviews with Indigenous scholars, as well as scrolling text from a July 4, 1854, speech given by Stockbridge-Munsee Chief John Wannuaucon Quinney about the devastating effects that U.S. colonization had on Indigenous people. More information at mag.ur.edu.

Through May 7, Rochester Contemporary Art Center presents “The Warp & Weft [Face to Face],” a collection of stories from the first year of the pandemic, woven together by interdisciplinary artist Mara Ahmed. Originally presented as an online audio archive, released incrementally in collaboration with RoCo beginning in March 2021, Ahmed sought out and recorded experiences from a diverse group of people during a time of global upheaval and isolation.

One year later, RoCo has transformed that archive into a multimedia exhibition that presents photographs and audio — all manner of spoken-word musings about connection, selfhood, changing trajectories, and more. It also asks viewers to reflect on what they’ve learned in the past year about society and its ability to unify and overcome the virus and the inequities it magnified.

An opening reception for “The Warp & Weft [Face to Face]” will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on April 1. More information at rochestercontemporary.org.

– BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

ROCHESTER MUSIC HALL OF FAME ADDS EASTMAN SCHOOL TO 2022 CLASS Two years of pandemic-generated postponements have prompted the Rochester Music Hall of Fame to freshen up its incoming ninth class with two additional inductees.

The Hall announced last month that the Class of 2022 will now include The Eastman School of Music — which is celebrating its 100 anniversary this year — and the Eastman Theatre. Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre will be the site of the May 1 ceremony, held at 7 p.m.The additions bolster a lineup previously announced as the Class of 2020 that includes The Dady Brothers, perhaps the area’s most popular performers for decades. John Dady will be on hand; his brother Joe died the year before the announcement of their induction.

Two other inductees are behind-the-scenes knob twiddlers Mick Guzauski and Michael Laiacona.

Guzauski is a Grammy-winning sound engineer and producer who has worked with Michael Jackson, Prince, and Eric Clapton.

After helping establish MXR guitar effects pedals as the leading product of its kind, in 1975, Laiacona founded the Rochester-based Whirlwind Music Distributors, which provides technology for virtually every concert venue and tour today.

Also joining the Hall of Fame is jazz singer Nancy Kelly, a Rochester native with six albums and who was named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” twice by DownBeat magazine readers.

Jazz drummer and percussionist Roy McCurdy, who was born in Rochester and studied at the Eastman School, rounds out the class. By age 17, he was playing with Roy Eldridge and Eddie Vinson, and went on to work with Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan.

Tickets for the 2022 ceremony and performances start at $31 and are available at the Eastman Theatre box office and online at eastmantheatre.org or rochestermusic.org.

— BY JEFF SPEVAK

roccitynews.com CITY 21

ARTS

ROUNDUP

Rochester’s Gateways Music Festival expands to NYC

Members of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra play during a 2019 open dress rehearsal. broadcast on WXXI’s “Backstage Pass.”

PHOTO BY NEAL GANGULI

SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS roccitynews.com/events

22 CITY APRIL 2022

BY MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI

T

he Gateways Music Festival, a gathering of classical musicians of African descent for concerts, lectures, and other events, returns April 18 through 24, with a few changes.

The festival, produced in collaboration with the Eastman School of Music, has been based in Rochester since 1995, shortly after its founding by pianist and music educator Armenta Adams Hummings Dumisani. This year, the first three days of the event will be in Rochester and the following four days in New York City, including a concert at Carnegie Hall.

The festival is also finding its footing without Michael Morgan, its long-time music director and conductor who died last year at the age of 63.

The Gateways Festival Orchestra will be led this year by Anthony Parnther, a conductor and

@MONA_S

MSEGHATOLESLAMI@WXXI.ORG

bassoonist based in Los Angeles.

He’s music director of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the Southeast Symphony, and frequently conducts and performs in studio orchestras for movies and TV, including “The Mandalorian,” “Encanto,” and the recent Pixar hit “Turning Red.” Parnther describes Gateways as a powerful statement in the face of the perceived challenges of diversifying classical music.

“We’re about to mount a hundred-piece orchestra at Carnegie Hall,” he says of the Black musicians participating in the festival. “And believe me, the 100 people that you’re going to see on stage is just a fraction of what’s actually available out there.

“So it’s not a lack of availability.

It’s not a lack of talent. It’s a lack of platform and access for a lot of Black classical musicians here in our country. So what I think is very important for people to

see is that the excellence is there.

The numbers are there. And we are there. And we look forward to sharing our sound and our hearts.”

Parnther will conduct the Gateways Festival Orchestra in music

by Florence Price, George Walker, Johannes Brahms, and James V. Cockerham at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre.

Parnther and the orchestra will play a similar program at Carnegie Hall on April 24.

The Rochester portion of the festival also includes two events at Eastman’s Hatch Recital Hall: a recital by five pianists — Mikael Darmanie, Tabitha Johnson, Artina McCain, Nnenna Ogwo, and Joseph Williams — at 7:30 p.m. on April 18, and a film screening and lecture about the life and music of Florence Price at 6:30 p.m. on April 19. The full schedule is available at gatewaysmusicfestival.org.

roccitynews.com CITY 23

30+ MUSIC, ARTS, AND LIFE EVENTS TO CHECK OUT THIS MONTH

DAILY

todo

Full calendar of events online at roccitynews.com/events FRIDAY, APRIL 1 MUSIC

Publick Musick: “Bach Family Reunion” Episcopal Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene, publickmusick.org It’s been nearly 270 years since the death of game-changing Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, but his musical legacy — and that of his sons — lives on. The earlymusic experts at Publick Musick host violinist Cynthia Roberts and harpsichordist Malcolm Matthews, in his debut with the group, in a program featuring concertos and symphonies by Bach and his four composer sons. The free concert, which features Publick Musick performing as a chamber orchestra for the first time in more than a decade, begins at 7:30 p.m. DANIEL J. KUSHNER SATURDAY, APRIL 2 COMEDY

Tracy Morgan: No Disrespect Del Lago Casino, dellagoresort.com Comedian Tracy Morgan was supposed to play the Seneca County casino in April 2020. But, you know, COVID. Three date changes later, the “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live” star brings his standup act to The Vine. DENISE YOUNG COMICS

Rochester Indie Comics Expo Sibley Square, wnycomicarts.com Do you know about the existential adventures of “Near Death Flying Turtle?” How about the vulnerable, candid reflections in “In a Word Trans?”

Check out the work of more than 30 independent comics artists from the 24 CITY APRIL 2022

Rochester area, as well as a showcase of local indie video games. The expo takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. RICE is also holding a discussion with five of the expo’s artists from 7-9 p.m. on the previous day, April 1, at The Strong Museum. REBECCA RAFFERTY SUNDAY, APRIL 3

For up-to-date information on protocols, vaccination and mask requirements, and performance cancellations, consult the websites of individual venues.

“in the least efficient way possible.” The show offers attendees to pick the artist’s brain at the free opening reception, from 3 to 5 p.m. The exhibition continues through April 29. RR MONDAY, APRIL 4

containing insults to Hitler, calls to rebel, and made up dialogues meant to demoralize Nazi troops. Hall’s talk is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

JEREMY MOULE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6

FOOD

KIDS

Bottomless pancakes

Eco Book Club and Hike

cartwrightsmapletreeinn.com Cartwright’s Maple Tree Inn in Allegany County has been making maple syrup for more than 100 years, so you know it must be doing something right. Taste for yourself at the inn’s all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of buckwheat pancakes through April 10. Chase it down with a cold glass of milk and work it off with a hike at Letchworth Park. RYAN WILLIAMSON

Cumming Nature Center, rmsc.org The recurring, free, nature-based story hour and hike hosted by Cumming Nature Center this time features a reading of “Eager: The Secret, Surprising Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb at 11 a.m., followed by lunch and a group hike through the nature center’s trails.

Registration is required and kids should bring a bagged lunch. RR

TUESDAY, APRIL 5

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

POETRY

MUSIC

Selwyn Birchwood Abilene Bar and Lounge, abilenebarandlounge.com It has been some time since the fiery guitar and unvarnished vocals of trailblazing young blues visionary Selwyn Birchwood were stuck in small clubs in his native Florida, but Birchwood’s self-proclaimed brand of “electric swamp funkin’ blues” retains the raw passion, pleasure, and pain he knew back then. He plays from his third release, “Living In A Burning House,” like he’s on fire. Doors open at 3 p.m. DAVID ANDREATTA ART

“A Pirate’s Guide to Homesteading” The Dove Block Project, thedoveblockproject.org Dara Engler’s artist statement says the pirate in her vibrant, intriguing paintings represents her alter ego, an anti-hero who is full of curiosity and combative reverence for the natural environment. Engler shows her surviving in the wild, though awkward and fumbling, and approaching tasks

New Ground Poetry Night Equal Grounds Coffee House, facebook. com/newgroundpoetry One of Rochester’s most dependable and inclusive open mics, specifically for poets, is back for in-person readings.

Hosted by Albert Abonado and Jonathan Everitt, New Ground Poetry Night welcomes seasoned poets looking to try some freshly written stanzas for a live audience and newcomers who have never read their thoughts for strangers before. The open mic runs from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Each participant has five minutes to wax poetic. DJK BOOKS

“Paper Bullets: Two Women Who Defied the Nazis” RIT, rit.edu/events “Paper Bullets” is historian Jeffrey H. Jackson’s book on two badass women who used their artistic skills to wage an anti-Nazi campaign. Jackson tells how the couple of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, who were genderbending Parisian avant-garde artists better known as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, created “paper bullets”

LECTURE

Distinguished Visiting Humanist: Amitav Ghosh U of R, events.rochester.edu Could the planetary crisis of exploiting human life and the environment have its roots in the discovery of the New World and the pursuit of spices?

