a&e
by Alli Marshall
amarshall@mountainx.com
Brave art
idfest: “I’ve always wondered about the way an artist feels a connection with the audience,” says Stephanie Morgan of stephaniesid. “It’s really helpful for me to have people there.” Photo by Michael Oppenheim
Stephaniesid engages the creative community with id Weekly Not that the world isn’t full of people — and not just former Disney stars, at that — doing outlandish things on very public platforms, but when it comes to the creative process, privacy is often heavily protected. Maybe it comes from a fear of having material stolen (or, worse, being laughed at). But, says Stephanie Morgan of local pop-noir band stephaniesid, “You don’t hide stuff anymore. You have to make an effort to not be public nowadays.” Plus, she adds, “It’s more fun to create in community.” Enter id Weekly, a series of shows that takes cues from the increas-
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aPRiL 30 - maY 6 , 2014
mountainx.com
ingly popular musicians residency (Asheville Music Hall has hosted a number of them) and a broader-visioned writers workshop. Set in the upstairs lounge of Isis Restaurant & Music Hall during May, id Weekly will include two sets of music from stephaniesid split by a segment called “night of bravery” in which members of the audience can take the stage for up to five minutes. “Do you have something that you know that if you do it, it will move your life forward, but you’re scared to do it?” asks Morgan. That’s a prerequisite for those four-per-week bravery slots. She experienced something similar a couple of years ago in a songwriters group called Naked Babies. “For the first time, my songwriting was more social,”