Why Shouldn’t Phillis Wheatley’s Poems Show Up at an NFL Game?

At Last Night’s Event—”Can a Football Stadium Be a Black History Museum?”—Panelists Argued to Democratize Culture

On the rarified second level of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, amid premium owner suites and premium beer sales, there’s an Angela Davis quote plastered on a wall.

“Our histories never unfold in isolation,” reads the excerpt from the scholar and activist’s 2015 book, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle. “We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.”

The quote is part of a temporary exhibition by the Kinsey Collection, one …

by Jackie Mansky | March 29, 2024

More In: The Takeaway

The App Economy Is the Past—And Not Necessarily the Future

“‘What Is a Good Job Now?’ In Gig Work” Shows How Algorithms Have Transformed Freelancing, and What Comes Next

by Talib Jabbar | March 14, 2024

In a week when a federal labor rule went into effect making it easier for app-based gig workers to be classified as employees (with significant pushback), and a month after …

One Nation … Under Parliament?

The Zócalo and Los Angeles Times Event ‘Would Parliamentary America Have More Fun?’ Considers a U.S. Governed by Multi-Party Coalitions

by Jackie Mansky | February 26, 2024

“Convince me,” Los Angeles Times columnist Erika D. Smith told Maxwell L. Stearns, the author of the forthcoming book Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken …

Life After Incarceration Starts in Community

“‘What Is a Good Job Now?’ For the Formerly Incarcerated” Reveals the Hard, Long Work of Building Careers for People Reentering Society

by Talib Jabbar | January 26, 2024

What is a good job now?

That has been the guiding question for Zócalo’s ongoing series investigating low-wage work across sectors in California—supported by The James Irvine Foundation. Thus far, we’ve …

Hearing America in Matches, Police Whistles, and Percussion | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Hearing America in Matchsticks, Police Whistles, and Clanking Coins

‘How Do We Hear America?’ Concludes Zócalo’s 2023 Public Programs Season on a High Note

by Jackie Mansky | December 15, 2023

“American Ledger no. 1” sounds different each time.

That’s by design, MacArthur fellow Raven Chacon told Zócalo before a performance of his ambitious sound and visual retelling of the nation was …

Art Can Create Connection in Contentious Times

The “Arts in Times of Crises” Conference Considered How Artists and Cultural Leaders Can Break Through Our Polarizing Moment

by Jackie Mansky | November 30, 2023

Leading voices in the arts from around the world convened in Los Angeles recently to take part in “Arts in Times of Crises,” a two-day conference on the role of …