Award-winning novelist, essayist, and climate change activist Amitav Ghosh explores that question at this free public lecture based on his latest book, “The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis,” at 5 p.m. in the Hawkins-Carlson Room. Registration required. RR

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INSIDE WXXI PUBLIC MEDIA | WXXI-TV PBS AM 1370/FM 107.5 NPR l WXXI CLASSICAL WRUR-FM 88.5 l THE LITTLE THEATRE

“A Republic... If You Can Keep It”

APRIL 4 • 8pm roccitynews.com CITY 25

P R E S E N T

2022 Submissions Guidelines: • Films to be created by high school teens (ages 13-18) • All genres are welcome • Videos must be appropriate for schoolbased audiences • Videos cannot exceed 10 minutes

CALL FOR ENTRIES! HEY,TEENS! SUBMIT YOUR FILMS BY JUNE 17

THursday, August 4

Awards and Judging All submissions are judged by a jury and finalists will have their films shown at the Little Theatre. Filmmakers selected as part of this year’s Festival will also have a chance to earn one of the following four awards, each of which comes with a cash prize: The Philip Seymour Hoffman Award This award honors the life and legacy of the late Academy Award-winning actor and Fairport native. It is given to the teen whose film is chosen by the judges as “Best of Fest.”

The Jack Garner Award for Best Director This award is presented in the memory of long time Rochester Teen Film Festival jury member and beloved national film critic, Jack Garner.

Alex Ketchek Award for Best Animated Film Presented in memory of Alex Ketchek, a 2010 Rochester Teen Film Festival finalist who tragically passed away in 2013.

Presented by the Ketchek family and Animatus Studio.

The Marilyn O’Connor Award Marilyn O’Connor has been fighting for equity and justice throughout her life – and this award goes to the film that best addresses a social issue through the lens of compassion.

ENTRIES DUE JUNE 17 SUBMIT YOUR FILM WITH AN ENTRY FORM AT: WXXI.ORG/RTFF

OPEN TO ALL 13-18 YEAR OLDS IN THE GREATER ROCHESTER AREA

MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM

Free! ANIMATION

WORKSHOP

26 CITY APRIL 2022

The afternoon of the Festival, there will be a FREE Animation Workshop at The Little presented by Daemen College and Animatus Studio. For details and registration

*

August 4 at 1:30pm Little Theatre wxxi.org/rtff

WXXI TV • THIS MONTH

The Life Autistic Travels with Darley “New York’s Empire State Trail” Sunday, April 3 at 11 a.m. on WXXI-TV Darley travels along New York’s Empire State Trail, which stretches from New York City to the Canadian Border. She hikes and bikes the trail, stopping in small towns and big cities including Rochester.

On her stop to the Flower City, she tours Iron Smoke Distillery and speaks with owner Tommy Brunett, takes a ride on the Sam Patch with guide Wyatt Doremus, and meets Anita O’Brien, who heads up Rochester Accessible Adventures, an organization helping people with disabilities get outside and enjoy area trails in Fairport.

Saturday, April 9 at 4 p.m. on WXXI-TV Meet 12 individuals of different ages and backgrounds, along with their families and caregivers, to understand the daily lives and future prospects of people with autism. Their stories explore diagnosis, early intervention, family life, treatment, education, employment, and independent living. This film is presented as part of Move to Include, a WXXI initative in partnership with the Golisano Foundation designed to promote inclusion for people with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. To learn more, visit WXXI.org/include.

Photo: Darley with Tommy Brunett | Photo provided

Roadfood

Big Sonia

Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV This new series aims to re-discover America’s regional culture through its iconic dishes. Host Misha Collins hits the highways and byways of our nation, exploring a unique dish in each episode.

Meeting local cooks, pit-masters, bakers, cafe owners, and proprietors of local eating establishments, Misha explores the roots of a dish through these modern culinary folk artisans.

Monday, April 11 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV In the last store in a defunct shopping mall, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski — great-grandmother, businesswoman, and Holocaust survivor — runs the tailor shop she’s owned for more than 30 years. But when she’s served an eviction notice, the specter of retirement prompts Sonia to resist her harrowing past as a refugee and witness to genocide.

Photo: Misha Collins | Photo provided

Photo: Sonia | Credit: Gloria Baker Feinstein roccitynews.com CITY 27

TURN TO WXXI CLASSICAL FOR MUSIC PERFECTLY TUNED TO YOUR DAY Carnegie Hall Live presents Bach’s St. John Passion Friday, April 15 at 1 p.m. on WXXI Classical Enjoy this rare performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, featuring Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie and the ensembles he founded — Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle du Québec. Jeff Spurgeon hosts.

Photo: Bernard Labadie Credit: Gloria Baker Feinstein

The Met Opera Broadcast Series Saturdays at 1 p.m. on WXXI Classical Hear thrilling live performances by today’s most celebrated artists, as well as legendary singers in broadcasts spanning nine decades of Met history. This month, enjoy: 4/2 Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (Photo provided by The Met Opera) 4/9 Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro 4/16 R. Strauss: Elektra 4/23 Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (recorded Nov. 3, 2021) 4/30 Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Backstage Pass presents the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra Wednesday, April 20 at 12 p.m. on WXXI Classical Gateways Music Festival, an annual week-long festival that celebrates and supports professional classical musicians of African descent, runs April 18 through April 24 in Rochester and New York City. In celebration of its return, WXXI Classical is pleased to broadcast live from Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre a special Backstage Pass. WXXI Classical’s Julia Figueras hosts a discussion with some of the key players and a presentation of music that will be performed at the Rochester festival, and the debut concert from Carnegie Hall on April 24th. To learn more about the festival, visit gatewaysmusicfestival.org.

Photo: Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, horns section Credit: Matt Whittmeyer 28 CITY APRIL 2022

COMING MAY 7 at 3 p.m.

Little Theatre l Tickets are $9 The score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was written by Chinese-born American composer Tan Dun for the 2000 Ang Lee film of the same name. The score blends Chinese harmonies and instruments with Western orchestra music, creating moods ranging from wistful romance to heroic triumph. Join WXXI Classical for this special screening followed by a discussion about the music.

WXXI Classical Presents is a film series, curated by WXXI Classical music hosts Julia Figueras, Brenda Tremblay, and Mona Seghatoleslami, that features films that exemplify the power of music in a non-traditional narrative.

Visit thelittle.org to purchase tickets in advance.

AM 1370, YOUR NPR NEWS STATION + WRUR-FM 88.5, DIFFERENT RADIO

Intelligence Squared US: DEBATE: Are Big Cities Past Their Prime?

Sunday, April 3 at 9 p.m. on AM 1370/FM 107.5 New York. Los Angeles. Boston. San Francisco. With mega populations, these urban hubs have long reigned as the nation’s economic, social, and cultural capitals. But big cities have also been the hardest hit by the pandemic. Even more, the pandemic has brought economic and social inequality into sharp focus for the nation’s lawmakers. Will megacities keep their magnetism in the wake of Covid-19? Or are their best days behind them?

Witness History: The Environment Sunday, April 17 at 9 p.m. on AM 1370/FM 107.5 Hear remarkable stories of the history of the environmental movement, told by the people who were there. BBC’s Witness History program looks at the major moments that changed our understanding of the planet we live on. And, you’ll learn more about the discovery of whale song — the book “Silent Spring” that kick started the movement against pesticides — and the story of a child climate activist who spoke with passion and anger back in 1992.

Support public media.

Become a WXXI Member!

Small Change: Women of Color Building a Business Legacy Sunday, April 10 at 9 p.m. on AM 1370/FM 107.5 This radio special highlights the stories of five minority womenowned small business owners — Native, Black, and Latina. It looks at the time and sweat equity it took to start their businesses, the critical pivots they made to keep their businesses afloat during the early months of the pandemic, and what they are doing now to keep their businesses running and growing.

Whether it’s television, radio, online, or on screen, WXXI is there with the programs, news, and information — where you want it and when you want it. If you value PBS, NPR, PBS Kids, WXXI News, WXXI Classical, and so much more, consider becoming a member.

Visit WXXI.org/support to choose the membership that works for you. There are many giving levels with their own special You’ll find the entry form, becoming more details, and the official rules benefits, including a sustaining at: tinydeskcontest.npr.org. #TinyDeskContest member. roccitynews.com CITY 29

Cage Classics Nicolas Cage mania, it’s a real thing. Seriously.

Sure, he has award-winning work, but the name “Nic Cage” evokes those bonkers roles of his.

Whether he’s swapping faces or transforming into a vampire, Cage always delivers the goods.

Cage plays himself in the new film, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” slated to open April 22 at The Little. To celebrate, The Little is screening other “Cage Classics” during April.

Wednesday, April 6 7:30 p.m.

Face/Off Wednesday, April 13 7:30 p.m.

Vampire’s Kiss Opening Friday, April 22:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Tickets/showtimes/more info at thelittle.org.

MONDAYS RETURN National Theatre Live: AT THE LITTLE!

THE BOOK OF DUST 12 p.m. Saturday, April 16 12 p.m. Saturday, April 23 Set twelve years before his epic His Dark Materials trilogy, this gripping adaptation revisits Phillip Pullman’s fantastical world in which waters are rising and storms are brewing.

Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the center of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future. And as the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, the source of infinite corruption to others.

Mondays are back at The Little! For the first time since March 2020, The Little will be open for movies, art, food, drinks, and more.

30 CITY APRIL 2022

Visit thelittle.org for showtimes.

Eighteen years after his ground breaking production of His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, director Nicholas Hytner returns to Pullman’s parallel universe. Broadcast live from London’s Bridge Theatre.

30+ MUSIC, ARTS, AND LIFE EVENTS TO CHECK OUT THIS MONTH

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

SUNDAY, APRIL 10

COMEDY

THEATER

“Funny ASF Comedy Show”

“Into the Woods”

RBTL Auditorium Theatre, rbtl.org Get ready to laugh your butt off with comedians Rickey Smiley, Corey Holcomb, and B.Simone at the Rochester Auditorium. Proof of vaccination required. RACQUEL STEPHEN MUSIC

“Ascend” Photo City Music Hall The first in a new series of electronic dance music (EDM) parties, Ascend bills itself as an opportunity to “bring together a community through music, dance, and art.” DJs Richie Salvaggio, Peter Foltz, and Chris Forsyth offer up pulsing electronic beats that keep the party jumping from its 9 p.m. start until it’s 2 a.m. close. Tickets $10 at the door. GINO FANELLI SATURDAY, APRIL 9 ART

Plant Babies, Fur Babies, and Human Babies Market 53 Canal St., themarketoncanal.com No, this isn’t an actual human baby market. This month’s iteration of The Market on Canal pop-up series is celebrating the tiny things in life that make us smile. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, shop handmade goods — new pottery for your plants, a sweater for your pup, and cute decor for the nursery — by local artisans. Thievin’ Stephen will create a mini mural live during the event, and Thunder Body is the musical guest. RR

Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, eastmantheatre.org I’ve been singing the praises of Eastman Opera Theatre and its consistently polished productions for years. This time the student opera singers — under the direction of Lindsay Warren Baker and conductor Timothy Long — turn their attention to the Tony Awardwinning musical “Into the Woods.”

