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 Rebel Tipton

Not to point out the obvious, but the world has gone to shit. If your mental health during the coronavirus outbreak feels like the equivalent of thirty landfills, you're not alone. The CDC reports that bizarre sleep patterns, heightened anxiety and depression, chronic illness flare-ups, and changes in eating habits are all totally normal reactions to living in the middle of a pandemic. Just in case you still don't believe me, here's why feeling like shit right now is totally okay.

By The Nude Abstract

A poem, an anthem, a way of life.

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. 

By The Editors

Everyone in New York City saw Spring 2020 get "canceled" and this summer is turning out to be unlike any other, thanks to COVID-19. But are we doomed to a year without stoop culture? No, we can still get a (safe) taste of it, thanks to savvy artists and community organizers like Kendra Ross and her creative posse.

​Kendra is the founder of STooPS, an annual arts event and workshop series in Brooklyn's vibrant Bed-Stuy. The emphasis on local, accessible art and civic responsibility among different racial and cultural groups in this historically Black neighborhood always makes STooPS a beautiful summer highlight.  

​We asked Kendra a couple of questions about how STooPS will unite Bed-Stuy's neighbors in a socially distanced fashion on July 18th. Here's what she told us over email:

By The Editors

We had a very safe, socially distanced email interview with poet Beth Gordon, managing editor of Feral to learn more about this new art and literary journal. Issue 1 came out on April 1st—yes, during a pandemic!–and poetry submissions just closed for Issue 3 (art submissions remain open). Here's what Beth has to say about this wild darling:
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How would you encapsulate what Feral is? ​

Feral is an online and print journal of poetry and art. Our mission is to publish emotionally engaging and well-crafted work from an eclectic group of poets and artists at all stages of their artistic journeys.

By Ghia Vitale

​Hologender is a popular meme page that’s famous for serving up leftist messages, an inclusive attitude, and vibrant imagery. Memes don’t get much danker than this! Check out this exclusive interview to learn more about Cat, the creator of Hologender as well as one of its admins.

By The Editors

A few of the contributors to Her Plumage, Quail Bell's anthology of women's writings, got together to read some work from the book on Zoom. Tune in! P.S. This video is best watched from your desktop, but if you're on a mobile device, click on the Vimeo title to get redirected to the mobile view.

​Like what you heard? Then get your copy of the anthology.

By Pippa Abernathy

Editor's Note: This piece contains spoilers for Kindred ​and mentions topics such as abuse, slavery, and other potentially triggering topics. 

After an unacceptably long time, I finally had a chance to read Octavia Butler's Kindred. ​It was a telling narrative of the ways women, particularly Black women, are expected to support a white man without question. It also highlights the way that familial bonds are used to manipulate and further abuse those who are victims of it. 

Though I am not Black, Butler's work finally helped me realize I couldn't help my own Rufus Weylin: my ex-boyfriend.