By Christine Sloan Stoddard

Here's a video I was recently asked to make for Authority Magazine—and my "things" don't just apply to mural-making!

By The Editors

Oh, we know that gloomy winter days are ahead, so what better time than to snuggle up and listen to new plays and stories? There are plenty of podcasts, radio play series, and audiobooks out there, but we thought we'd recommend a new audio theater experience with a Quail Bell connection (keep reading to find out exactly what that is.) We caught up with India Stachyra, founder of Soundscape Theater in New York City, to find out more about this mastermind, wrangler, and storyteller, as well as as the roster of plays she's bringing to ears everywhere. Here's our Q&A with her:

By The Editors

There's nothing like a live performance, as we're woefully aware of during the COVID-19 pandemic. But The Quail Bell Crew did get a brief taste of the olden days at the Long Island Theatre Collective's Fall Fest. This outdoor, socially distanced Sept. 25-26 event featured small casts and enforced limited entry to a parking lot in Bethpage, New York. Our founder Christine Sloan Stoddard and long-time contributor Ben Nardolilli (most recently the writer/narrator of the Quail Bell Productions film Drunken History) appeared in a one-act play at the festival. That play was Meagan J. Meehan's "A Soul to Squeeze," a comedy about an angel and devil fighting for the soul of a gluttonous festival-goer. Stoddard played the Angel, Donna Morales (who you might recognize from Quail Bell Production's "Cyber Cinderella") played the Devil, and Nardolilli played the Soul. And we have photographic evidence that this play did indeed take place:

By Alex Carrigan

​Pandemic literature before COVID-19 seems almost quaint nowadays. To imagine society falling apart due to some virus, usually traced back to an animal of some kind, seems easier to accept after how 2020 has turned out. Of course, this isn't to decry any pandemic literature before this year, but to make it interesting to study in hindsight. What do we know now about global pandemics that we only thought were fiction before, and how have the last several decades of research and study shaped our culture and media are all matters we've considered now that we've seen a pandemic of this scale play out.

By Red Sagalow

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg #RBG (March 15, 1933-September 18, 2020)

Rest well. Thank you for all you have done. 

By Alex Carrigan

 Carlos Alazraqui has probably one of the most colorful careers in entertainment. Over the last few decades, he has played everything from a fast food mascot to a spider monkey at summer camp to a wallaby trying to make it in his 20's. If you can think of an animated series or movie, Alazraqui has likely lent his unique voice style to the work, having appeared in hundreds of projects over the last thirty years or so.

By Alex Carrigan

​There are many roles women are expected to fulfill in their lives, whether it's being a good wife, a loving mother, a hard worker, etc. But what's really upsetting is how much of it comes from relinquishing control over their role to others. Whether it's having to listen to older women for advice on marital roles, or putting faith in doctors in regards to bodily autonomy, it's shocking how much women must fit into a box, but also how much responsibility they are left to bear if they fail to live up to expectations.

By The Editors

With New York City slowly re-opening, we're pleased to see the Queens Botanical Garden welcoming masked up visitors for the first time since the COVID-19 shutdown. QBG will be re-opening Tuesday, July 21st, with limited operating hours and social distancing guidelines in place. But this isn't the garden's only good news! This season also brings six new art installations curated by AnkhLave Arts Alliance, a non-profit arts platform for marginalized creators. (One just so happens to be our founder Christine Sloan Stoddard.)

​We asked AnkhLave founder/executive Dario Mohr–previously featured as an artist here on Quail Bell—to tell us a bit about his organization, its Annual Garden Project, and what it has in store for Queens Botanical Garden guests this summer. Here's what he had to say:

By Susann Cokal

Author's Introductory Note: ​The reason to write and read historical fiction is, I think, primarily to experience a story that couldn’t have been told at the time, one for which the historical record may be spotty. Such a story requires both research and leaps of imagination and emotion. 
 
My portrayal of J. Marion Sims comes directly from his autobiography, The Story of My Life, which can be read in its entirety online. In what follows, I’ve italicized passages taken directly from Sims’s book or from newspaper accounts. The lone exception is the paragraph that defines fistulae, which I’ve cobbled together from his descriptions. 

By Gretchen Gales

The anonymous street artist Banksy took his artistic skills and coronavirus commentary to a London Underground train, only to have it erased hours later.