A Life That Led to Secrets
Irondequoit writer launches new book, ‘Secret Rochester: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure’
By Mike Costanza
Journalist, author and essayist Robin Flanigan has lived a very full life.
The 56-year-old has covered beats for three newspapers, including Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle, written stories and essays that have appeared in national publications, penned four books and co-written a fifth.
Her latest book, “Secret Rochester: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure,” presents colorful, detailed stories about the people and places that have made this city so interesting.
“There’s so much under our noses that we pass by all the time,” she said. “We have no idea of what happened there or the story behind it.”
Flanigan has always been curious about the people, places and things around her. She began noting them in her journals as a young child living in Sedona, Arizona.
“I write to understand the world,” the Irondequoit resident said. “There’s a pull for me to document what happens in my life.”
Flanigan’s path to a career in journalism started in a graveyard — literally.
After she graduated from college, Flanigan and her then-boyfriend lived rent-free for a time in the house of the caretaker of an East Baltimore cemetery. They opened and closed the cemetery’s gates to earn their board. She hosted poetry readings in the chapel while her boyfriend, the lead guitarist in a rock band, operated a recording studio in the basement.
“It used to be a former morgue, so we called his recording studio ‘The Morgue,’” she said.
Many people visited the couple back then and there was a great deal of partying. When Flanigan wanted to avoid the scene, she headed upstairs to a little office and wrote on her Apple computer.
Her path to a career in journalism began when she answered an ad to babysit for a woman who turned out to be a copy editor at the Baltimore Sun. That path eventually took her to reporting jobs at Maryland and North Carolina newspapers before delivering her to the Democrat and Chronicle in 1999.
Flanigan’s work as a journalist has earned numerous tributes, including the New York Newspaper Publishers Association Distinguished Community Service Award of Excellence and the Democrat and Chronicle Quarterly Newsroom Award, which she received for feature writing.
After covering local, state and national news for the Democrat and Chronicle for more than six years, Flanigan struck out on her own as a freelance journalist and editor. Over the years her stories and personal profiles have appeared in a number of publications, including People magazine, US Airways Magazine, Education Week and 55-PLUS. Her essays have appeared in the literary magazines The Sun, Motherwell and Talking Writing, as well as in two anthologies.
Some of Flanigan’s most interesting pieces have drawn upon her ability to note and present the minute details of a story. “Friendship Ends in Tragedy,” a two-part story in the Democrat and Chronicle, described the terrible effects of a fatal accident with a bow and arrow in a way that seemed to put the reader on the ground with the two families involved. In “To the Summit and Beyond,” which appeared in the now-defunct magazine Her Rochester, she presented the physical hardships of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and the thoughts and feelings she experienced during the climb.
Flanigan ascended the highest mountain in Africa in 2008 with her then-husband, Patrick, who had previously been treated for cancer. They made the arduous trek with more than 40 other climbers who’d come together to raise money for cancer research. The thin air left her nauseated and almost completely unable to sleep and she collapsed on the trail, but she made it to the summit with Patrick’s help. It was a learning experience.
“I had really bad altitude sickness and I still made it,” Flanigan said. “I’m stronger than I thought I was.”
The experience also taught her that she had people in her life who wanted her to succeed. Altogether, the climbers raised about $200,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Another of Flanigan’s works described a trip through her personal history. She started working on the essay after looking through the journals she’d stored in her attic.
“I was about to turn 55 and I thought ‘Who am I at 55?’” she said.
To answer that question, she interviewed people with whom she’d once had romantic relationships, former bosses, colleagues, friends and family members. The quest took her to different states and even to Paris.
“I asked everyone the same nine questions about me,” she said.
The questions ranged from “What is your earliest memory of me?” to “Have I impacted, influenced or challenged your life in any way?” The result of her quest, “In My 50s, I Wasn’t Sure Who I Was — So I Asked,” appeared in AARP The Magazine in January.
“Secret Rochester” is the result of another kind of journey.
“There’s 84 entries in the book and for each of those I was an investigative journalist,” Flanigan said. “I searched through archives and interviewed people and sometimes interviewed the children of people involved.”
Turn the pages of “Secret Rochester” and you’ll learn of the Puerto Rican hotel maid who secured the right to vote for her people, how a book by the legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted influenced Malcom X and even about the invention of the cut-out bicycle seat.
“I went through a lot of effort to make sure that every time someone reads an entry they’re thinking ‘I didn’t know that,’” she said.
Flanigan marked the release of her latest book on Sept. 30 with a book signing at Brighton’s Bop Shop Records. Now that the work has been published, she plans to focus more upon her freelance work, travel a bit and try to drum up interest in turning her recent AARP essay into a book.
Fans of Flanigan’s work might also read her other books: “100 Things to Do in Rochester Before You Die,” “M is for Mindful” and the coffee-table book “Rochester: High Performance for 175 Years.”
They could also peruse “Climbing Out: An Adventure in Rediscovering Life and Loss,” which she co-authored. To learn more about her and her work go to: www.thekineticpen.com.
“Secret Rochester” and her other books are available on amazon.com and local bookstores.
Friends Offer Praise for Robin Flanigan
When Sue Lautenslager met Robin Flanigan 16 years ago in a fiction writing class at Rochester’s Writers & Books, the two had just returned from adventures. Lautenslager had just tramped more than 800 miles on the Camino de Santiago, a historic network of pilgrimage routes that cross Europe and converge in northwest Spain. Flanigan had recently ascended Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, to raise money for cancer research.
“We bonded over our epic adventures and also the fact that we were both in this class,” Lautenslager said.
The two began regularly meeting together to write and developed a friendship. Flanigan’s curiosity, interest in people and willingness to ask questions makes even routine activities enjoyable.
“We go into a bakery and the next thing we know, we’re actually behind the counter talking with the baker and getting a recipe,” she said. “She’s that kind of person.”
In Lautenslager’s view, those qualities, coupled with Flanigan’s skills as a journalist, made her the perfect person to write “Secret Rochester: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure.”
“She researches, she meets people, she goes out and does things and she discovers things along the way,” the 69-year-old Mendon resident said.
Lara Liu remembers how it felt to be a reporter working in the newsroom of the Democrat and Chronicle more than 20 years ago.
“There’s something special about the newsroom culture that just draws like-minded people and you know, people who are passionate about storytelling together,” the Brighton resident said.
That culture helped draw Liu and Robin Flanigan, who was also a reporter for the paper, together in a friendship that has continued to this day.
“We have similar values, similar outlook on life, and we’re very passionate about language and storytelling,” Liu said. “She’s a very kind-hearted person. It’s not hard to be friends with Robin.”
Flanigan is also the kind of friend who will help out when the need arises. When the Sept. 11 attacks occurred just a few days before Liu’s 2001 wedding, many of the guests, who were journalists, were unable to attend and a bridesmaid decided to drop out.
“She was going to pursue a story instead of coming to the wedding, even though she could have come,” Liu said.
Flanigan stepped in at the 11th hour, got a dress and took the bridesmaid’s place.
“Not only did she just step in to try to fill some shoes, but she was just as excited about my wedding as I was,” Liu said.