What is In This Moment?

Shawn Dunwoody, photographer Arturo Hoyte ITM Volume 1

Mission Statement

In This Moment unveils, amplifies, and preserves the stories of contemporary Black leaders from across the Rochester area. We provide educational resources that restore and repair historic narratives that would have been lost to time. With independently published free chapbooks, ITM shares community leaders’ stories, images, and life’s dedication to uplifting our communities.

ITM demonstrates the breadth and scope of revolutionary work happening in Rochester’s Black communities.

ITM provides educational resources that include the stories of people who are underrepresented in order to increase student and community understanding of the contributions from Rochester’s Black communities and the importance of equitable representation; increase student and community engagement around the effects of implicit bias and systemic racism and foster respect for diversity.

As these stories are read, and discussed in our living rooms, classrooms, community spaces and institutions they activate the reader’s imagination to see themselves in these roles and contemplate how they will use their unique affinities and desires for the betterment of their communities all through the lens of promoting equity and inclusion.

From community input, local Black curator Amanda Chestnut selects the leaders whose fields of work range from anthropology and musical composition to medicine and activism. She invites local Black photographers and essayists whose work compliments the lived experience of each leader to create their photographic and literary portrait.

Each volume includes ten 20-page chapbooks. ITM distributes a total of 10,000 chapbooks to community members for free through Monroe County and Rochester Public Library systems and to students and educators in local K-12 city, suburban, charter schools and colleges/universities, two independent bookstores, Teen Empowerment and eleven City of Rochester R-Centers.

ITM organizes five book launches/panel discussions for the community. Each two-hour book launch includes a reception with refreshments, complimentary chapbooks for guests and a moderated panel discussion with two featured leaders, their photographers, and their essayists. George Eastman Museum has committed to present the five ITM book launches and panel discussions in their Dryden Theatre where up to 500 community members can gather. All guests receive a complimentary copy of featured chapbooks.

From community input, ITM curator invites 10 teams of Black writers and photographers to profile 10 Black leaders from across the city of Rochester resulting in the publication of a series of 10 chapbooks. ITM offers vital learning opportunities and reflection for all students and community members.

The theme, In this Moment, is a challenge to a euphemism often used in lieu of talking about Revolution, Reckoning, and Reparations. We look to take the euphemism and ask it back to those most likely to use it: What is this moment?

This moment is a revolution, a reckoning, and a demand for reparation.

The intergenerational wound of racism in Rochester existed before the building of the Inner Loop and before the firebombing of Frederick Douglass’s home. Black people in this city have been working for freedom since before the city’s namesake, Nathaniel Rochester, financially invested in slave trading and brought the people he himself enslaved to the region.

We acknowledge that this project capitalizes on the labor of Black leaders, writers, and photographers and we are raising funds to pay all of those involved in the project have been paid for their services. Each contributor is innovative in their own right: photographers are vanguards in Black Lives Matter; writers are at the forefront of equitable funding for arts and education in the city; every person has a vested interest in a successful and vibrant Rochester and we wish for you to invest in them, directly.

You can help to tell stories that show how this moment is just one in a series of events that Black people have been facing, fighting, and determinedly prevailing over for generations.

Who is behind In This Moment?

ITM Co-Creators, Amanda Chestnut and Jeanne Strazzabosco (retired) at the Dryden Theater

Amanda Chestnut

ITM Co-Creator & Curator

Amanda Chestnut’s work focuses on the representation of history – and in particular, how the history of race and gender impacts modern narratives. Her art has been exhibited in Rochester at Firehouse Gallery, University of Rochester, and High Falls Art Gallery at the Center at High Falls; she has also exhibited at Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY. She was formerly a resident at the Studios of Key West in Key West, Florida, Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY, Center for Photography at Woodstock in Woodstock, NY, and at Genesee Center for the Arts & Education in Rochester, NY.

Jeanne Strazzabosco

ITM Co-Creator & Coordinator (Retired 10/25)

Jeanne is a retired French teacher from Pittsford Schools. As a teacher leader, she created and implemented professional development that focused on creating an inclusive learning environment, the effects of implicit bias, the importance of representation and how to teach with the introvert in mind. Jeanne earned an MA in Liberal Studies at SUNY Brockport and a Masters of Pastoral Studies from St Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry.
She recently completed a Masters Certificate in Art Administration from SUNY Brockport where her favorite course was grant writing.
Jeanne retired from ITM in October 2025.

Sally Millick

ITM Coordinator

Sally Millick is a Rochester city resident who currently serves as the President of the Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library (FFRPL). She is active in several organizations such as the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery, the Friends of the 1816 Farmington Meetinghouse, the Landmark Society of Western NY, and Visit Rochester. She is a strong supporter of the theater and local artists, as well as the local music scene. A graduate of East High School and Potsdam College, Sally works as a consultant with large companies in the recruiting and HR technology space.

Tate Shaw

ITM Chapbook Designer

Tate Shaw is an artist, writer, publisher, and curator living in Rochester, NY. His books are in international art library collections including the Tate Modern, London, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Joan Flasch Artists’ Books Collection, Yale Special Collections, and the George Eastman Museum Library, amongst others. His writing has appeared in a collection of essays on books by artists Blurred Library (2017), Rereading Empathy (2022), JAB: the Journal of Artists’ Books, The Blue Notebook, Aperture’s Photobook Review, Afterimage: the Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, and other journals and catalog publications. He is the Consulting Editor of Visual Studies Workshop Press, Director of Tower Fine Arts Gallery, and Associate Professor at SUNY Brockport.

Aaron Sagers

ITM Editor

For more than a decade, Aaron Sagers has been a working mainstream journalist and author. He is perhaps best known for his work exploring the cross-cultural connections of folklore, and belief in the unexplained, as well as documenting trends within paranormal entertainment. Throughout his career, he has also been a news reporter, travel and food writer, as well as a journalist focused on “nerd culture.” His byline has appeared in, among other outlets, CNN, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, The Orlando Sentinel, The Hollywood Reporter, IGN,MTV, and Syfy.com. For six years he was a syndicated pop-culture columnist for McClatchy-Tribune and originated the Pop 20 and Pop Pundit brands. In 2009, Sagers launched the entertainment website Paranormal Pop Culture which in part inspired the Travel Channel series Paranormal Paparazzi, which he hosted and co-executive produced. Paranormal Pop Culture was also an originating content partner for the CNN Geek Out! nerd culture section. He is also an author who published the book The Paranormal Pop Culture Collection: Rambling And Shambling Through The Entertainment Of The Unexplained in 2012. Additionally, he has contributed to ABC-CLIO reference guides and H.W. Wilson College Reference Guide, and to the Doctor Who Psychology and The Joker Psychology books. Sagers has also taught writing and journalism for the State University of New York and New York University.
aaronsagers.com