Rochester’s arts and entertainment community is in the final stages of preparation for the 2016 First Niagara Fringe Festival , which takes place Thursday, September 15 to Saturday, September 24, all across Rochester. There will be more than 500 performances at more than 25 venues in and around the city. And 170 of those performances are totally free!
Posts Tagged ‘Joanne Brokaw’...
Notes from the Fringe 2016: The countdown begins!
Thursday, December 8th, 2016Tags: festivals, First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Fringe Festival, Joanne Brokaw, Rochester, Rochester Fringe Festival, Rochester NY
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Highlights from the Fringe
Wednesday, December 30th, 2015Temperatures are falling and the Fringe Fest is a distant memory. Well, technically it’s only a few days in the past, but given the rapid change in temperature it feels like a season ago.
This was the fourth year for the First Niagara Fringe Festival, but it was the first time I’d ever attended. I love Rochester and I love going downtown. But to be honest, I generally avoid events where there are lots of people or the potential for traffic congestion. Since I had a press pass, though, I decided to take full advantage of it, and for 10 days I immersed myself in the fun.
And I do mean fun. Here are a few of the highlights from my week at the Fringe…
Tags: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Fringe Festival, Joanne Brokaw, Rochester, Rochester Fringe Festival, Rochester NY, Spiegelgarden, Spiegeltent
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Park Avenue Hospital
Wednesday, December 30th, 2015Back in May, we noted National Nurses Week with a piece on Ida Jane Anderson, New York State’s first registered nurse. John Zicari, a reader from York, Maine, wrote to tell me that he’d been doing some genealogical research on his family from Rochester, and shared a family photo of his great aunt, Katherine Fitzgerald Osborn. She was a nurse at what John had been told was Rochester’s Park Avenue Hospital. There’s no date on the photo but, John says, “She died in 1925 so it is pretty early picture of the facility.”
I love genealogy and especially old photos. But I had to confess: I’d never heard a hospital on Park Ave. Cafes? Yes. Art galleries? Yes. A hospital? No.
But as my grandfather used to say, you learn something new every day…
Tags: Brunswick Street, Dr. John F.W. Whitbeck, Dr. Williams, Health Council of Monroe County, Joanne Brokaw, John Zicari, Katherine Fitzgerald Osborn, Park Avenue, Park Avenue Hospital, Park Avenue Training School for Nurses, Park Ridge Hospital, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Regional Hospital Council, Unity Hospital
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Martha Matilda Harper – Innovator in Beauty and Business
Saturday, December 26th, 2015Driving down East Main Street recently, I spotted the name “Martha Matilda Harper” engraved on a building near the old Beech Nut packaging plant. My interest was piqued, since the building at 1233 East Main Street currently houses Tire Trax sales and service. It turns out that the facility is the former laboratories for Martha Matilda Harper, Inc.
I can’t believe that I’d never heard of Martha Matilda Harper, but we can thank her for just about everything having to do with our modern salon experiences, as well as her groundbreaking business methods that pioneered modern retail franchising…
Tags: 1233 East Main Street, Alexander Graham Bell, beauty treatment, Bertha Honore Palmer, business woman, Centa Sailer, Danny Kaye, East Main Street, Grace Coolidge, hair tonic, Harper Method Founder's Shop, Helen Hayes, Inc., Jacqueline Kennedy, Joanne Brokaw, Lady Bird Johnson, Mabel Graham Bell, Martha Matilda Harper, Powers Building, Robert MacBain, Rochester, Rochester beauty shop, Rochester history, Rochester NY, Susan B. Anthony, Temple Building, Tire Trax
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The Final Days of the Fringe
Friday, December 25th, 2015The First Niagara Fringe Festival is winding down, with just tonight and tomorrow left to check out some of the fun. I’ve been blogging daily on my personal blog about the festival, so hop over there to see everything I’ve been up to this week. But if you’re hitting the festival for the first time this weekend, here are a few things that you can still catch…
Tags: aerialist, Ann Landers, burlesque, Cabinet of Wonders, Canary In A Coal Mine, David Rambo, Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall and Sproull Atrium, Eastman Theater, Erich Camping, First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Fringe Festival, Joanne Brokaw, Kilbourn Hall, Luke Kempner, magician, Multi-use Community Cultural Center (MuCCC), Princess Wendy's Late Night Tease Room, Rochester, Rochester Fringe Festival, Rochester NY, Silent Disco, Sinda Nichols, Spiegelgarden, Spiegeltent, The Lady With All The Answers, Upside Downton
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Exploring Spiegelgarden, the Heart of the Fringe
Sunday, December 20th, 2015The First Niagara Fringe Festival opened this week, with over 500 shows happening at more than two dozen venues over ten days. But the heart of the Fringe is the Spiegelgarden, located at the corner of Main and Gibbs Streets, across from the Eastman Theater. There are shows, artwork, food and more, including the centerpiece Spiegeltent, which is home to the Cabinet of Wonders, Princess Wendy’s Late Night Tease Room, comedian Jamie Lissow, Silent Disco and Brown Bag Disco.
