The words “themed hotel room” used to evoke images of afternoon affairs, bulletproof glass lobbies, and coin-operated beds. But as you may have seen on your Instagram feed, this has all changed with the emergence of vacation rentals. Themed rooms, with their heart-shaped tubs and fantasy suites (jungle rooms! ice caves!) are back in vogue. …

Minerva Gutiérrez doesn’t suffer fools lightly. Yet every day she encounters them at the ice cream stand she works at. The customers, the coworkers, and, most of all, her boss are all constant reminders of how much she wants to leave her down-and- out town of Nautilus and begin a new life. But she is …

Curls of shaved wood litter the ground, and the air is rich with the scent of steamed lumber. Evan Cree leans over a piece of ash, carefully bending and shaping it until it takes the shape he is aiming for. What started as a rough piece of wood has been transformed into a traditional lacrosse …

Stories can embody many forms. There are those we pass down, the ones we know by heart, and those we identify through the specificity of time or place. Some we learn by ear, and others we encounter pressed between the pages of a book. For fifty years the Lift Bridge Book Shop has been all …

In May of 1971—more than fifty years ago—the Rochester Gay Liberation Front organized its first official gay pride event, a well-attended (300 guests) picnic in Genesee Valley Park. In the decades since, Rochester’s LGBTQIA+ pride events have grown in breadth and depth with the annual Pride Parade becoming a prominent focal point. Most cities celebrate …

In the beginning, it was Ian Wilson and an idea. For him it was simple, he wanted to bring the types of murals he had seen in other world-class cities to Rochester, with the intention of using that art to engage and transform the community. So, as (585) reported in 2013, he tapped into his …