Community is the Heart of Healing
2025-09-18 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | The Other Side, 2011 Genesee St, Utica, New York, 13501
The prolonged uncertainty these last several years has negatively influenced the mind-body health of many individuals and communities. The Building Connections Collective is raising awareness of collectivism for enriching healing practices and better overall health and wellbeing. This approach not only acknowledges individual experiences but also highlights the importance of community and shared cultural connections in the healing process.
Collective healing practices have ancient roots, and the Building Connections Collective is raising awareness that health and healing is a collective responsibility and involves actionable steps for supporting the health of a community.
If you are interested in this topic, consider learning more about the Building Connections Collective on Sept 18th, 6pm – 7:30pm at 2011 Genesee St, Utica NY 13501 and help bring awareness about the benefits of collective healing.

Questions reach out to Deborah Faust at DFaust@mhanys.or 518-414-2899

Outcast International Show Prep
2025-10-04 - 2025-10-08

Correspondence - Artist Talk
2025-10-04 13:00 - 14:00
September 12 – October 4
Opening Reception, Friday September 12, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 4, 1pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Saturdays 12-2pm

Outcast International presents: Life Sucks. (click for all show dates)
2025-10-09 19:30 - 21:30
OUTCAST returns to THE OTHER SIDE with the Aaron Posner Comedy “Life Sucks”
After a 2-year hiatus, Outcast International is back to present the comedy “Life Sucks” at The Other Side in Utica, NY from October 9th through October 12th.
Written by Aaron Posner, author of the hit play “Stupid F#%*ing Bird,” which is a parody of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Life Sucks” is the playwright’s hilarious and poignant take on Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”
Described as his love letter to Chekhov, Posner’s “Life Sucks” pulls the most important parts of “Uncle Vanya” and spins them in uniquely modern ways, including asking the characters to interact directly with the audience. Although Chekhov’s plays can be heavy in their dealing of the universal themes of love and loss, Posner offers us hope and urges us to – in the words of one of his characters – “Move on. Move forward. Move further into life!“
Superbly funny, smart, audacious and heartbreaking, the play has been lauded by the critics, with the Chicago Sun Times writing, “’Life Sucks’ is altogether wise, profoundly humane, hilarious, quirky, endearing and, in countless clever ways, brilliantly faithful to its source . . . Posner has managed to find his own voice in the process, bringing a playful, far from cynical, fourth-wall-piercing originality to the story.” Jesse Green of The New York Times wrote, “Aaron Posner’s bitingly funny and unexpectedly touching play . . . [proves] there is no date stamp on feeling stranded between regrets and hopes, between fancy dreams and the banality of existence.”
According to Outcast producer/director Eileen Tiller-Clanton, the play actually poses the question to the audience: Does life suck? “Audiences are in for a treat, says Tiller-Clanton. “Life might suck, but we’re all in it together, and everyone will come away from this show feeling at least a little better.”
About the story: “Uncle Vanya” is named after one of literature’s great whiners, a character who not only doesn’t get what he wants but has to suffer the indignity of watching other people enjoy what they don’t deserve. In Posner’s take on the play, Vanya (Todd Allen), has been slaving away for years on his family’s estate. He lives with his niece Sonia (Lexie Carey), who’s desperately in love with Dr. Aster (Matt Grove), an idealistic doctor with a drinking problem, who’s been hanging around more than usual lately because of the bewitching presence of the Professor’s wife, Ella (Valerie Abel). The Professor (Thom Capozzella), who is also Sonia’s father, is a selfish and pompous prig who hates Vanya as much as Vanya hates him. He and Ella have come to stay for a few days, upsetting the staid routine of the household, which also includes Babs (Barbara Pratt), a friend of Sonia’s dead mother, and Pickles (Leslie Reilly), a daffy relation with the kindest heart.
“Life Sucks” will be presented at The Other Side, 2011 Genesee Street in Utica, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30pm, with two matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12 at 2:30pm. Seating is limited; ticket buyers are encouraged to buy tickets online at the reduced price of $14 at www.eventbrite.com/e/life-sucks-tickets-1623794766859?aff=oddtdcreator. Any remaining seats will be made available at the door for $20.
Outcast International was founded in Munich, Germany in 1995 and since 2009 has presented unique plays and musicals in Central New York, some of which were presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, as well as in Stuttgart, Germany. With their sights set on the 2026 Fringe in Dublin, Ireland, the Outcasts’ presentation of “Life Sucks” is part of the those fundraising efforts.

