City Magazine

City Magazine Arts. Music. Culture. Since 1971.

Best known for her non-linear multimedia work, filmmaker Mara Ahmed creates documentaries, soundscapes and visual art pr...
05/18/2026

Best known for her non-linear multimedia work, filmmaker Mara Ahmed creates documentaries, soundscapes and visual art projects that challenge colonial narratives and cross political and cultural borders. Born in Lahore but educated in Belgium, Pakistan and the United States, Ahmed’s work reflects those layered histories and displacements. Her films have aired on PBS as well as screening internationally.

Ahmed’s latest doc, “The Injured Body: A Film About Racism in America” was shot over eight years and post-produced in Rochester, weaving together the voices of 16 women rooted in local communities and featuring the work of 10 dance artists and choreographers.

It premieres on May 30 at The Little Theatre; read George Cassidy Payne’s full preview online, link in comments. 🔗

05/15/2026

YOU 🥊 YOU

Happy Friday from Boxy

… and Ryan

If it takes two laptops and a smartphone to secure Taylor Swift concert tickets — and these days, it does — the ticketin...
05/14/2026

If it takes two laptops and a smartphone to secure Taylor Swift concert tickets — and these days, it does — the ticketing system might be broken. Indeed, behemoths Live Nation and Ticketmaster recently settled an antitrust case with the Justice Department, though 33 states and the District of Columbia are still moving forward with the case.

The claim? These live-entertainment giants have monopolized the industry, and fans have paid the price.

Trevor Titley has always opted for a different approach.

“I’m noticing a want and a need from organizers and event throwers and festivals to bring it back to working with fellow independent companies,” he said.

The Ticketing Co., a startup ticket platform Titley runs from his home in Fairport, is one of them.

Read ’s full story with photos by in our May issue, on stands and online now, link in comments. 🔗

💃🏽 As soon as the weather breaks each year, weekends around North Clinton Avenue belong to the International Plaza.From ...
05/13/2026

💃🏽 As soon as the weather breaks each year, weekends around North Clinton Avenue belong to the International Plaza.

From the opening ceremony in May through the close of the season in October, the Plaza will host more than a dozen festivals and celebrations on Saturdays and Sundays, all with music, food and local vendors.

Read Kellen Beck’s full story on the cultural hub’s largest season yet in our May issue, on stands and online now — link in comments. 🔗

When The Demos step on stage, the sound is tighter, the edges cleaner, the connection sharper than ever. After a four-ye...
05/12/2026

When The Demos step on stage, the sound is tighter, the edges cleaner, the connection sharper than ever. After a four-year hiatus, the band’s return has been shaped by time, perspective and a city that never quite stopped listening.

Led by Jay Milton on vocals and guitar alongside Callan Saunders, Jeremiah O’Reilly and Caela Moore, the current lineup brings together players from across the band’s different eras. Returning members Ryan Farnung and Anna Dana add a renewed chemistry that bridges past and present.

That continuity makes their upcoming appearance at the Rochester Lilac Festival feel especially fitting. More than 15 years after their last performance in Highland Park, the band returns this Thursday, May 14, not as it once was, but more fully formed.

Read Jon Heath’s full story in our May issue, on stands and online now, link in comments. 🔗

It was the spring of 2004 when Christy Muscato and Julia Sittig met at a local doula training. Both pregnant at the time...
05/10/2026

It was the spring of 2004 when Christy Muscato and Julia Sittig met at a local doula training. Both pregnant at the time, they quickly became friends and that friendship evolved into Beautiful Birth Choices, a North Winton Village-based business focused on helping people navigate pregnancy, birth and their postpartum experience. Alison Spath joined their team in 2014 and came on as third co-owner in 2020. What began as a desire to create a space for community has grown to doula support services for over 1,700 births.

Read Helana Shumway’s piece about how the trio makes the birthing process — and beyond — a labor of love, online now, link in comments. 🔗

Some like it hot 🌭 In the best of times, the hot dog heralds better weather and the impending festival season. In the wo...
05/08/2026

Some like it hot 🌭

In the best of times, the hot dog heralds better weather and the impending festival season. In the worst of times, it is a reliable, affordable meal.

Enduring 146 years of operation and two pandemics is no easy feat, but the fifth-generation, family run Zweigle’s contains multitudes.

Full photo essay by in the May issue, on stands and online now, link in comments. 🔗

REVIEW | “Blue Heron” Writer-director Sophy Romvari’s debut film opens in the late 90s, as a family is moving into their...
05/07/2026

REVIEW | “Blue Heron”

Writer-director Sophy Romvari’s debut film opens in the late 90s, as a family is moving into their new home on Vancouver Island. At first, it’s easy to let the nostalgia of the setting take over. Young Sasha (Eylul Guven), along with her siblings and other kids in the neighborhood, enjoys the simple pleasures of growing up in the 90s before screens made running through a sprinkler for hours on end extinct. In this tiny marvel of a movie — small in presentation, but mighty in ex*****on — Romvari delicately unlocks those memories.

Read ’s full review online, link
In comments. 🔗

Audiences around the world have long been enamored with Garth Fagan’s choreography. While families and theatergoers may ...
05/06/2026

Audiences around the world have long been enamored with Garth Fagan’s choreography. While families and theatergoers may be most familiar with his Tony Award-winning work on “The Lion King,” others have been singing Fagan’s praises since long before his Broadway debut. But without the company and overall artistry of Garth Fagan Dance, it’s unlikely his choreography would have reached those stages at all.

This year, as the company marks its 55th anniversary, Garth Fagan Dance is shining a light on what makes Fagan’s choreography so distinctive by revisiting some of his earliest works, beginning with its 55th Anniversary Performance Celebration at Nazareth University Arts Center, May 7-10.

Read Sydney Burrow’s full story in our May issue on stands and online now, link in comments. 🔗

📸: David Schiffhauer

For Mikaela Davis, the 2026 Rochester Lilac Festival is a homecoming. Though the harp-playing, twangy, jam-adjacent sing...
05/05/2026

For Mikaela Davis, the 2026 Rochester Lilac Festival is a homecoming. Though the harp-playing, twangy, jam-adjacent singer-songwriter is now based in Catskill, New York, she still considers Rochester home enough to make her May 13 headlining set in Highland Park the release party for her new album, “Graceland Way.” Fellow local cornerstone group Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad will support.

It’s just one of the many shows at this year’s Lilac Festival that celebrates Rochester in all its musical diversity. The fest, which runs May 8-17, features 10 nights of live music spanning funk and jazz, jam and folk, soul and pop, old and new — and a good crop of generally unclassifiable, always dynamic genre polymaths.

Read Patrick Hosken’s full roundup in our May issue on stands and online now, link in comments 🔗

Address

280 State Street
Rochester, NY
14603

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+15852443329

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when City Magazine posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category