The late composer Stephen Sondheim’s fairy-tale mishmash features his signature whip-smart lyrics and clever musical phrasing. Performances through April 10. DJK MONDAY, APRIL 11 LITERATURE

Danni Quintos: “Two Brown Dots” Virtual event, wab.org Writers & Books hosts a free, virtual reading and conversation with poet Danni Quintos, whose new collection, “Two Brown Dots,” explores the author’s sense of identity, from girlhood to motherhood, as a racially ambiguous, multiethnic, Asian American woman raised in Kentucky. The talk starts at 7:30 p.m.

Registration required. RR TUESDAY, APRIL 12

MUSIC

Spring Bling 2022 The Main Street Armory, 900 E. Main Street This annual event, dubbed Rochester’s biggest party, screams of reggae and dancehall vibes. Performers include Mr. Vegas, Stylo G, Busy Signal, and headliner Shenseea, whose debut album “Alpha” was released March 11 and almost immediately hit the top spot on the iTunes reggae albums chart. This is Shenseea’s first time performing in The ROC. RS

SPORTS

Red Wings Home Opener Frontier Field, milb.com/rochester Like Walt Whitman, we see great things in baseball. “It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us,” he once said. Who couldn’t use a blessing right now? Plus, this game will be a two-fer

if history is any guide. For the last five seasons, Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason has “guaranteed” a certain temperature on Opening Day in exchange for a free ticket to a future game if he’s wrong. Mason’s record is a dismal 1-4. This year’s prediction: 50 degrees. The Red Wings take on the visiting Buffalo Bisons at 6:05 p.m. DA

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 NATURE

Henrietta Garden Club: “Straw Bale Gardening” Henrietta Town Hall Greenthumbs (or aspiring greenthumbs) rejoice! Are you, like me, a renter who has a keen interest in growing your own food without ticking off your landlord? When the Henrietta Garden Club meets at 6:30 p.m., Master Gardener Melanie Popick will be there to teach the newto-me method of growing fruits and vegetables in straw bales. Few things get me more excited than a fresh tomato plucked from the vine in the summer months. If you can relate, this might be the event for you. JACOB WALSH THURSDAY, APRIL 14 FILM

Beyond the Fold: “The Insider” The Little, beyondthefoldfilm.com News. Arts. Life. That’s what CITY is all about, and this one-day event rolls them all into one. “Beyond the Fold” is a six-part film and talk-back series that takes a 360-degree look at journalism through the lens of some of the best films ever made about the craft. Whistleblowing, investigative reporting, corporate control of media, and The Little Theatre’s buttery popcorn are on the menu with a showing of “The Insider,” starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino as a whistleblower and newsman who take down big tobacco. The film is followed by a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, David Cay Johnston. CITY Editor David Andreatta moderates. The curtain rises at 7 p.m. RW

MUSIC

Bellows Bug Jar, bugjar.com Bellows is the lo-fi indie project of Brooklyn musician Oliver Kalb, and he’s no stranger to Rochester audiences and the underground house-show culture here. This time around, he’ll bring his contemplative songwriting and ethereal, almost hushed vocals to the Bug Jar to promote his latest album, “Next of Kin.” With Bellows, you never know when quiet pop will explode into emotive indie rock. Lung Cycles and A Million Dollars play in support. Doors open at 8 p.m., music starts at 9. DJK SATURDAY, APRIL 16 MUSIC

“Lady of Song” The Theater at Innovation Square, eternalsoulentertainment.com The celebratory musical revue “Lady of Song” — written, directed, and produced by Rochester soul singer Cinnamon Jones — pays homage to some of the greatest female singers of the 20th century. Local artists such as Zahyia, Kholaa (a contributing writer to CITY), Sarah De Valliere, and Jones herself perform classics made iconic by the likes of Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand, and more. The show starts at 3 p.m. DJK MUSIC

Monica & Friends The Main Street Armory, 900 E. Main Street Grammy-award winning, multiplatinum R&B artist Monica will be performing hits such as “Angel of Mine,” “Before You Walk Out my Life,” and “So Gone,” just to name a few. RS CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

roccitynews.com CITY 31

30+ MUSIC, ARTS, AND LIFE EVENTS TO CHECK OUT THIS MONTH

SUNDAY, APRIL 17

TUESDAY, APRIL 19

MUSIC

Compline with Schola Cantorum Christ Church, christchurchrochester.org Need to get your head together before starting another week? Spend a half hour lost in meditative music performed live by candlelight in this resonant sanctuary amidst the bustle of the East End. Show up by 8:50 p.m. to hear an organ prelude, followed by the other-worldly singing of the Schola Cantorum starting at 9. Sunday nights through April. MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI MONDAY, APRIL 18

FILM

“Mantrap” Dryden Theater, eastman.org The original “it girl” Clara Bow stars as a delightful flirt in this zany silent comedy, set in the backwater town of Mantrap, Canada. Victor Fleming (later of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind” fame) directs this Sinclair Lewis adaptation, with photography by James Wong Howe, one of Hollywood’s leading cinematographers. Live piano accompaniment by Philip Carli brings it all to life, starting at 7:30 p.m. MS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20

NATURE

The Montezuma National Wildlife Tour Adventure Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, flfoodtours.com If you’ve ever been curious about the giant eagle statue that you could blink and miss on the starboard side of I-90 East, you now have the chance to see it, among other wonders of nature, up-close and inperson. For a cool $79, you’ll embark on a guided afternoon tour of the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

While you’re there, you’ll learn how Montezuma got its name, why this type of wildlife refuge is productive and sustainable for the living organisms that thrive within it, and yes, you will probably see a couple of bald eagles. Plus, you’ll finally find out how big that statue really is. JW

32 CITY APRIL 2022

MUSIC

4/20 at Three Heads Brewing Company

threeheadsbrewing.com This perennial celebration of pot has become a mainstay of Three Heads on Atlantic Avenue. This year, as the first full celebration since the legalization of recreational marijuana, expect a hazy bash featuring cannabis terpene-infused beers, the launch of the session IPA “Tiny Kind,” and plenty of jam band good times, including a big surprise performance for reggae lovers. GF THURSDAY, APRIL 21 MUSIC

In Memory of James Weaver Memorial Art Gallery No musical instrument uses the room in which it’s played quite like a pipe organ. It’s the centerpiece of the concert hall, an unignorable presence, and a beautiful feat of craftsmanship. If you, like me, want to be surrounded by music and beauty as often as you can, this Third Thursday

concert at the Memorial Art Gallery is right up your alley. Cozy up with fellow classical music lovers to enjoy an evening of Bach, performed by William Porter on the organ and Kenneth Slowik on the Baroque cello and viola da gamba. Molto bello! JW FRIDAY, APRIL 22 MUSIC

“Revolution: The Music of The Beatles” Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, rpo.org Few bands have written as many timeless songs as the still-relevant foursome from Liverpool. Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik leads the RPO through his original arrangements of such hits as “Hey Jude,” “Penny Lane,” and “Get Back.”

The 8 p.m. concert, which repeats April 23, also features hundreds of rare and previously unseen photos of the band in its glory days. DJK SATURDAY, APRIL 23

INNOVATION

Imagine RIT Innovation and Creativity Festival RIT, rit.edu/imagine This annual celebration of all things innovative is back in person after going online-only last year. It returns with a Futurists Symposium, over 1,600 exhibitors, and more than 250 exhibits — including a custom electric motorcycle, a human hamster wheel, and a gigantic 3D printer named Big Bertha. Find out what she can print, and take in the rest of the campus-wide festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. RR THEATER

“Somewhere Over the Border” Geva Theatre Center, gevatheatre.org Set in the 1970s and propelled

by Mexican mariachi boleros and American rock and hip-hop, this timely musical about a teenage mother making her way to America blends fable with family history. Inspired by his mother’s 2,700-mile journey from El Salvador to the United States, playwright-composer Brian Quijada pays homage to “The Wizard of Oz” in his factual and fantastical story of her walk along the not-so-yellow-brick road. Through April 24. DA SUNDAY, APRIL 24 MUSIC

MUSIC

Undeath Bug Jar, bugjar.com The rise of Rochester death metal darlings Undeath has been meteoric since the release of the band’s debut full-length album “Lesions of a Different Kind” in 2020. Now, a day after the band is to release another album, “It’s Time . . . To Rise From The Grave,” on April 22, it brings its guttural growls, crushing riffs, and punishing blast beats to the Bug Jar. Expect some gore-soaked visuals and plenty of shotgunned Gennys.

Also on the bill is Mutilated from Toledo, Ohio, Long Island’s Internal Bleeding and Afterbirth, and Syracuse’s Deal with God. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18 via the Bug Jar. GF

SANKOFA African Dance and Drum Ensemble SUNY Brockport, brockport.edu/ academics/dance/sankofa.html SANKOFA African Dance and Drum Ensemble closes out SUNY Brockport’s dance season with an afternoon of expertly-blended and choreographed Afro-Caribbean rhythms courtesy of artistic director Jenise Akilah Anthony, musical director Mohamed Diaby, and the dancers, of course. Rhythm is a form of therapy, and this session will only cost you $17 at the most. JW

CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

roccitynews.com CITY 33

30+ MUSIC, ARTS AND LIFE EVENTS TO CHECK OUT THIS MONTH

MONDAY, APRIL 25

TUESDAY, APRIL 26

MUSIC

Melvin Seals & JGB JCC Auditorium, jccrochester.org/events Jerry Garcia nicknamed Melvin Seals “Master of the Universe” — and for good reason. Seals has been a powerful presence in the music industry for more than 30 years, wearing performer and producer hats. He’s perhaps best known for playing the electric organ in the Jerry Garcia Band, which he now leads under its acronym, JGB. The mission?