Platform Plebs: Sharing Power
2025-10-15 19:30 - 20:00
Carl A. Rubino Hamilton at The Other Side series

Platform Plebs: Sharing Power, a talk by Ashley Gorham, Assistant Professor of Government

Traditionally, online platforms, especially social media, have not been seen as political spaces. Yet as contemporary events attest, many social media platforms are distinctly political, featuring content and making policies of broad, public, and common concern. Given this reality, we should investigate how such spaces are governed and how they should be governed in the future. Drawing on Machiavellian political thought, Prof. Gorham offers a model for a more democratic form of platform governance.

Free and Open to the Public

Wednesday, October 15, 2025
7:30 p.m.

The Cheese Man
2025-10-18 08:00 - 17:00
Sign up for our mailing list to get the list of what Cheese Man will be bringing as well as any other announcements!

The Peoples' Classroom
2025-10-21 18:00 - 19:30
Check out our instagram for this months topic!

Art Gallery Work Day
2025-10-23 14:00 - 22:00

Charles Pillow - Jazz at The Other Side
2025-10-24 19:30 - 21:00
Saxophone and Woodwinds
Mr. Pillow’s resume includes performances with: Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Jay Z, Luther Vandross, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Joe Henderson.
Featuring:
Dave Solazzo – piano
Lou Smaldone – bass
Tom Killian – drums
Mike Dubaniewicz – sax

Tickets are $20 or $10 for students.
To reserve call 315-735-4825 or email kodomenico@verizon.net

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
FlavoredLayers – sponsor for 2025-2026 headliners – https://www.flavoredlayers.com/
Bank of Utica
Green Onion Pub
and Three Anonymous Donors

Public Outreach Meeting with the Mayor and City Officials
2025-10-27 18:00 - 19:30
Please join Mayor Michael Galime to learn about and share input on the City’s New York Forward application for the Uptown District. Mayor Galime will give a brief overview of the program and attendees will be invited to give feedback on the current state of the neighborhood and proposed projects. City staff will be on-hand to answer any questions about the application process and timeline.

Big and Glassy Book Club
2025-10-28 18:30 - 20:00

Scary Blues
2025-10-30 19:30 - 21:30
Featuring:
Tom Townsley, Morris Tarbell, Sean Peters, Jake Lozo, and Lenny Milano.
$20 or $15 for students with ID
Sponsored by The Green Onion Pub

Art Gallery Install Day
2025-11-02 07:00 - 21:00

Herbal Study Group
2025-11-05 18:00 - 19:30
Masks not necessary.

Drawn In Glass - Gallery Opening
2025-11-07 17:00 - 19:00
Tina Betz – Glass Sculptures
November 7 to November 29
Opening Reception: Friday November 7 –5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 29 — 1pm
Gallery Hours:
Thursdays and Saturdays 12-2pm

Drawn In Glass - Gallery Hours (click for all dates)
2025-11-08 12:00 - 14:00
Tina Betz – Glass Sculptures
November 7 to November 29
Opening Reception: Friday November 7 –5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 29 — 1pm
Gallery Hours are Thursdays and Saturdays 12-2pm:
Saturday, November 8
Thursday, November 13
Saturday, November 15
Thursday, November 20
Saturday, November 22
Saturday, November 29

Private Event - Q Center
2025-11-09 08:00 - 20:00

Release Reading for Alphabet Noise by Tom Townsley
2025-11-13 19:00 - 20:30
“Exuberant, amphibian and phantasmagoric!”
The sixth full length collection of poems from Thomas Townsley is an imaginative tour de force. “Do you seek le mot au jus?” “Don’t read too much into the falling apple blossoms.” “They say a man who breaks forms is often broken by them.” “The instructions were never quite right never quite clear…” “(The narrator raises an eyebrow and offers the reader a spoon.)” “But enough mimesis.” The poems in Alphabet Noise push language to a breaking point, beyond which it is possible to glimpse…what exactly? “The radio hisses.” “The reader is reminded that ‘some slippage is inevitable.’”
Praise for Alphabet Noise:
Alphabet Noise is an immersive experience, a croquembouche of crunchy predicates and polysemous jouissance. A wang dang doodle. A dynamo of “mad sleeping alphabets” galvanized by the noise of construction. Sparks flying. The blinding light of a welder creating a chassis of vocable transport. This is the noise of the poet as maker, the poet as innovator and explorer. The language is exuberant, amphibian and phantasmagoric. Intellect is endowed with puckish autonomy, a verbal acrobatics and jubilant excess which functions as an antidote against the toxins of those who would try to control and undermine the true merit of words, which is yet to be fully realized. This is the factory. This is the place where things get made. Hyper-objects. Philosophies. Le paradoxe de Mallarmé. “In the lit Palace of Nothing there are only voices.”
-John Olson
Author of numerous books of poetry and prose poetry and recipient of The Stranger’s 2004 Literature Genius Award. His seventh novel, Unfinished World, is forthcoming from Quale Press
Open to the public
Donations welcome. Books will be available for sale.
This reading will be live streamed on YouTube @theothersideutica.
Order the book here:
https://doublymad.org/Alphabet-Noise

