There Are No Experts in Fiction
Fiction can render elaborate worldviews that move readers, but it is not a technology for empathy. Since the 2010s, a decade…
Can We Criticize Experts and Keep Taking Their Advice?
Expertise has long been said to be in crisis. Now its opponents seem to be winning. In the U.S., experts are…
Making Plays, Puppets, and Props With the People of Boyle Heights
The first and only time my mother saw me perform was as Barnaby Tucker in The Matchmaker at San Jose Repertory…
Letter from 2027: How America’s Kids Took Down Trump
The Antichrist Is Evil, But at Least He’s No Tech Bro
The 2026 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honors Poems Evoking Place
Since 2012, the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize has recognized the U.S. writer of a poem that best evokes a connection to…
November Poetry Curator Anthony Madrid
Anthony Madrid is the author of three books, Canarium: I Am Your Slave Now Do What I Say, Try Never, and Whatever’s Forbidden the Wise.…
Can Comedia Help Us Understand California’s Past?
Where Does Deportation Come From?
recent experiences
California 175
On September 9, 1850, California was hastily admitted into the Union—just two years after the U.S. seized the former Mexican province in war.…
What Can Become Of Us?
The year-long series activates four regions of the United States and highlights newly commissioned works of art—visual, textile, and dance—to inspire a national conversation through public programs and essays, and to work toward a better…
Los Angeles’ Literary Public Square
Literature—the reading it, the writing it—has a reputation of being a solitary endeavor, best conducted in dark, chilly garrets. But the Los Angeles sun has a way of burning off…
