Zócalo Public Square
@zocalopublicsquare.bsky.social
We combine public programs and journalism to examine essential questions in a broad-minded and accessible spirit. A unit of ASU Media Enterprise.
Zócalo publishes new poetry every Friday. Read our latest: "Grieving Dolly Parton On My Mother’s Birthday" by Dustin Brookshire. zps.la/4z3fJ5i
Grieving Dolly Parton On My Mother’s Birthday by Dustin Brookshire | Poetry
I put off the call all morning. / I put off the call until the evening / after learning of Dolly’s death. / I put off everything on my to-do list, / crawl into bed and spend the afternoon / alternatin...
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17th-century European families were just like ours—cutting off disagreeable in-laws, escaping overbearing relatives overseas, and struggling to make ends meet after the dissolution of a marriage. Historian Katie Barclay on the long history of family estrangement: zps.la/4z4w3CN
How Did People Go ‘No-Contact’ in the 1700s? | Essay
Family Estrangement Has Been Complicated for Centuries
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Using paper cutouts, collage, and colored pencil, Gigi Martinez captures the texture and character of the natural world. Check out the artwork: zps.la/4rod43H
Artist Gigi Martinez's Sketchbook | Zócalo Public Square
Gigi Martinez Is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer From Los Angeles. Her Playful Work Draws on Bold Shapes, Color, and a Love of Storytelling
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As AI threatens to wipe out humanity, @californiajoe.bsky.social suggests we drop our crippling anxiety about the future and live for the present. Californians, welcome to the Doomsday Plan. zps.la/4hISNCx
My 2030 Doomsday Plan for California | Connecting California
The AI End Times Are Coming. What If We Governed the State Like There Was No Tomorrow?
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English professor Andrew Black is more excited than ever to teach The Odyssey after Nolan's blockbuster—and get the chance to introduce his students to the more bizarre version that unfolds over hundreds of pages: zps.la/4AziJYD
I’m More Excited Than Ever to Teach The Odyssey | Essay
My Students Saw Nolan’s Blockbuster. Now I Want to Introduce Them to the Darker, Weirder Poem That Inspired It
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Ten years since the opening of the "Blacksonian," the museum hasn't changed—but just about everything else has. What is the role of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today, and moving forward? zps.la/4jiQ5Vs
What Is the Blacksonian’s Role Now? | Essay
Ten Years Ago, the Smithsonian Opened a Museum Dedicated to Black History and Culture—In What Felt Like a Different Country
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For her Sketchbook, Gigi Martinez brings us pink cougars, blue quails, and more euphorically-colored L.A. creatures. zps.la/4rod43H
Artist Gigi Martinez's Sketchbook | Zócalo Public Square
Gigi Martinez Is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer From Los Angeles. Her Playful Work Draws on Bold Shapes, Color, and a Love of Storytelling
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For Zócalo's series marking California's 175th year of statehood, scholar Louis S. Warren writes about the history of the California Dream, a mid-20th-century invention that still resonates today. zps.la/3T83qFG
The California Dream Has Always Warned of Its Own Demise | Essay
Born 100 Years After the State, This Ideal Is a Profound Questioning of What Makes the American Good Life, and How to Share It
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Historian @kevin-waite.bsky.social takes stock of Biddy Mason's legacy as DTLA's Pershing Square is renamed for the "founding mother of Black Los Angeles." zps.la/4rzWmyt
The Mother of Black Los Angeles Finally Gets Her Due | Essay
Biddy Mason’s Story Is the Story of a City's Transformation—And of a Remarkable Woman Whose Legacy Largely Disappeared
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"A Brittle Flower Sliding Into Cold Water" by Dalton Day is our latest poem, selected by September poetry curator Leslie McIntosh. zps.la/4ysIHLF
A Brittle Flower Sliding Into Cold Water by Dalton Day | Poetry
A letter arrived saying I was needed. It said to come to the far side of the river at once. I wasted no time. I collected the few things I would require and opened the door, where another letter was w...
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Can a politician be too accomplished? The question isn’t a riddle, or a set up for a joke. It’s the conundrum that California faces as Gavin Newsom departs the governorship. Read the latest from @californiajoe.bsky.social: zps.la/4yCTAdJ
What Will Gavin Newsom’s Gubernatorial Legacy Be? | Connecting California
As the ‘Great Gavini’ Readies His Disappearing Act, Our Columnist Takes Stock of All the Rabbits He Pulled From His Hat
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A magnificent, 250-year-old empire is crumbling. A rising state swoops in, conquers the old empire, and builds a new world order. Where and when does this upheaval take place—and why is it fascinating Chinese internet users? zps.la/4gLVuD0
On the Chinese Internet, We’re Living in 1644 | Essay
Ruguanism Theorizes That the U.S. Will Fall as the Ming Dynasty Did
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"Empire needs myths about who belongs, what counts as a civilization, which wars are necessary, and whose suffering can be tolerated," writes Zócalo editor @talibali.bsky.social. "Like empires, books have ideologies; they insist on something." zps.la/4xjhmKO
How Writers Redefined the War on Terror | Essay
Post-9/11 Novels and Poems Counter the Myths and Language of American Empire
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For our new series "What Is the New World Order?," Zócalo asked Saving Utopia author Joe P. L. Davidson to consider the ways utopian writers can inspire alternative futures. zps.la/4xeoCYw
A Utopian World Order Is Possible | Essay
With a Mix of Satire, Passion, and Imagination, Fiction Shapes the Future of Humanity
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There may be no greater democratic platform than waste management for boosting community problem-solving, deliberation, civic technology, and engagement between regular people and their governments, writes @californiajoe.bsky.social. zps.la/4gGR0fq
Dumpster Diving Is Democracy’s Future | Democracy Local
When We Dispose of Our Own Trash, We Learn How to Govern Ourselves
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Two students died in a shooting at Brown University last year. Their legacy is a critical reminder of what diversity, in its truest form, can contribute to U.S. university life, argues @danielagerson.bsky.social. zps.la/4ygaSNE
America Has Lost the Plot on Diversity | Essay
True Cross-Cultural Connections Take Place on Campuses Where People From Around the World Come to Grow and Learn
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Social media is the youth's digital public square, columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social says, and banning young people from convening online is just another way to silence their voices. zps.la/3UtAXKF
% Ban Adults from Social Media—Or Let Kids Vote | Connecting California
Grown-Ups Are Making a Mess Online and in Office. The Solution Is to Give Power to the Young
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It took nearly 30 years after seeing her first zine for writer Rachel Burstein to realize the handmade pubs could help her express things she needed to say, and build her own "beloved community." zps.la/4xZpZuI
For Trying Times, Try Making Zines | Essay | Zócalo Public Square
Inauguration Day 2025 coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. My husband and I spoke in hushed tones and exchanged gallows humor about the former. We held a party in the park near our Bay Area home...
