'Life & Beth' and 'Sort Of' - Two New Series Bravely Lose The Labels
J Brooke, Incluvie Guest Columnist on 'Life and Beth' and 'Sort of': while living one’s truth is freedom, speaking it as a mandatory assignment can become captivity.

This animation, commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, responds to a 1743 Indian manuscript in its collection, Gulshan-i Ishq (Rose garden of love). Written in 1657-1658 by the poet Nusrati, it expresses a Sufi Islamicate tale in an Indic vernacular, with the complicated journeys of several pairs of lovers providing a metaphor for spiritual quests. Sikander's visual poem with original score takes life's struggle for truth as its point of departure. Animated from drawings, Disruption as Rapture highlights the complicated relationship between history and storytelling. The collaborative spirit of this work's production is reflected in its many elements, including South Asian manuscript painting, motion graphics, Hindu and Muslim lyrical poetry, Western opera, orchestral music, Indian ragas, and Gregorian chants.
J Brooke, Incluvie Guest Columnist on 'Life and Beth' and 'Sort of': while living one’s truth is freedom, speaking it as a mandatory assignment can become captivity.
“And I think to myself….what a wonderful world”. Louis Armstrong sang about this notion via his classic 1967 song, an ode to witnessing elements of our life that should be but some reminders of exactly what that concluding line of each verse indicates. Now we see our contemporary realities and, just being honest, it makes a sentiment like this seem SO overtly far away….perhaps even impossible….to accept or believe could be. It sounds harsh, but again, so much of what is occurring speaks not to beauty, but bedlam.
Ricky Staub’s Concrete Cowboy, based on Greg Neri’s novel "Ghetto Cowboy", tells the story of a young teenager forced to adapt to a new lifestyle.
'Hawkeye' episode five features Clint facing his sins, Kate having dinner with an assassin, and the reveal of the long-awaited [SPOILER].
'Do Revenge' offers a 2022-relevant sociopolitical commentary that decries virtue signaling while promoting the inclusive virtues the nefarious power structures exploit.