Ron Wilkins - Jazz at The Other Side
2025-11-15 19:30 - 22:00
Ron Wilkins – Trombonist and Singer

Featuring:
Bill Dobbins – piano
Peter Chwazik – bass
Mike Melito – drums
Mike Dubaniewicz – sax
Tickets are $20 or $10 for students with student ID
To reserve, call 315-735-4825 or email kodomenico@verizon.net
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
FlavoredLayers – sponsor for 2025-2026 headliners – https://www.flavoredlayers.com/
Bank of Utica
Green Onion Pub
and Three Anonymous Donors

New York City based musician Ron Wilkins has been performing on tenor and bass trombones, euphonium, tuba, bass trumpet and vocals for over forty years. He has performed at the highest levels touring around the world with his own groups as well as premiere artists. Ron is a member of the Birdland Big Band, Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, and runs his own New York City big band alongside trombonist Rebecca Patterson which features their writing and includes some of New York City’s premiere musicians.
Ron has performed with many top-tier artists and musicians, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Dizzy Gilespie, Johnny Mathis, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Eddie Daniels, Randy Brecker, Wycliffe Gordon, The Count Basie Orchestra, Mingus Big Band, The 8-bit Big Band, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Jimmy Heath Big Band, Arturo O’ Farrill and his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band and Afro-Cuban Band, Chris Potter Big Band, Ed Palermo Big Band, Affinity Brass Quintet, Uptown Brass Quintet, Livio Almeida Brazilian Dectet, Memo Acevedo’s Building Bridges Band, San Antonio Brass, Capitol of Texas Brass Quintet, San Antonio Symphony and Festival Orchestra, Austin Symphony and Austin Pops, Mid-Texas Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Temple Symphony, and the Flint Symphony where he was twice guest artist for their summer pops concert series in summer 2003.
He also has extensive Broadway experience and most recently was bass trombonist on the Broadway revival of Gypsy starring 6X Tony Award winning actress Audra McDonald. Ron was also trombonist for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl ( starring Lea Michele ), and subbing on the Broadway shows Wicked, Motown, Shuffle Along, Frozen, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. He has also played with The Big Apple Circus, Ringling Brothers, and numerous touring Broadway shows including West Side Story, The Lion King, Showboat, The Producers, Kinky Boots, Book Of Mormon, and others.
He was a featured artist at the 2025 American Trombone Workshop in Ft. Meyer, VA, performing the world premiere on The Roncerto ( written for bass trombone, voice, piano, and concert band ) by Ethan Gurwitz ( https://www.ethangurwitz.com ). In 2018, Ron performed at the Bass Trombone Open in Rotterdam, NL, and in 2002 was a guest artist at the International Trombone Festival held at the University of North Texas.
Ron also has an extensive background as an educator. He has performed as a guest artist at from the elementary to university levels, jazz festivals, and has maintained his own private studio for decades. He has held positions at several colleges including the University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Incarnate Ward, Texas State University, Texas Lutheran University, Northwest Vista College, St. Mary’s University, teaching low brass, jazz studies, and vocals.
Ron has four cds as a leader, including the The Roncerto ( 2024 ), Trombocalist (2021), A Tribute To The Masters (2000), and The Bundee Brothers Bone Band”(2005) with former Ringling Brothers lead trombonist, Bill Gibson. Ron currently maintains his own private teaching studio and remains a sought after clinician. He is a veteran of the USAF Band of the West at Lackland AFB in San Antonio.
Ron is an S. E. Shires trombone artist and plays Greg Black Mouthpieces.

