When Courtney Smith was picking out clothes for our What2Where article, she knew she just had to incorporate style elements from the recent hit movie Barbie. I wasn’t quite sure what she would bring to the set, but when she walked into the photo shoot dressed in head-to-toe pink sequins, I knew these were going …

Celebrate the holidays with gifts for your mind—books! Whether shopping for yourself or others, you’ll find a selection of locally powered titles here. Bonus: all of these are available free in the Monroe County Library System. Don’t have a library card? Get yourself that greatest gift today.  Casting and Mending  By Patrick M. Scanlon  RIT …

There are more than books to “check out” at Rochester area libraries in 2023. Recently, a host of exciting new library collections debuted, including seed libraries (Chili and Irondequoit Public Libraries), a Library of Things (Penfield Public Library), and a wholly revamped Toy Library at the newly renovated Lincoln Branch Library.  Complementing these new area …

Lining the shelves of Midge Thomas’s apartment is an abundance of information about a life well lived. Awards are framed and hung on the entryway walls, and stacks of binders document her endless initiatives. It’s—to say the least—perfectly engrossing. Laura DiCaprio met Thomas for the first time while on assignment for (585) magazine in 2021. …

The idea for The Lab: Creative Resource Center was born a long time ago. “It’s always been with me,” says Jordin Pickett, twenty-seven. “I always wanted to create safe spaces for people who look like me in the city.” In Rochester, she says, “We have such beautiful things, but it’s overshadowed by such violence and …

“Sometimes, creativity hurts a little,” says Casey Arthur, founder of Muck Duck Studio. Arthur, who prefers to go by her artist handle, Miss Casey, sits across from me as she drinks a cup of coffee that has just been reheated in the microwave. “That’s okay,” she continues. “Be with your discomfort. You have to release …