Continue playing the favorites. The stopover in Rochester features Ron Holloway on the sax. Tickets $50-$75.

Showtime 7:30 p.m. DA

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27

LITERATURE

FILM

True Crime Book Club

Tod Browning’s “Freaks”

Henrietta Public Library (Online discussion) True crime podcasts have been hot for the past couple of years. If you’re a fan of “My Favorite Murder,” “Criminal,” or “The Last Podcast on the Left,” you might also enjoy going one step further down your path of morbid curiosity and picking up a true crime book from the library. Better yet, why not jump into the Henrietta Public Library’s True Crime Book Club to discuss your findings with other true crime heads? Basic knowledge of Zoom is required, since these meetings are currently taking place remotely on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

What’s better than bonding with strangers over a shared passion? Wait — what’s that behind you?! JW

Dryden Theatre, eastman.org/event/ film-screenings/freaks Tod Browning’s seminal 1932 film “Freaks” was downright scandalous in its day. Audiences found the circus sideshow performers cast in the film to be grotesque and their complaints were so fevered that the film fueled Hollywood’s adoption of the nefarious Hayes Code. To this day, there’s plenty of debate over whether “Freaks” amounts to exploitation. I recently rewatched the film and was struck not by anything shocking, but by the way Browning developed and humanized each character and largely refrained from treating them as spectacles.

The screening, which is part of the Dryden’s “Licentious and Suggestive: Hollywood Before the Code” series, begins at 7:30 p.m. JM THURSDAY, APRIL 28

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Jim Gaffigan RBTL Auditorium Theatre, rbtl.org Standup comedian Jim Gaffigan’s career spans three decades but in 2020 he won over the hearts and minds of Rochesterians by — you guessed it — eating a garbage plate from Nick Tahou Hots, then following it up (to wild applause) by devoting six solid minutes of his set to the beloved Rochester dish. I won’t abuse this platform by offering my 100-percent correct take on which spot does the plate best, but I will say that Gaffigan is making his triumphant return to our city, this time at the Auditorium Theatre. Will he indulge in Rochester’s weirdest point of pride a second time?

Only time will tell. Jim: If you’re reading this, have your team email me at jwalsh@rochester-citynews.com. I have some advice. JW SATURDAY, APRIL 30

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FRIDAY, APRIL 29

THEATER COMEDY

Ali Siddiq Comedy @ The Carlson, carlsoncomedy.com Most stand-ups cut their teeth in bars and clubs, but Ali Siddiq honed his comic chops in the Texas state penitentiary system. He was incarcerated at 19 and fell into comedy while trying to make the best of six years behind bars. “I was doing two or three shows a day because I was working the laundry with 15 people and I was the one who was saying stuff,” he told the comedy news site Splitsider in 2016. If you haven’t seen his “Comedy Central” special, now’s your chance to catch him. Through April 30. DA

“The Playboy of the Western World” Rochester Community Players, MuCCC, muccc.org A bashful young man walks into a bar and announces he’s killed his father with a spade. The punchline? The regulars greet him like a rock star. This classic comedy by John Millington Synge slayed when it debuted in 1907, and in the capable hands of director Jean Gordon Ryan and the Rochester Community Players it will kill today.

The production runs April 15-30.

Curtain rises at 8 p.m. DA

roccitynews.com CITY 35

ARTS

WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS

Bobby Plasencia, Tanya De León, Robert Ariza perform in "Somewhere Over the Border" at Syracuse Stage. PHOTO PROVIDED BY MIKE DAVIS

‘SOMEWHERE OVER THE BORDER’ PUTS ‘WIZARD OF OZ’ SPIN ON IMMIGRATION Geva Theatre Center presents the world premiere of Brian Quijada's new musical.

BY KATHERINE VARGA

T

@KVARGS93

here’s no place like home – but where do you go when home is no longer safe?

“Somewhere Over the Border,” a co-production of Geva Theatre Center, Syracuse Stage, and Chicago’s Teatro Vista (Theatre with a View), marks the second Geva production written by Brian Quijada after last season’s solo hip-hop show “Where 36 CITY APRIL 2022

Did We Sit on the Bus?” The world premiere run in upstate New York began Feb. 23 at Syracuse Stage, where it ran until March 13. The production continues at Geva Theater Center through April 24.

With his new musical, Quijada tells the true story of his mother’s journey from El Salvador to America in 1978, but adapts it to the story

of “The Wizard of Oz.” Think “The Wiz” and its all-Black cast, but with Latino immigrants.

For those familiar with “The Wizard of Oz” movie, much of the enjoyment of this charming production — directed by Rebecca Martínez — comes from seeing how everything from the flying monkeys to the poppy fields gets reimagined in

a Latin American landscape.

The savior Reina seeks is not the Wizard, but El Gran Coyote de Tijuana, who can help her get to America. Reina is presented as an “everyday princess,” whom Tanya De León portrays convincingly with her open, expressive face and Disneyprincess voice. She wears a pale blue skirt and white blouse, a clever nod

by costume designer Asa Benally to Judy Garland’s iconic dress.

Reina’s first friend on the way is not a scarecrow, but a farmer who wants an education, played with charisma by Robert Ariza.

Using an iconic American movie as a lens allows Quijada to make his mother’s story familiar and palatable to audiences who might otherwise have trouble seeing themselves in a teenage refugee’s story. The opening number “Everyday Towns” urges audiences to see that “the world is filled with dreamers, dreamers like me and you.”

The music is enjoyable, gently mixing influences from cumbia, rap, hip-hop, and Disney musicals. With the exception of the upbeat “Ride Up the Road,” a repeated refrain reminiscent of “Ease On Down the Road” from “The Wiz,” most of these songs aren’t particularly catchy or distinctive, but they’re performed with gusto by a tight band and stellar cast.

Francisca Muñoz, as Reina’s mother, is a vocal powerhouse.

The feel-good music softens some of the more horrific moments in

MORE INFO Geva Theatre Center presents “Somewhere Over the Border” now through April 24 at Geva’s Wilson Stage, 75 Woodbury Blvd. 232-4382. $25 to $59. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test, plus masking, is required. gevatheatre.org.

Reina’s life. For instance, an early number in the show, “The Tornado,” uses a storm metaphor as a stand-in for the civil unrest that made Reina’s hometown unlivable for her. The song acknowledges that “things are not okay” but allows the audience to fill in the blanks.

I appreciate that the musical avoids falling into the trap of trauma porn, exploiting a marginalized group’s pain for entertainment. The characters’ pain is acknowledged, but the show also gives them moments of joy, friendship, and hope.

Rather than focusing on gritty details, the play presents itself as a larger-than-life epic adventure. Jennifer Fok’s gorgeous

Francisca Muñoz in "Somewhere Over the Border." PHOTO PROVIDED BY MIKE DAVIS

lighting design gives the stage a fantastical feel, especially with the multicolored chaos during the number “Leona,” sung by a nun who wants to be a rock star but can’t summon the courage.

It was refreshing to see Reina, a Salvadorian teen mother, get to live out an archetypal fairy tale, though disappointing that her hopes for America rarely get more specific than a place where “it seems like life is endless” and “the schools are better / the kids are happy.”

While hinting at messy emotions in Reina’s choice to leave — particularly in a moving scene between Reina and her mother, who stayed in El Salvador to raise Reina’s son — the show hews closely to “The Wizard of Oz” through its mostly hopeful and bittersweet ending.

The Emerald City — or in this case, the Green Card — is a glamorous but ultimately empty illusion, and Reina must face the harsh realities of her new home in order to reunite with her son.

This musical acknowledges that Reina’s story is one of many, and serves as an important reminder that she was relatively lucky. As wars and climate catastrophe increase, stories that humanize and celebrate refugees are a much-welcome antidote to racism and fear-mongering.

“Somewhere Over the Border” is a gentle and sweet addition to this canon, brought to life by a wonderful cast and band.

roccitynews.com roccitynews.org CITY 37

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

NEW MUSIC REVIEWS

CLASSICAL AND METAL CONVERGE IN ‘ODE AND ELEGY’

PHOTO BY TEAGAN WEST

“SO LONG”

BY DANIELLE PONDER

“Ode and Elegy” — an epic, singlemovement composition for rock band, orchestra, and choir lasting 55 minutes — started with a seed planted years ago.

The ambitious project couples a sevenpart poem about love, pain, and memory to an intense soundtrack incorporating elements of hardcore, screamo, and classical chamber music and choral compositions. It was self-released quietly on Feb. 1 by Spencerport musicians Kent Fairman Wilson and Harold Taddy.

But its origins lie in the 2003 meeting of Wilson and Taddy, who were playing in separate bands at a hardcore show in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Wilson’s postrock-meets-metal outfit The Pax Cecilia would prove a solid musical template for the ideas that would eventually flourish in “Ode and Elegy.”

In the intervening years, Taddy contributed vocals and additional songwriting to The Pax Cecilia’s 2007 album “Blessed Are the Bonds.” By 2011, Wilson, a cellist, had begun to write the initial string music for “Ode and Elegy.” Five years later, Wilson invited Taddy to move to the Rochester area, become roommates, and co-write the project in earnest.

“The sonic textures of metal, I think, go really well with orchestral sounds,” says Wilson, who was also heavily influenced by the mystical minimalist composer Arvo Pärt.

“But most times, they’re kind of contrivedly smashed together. So it was a big project: How do we make this sonic texture move and sweep, and move in waves, and sound like they belong together?”

There’s something inherently tragic and violent in the emotional landscape the piece depicts and Wilson’s cryptic lyrics seem to suggest current or former lovers in existential crisis experiencing a kind of purgatory. Death, whether literal or figurative, is simultaneously welcomed and feared.

“The way that I hope the experience is felt is through the recurring themes in the 38 CITY APRIL 2022

lyrics,” Wilson says. “There’s gardens and herons, and a lot of shifting between light and dark, a lot of water imagery.”

