— by BEV QUESTAD — Where do the souls of the bodies of those enslaved, cruelly treated and slaughtered go? Is there a gentle reward for a life so savagely ended? “The Song of the Butterflies” takes us on a voyage with Rember Yahuarcani into the teeming, dark Amazon region, where he h[...]
Author Archive
Review: The Viewing Booth
— by BEV QUESTAD — When a college student, Maia, views a film clip of a boy around 6 years old apprehended by one policeman and then kicked by another, she cannot just describe this as an incident in itself. She presupposes a context, guessing about what must have happened first so that [...]
Review: Cancer; The Integrative Perspective
— by BEV QUESTAD — Just as the intelligent world was desperately waiting for a vaccination for COVID, those enduring cancer, genetic disorders and neurologic diseases also have been desperately wanting effective treatment to end their suffering. Nathan Crane thinks he may have an answer.[...]
Review: Sabaya
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Please come with me. I will help you,” patiently explains Mahmud. He is a volunteer for the Yazidi Home Center in Syria, a non-governmental retrieval station for kidnapped Yazidi women who were forced into being sex slaves called Sabaya. As Mahmud’s team quickly[...]
Review: The Hidden Life of Trees
— by BEV QUESTAD — The entire forest, both above and underground, is an entire social mesh of connection, a true worldwide web. National forests that have been protected and cared for can even be referred to as “super organisms” similar to “ant colonies.” Germany’s Peter Wohlle[...]
Review: Roadrunner
— by BEV QUESTAD — In Saigon, he chomps down on the beating heart of a live cobra, chewing it until swallowed. In Borneo, he thrusts a spear deep into a frantic Borneo pig for a village feast. Anthony Bourdain, a manic extremist, exclaims, “If I’m an advocate for anything, it[...]
Review: The God Committee
— by BEV QUESTAD — “What is God’s will? How do we interpret it? How are we to understand it and act upon it?” asks Father Dunbar (Colman Domingo) of his congregation. But he also sits on the Transplant Committee, where he became a new voting member at the behest of a top investor. [...]
Review: Mission: Hebron
— by BEV QUESTAD — Blockades are randomly set up each day causing traffic chaos, children and adults are routinely apprehended and body searched, houses are ransacked and searched in the middle of the night without a warrant and without soldiers even knowing what they are looking for. Ha[...]
Review: Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times
— by BEV QUESTAD — HH Dalai Lama hosted Archbishop Desmond Tutu at The Tibetan Children’s Village, a boarding school/orphanage in Dharamsala, North India, for children from Tibet. Each child stood up to tell the story of how he or she arrived at this school. One girl spoke of being hid[...]
Review: Hamlet/Horatio
— by BEV QUESTAD — Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (circa 1600) is the most performed of all Shakespeare’s plays but mysteries and scholarly debates swirl around it. One of the reasons is because Shakespeare’s plays do not include the action occurring on the stage, only the words. T[...]
Review: Two Gods
— by BEV QUESTAD — Hanif is out of prison and rocking to beat music as he nails and sands each coffin he constructs. More solemnly, he also washes bodies, as is Muslim culture, before they enter his simple pine boxes. Hanif’s employment is an example of how helpful the Muslim leadershi[...]
Review: Blast Beat
— by BEV QUESTAD — It seems that everyone wants to come to the United States for some sort of economic relief. In exchange they leave their homes, language, family, friends, careers, land, and all that is familiar. Is the trade-off really worth it? Writers Esteban Arango and Erick Castri[...]
Review: Los Hermanos/The Brothers
— by BEV QUESTAD — Tender playing and soul-inspired composing spear the center of your soul. Music this joyful and knowing is rare. Perhaps the product of extraordinary choices or maybe just DNA, this story of Ilmar and Aldo Gavilán is a tour de force The title music played at the end o[...]
Review: In Our Mothers’ Gardens
— by BEV QUESTAD — Presented as a chapter book, “In Our Mothers’ Gardens” is a look at the maternal history of several accomplished black women. Each woman knows her maternal history calls the name of her mother, who she was a daughter of … until she comes to the end of the t[...]