Connections

It’s a “singing intervention!” Do you want to sing, but feel nervous or dislike the sound of your voice? Did you play and instrument as a child, but haven’t picked it up in years?

Today is Make Music Day, so we spend the hour celebrating music in all its forms, including the human voice. We also discuss the science behind singing, and how it can change your brain. Our guests:

• Gerard Floriano, artistic director of the Finger Lakes Opera
• Lee Wright, founder of First Inversion Choir
• Richard Fink IV, vocal coach and founder of Throga
• Brenda Tremblay, host and producer for WXXI’s Classical 91.5
• Maureen Rich, producer for WXXI’s Reachout Radio, and member of Tasty Parker and the Joy Riders
  

Local activists, members of the faith community, and law enforcement officers are working together to improve police-community relations in the Greater Rochester area. Last weekend, the fourth annual Police Relations Summit covered a range of issues, including police use of force, body cameras, plea bargaining, implicit bias and more.

We sit down with leaders who attended the summit to discuss what they learned and what they hope to accomplish. In studio:

• Rev. Lewis Stewart, co-chair of the Rochester Coalition for Police Reform, and president of United Christian Leadership Ministry
• Chief Mark Henderson, Brighton Police Department
• Chief Richard Tantalo, Irondequoit Police Department
• Iman Abid, co-chair of the Rochester Coalition for Police Reform, and chapter director of the ACLU of New York
  

The recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain have sparked concern among mental health advocates, who note that celebrity suicides can have a copycat impact on the general population.

Our guests discuss suicide from a range of angles, including the impact of loss on surviving family. In studio:

• Bill Perun, suicide attempt survivor, past president of NAMI Rochester, vice president of NAMI NYS, member of the NAMI National Peer Council, and certified Peer Specialist for the New York Office of Mental Health
• Carrie Andrews, survivor of suicide loss
• Dr. Joe Vasile, M.D., psychiatrist, and president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association (GRIPA)
• Megan Clifford, LCSW-R, certified Mental Health First Aid instructor
  

The Hilton Central School District is considering arming retired law enforcement officers to work security. It's a proposal that has caused debate among parents; some argue that bringing more guns in to schools is inherently unsafe, while others feel that trained former officers are capable of handling firearms in a secure manner.

We discuss the proposal with people on different sides of the issue. Our guests:

• Casey Kosiorek, superintendent of the Hilton Central School District
• Dave Inzana, director of safety and security for the Hilton Central School District
• Stephanie Bedenbaugh, parent and leader with the Rochester chapter of Moms Demand Action
• Kelly Lincoln, parent, member of Progressive Parents of Hilton, and licensed clinical social worker
  

It's a preview of this year’s Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival. We discuss this year’s lineup, and we hear from English singer Gwyneth Herbert who returns to the festival for a third time. We talk to her about her music, her career, and what’s new on the jazz scene.

Our guests:

• Jeff Spevak, longtime Rochester arts and culture reporter
• John Nugent, co-founder, producer, and artistic director of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival
• Glenn Tilley, audio producer and member of the production team for the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival
• Gwyneth Herbert, singer and musician

In her book, “I Married a Sociopath,” writer and epidemiologist Sabrina Brown details decades of physical, verbal, and financial abuse by her ex-husband. Brown began blogging about being a domestic violence survivor in 2012 as a way to spark conversations about intimate partner violence, which often isn’t reported or acknowledged.

Brown is in Rochester as the keynote speaker for RESTORE Sexual Assault Service’s first-ever regional conference, but first, she joins us on Connections to share her story and to discuss how to help victims of domestic violence. Our guests:

• Sabrina Brown, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Kentucky, and author of “I Married a Sociopath”
• Lauren Berger, outreach and education specialist for RESTORE
  

What should we do when artists misbehave? In other words, when an author, actor, director, or artist does something offensive, acts inappropriately, or steps over the line in some way, should we stop consuming their art? When do we give them a pass?

The founder of Writers & Books, Joe Flaherty, dealt with this question when he was arranging for Philip Roth to visit Rochester. The late writer was considered a misogynist by many readers. But, as Flaherty wrote in an essay on the incident, “you have to separate the writer from his characters.”

What do you think? Should we consume and share the work of Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Harvey Weinstein, Philip Roth, and others? Should the work of artists in question stand on its own? Where do we draw the line? Our panel discusses those questions. Our guests:

• Joe Flaherty, founder of Writers & Books
• Patti Lewis, local actor, director, and teaching artist
• Jonathan Ntheketha, senior assistant director of student success and outreach in the Multicultural Center for Academic Success at RIT
• Bob Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University