The recording took place over several sessions between 2017 and 2020 — they happened in various locations and featured musicians from around the world. Wilson and Taddy’s guitar parts were recorded in Woodstock, New York, and their vocals were laid down in California, while the rhythm section (which included Rochester bassist Reilly Solomon Taylor-Cook) was recorded in Pittsburgh.

Wilson also sought assistance abroad — a fact that he attributes to poor networking skills — by enlisting the Sofia Session Orchestra and Choir from Bulgaria for brass and choral contributions, as well as a flutist and harpist from England.

“Kent operates in this way where there’s no need for it to happen quickly,” says Taddy, who is also a founding member of avant-garde performance art group The Velvet Noose.

Wilson and Taddy have contrasting yet complimentary styles. Whereas Wilson creates in a deliberate, meticulously scripted way, Taddy is decidedly more spurof-the-moment. Their individual singing performances on “Ode and Elegy” are often strikingly different, with Taddy providing mellifluous, androgynous melodies for the majority of the “clean vocals,” and Wilson adding most of the blistering screams at opportune moments.

“I learned to admire his process and taking all of this time with him,” Taddy explains. “We developed this relationship where he’s basically giving me prompts, and I would write and give back to him all kinds of guitar riffs, and all sorts of vocal melody lines, and I would improvise jibberish vocal lines.”

The album is available for free download (and as a brilliantly packaged CD with booklet for the cost of shipping) at odeandelegy.com.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER

If you live in the Rochester region and follow the music scene, you know Danielle Ponder. If you don’t, then you either live under a rock or don’t follow the music scene or both.

One of the most prominent local artists of our time, Ponder has toured the southeast United States and overseas. She’s about to continue dominating the soul-R&B genre with a spring tour across North America to open for St. Paul and the Broken Bones. I’ve performed with Ponder on occasion in the past as a backing singer, and her recordings seem to match the rich vocal potency and soulfulness she offers in her live shows.

Her newest single, “So Long,” released on March 11 via the Future Classic label, is a declaration of self-liberation. The song has a generous, laid-back funk feel, and it doesn’t take long for Ponder’s vocals to enter and seize the spotlight. With intense sincerity, she sings, “So long, all my fears/ I’m ready for the day.” Light harmonies weave throughout the second verse, as she effortlessly displays her powerhouse vocal ability.

The cover art features a side profile of Ponder — exuding confidence and an earthy glow, and sporting a big and free Afro — which compliments the song’s vibe as a whole.

If I have one criticism, it’s that the song ends too quickly, clocking in at just under two and a half minutes. The listener starts to settle into the groove, and all of a sudden, it’s over. With that said, when you’re building up anticipation for live shows and a forthcoming full-length album, as Ponder is, there’s something to be said for a good teaser.

— BY GEARY ANN LEWIN

“FRIEND OF A FRIEND”

BY KATIE MOREY Singer-songwriter Katie Morey has always embraced myriad genres. With her band Pleistocene, she skirted punk while also adopting a pop-punk component.

Her debut solo full-length album, “Friend of a Friend,” released March 4 digitally and on vinyl, finds Morey — who has been a contributing writer for CITY — exploring her creativity further with material that incorporates a wide vision.

Morey wrote all of the album’s songs,

building tunes around clever lyrics, such as “I wonder how much pretending we do to survive.” She doesn’t give you characters in her songs — Morey gives you herself, and her voice is refreshing and easy to take in.

Her husband, Ben Morey, who shares writing credits on the song “Deep End,” engineered the recording at Submarine Sound Studios, which adjoins the Brighton music school the couple founded. She enlisted a host of contributors, including multi-instrumentalist Becca Ryskalczyk as well as backing vocalists Mikaela Davis and Cammy Enaharo.

The single “Trial by Fire” kicks off slowly with a western-cinematic vibe.

Guided by Morey’s hypnotic lead vocal, the song surprisingly transitions toward an instrumental jam with jazz elements, reflecting a band in full swing. A catchy choral section reminiscent of Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 elevates it to greater heights.

“Hotter Than Heaven” and “Scavenger Bird” are thoughtful, experimental, and atmospheric. Both are piano songs with melodies that hug the chords.

For Morey, “Friend of a Friend” appears to be a sign of things to come. With her affiliations and several albums under her belt, this record builds her reputation as a key figure among Rochester-area musicians.

Katie Morey plays the album release show for “Friend of a Friend” at 8:30 p.m. on April 9, at Three Heads Brewery, 186 Atlantic Ave. $10. 244-1224. threeheadsbrewing.com; katiemorey. bandcamp.com.

— BY ROMAN DIVEZUR

“CHAPTER 45” BY ZAHYIA Formerly the frontwoman of progressive soul-jazz outfit Vanishing Sun, charismatic singer-songwriter Zahyia Rolle has come into her own creatively as the solo artist known simply as Zahyia. Her debut full-length solo album, “Chapter 45,” was released on March 11 via Benevolent Mischief Music, and finds her emerging from the heavily layered sound of her former band and delivering a self-reflective performance.

“What you are hearing is my musical journal,” Zahyia writes in the liner notes.

“You are hearing my ancestors, my God,

my children, and my journey of evolving through COVID in my 45th year of physical existence.”

Packing nearly 50 minutes of music into only eight tracks, Zahyia gives listeners an unsurprisingly eclectic mix of jazz-soul jaunts, serene spiritual ballads, and wellexecuted covers — with smatterings of R&B and hard rock.

The album opens with a new arrangement of “Foul SoulChild,” which originally appeared on the 2020 Vanishing Sun album “64.” Gone are the trippy tonal modulations and rhythmic shifts, in favor of a more straight-forward smooth jazz approach. Former Vanishing Sun members Quinn Lawrence and Luis Carrion do much to enhance the groove, on saxophone and bass, respectively, while The Mighty High & Dry frontman Alan Murphy supplies tasteful harmonic content on the keyboard.

Spoken word factors prominently on the record, particularly amid the hiccupped syncopations of the jazzy “Why Love,” the heavy-metal-infused “Fighting the Sickness (Fire Tablet),” and a reboot of the Gil ScottHeron classic “Whitey on the Moon,” reimagined here as “Rich Man Flying to Mars.”

“One Step Away” and “Long Healing Pray (Meditation Offering),” which closes the album, are calming songs of praise that reflect Zahyia’s deep interest in the Baha’i Faith. Zahyia’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” interpreted here with Latin flair, and a mercurial hard-rock version of Britney Spears’s “Circus” seem to come out of nowhere, but both are inspired choices.

As a singer, Zahyia’s expressive and robust timbre carries each tune. At times, however, insecure pitch control detracts from the melodies. In “One Step Away,” for example, breathy delivery causes stray notes to sound flat, hanging just under the desired pitch.

The distraction is temporary, but this kind of inconsistency occurs throughout the album.

Produced by Zahyia and mixed and mastered by Matt Ramerman at The Green Room, “Chapter 45” is the work of an intensely driven artist whose stylistic individuality is her greatest asset. Though it’s not perfectly executed, the beautifully honest album contains performances that require multiple listens.

— BY DANIEL J. KUSHNER roccitynews.com CITY 39

LIFE

WHAT ALES ME

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACOB WALSH

ALL HAIL BOCK, THE KING OF GENESEE BEERS Beer drinkers rediscover a classic seasonal staple.

BY GINO FANELLI

T

@GINOFANELLI

he annual launch of Genesee Brewery’s Ruby Red Kolsch has become something of a Rochester celebration. When the yellow 12-packs of grapefruit wheat beer show up at the grocery store, they’re a harbinger of warmer weather, even if snow is still on the ground.

The jubilation over Kolsch’s yearly return to shelves is deserved. It’s a perfectly fine beer; refreshing and 40 CITY APRIL 2022

GFANELLI@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

light enough to throw back a few on a hot summer day.

But the ale doesn’t hold a candle to Spring Bock, the vastly superior Genesee beer. I’m pleased to report that many beer drinkers appear to be finding it again.

Spring Bock has been a seasonal staple of the brewery since 1951, traditionally arriving at stores in January and remaining available through March. Through much of

its life, it was known simply as Bock Beer. The green can, adorned with its signature goat, an homage to a 17thcentury German mispronunciation of a beer style that translated to “billy goat,” has become a mainstay of Rochester’s coldest months.

While there’s little revelry or social media fervor over Bock to rival that of Kolsch, according to sales figures provided by FIFCO USA, the parent company of Genesee Brewery, Bock’s

popularity has surged wildly in recent years. In 2018, the beer sold about 30,000 units. Three years later, it sold more than 100,000, enjoying roughly, 58 percent growth per year.

By comparison, Kolsch has grown quicker, averaging a 66-percent growth in sales annually over the same timeframe.

Still, the rediscovery of Bock is deserved. A cold-conditioned lager showcasing robust, roasty German malts made on a mass scale at an American brewery is not common.

Genesee not only does it, but does it really well.

Kolsch is an everyman’s beer, widely embraced due to its light, crisp character and fruity overtones.

It’s a golden ale even beer-averse people can at least tolerate, even if they’re only drinking it because the White Claws have run out.

But Bock is a beer for beer lovers.

It’s unabashedly malty, laced with notes of toffee, caramel, and coffee, and finishes with just enough herbal bite. If the Rochester region is to get excited about a mass-produced beer from a local brewery, Bock is the one which deserves the accolades.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve gotten wrapped up in the Kolsch hysteria too. In 2018, I wrote about how Genesee planned to ramp up production to meet demand.The next year, I wrote about the beer’s mustachioed Captain logo as an example of smart branding.

I like Kolsch. It’s a good beer. It’s just not Bock.

Genesee should get credit for producing some pretty novel beers on a fairly large scale. For example, last year it launched the Cran Orange Kellerbier as the autumnal counterpart to Ruby Red Kolsch.

But classics are classics for a reason, and Bock carries that banner.

It shows up just in time to fortify its fans against the remaining cold months preceding real spring. As the thaw nears, I do what many folks in Rochester do — pretend there isn’t another winter coming right up around the bend.

