How History Takes on Healing Power

Discussing Reparations and Repair at Memphis’ Lorraine Motel

The Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis, just blocks away from Beale Street, the city’s historic African American commercial center, first opened as a whites-only establishment in the 1920s. But just two decades later, when it was bought and repurposed by Black business owners, it went from an institution that banned African American patrons to one that was embraced as a safe haven by those very same travelers seeking dignified lodgings in the Jim Crow South.

People like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Nat King Cole found hospitality there. So …

by Jackie Mansky | August 24, 2023

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Four panelists sitting in front of a blue backdrop that has the logos of Zócalo Public Square and The James Irvine Foundation on it. The panelists are, from left to right: Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, Janette Dill, Helda Pinzón-Perez, and Martha Valladarez.

Better Health Care Starts with Better Health Care Jobs

The Industry Needs Higher Wages, More Paid Leave, and Pathways to Advancement

by Joe Mathews | July 14, 2023

The most important healthcare workers in this country—entry-level workers who do the caregiving and provide preventive services—are often paid poverty-level wages and provided insufficient benefits and supports, said panelists at …

Where Local People Build Local Change

2023 Book Prize Winner Michelle Wilde Anderson Says Strong Communities Need New Narratives, New Networks—And Investments in the People Who Already Live There

by Sarah Rothbard | June 16, 2023

Four of the poorest, most maligned places in America have become beacons of hope—and burgeoning centers of trust, in people and local government—since going broke in the Great Recession. How …

Boxing Isn’t Only a Labor of Love—It’s Work

The Industry Will Require Collective Effort to Overcome the Challenges Champions Face in and out of the Ring

by Talib Jabbar | May 24, 2023

Boxing has big pictures (Raging Bull, Creed), big personalities (Muhammad Ali, the original G.O.A.T.), and big spectacles (pay-per-view fights adorned with flashing lights, raucous crowds, and stylized ring entrances). You …

There’s Power—and Promise—in Talking About Monuments

Doing Better By Future Generations Starts With Breaking Today’s Culture of Silence

by Jackie Mansky | May 5, 2023

“I get the feeling some people don’t want this conversation to happen,” said historian William Sturkey during last night’s public program at Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Mississippi.

The framing question …

Make Art Not War

Creative Expression Builds Consciousness—and Resistance—in Hearts and Minds

by Talib Jabbar | April 26, 2023

How do you mobilize art against war? Can artwork be co-opted by warmongers? And what, if anything, can we hope for in creating and consuming art about war?

These were some …

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