As COVID numbers drop and protocols loosen, theater and concert venue policies are all over the map. Some require vaccinations and masks. Others require neither. Some are strict enforcers of whatever policies they put in place, others not so much.

In the recording studio with Lena Machina of the Asheville goth rock band Secret Shame

The word anxiety comes up often as Zander Stefani describes his life. He said he channels some of it into his abstract artwork.

A lot of artists will tell you an inner voice propels them to create. The Asheville playwright Jamie Knox says, for her, it's often a voice that isn't her own.

Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen are rehearsing with two other dancers inside a studio at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts. Everyone is masked.

John and Cinnamon Kennedy formed their first band before they knew how to play their instruments. "One day, John and our neighbor were like 'We're making a band you're going to be our drummer.'" Cinnamon said. "We started out as, like, terrible-terrible-terrible, and then we got increasingly less terrible, and by the time we were done, we were alright."

John and Cinnamon Kennedy formed their first band before they knew how to play their instruments.

John and Cinnamon Kennedy formed their first band before they knew how to play their instruments. "One day, John and our neighbor were like 'We're making a band you're going to be our drummer.'" Cinnamon said. "We started out as, like, terrible-terrible-terrible, and then we got increasingly less terrible, and by the time we were done, we were alright."

Heather Newton's mother has written nine novels for young adults. She's also the first to read and critique whatever Newton thinks is ready to go out into the world.

Evan Kafka spent this past Friday night mounting animal heads on a wall as people strolled by sipping cups of wine.