But alas, the time for Bock will have to wait. You will be missed, see you next winter.

roccitynews.com CITY 41

LIFE

“Sensual sadist” Daddy Doyenne, seen here in a BDSM session with Vickie, alternated between whipping and caressing Vickie in an attic dungeon on Troup Street. They are part of the kink scene in Rochester, which is larger than you might think. PHOTOS BY MAX SCHULTE

42 CITY APRIL 2022

RANDOM ROCHESTER

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

@RSRAFFERTY

BECCA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

WORKING OUT THE KINKS Millions of Americans have sexual and nonsexual kinks, and experts say exploring them safely can improve overall wellness.

I

n a dimly-lit attic of a Victorian house on Troup Street, a dominatrix clad in a black leather corset and heeled boots towered above a middle-aged woman in a pink lace dress and a shiny black miniskirt seated on a red leather bench.

“Spanking today?” the dominatrix whispered firmly.

“Yes, please,” the woman replied, careful to keep her eyes respectfully lowered.

The question was posed by Daddy Doyenne, a 33-year-old nonbinary “sensual sadist” from Henrietta who, in addition to being a mother to a 6-yearold child, owns The Kinky Kafé, a local kink-themed event and catering business, and takes on clients who pay $300 an hour for her dominatrix services.

Their submissive that day was Vickie, a 64-year-old retired factory and machine shop worker and former volunteer firefighter and EMT who lives in Irondequoit. The relationship they share is intimate. They text each other throughout the day to say good morning and good night. Daddy coaches Vickie on self-care and selfesteem. Vickie inquires if there is anything she can do to serve Daddy, like running errands and cleaning.

They had gathered in the attic dungeon in the Victorian on Troup Street owned by another dominatrix named Madame Tessa. It was around noon on Thursday, and outside down the street people came and went from a busy bus stop, unaware of the session taking place inside.

The windows and floors were draped in black cloth and tables held bondage gear, whips, flogs, dildos, and sensory-deprivation devices. Vickie knelt over the red leather bench and stayed silent as Daddy alternated between whipping her — building from gentle smacks to sharp, arcing thwacks — and gently caressing and massaging her over the next 45 minutes.

Kink and sexual pleasure share a space, but they don’t always overlap.

Witnessing this session felt less like watching something carnal than sitting in on someone’s appointment with their massage therapist or chiropractor. At the end, Vickie seemed relaxed, serene, and she described the experience as something akin to meditation.

“I’m buzzing, buzzing,” she said, adding that when the sessions work the best, she goes into what she calls “subspace.”

“There have been times when I was being paddled or spanked and I was gone,” she said. “I can hear it going on, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, that sounds like that should hurt,’ but I’m not feeling it anymore.”

Daddy said that engaging in BDSM — a variety of kink involving some combination of bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism — is a radical exercise in trust, and one that, if approached correctly, can provide a sense of healing.

“The sense of euphoria that you get from a session, that’s the thing that people don’t understand,” they said. “It produces the same chemicals in your brain that ecstasy would. The serotonin, the dopamine, it’s firing off and firing off. Then they all have to drop, you know, and you can find yourself in a depressive spiral. But that’s what aftercare is for. That’s what checking in with your sub is for, because we can help each other out.”

Bondage. Role play. Dominance and submission. Cuckolding and other forms of humiliation. Threesomes.

Electrostimulation. Ethical nonmonogamy. Foot fetishes. Nylons.

Urine play. Voyeurism.

That’s just a small slice of the world of consensual sexual (and nonsexual) kinks. And though still taboo, the topic has been creeping into the

mainstream, thanks to movies like the 2002 erotic comedy “Secretary” and the “Twilight” fanfic series “Fifty Shades of Grey” (which many in the kink community dislike for what they say is its poor representation of communication and consent).

Kink is a part of the lives of many people, as evidenced by alternative dating apps like Feeld, a service for couples and singles looking to get together that has been around since 2014. Locally, there is the Rochester Kink Society, which was founded in 1997. Society organizers count 50 official members and estimate that about 600 people participate in events.

So what is it about our relationship to sex, our bodies, and each other that makes us want to use hushed tones when we even think about kinks, and turn away from those who are open about theirs?

According to a OnePoll survey, conducted in May 2021 on behalf of the sex product company MysteryVibe, 32 percent of Americans said they have kinks that their partners don’t even know about.

But a lack of openness about kink pushes it to the shadowy fringes of society, where, like sex work,

participants can find themselves endangered by the lack of information and protections involved.

The Rochester kink scene — whose exact scope is hard to pin down but involves a handful of social groups, BDSM-friendly bars, and several private and community dungeons — does a lot of self-policing, Daddy said.

This includes the weedingout of irresponsible creeps who want to exploit or abuse naive young women in particular, making space for trans and disabled people, and safeguarding members against racism by calling out racist behavior.

“The kink community is still very white-dominated,” Daddy said. “Black sex workers and kinksters have had to create their own spaces.”

This is one of the reasons Daddy created The Kinky Kafé, which they opened in 2021 but whose operations have been paused due to the pandemic. It’s a space dedicated to reversing the stigma about kink culture and providing a safe place for people — especially BIPOC, women and femmes, and queer people — to explore their kinks.

But the discussion about kink isn’t just happening in dungeons and clubs.

Academics have become interested in it as a holistic approach to sexual health.

“I think of kink as as a wide variety of ways that people sexually play together,” said Dr. Pebble Kranz, assistant professor of clinical family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester and medical director for the Rochester Center for Sexual Wellness.

“And it doesn’t even have to be sexual.

It’s playing with sensation, playing with role, playing with identity.”

Kranz underscores that the key to healthy kink is a complex CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

roccitynews.com CITY 43

RESOURCES Rochester Kink Society rochesterkinksociety.com, usually referred to as RKS, is the longestrunning local kink organization. 25 years old, 501c7 nonprofit focused on education.

Masters and Slaves Together Local chapter of a national org.

Still very new, focused on power exchange.

Erotic Arts Festival Annual fest with educational workshops and vendors.

Midori. Wild Side Sex: The Book of Kink – Educational Sensual & Entertaining Essays. Daedalus Publishing, 2005.

“Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge”

by Tristan Taormino (Editor), Barbara Carrellas .

The Alternative Sexual Health Research Alliance — @kinkhealth on Twitter Scarleteen — “Yes, No, Maybe So: A Sexual Inventory Stocklist” great checklist to go over alone or with a partner.

Feeld app — like Hinge or Tinder, but for kink. Bonus, when you pay, you can exclude anyone who follows you on Facebook from being able to see your profile.

Kama — app and Instagram.

Mindful sexual awareness. Great for getting to know your body and boundaries, and learning about having sex both solo and with a partner. @shrimpteeth on Instagram — offers education on ENM, queer, kinky, and relationships.

Horizontal With Lila — Instagram, podcast. Intimacy specialist.

Savage Lovecast — Podcast from advice columnist Dan Savage.

Multiamory — Podcast that “offers support and advice for modern relationships”.

FetLife — Social media platform.

Rochester Center for Sexual Wellness — rochestercenterforsexualwellness.com/ Jenna Weintraub Jennaweintraub.com The Kinky Kafé on Instagram: @kinkykafellc - COMPILED BY AMANDA CHESTNUT

44 CITY APRIL 2022

Vickie says that during a spanking session with Daddy Doyenne, she goes into a meditation-like “subspace” that leaves her feeling euphoric.

Experts say that safely engaging in kinks can improve overall health. PHOTO BY MAX SCHULTE

understanding of consent, adding that because checking in with one another’s limits is built into a responsible practice of kink, the kink community has a better understanding of consent than the general population does.

Rochester-based sexuality educator Jenna Weintraub said that kink is a “big world of adventure.” It’s a long list that includes, but is not limited to voyeurism and exhibitionism, fetishism, fantasy, role-playing, and power exchange, she said.

“It includes swinging, leather, restraints,” she added. “I think anything that’s usually perceived as mainstream is not kink. And everything around that is kink. But a lot of people have different definitions of what kink is.”

For many people, sexual fantasies don’t necessarily translate to sexual behavior. So, if lots of us already have kinky predilections, what are the safe and responsible steps to embracing our kinks?

Sexuality experts such as Weintraub and Kranz agree that mindfulness, communication, compassion, and consent are central to engaging in the kink lifestyle.

And some people who do engage are candid about what it takes to protect themselves and others.

“A ‘bad kink’ is one that you act on that other people or other entities cannot consent to,” said Rochester Kink Society’s events coordinator, auction chair, and outreach assistant, who goes by the moniker “schöenspiele.” “Some kinks should stay as fantasy only.”

Many people engage in kinky behavior on a regular basis, even if that’s not what they’re calling it.

The most common kink, easily, is watching porn. That’s voyeurism.

“There are so many facets of BDSM, that a lot of people don’t realize that they use kink every day,” Daddy said.

“People who like to, you know, casually choke each other in bed it’s like — that’s not casual,” they said.

“That’s kink! You know? I know people who like to spit on each other in bed. That’s kinky!”

For schöenspiele, sometimes being part of the kink community means having a coffee and playing board games at a dungeon — a word that sounds a lot scarier than the place actually is.

“It’s a community space,” they added. “Some people go on rollercoasters and ride motorcycles and go scuba diving. I hang out with my friends and we can hit each other with stuff or get tied up, you know?”

Schöenspiele and others with the society said practicing kink has positively affected their relationships outside intimate ones. Practicing boundaries, building confidence, determining how to meet goals, and communicating clearly are all benefits of kink discussed by doms and subs alike.

“Kink is not always sex,” schöenspiele said. “A lot of kink is very asexual, non-sexual. It can be adrenaline-seeking or comfortseeking or whatever.” For example, they added, “using rope can be done sexually, or it can be done just artistically, like dancing.”

And no one is a gatekeeper of kink, they added. “Any of your kinks are kinky enough — even being vanilla is kinky, you know, in this world,” schöenspiele said. “You are allowed to question, change, and grow at your own pace. And anyone who says otherwise are dickheads.”

With reporting by Amanda Chestnut.

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LIFE

CHEAP EATS

Me Gusta's lunch menu includes such inexpensive options as the $10 lunch platter, which includes the Famous Jerk Chicken, rice and beans, and vegetables. Add a beef empanada for $3. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

FIVE SPOTS FOR $10 LUNCHES Break bread, not the bank, at one of these local restaurants.

