Arts + Entertainment
Home is where the heart is
If you want to feel how lucky you are, just read Brian Barth’s “Front Street (Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia)” (Astra House, 2025, 287 pages). Barth, with maternal roots in WNC going back eight generations and who is a freelance journalist who writes for National Geographic, The Nation, The New Yorker and others and who has won prestigious medals and awards, literally takes us in hand to some of the most populated homeless camps in Silicon Valley in the Bay Area of northern California, introducing us to a cast of characters, describing their personal stories, private philosophies and political activism in order to explain why the country’s current approach to homelessness has become at once cruel and ineffective.
‘Cherokee People and the American Revolution’
A first-of-its-kind exhibition centering Native voices, perspectives and creativity in response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the exhibition “Unrelenting: Cherokee People and the American Revolution” is currently being showcased at the Museum of the Cherokee People (MotCP) in Cherokee.
Unspoken Tradition rolls into Hayesville
Acclaimed Americana/bluegrass ensemble Unspoken Tradition will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 11, at the Peacock Performing Arts Center in Hayesville.
Unspoken Tradition is about new, original bluegrass. Inspired by their own influences and the roots of traditional and newgrass music, this Western North Carolina-based quintet brings a sound that is both impassioned and nostalgic, hard-driving and sincere.
Storytellers series returns to Pigeon Center
The first “Conversations with Storytellers” of the 2026 season with Chris Aluka Berry will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville.
Berry has worked in the South as an award-winning documentary photographer for more than 20 years, with his images appearing in major American and international publications.
Religious scholar to discuss new book
Dr. Bart Ehrman will discuss his newest book, “Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West” at a ticketed event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 in the Feichter Studio at Haywood Arts Repertory Theatre in Waynesville.
HCAC’s ‘Little Hands, Big Imagination’
The latest exhibit, “Little Hands, Big Imagination,” will be showcased through April 13 in the Haywood Handmade Gallery at the Haywood County Arts Council in downtown Waynesville.
Join the HCAC for a joyful exhibit of large-scale collaborative artwork created by elementary students across Haywood County. Each school contributes one piece, made with many little hands and big imaginations. All works will be auctioned off to support each school’s art program.
WCU MFA exhibition
Western Carolina University is currently hosting the Master of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition at the Fine Art Museum on campus in Cullowhee.
Experience the culmination of three years of intense creative study and exploration in this exhibition highlighting artwork from graduating MFA students in the WCU School of Art and Design.
From Watergate to Lamontgate — ‘The Accident Report’
“On the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Ronald Truluck drove the long way to work so he could smoke a celebratory joint.”
So begins Ralph Ellis’s comic novel “The Accident Report” (Black Rose Writing, 2025, 223 pages). A recent graduate of Chapel Hill, Ronald Truluck is a reporter for “The Eagle,” a local paper which only reports the news of the fictional Millerton, North Carolina.
More strands for the tapestry
“Attention must be paid.”
Linda Loman, wife of Willy Loman, delivers that well-known line in Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman.” Willy is crash-diving into catastrophe, suffering from exhaustion, failure and delusions, and Linda wants her sons to step up and pity and support their father: “He put his whole life into you and you’ve turned your back on him.” she tells them, “So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.”