I confess I’ve never been to the Fringe, now in its fourth year, but after I did the Remote Rochester tour this week I just had to go downtown for opening night festivities at the Spiegelgarden. What amazing wonders await you! Here are a few of the things happening at One Fringe Place…
Tags: Abby DeVuyst, Absinthe, Bento Box, Brown Bag Disco, Cabinet of Wonders, Chef, comedian Jamie Lissow, David and Helen Ferge, Eastman Theater, First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Fringe Festival, Joanne Brokaw, Kerry Young, Matt and Heidi Morgan, Mirror Tent, Naples Open Studio Trail, Princess Wendy's Late Night Tease Room, Rochester, Rochester Fringe Festival, Rochester NY, Scott Grove, Silent Disco, Spiegelgarden, Spiegeltent, tightrope chalk drawing illusion
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Medical Marijuana Returns to Rochester
Saturday, December 19th, 2015The opening of a medical marijuana dispensary in Kodak’s old Theater on the Ridge at Eastman Business Park has recently been in the news . Columbia Care will turn the leaves, stems and stalks of the cannabis plant into medicine for people with cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, and other neurological conditions. The facility is expected to be up and running this January…
Tags: ad, advertising, cannabis, Cannabis Sativa, Columbia Care, Eastman Business Park, Joanne Brokaw, Kodak Park, marijuana, medical marijuana, Powers Building, Rochester, Rochester NY
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Exploring Reality with “Remote Rochester” at The Fringe
Thursday, December 17th, 2015I’ve got a bit of a dilemma reviewing the Remote Rochester event at this year’s First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival. If I tell you too much, I might give away some of the surprises and ruin the experience. If I don’t tell you enough, you may not understand what it’s all about and miss what might be the most fascinating journey you’ll take through the streets of Rochester.
So I need to find a balance. I’ll begin with this question:
Do you trust me?
Tags: First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Fringe Festival, Joanne Brokaw, Mount Hope, Mount Hope Cemetery, Remote Rochester, Rochester, Rochester Fringe Festival, Rochester NY, urban exploration
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Ida Jane Anderson, New York's First Registered Nurse
Wednesday, December 16th, 2015This past week was National Nursing Week . To mark the occasion, we thought it only fitting to take a look at one of Rochester’s many (many) contributions to the role of nursing: the Registered Nurse…
Tags: Armstrong Act, Genesee Hospital, Homeopathic Hospital Training School for Nurses, Ida Jane Anderson, Joanne Brokaw, Mount Hope Cemetery, New York State Nurses Association, Nurse Practice Act, nurses, Pest House, Registered Nurse, Rochester, Rochester Homeopathic Hospital, Rochester NY, Senator William Armstrong, smallpox, Strong Memorial Hospital, Susan B. Anthony
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A History of the Charlotte Lighthouse
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015If there’s a cemetery tour happening in Rochester, you can be sure I’m there. For anyone interested in local history, there’s no better place to find unusual stories and bits of trivia, and I’m fascinated by the history buried all around us.
A few weeks ago, the City of Rochester hosted the annual Genesee River Romance weekend celebrating the Genesee River and its surrounding trail and gorge system. In 2014, I took full advantage of the weekend of events that include tours of the old subway and aqueducts, the Rundel Library, the Falls, and cemeteries. Somehow, I missed the adverts for this year’s event, so I only had time to catch one thing: the tour of Charlotte Cemetery…
Tags: Charlotte, Charlotte Beach, Charlotte Cemetery, Charlotte Coast Guard, Charlotte Lighthouse, Cuyler Cook, David Denman, first child born in Rochester NY, Genesee River, Giles Holden, history of Rochester, Holden Street, Jack Kemp, James Stoddard Stone, Joanne Brokaw, Lake Avenue, Lake Ontario, Latta family, Luther Jeffords, Mehitabel Hincher, Oak Orchard, River Romance, Rochester, Rochester history, Rochester NY, Sam Patch, Sam Phillips, Shay's Rebellion, Sodus Bay, the Lighthouse Act, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Coast Guard, William Hincher
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