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

W

hether you forgot to pack your lunch or just want a workday treat, shirk the cheap-o chains and try one of these inexpensive local eateries. Each spot has lunch menu items for under $10, but you might want to spend a bit more if your appetite commands it. At that price you can consider “forgetting” your lunch tomorrow, too. Just don’t forget to tip!

MONDAY: Caribbean comfort food at Me Gusta (Mercantile on Main, 240 E. Main St., @megustarochester) 46 CITY APRIL 2022

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Erika Rivera-Arguinzoni opened Me Gusta in January at the Mercantile on Main, right next to Palermo’s Market, of which she is a co-owner.

At Me Gusta, you can build your own bowl of hot, delicious Caribbean food for $10-$15, depending on the portion size. The bowls come with rice, beans, and rotating meat options that include jerk chicken, pepper steak, roasted pork, and more, with the option of adding stewed cabbage or other vegetables offered on a particular day.

Other menu items you can add on or order a la carte include beef, chicken, pizza, or vegetarian

empanadas, and sweet or fried plantains ($3 each item). The spot also offers a variety of Jarritos flavors and other sodas, as well as house-made baked goods. The menu varies daily, so check Me Gusta’s social media accounts before heading over.

TUESDAY: Roots and veggies at B+ Healthy Fresh Food Market (442 Genesee St. and 1508 Dewey Ave., bhealthyfreshfoods.org)

If the springtime weather has you craving fresh foods, head to one of B+ Healthy Fresh Food Market’s

two locations. Open since 2018 on Genesee Street, the market specializes in simple and affordable grab-andgo items made with fresh fruits and vegetables. Owner Kaptah Amen-Ra Xi Amaru opened a second location on Dewey Avenue in 2021.

The menu is vegetarian, and all items cost under $10. You can get made-to-order juices and smoothies that range from standard fruit and greens blends to more adventurous mixes, like the Century Sea Moss smoothie. That one features apples, banana, peanut butter, cinnamon, three types of algae (Irish sea moss, chlorella, and dulse), three tree

powders (moringa, burdock root, and maca), and a seaweed called bladderwrack ($6-$8).

If you’re looking for something more substantial than a smoothie, consider the salad-as-a-sandwich veggie wraps ($5-$7). There are a couple of suggested recipes, but customers are invited to build their own from a variety of veggies, beans, hummus, and sauces. Custom wraps come with spring greens and chips.

WEDNESDAY: Perfect lunch date at Le Petit Poutinerie (44 Elton Street, @lepetitpoutine)

Since opening in February, Le Petit Poutinerie has offered an expanded menu beyond the rotating varieties of poutines hocked by the business’ food truck mothership. The restaurant is dolled up with elegant lighting, fresh flowers, gorgeous wallpaper, and a complementary mural by Lea Rizzo. As for the food, you can choose between traditional or vegetarian poutines ($9), or poutine with the following toppings: bacon, pulled pork, bacon cheeseburger, breakfast (with an egg over-easy), sloppy joe, or curry lentil ($10.50-$14).

Can’t choose? A new option that’s only available at the restaurant is the poutine flight, which allows you to choose three varieties for $22. It’s a great option for sharing with an equally indecisive friend.

If you’re not in the mood for fries,

try the buffalo tofu, fried bologna, chicken cutlet, or meatloaf melt sandwiches ($14). Complete the meal with a house-made soda and a dessert pastry from their expanded selection.

Bonus for parents on-the-go: the roomy, sturdy fold-down changing table in the chic restroom is the best I’ve ever seen in a restaurant, and definitely not the afterthought that it is in most eateries — if they even have one.

THURSDAY: Press pause at Peach Blossom (9 East Main St., @peachblossom15)

The unadorned, utilitarian interior of authentic Mexican restaurant Peach Blossom gives no hints to visitors about what kind of pocket business they’ve just walked into, but it’s a calming lunchtime escape. Owners Marco Murcia and his mother Minerva Martinez run the spot, which opened in October of 2019. If you’re short on time, you’ll want to order ahead because Martinez makes each order fresh and with care.

The fanciest decoration you’ll find is the stack of peach paper menus — a pretty letterpress creation by local company Dry Ink. On those menus you’ll find many inexpensive options, including asada, al-pastor, or pollo asado tacos; shredded chicken, shredded beef, or sauteed mushroom quesadillas; and asada, pollo asado, or veggie sopes (tacos, quesadillas, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

Le Petit Poutinerie is open for lunch and offers the same beloved poutine with an expanded variety of toppings, as well as sandwiches and snacks. PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL roccitynews.com CITY 47

Peach Blossom's tortas de milanesa, a sandwich that includes a chicken cutlet, cheese, greens, avocado, tomatoes, and onions, is a filling menu item for just $8.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

sopes are $4.50 each or 3 for $12).

They come with salsa verde (mild) and salsa roja (watch out!).

A standout item is the tortas de milanesa, a delectable chicken cutlet with greens, avocado, tomatoes, onions, and cheese served on soft and ever-so-slightly sweet telera bread, which is large enough to have some left over ($8). The cooler is stocked with a variety of Jarritos sodas and the non-alcoholic Sangría Señorial, a sweet, sparkling, sangria-flavored drink. You can add dessert of flan or tres leches cake for $5.

Keep an eye on Peach Blossom’s social media posts for previews about specials, including the occasional availability of tamales, which sell out quickly.

peppers, goat cheese, and roasted garlic).

Slices from square or circular pies come in pepperoni, plain cheese, or the daily special ($4-$6). You can order a whole Detroit-style pizza with a variety of topping combinations (9inch by 6.5-inch with four slices, $12$14), or a build-your-own nickel-thincrust circular pie (14-inch diameter, starting at $14). Gluten-free crusts and Daiya vegan cheese are available for upcharges.

There are other menu items including wings ($11 for eight), chicken tenders, sandwiches, and salads with pizza crust croutons, for those who want a little green.

FRIDAY:

Dead Red Pecker Pub opened on the

Personal pies at Pizza Wizard (760 S. Clinton Ave., pizzawizard.pizza)

It’s Friday, why not treat yourself to a private pizza party? Pizza Wizard — which opened in 2020 and is part of the The Owl House restaurant group — specializes in Detroitstyle pizzas, featuring a chewy, airy dough with satisfyingly crispy-cheesy edges. The menu is straightforward and simple but still yields some fun toppings combinations, such as the Brother Randy (Impossible meatball, kale, ricotta, red sauce), and Mama’s Garden (kale, mushrooms, pickled 48 CITY APRIL 2022

CHOW HOUND corner of Park and Meigs (121 Park Ave., deadredpeckerpub.com) in early March. Its 14 draught lines serve a rotating selection of craft beers, and the bar also offers bottles, cans, wine, and cocktails. A full food menu is on the way.

In mid-March, Donuts Delite West opened at 647 W. Ridge Road, making it the second location of the original Donuts Delite, which is on Culver Road. The new spot offers a full Salvatore’s pizzeria menu in addition to doughnuts and other baked goods.

roccitynews.com CITY 49

LIFE

BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

A budding crowd of cannabis edibles makers — including Rachel Leavy, pictured with a cannabis infused mocktail — have developed a world of creative menu items. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

FLAVOR OF THE FLOWER These local cannabis chefs are refining their recipes and sharing their knowhow.

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

E

dibles have come a long way since the humble and often wildly unpredictable pot brownie. We’re talking cannabis teas, THC-infused honey, custom edibles with ingredient lists that make a jaded foodie salivate, and even salads made using parts of the plant. In states where cannabis is legal, dispensaries and entrepreneurs make good money selling this stuff.

But in New York for the time being, unless you are a medical marijuana patient, the simplest legal way to get edibles or THC-infused foods is to make them yourself. The state made weed legal last year but is still working on getting the licensing

50 CITY APRIL 2022

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framework in place.

If you’re looking for direction, there are self-styled cannabis chefs in the region who are refining their recipes to create THC-infused versions of just about any food imaginable and who are willing to share their knowhow.

Among them are registered dietician Emily Kyle and her husband, chef Phil Kyle, who co-founded the Ember Woodfire Grill in Livonia.

Emily provides nutritional expertise and education, while Phil takes the lead in developing the couple’s cannabis recipes.

“There’s really strict regulations on what medical and recreational

dispensaries can sell as edibles, and it’s very limited right now — pretty much the gummies and chocolates that you see,” Emily Kyle said.

“Cannabis can be used for so many more culinary purposes.”

Yes, baked goods and candies are still on the table, but how about a bowl of fruit, granola, and yogurt drizzled with THC-infused honey, or a spring salad with a strawberry-weed vinaigrette? In the mood for something savory? Try a plate of roasted vegetables in a cannabis-and-herb butter dressing, dress tacos with cannabis guacamole, or toss linguine with a pot pesto.

If you’re green to incorporating weed into your food, the Kyles’

website (emilykylenutrition.com) includes a recipe page with menu items for every mood and occasion, as well as step-by-step instructions for making THC tinctures, full-extract cannabis oil, cannabutter, and THCinfused honey. For those who savor that weed flavor, there’s a salad that includes cannabis leaves in the greens.

Kyle, 31, said she was working as a registered dietitian at Highland Hospital when she realized that she was more interested in exploring the ways people are using cannabis for their health.

“I had always been a cannabis consumer myself, but I had always really hidden it from any type of

Rachel Leavy’s “Out like a lion” mocktail is made with a cannabis-infused hibiscus simple syrup. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

balance for people with all different tolerance levels.

“I’m not out here trying to get people messed up,” they said.

Leavy got into creating edibles a bit over a decade ago, when a friend who has since died was diagnosed with the lung disease cystic fibrosis and couldn’t smoke pot.

“She would make super strong edibles to help with her pain, and I would notice the difference in her and just think it was incredible to watch,” they said.

Leavy said that she’s spent the past 10 years researching and developing products, with lots of friends willing to lend a hand. They said it has been empowering to be able to use cannabis as part of a regimen to to mitigate

anxiety and pain, and that they’ve replaced their more detrimental alcohol use with mindful cannabis use.

Edibles-maker Adriana Quinones, 31, said that cannabis helped keep her off opiates and probably saved her life.

Growing up she struggled with severe endometriosis and was prescribed opiates to blunt the pain.