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South Central is considered a food desert—where residents have little access to affordable, fresh, nutritious food. Anthropologist Hanna Garth spent years in South Central studying the fight for food justice. Here's where it went wrong: zps.la/4zKsy5S
Where the Food Justice Movement Went Wrong | Essay
Community Gardens and Fresh Fruits and Veggies Are Great. But Places Like South Central Need Systemic Change
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ICYMI: We're on Substack! Every few days, our editors will highlight an essay, program, poem, or illustration from our recent work that really resonated. Subscribe: zocalopublicsquare.substack.com
Zócalo Public Square | Substack
Connecting people to ideas and to each other. Click to read Zócalo Public Square, a Substack publication.
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The California coast takes over the column of @californiajoe.bsky.social this week to share why, amid “bullying by Trump and the federal fascists,” it’s “bedrock.” www.zocalopublicsquare.org/i-wont-be-bu...
I Won’t Be Bullied by Rock Stars or Fascists | Connecting California | Zócalo Public Square
Hold on a sec—let me just pull this marine layer back over Santa Monica ... OK, cool. What was I saying? I forget. Fog brain. Happens when you’ve been
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Who maintains a pantheon of heroes past the age of 12? Poet @derekmong.bsky.social, for one. "I find heroes essential to surviving this particular nadir in American life," he writes. zps.la/3Sh3anj
My Pantheon of Heroes for Powerless Times | Essay
How a Folk Singer, Poet, Civil War Vet, and Lawyer Help Me Survive American Life
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Zócalo publishes new poetry every Friday. Read our latest: "Words for an Unheard Melody" by Michael Palma. zps.la/4gc4ocA
Words for an Unheard Melody by Michael Palma | Poetry
Let’s talk no more of love / Just now, not hurt ourselves / With what we may not have. / Rather than rehearse / New styles of suffering, / Together in this place / We never thought to find / Where you...
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Romance genre historian @stegan.bsky.social writes about the summer of 1994, when, for the first time, Black Romance readers had a choice of books featuring characters who looked like them. zps.la/4g6Ckay
One Summer, Publishers Fell for Black Romances | Essay
And Black Readers Finally Found Their Love Stories on the Shelves
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U.S. #poets, prepare your poems on place—our no-fee #poetry contest opens on November 23 for the Zócalo Poetry Prize. Read the announcement and check back for complete details on submission guidelines: zps.la/pp27
The 2027 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honors Poems Exploring Place | Prizes
Accepting Submissions of Original Work November–January
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We're excited to announce that the 2027 Zócalo Book Prize is open for submissions! Click for details on the process and to learn about our past winners: zps.la/bp27
The 2027 Zócalo Book Prize Honors Explorations of Human Connection | Prizes
Since 2011, We’ve Celebrated the Author of the Year’s Best Nonfiction Book on Community and Social Cohesion
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Before Gov. @gavinnewsom.bsky.social leaves office, his administration will have closed five prisons. In 2022, Zócalo investigated the impact of these closures on local communities. Read "What Would the End of Mass Incarceration Mean for Prison Towns?" bit.ly/3FhptPM
What Would the End of Mass Incarceration Mean for Prison Towns? Inquiry | Zócalo Public Square
What Would the End of Mass Incarceration Mean for Prison Towns? A Collection of Essays and Event Explore the Topic
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Health workforce manager Vicky Bocanegra discusses the equity challenges of unpaid internships and the barriers they create for first-generation students and students from different economic backgrounds. youtube.com/shorts/IuSw2...
The Equity Challenges of Unpaid Internships
YouTube video by Zócalo Public Square
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Mexican students have long sought opportunities to study in the U.S., writes @colgate.edu's @rachelgracenewman.bsky.social. Campus crackdowns today aren't likely to change that. zps.la/4wr8wtW
Why Are Mexican Students Still Coming to the U.S.? | Essay
Despite the Risks, the Power of an American Degree Has Always Held Weight
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Zócalo publishes new poetry every Friday. Read our latest: "Her Selfie-Self" by Caitlin Doyle. zps.la/4g9Fucu
Her Selfie-Self by Caitlin Doyle | Poetry
Her selfie-self / is else and other, / not the self / she shows her mother. / Her selfie-self / is far and farther, / not the self / she shows her father. / Her selfie-self / is gone and growner, / no...
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