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In honor of Women’s History Month, the health care hospitality home Harbor House of Rochester is presenting the region’s first Festival of Women Improvisers.
“This will be a great ‘friendraising’ event, I think,” says Harbor House coordinator Carol Anthony. “It will be an inspirational, informative event for whoever is interested and curious to learn more about an important skill.”
The event will feature classic examples of this work, with an improvisation workshop and headline performance by jazz pianist and composer Laura Dubin, who plays with her percussionist husband Antonio Guerrero. Rising jazz stars and Eastman students, saxophonist Lane Hansen and pianist Kate Molloy, will also give performances.
A panel of local female entrepreneurs will speak about how they use improvisation in their work. Their businesses range from nursing, bookselling and welding to designing sustainable fashion and cosmetics.
“(Improvisation) is an instrument of change that we use in everyday life and across all professions. It’s the ability to think on your feet and be able to change with what the need is,” Anthony says. “We’re also recognizing that Rochester is a hub of women’s accomplishments historically and also now.”
Harbor House, a two-minute walk from Strong Hospital, serves as a temporary, affordable, supportive place for out-of-area families to stay while their loved ones receive treatment.
Unlike a hotel or other paid-for lodging, Harbor House provides shared space for families and results in a sense of community for guests and volunteer workers. Having individuals who can relate and empathize through shared experiences makes the space even more impactful, Anthony observes.
“We’re a home away from home during the most stressful time in someone’s (life),” she puts it. “We’re not performing the transplant or saving their life in a medical sense, but we’re certainly providing an important part of the overall healing process.”
In operation since 2009, Harbor House had 86 reservations in 2023, the most recent year available in impact report form. The majority (62 percent) of guests stayed at the house for a week at most. Other families had much longer stays, with one guest’s time stretching over 15 weeks.
Guests coming from within New York primarily originate in the Western and Central New York regions, with a few coming from the North Country as well. Harbor House also had guests from six other states outside New York in 2023. The furthest traveler came over 7,000 miles, from Uttara, Bangladesh.
Heart disease was the main reason for hospitalization, making up 39 percent of all cases. Intensive-care admissions and liver disease were also big reasons for guests requiring rooms.
Although the nonprofit organization is small, Anthony says it aims to expand services and reach. Among its goals is to hold more events, build out a referral network with rural clinics across New York, grow connections to the Mennonite and Amish communities who have used Harbor House in increasing numbers, improve and maintain the house itself, and eventually add more guest rooms.
Currently, Harbor House has four rooms available. Anthony says there is usually a waiting list for families.
“Our space can get limited, but we never want to have to turn anyone away,” she says.
The Festival of Women Improvisers will be held Sunday, March 23, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Brickstone by St. John’s in Rochester. Advance tickets are available for $10. Tickets at the door are $15.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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