50 Artists For 50 Years

By Amanda Magnus,

Published May 11, 2018 at 12:28 PM EDT

composite image of artist honorees and the words '50 for 50'

To celebrate the , the state agency decided to profile 50 artists with North Carolina roots. The project is called 鈥�,鈥� and it includes artists from bestselling-author to poet and musician .

Host Frank Stasio talks to North Carolina Arts Council Executive Director about the project. also joins the conversation. She is the director and an instructor at the in Cary. She was in the 50 for 50 project. Bala talks about the South Indian dance form and how it transmits religious stories and culture to her students and the greater Indian diaspora.

bala leads a group of students in a dance studio — Asha Bala dancing with her students.

Bala is also a recipient of a . Bala will be performing at the 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award , at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh.

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Amanda Magnus

Amanda Magnus is the executive producer of Embodied, a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships and health. She has also worked on other 瓜神app shows including Tested and CREEP.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's 瓜神app Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio