Rochester Storytellers Project to tell tales of neighbors at June show

The Rochester Storytellers Project will feature five true, in-person stories of neighbors and neighborhoods as part of its June 8 show, the second of its 2022 season. 

You’ll feel heartened, uplifted, and more connected to the world and people around you as we share stories from the neighborhood.

Tickets are $12 for general admission, but a limited amount of $8 tickets are also available. Order at https://storytellersproject.enmotive.com/events/register/storytellers-project-rochester-ny (Note: Please scroll down until you see the Neighbors show for June 8 under the “Tickets” heading.)

The show starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, at Comedy@The Carlson, 50 Carlson Road. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Meet our storytellers

Jacob Edwards grew up in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. His grandparents lived a few hours away, but he was fortunate enough to live across the street from Dave and Glenda, who became a local stand-in for grandparents.

They lived in a tan stucco house with white trim, a huge evergreen and an intriguing row of shrubs in the front yard.

Edwards, who is now studying political science and journalism at the University of Rochester, will tell the story of one of his earliest childhood memories, when he learned a valuable lesson from Dave and Glenda.

Aretha “Ms. Tee” McLamore owns Ma’ama Tee’s Cookin’ in Charlotte. She grew up in Rochester’s Bull’s Head neighborhood, just west of downtown. She describes her block as rich — not in wealth, but in diversity. 

Her father, who gave her the lifelong nickname Ms. Tee, was the neighborhood barber. She followed in her father’s footsteps and became a cosmetologist.

McLamore will tell the story about how her curiosity about the cuisines in her neighborhood would get her in trouble with her mother, and how that experience set her down another path.

Adria Walker felt misunderstood by her peers when she was growing up in Jackson, Mississippi. The other kids didn’t understand the music she liked or the references she made, so she kept to herself, reading, writing and “living in a world of my own creation.”

Then a family walk around the neighborhood brought Walker to the doorstep of a woman whose style and eccentricity would give her the confidence she needed to stand out.

Walker, who is now Upstate New York Storytelling Reporter for the USA TODAY Network New York, will tell the story of that meeting and the lifelong dream she carries, inspired by her neighbor’s example.

Marcella “Marcy” Richer grew up in Tupper Lake, a New York state village near the Adirondack Mountains. She is the youngest of seven children born to her parents, Marcel and Catherine. Her father served as Tupper Lake’s primary funeral director for nearly 50 years. The family grew up in a huge apartment above the funeral home. 

Through the big picture window, Richer observed the world around her. And the children in the neighborhood became her friends. The people she met during her childhood liked nothing more than to share their stories with wide-eyed Richer, who wanted to listen. This all had a huge impact on who and what she would become.

In 1985, Richer graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in political science and psychology. She is a resident of Rochester and has a daughter, Sara.

Roman Moszkowicz was born in Poland before immigrating to Israel and then eventually to Rochester, New York, as a young boy in 1961.

As he settled into his new home, Moszkowicz set about learning English and forming a new cultural identity; his Rochester city neighborhood “helped foster a family into the American way of life,” he said. 

He met some curious and quirky characters along the way, and soon identified a sport — baseball — that sent him on the journey from feeling adrift in a strange place to finding belonging and magic in America’s pastime.