April Bennett, Jaze Uries and Brennan Dugan take to the sea; the Historic Montford Garden Tour returns; and more area arts news.

April Bennett, Jaze Uries and Brennan Dugan take to the sea; the Historic Montford Garden Tour returns; and more area arts news.
Instead of a packed house, musician April Bennett and local hip-hop band Lyric played to a nearly empty space at the Orange Peel for the May 15 livestream of Downtown After 5. “It was definitely weird playing in one of the biggest rooms in the city with no people in it except for the staff who were recording it,” she remarks with a laugh. “But I was really glad for that [opportunity]. It was definitely a much-needed morale boost during these crazy, crazy times.”
The local funk/soul/hip-hop band plays Highland Brewing Co. on Jan. 5.
That initial version of April B. & The Cool “started as a project for my senior seminar and just stuck,” says frontwoman April Bennett. The group has been going strong, albeit with a level of fluidity in its structure, since 2015.