History is preserved and passed down through generations in many ways, the most intimate of which is storytelling from one person to another. Those who dedicate themselves to researching and sharing Rochester’s history are true regional treasures because their passion and efforts keep the city’s stories alive and sparking interest in the next generation. But committing to honoring and accurately…
“I died five times.” There was a car accident, a bout with COVID-19, and a fall where she lay undiscovered for thirteen days in her Rochester apartment. But none of that stopped seventy-eight-year-old Almeta Whitis from fighting her way back to her sons, her family, her friends, and her community. Whitis wasn’t done with her work as a storyteller, poet,…
If you attended kindergarten after 1989, there is a strong chance that you learned your colors from three mischievous white mice who stumbled upon tiny pots of paint. Fairport resident Ellen Stoll Walsh is the beloved creator of the bestselling modern classic Mouse Paint along with more than a dozen other picture books that have been read by children around…
“I was born in 1931, in a small community north of Chicago,” Pat Ward-Baker begins. “I grew up in the ’30s and ’40s. By the time I was ten or eleven, the Second World War was on, and everything around me felt rigid. Wives stayed home. They hosted tea parties, talked, shopped. Somehow my little self hated that. I wanted…
A fresh scoop Michael and Marie Carducci had no plans to start a business. Michael, a Rochester native, works full time in IT, and his wife, Marie, who grew up in Zambia, is a senior accountant. The couple shares four kids. But when the two saw a sign in the window at 1245 Park Avenue at the corner of Colby…
Picture books are for little kids. Chapter books are for elementary students. Young adult novels are for teens. Everything else is for adults, right? Well, kind of. While most books written for adults aren’t intended for children, the opposite is certainly not true. Picture book creators’ work must appeal to the grown-ups who read to kids. Middle grade novels make…
New job jitters only multiply if the day goes sideways, an unfortunate lesson Kelly Metras learned on her first day in the food industry. She started as a waitress at seventeen and found herself grossly underprepared. “Thrown to the wolves,” is how she remembers it. Being a server means managing a thousand different tasks all at once, and that first…
A dinner plate soars into a steel wall and breaks four ways. A computer keyboard falls on concrete, fracturing each key. A drinking glass shatters on impact with a bat. At first glance, these descriptions may not evoke images of low-key, guileless fun. But free-wheeling entertainment is exactly what Rochester’s first-ever smash room, iSmash, aims to represent. The sprawling facility…