For the past few years, Quinones has been creating edibles including infused sweet treats, naan pizzas, hummus, and teas under the name D8Z Confections, and participated in many of the cannabis events in town before state regulators recently clamped down on vendors they perceived as operating under a loophole.

For now, she keeps her company in people’s minds through an active presence on social media, education and consulting, and product giveaways.

Quinones does offer cannabis candies and baked goods, but her repertoire also includes a wide variety of savory meals.

“Because I make all of my own infused base ingredients, I can make all of the things I would normally cook to include cannabis,” Quinones said. “I make my own olive oil, coconut oil, almond oil, all the oils that I cook with I make myself. So I can make tzatziki, I can make Puerto Rican pork, I can make empanadas.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 52

Edibles maker Adriana Quinones says that because she infuses her own cooking oils, she can make any food she knows how to prepare into a cannabis recipe. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH Registered dietician and hemp farmer Emily Kyle’s website — emilykylenutrition.com — is an open book of infused recipes and cannabis education. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

professional work,” she said.

Rochester resident Alicia Ainsworth, 49, has been battling cancer for five years, and said that cannabis edibles have allowed her to live life as closely to normal as possible.

Ainsworth said that her list of ailments includes nausea, anxiety, depression, pain, and a lack of appetite. To combat them she’s been getting help from 33-year-old edibles maker Rachel Leavy.

With Leavy, she co-created what she calls “goji globes,” a nutritious energy snack made with oats, coconut, goji berries, walnuts, and THCinfused honey.

“I could have one of those for a day and feel like my pain levels were

at a minimum,” Ainsworth said. “My mood was in a perfect place.”

Leavy, who is nonbinary, creates edibles that are used by many people for pain relief and other ailments, and hopes to translate their edibles hobby into a legal business eventually. They are also the owner of houseplant company Pott’d.

Describing Leavy’s affinity for cooking with cannabis as a hobby is an understatement. They create THCand CBD-infused foods from pizzelles to bacon, salad dressings, chocolates, mocktails made with infused hibiscus syrup . . . you name it.

Leavy dreams of hosting entire cannabis brunches with friends, with some menu items infused with THC and others without, so that there’s a roccitynews.com CITY 51

Edibles have expanded far beyond baked goods into all manner of foods, including this guacamole recipe by Emily and Phil Kyle. PHOTO BY EMILY KYLE

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

Become a Mentor Today!

You can support formerly incarcerated individuals with their re-entry in just one hour every week.

Join us for the Judicial Process Commission Faith Community Adult Mentoring Training!

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are encouraged to attend.

Training: April 25 & 26 5 - 8:30pm

Judicial Process Commission

Registration required

To register: contact Dorothy Chung at (585) 704-9660 or email dorothy.chung@rocjpc.org 52 CITY APRIL 2022

For a long time there has been stigma around cannabis, but when CBD hit the market in a serious way in 2018, Kyle, the dietician, said she felt like it was a safe space to dip her toes into working with cannabis and food.

“People were interested and so eager to find the information that it was just kind of a natural evolution over time,” she said. “I just kind of transitioned into a full-blown cannabis educator.”

Kyle and her husband are licensed hemp farmers and grow for personal use. Their permit allows them to legally sell products that have less than 0.3 percent THC through their web store. But their bread and butter comes from ad revenue generated through the quarter-million to halfmillion views per month their website receives, according to Kyle.

The Kyles’ website contains recipes as well as educational information on all things cannabis. It’s a free site, but a $10 Well With Cannabis Community membership gives members a chance to ask questions and interact with other community members. Kyle said she is primarily concerned with just sharing knowledge.

And that knowledge includes catering to every palate.

“It really comes down to personal taste and texture preference as well,”

Cannabis-infused margherita pizza made

by Adriana Quinones.

PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH

Kyle said. “When you take that into consideration, then you can decide how you want to infuse a meal. I love the taste of cannabis, so I’m okay putting just straight ground cannabis into my food.”

Her husband — not so much. So for people like him, they recommend using a tincture or oil that has minimal chlorophyll in it.

“Knowing all of these different ways that you can use cannabis,” she said, “we can help you decide based on your personal preferences which option you might want to use, and give you the best experience possible.”

LIFE

EARTH YAY

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF EARTH MONTH Appreciating the planet begins with exploring nature with all five senses.

BY REBECCA RAFFERTY

@RSRAFFERTY

BECCA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM

S

pring is an exciting time to enjoy the natural world with all five senses, for children and adults alike. Whether you stick to your own backyard or take a hike to one of the region’s wildlife refuges or green spaces, there are many opportunities to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste nature as it wakes up from winter.

Here are a few Earth Month activities that can get the whole family learning about the rhythms of the planet and its inhabitants while thinking about ways people can live in better balance with other forms of life.

SEE AND HEAR THE BIRD MIGRATION Rochester has already had its share of robins, cardinals, and blue jays — themselves a colorful signal that spring has sprung — scouting locations to build nests in neighborhood trees and pecking for worms in backyards. But there are many more kinds of birds to watch and listen for, if you know the right places.

North America has more than 2,000 species of birds, and about 350 of those are migratory birds, according to the National Audubon Society. If you live near lots of trees or water, chances are you’ll spy a greater diversity of birds traveling to their spring and summer grounds.

But you can also take matters into your own hands by visiting some of the established migratory bird stopover points in the region.

New York is situated along the Atlantic Flyway, one of four air routes migratory birds use. Our region is filled with lakes and rivers that attract weary winged travelers during spring migration, which peaks in late April.

Marshlands are prime bird watching spots and locally they include Braddock Bay Park and

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Braddock Bay Park on Lake Ontario (199 E. Manitou Road, Greece, 585-225-2000) is home to migrating waterfowl, hawks, and eagles. Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge (3395 Auburn Road, Seneca Falls, 315-568-5987) is a 7,000acre swampy space with trails and lookouts at the north end of Cayuga Lake that is nationally renowned for its waterfowl numbers.

At each place you can spot massive flocks of snow geese resting and feeding together, for example, which is a sight to behold (and hear) when they take wing together. But be careful not to disturb them and send them into the air — the birds make these stopovers so they can rest for the next leg of their long journeys.

Pack a lunch and dress in layers, and bring along spotting scopes if you have them. Before you go, brush up on bird songs at audubon.org and see how many calls you can identify in the field.

Pro tip: Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology also provides information on birds and bird identification at allaboutbirds.org, which additionally directs visitors to a smartphone app for bird identification.

NATURE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD There are many ways to observe nature close to home, whether you

tackle a hands-on project or become better acquainted with the plants and animals surrounding you.

One way to try to attract wild birds to your backyard is by building a safe nesting box.

There are loads of tutorials online, or you can get one locally as part of a Backyard Adventure Kit from Rochester Museum & Science Center, which comes with five days of guided activities and supplies.

The Backyard Birder kit is good for all seasons, and includes a​​ bird field guide and field journal, two different kinds of bird feeders, seed and suet, a DIY birdhouse kit, materials for a bird kite activity, and a curriculum.

RMSC also offers a kit for fairies and gnomes, which is more imagination and craft-based, but still gets children out exploring nature in their yards.

Each kit is $60, $70 if you have it shipped.

One basic way to increase a kid’s interest in the environment — or anyone’s for that matter — is to introduce them to it, by name.

Learning how to identify common trees and plants on walks can fuel children’s interest in the natural world. How many native trees can you identify together? Oaks and maples are easy if you look at their leaves, and sycamores are among the easiest to spot by their bark, which is a pale, wavy pattern of white, gray, green, and yellow. And the zesty scent of the bright yellow, spidery witch hazel blossoms is hard to forget.

As part of its Earth Month programming, Impact Earth is offering a free virtual class, “Learn About Local Trees,” at 6 p.m. on April 29. Participants can learn about the anatomy of trees and which ones are common to Monroe County. They’ll also receive a free tree guide. Registration is required at eventbrite.com/cc/impact-earthmonth-2022-188109.

What about the first flowers of

spring? White snowdrops appear in bunches with droopy bulb-shaped blossoms on short stems. Winter aconite grows in carpets of glowing golden blooms, and crocuses crop up in purple, white, and yellow hues. All are well on their way to pushing stems and blossoms through dirt recently liberated from inches of snow.

EARTH DAY IN THE KITCHEN In preparation for planting season, Fruition Seeds (7921 Hickory Bottom Road, Naples, is hosting a Seed and Plant Swap on April 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. People are invited to bring any seeds to share and empty envelopes to take some home.

Houseplant cuttings and divided, pest-free perennials are also welcome.

A great way to kickstart kids’ appreciation for nature’s bounty is to involve them in preparing a meal, from garden to kitchen. If you have a garden, getting children involved in growing produce, identifying ripeness, harvesting, and washing and prepping can instill a sense of capability, in addition to an appreciation of what goes into growing food.

If you don’t have a garden, pop by a farmer’s market and let the kids have a say in something they’d like to try. Pick a healthy recipe together and let them help prep a salad, for example. Let them smell and taste the ingredients as you prepare them, and ask questions about what they like.

Complete the cycle by composting food scraps together. Impact Earth is offering a free virtual class at 6 p.m. on April 12, titled “How to Use Compost in the Spring,” which explores how compost can be beneficial for plants and how to best use it at the start of growing season.

Register at eventbrite.com/cc/impactearth-month-2022-188109.

roccitynews.com CITY 53

LIFE

SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS

Answers to this puzzle can be found on page 34

PUZZLE BY S.J. AUSTIN & J. REYNOLDS ACROSS 1. One putting someone down 7. Inexperienced in 12. Interjection of regret 16. Potentially big hypotheticals 19. Anderson of “Baywatch”

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starred clues 130. BAL rival 131. Hang-up 132. Protein building acid 133. Light sensitive layer of the eye

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92. ** Highball cocktail with clear liquor

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75. A barrier to entry 77. Allows 78. Make payment 80. Value of concern for a flipper 82. Blink or flinch 54 CITY APRIL 2022

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Home Delivery Available

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62. Spicy sushi condiment

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64. ** Fictional metal band of mockumentary fame roccitynews.com CITY 55

56 CITY APRIL 2022