The People's Classroom
2025-11-17 18:00 - 19:30
THE US CIVIL WAR & THE FAILURES OF RECONSTRUCTION: The Peoples’ Classroom returns to The Other Side in Utica with an critical presentation on the US Civil War and the ramifications for the failures of the Reconstruction Era with a keen focus on the all important connections to today. We will take a deep look into the root causes of the Civil War, the reasons why Reconstruction failed and an analysis of the monumental impacts of that failure which reverberate in our nation today. It is a presentation that is designed to help you better grapple with the present by more deeply understanding the past. And as always, we will be examining everything through the lens of the working class and oppressed people’s perspective. It’s one you do not want to miss.

Free to Attend – Donations Welcome!

Medicine Hunters - Hamilton at The Other Side
2025-11-19 19:30 - 21:00
Dr. Francisco Hernandez was the physician sent by Spain in 1570 to lead the first explicitly scientific expedition. Following his trail in Mexico this summer, Prof. Cooley uncovered how Indigenous knowledge and European ambition collided in the search for cures. In a preview of her upcoming book, she will tell us this story of drug discovery as a tale of wonder, extraction, and possibility. This lecture invites you to see the early Americas as a living laboratory where the dream of universal remedies was born.
with Mackenzie Cooley – Associate Professor of History Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Hamilton College
Free and Open to the Public — Donations Welcome!

Cheese Man
2025-11-22 08:00 - 17:00

Drawn In Glass - Artist Talk
2025-11-29 13:00 - 15:00

Legacy - Betty Murtagh - Opening Reception
2025-12-05 17:00 - 19:00
Legacy – Betty Murtagh
Paintings / Serigraphs

Opening Reception: Friday, December 5 from 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 27 at 1pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Saturdays from 12-2pm

Legacy - Betty Murtagh - Gallery Hours (click for all upcoming dates)
2025-12-06 12:00 - 14:00
Legacy – Betty Murtagh
Paintings / Serigraphs

Opening Reception: Friday, December 5 from 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 27 at 1pm
Gallery Hours are Thursdays and Saturdays from 12-2pm:
Saturday, December 6
Thursday, December 11
Saturday, December 13
Thursday, December 18
Saturday, December 20
Saturday, December 27

Imperialism and Us - A presentation of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
2025-12-12 18:00 - 20:00
An opportunity to hear from the Socialist Perspective, this program is presented by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a group familiar to people who have attended Gianni Notaro’s popular Peoples’ Classrooms.
PSL, based in the U.S., works in solidarity with working class and oppressed peoples around the world, and is dedicated to re-organizing society upon principles of collective well-being, equality, and cooperation.
From the PSL: Join us for a discussion about imperialism, what it is, why Americans know so little about it, and why our working-class movements cannot afford to either ignore or tolerate the imperialist orientation of the US ruling class. Imperialism is a project that takes at least half of our nation’s GDP and funnels it back into the projects of the wealthiest fraction of Americans – projects that invariably result in wars that working class people and our families fight and die in, and which depend upon our labor for their funding.

Dance In The Dirthouse - Patrick Lawler Book Release Reading
2025-12-18 19:30 - 21:00
Patrick Lawler is the author of Conversations With Extinct Animals (University of Alabama Press, 2025), The Exhalation Therapist/Breathe a Wor(l)d (Tiger Bark Press, 2022) as well as six other books of poetry and fiction.
“Lawler has been one of CNY’s most acclaimed poets for nearly four decades…His poetry blends autobiography and social commentary with philosophical and theoretical concepts in innovative ways, yet his work remains
accessible and often downright funny. Over the years, it has become common knowledge that no poet should dare to follow a Patrick Lawler reading, and now we in Utica have an opportunity to see why! This will be a premier poetry event—DON’T MISS IT!”
~ Thomas Townsley
Open to the Public!
Donations Welcome
Books available for sale

This reading will be live streamed on YouTube @ TheOtherSideUtica

A Joyful Jazz-ful Holiday Concert
2025-12-19 19:30 - 22:00
Featuring:
Alexandra Dubaniewicz – vocals
Dan Pugh – piano
Darryl Pugh – bass
Jimmy Johns – drums
Mike Dubaniewicz – sax

Tickets are $20 for students or $10 for students with student ID
To reserve call 315-735-4825 or email kodomenico@verizon.net

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
FlavoredLayers – sponsor for 2025-2026 headliners – https://www.flavoredlayers.com/
Bank of Utica
Green Onion Pub
and Three Anonymous Donors

Legacy - Betty Murtagh - Artist Talk
2025-12-27 13:00 - 14:30

Cool Yule '25 with Jerry Dee and the DoveTones
2025-12-27 19:30 - 21:30
