New at Zócalo

  • Connecting California

    Come Home, Kamala

    The Vice Presidency, Under Biden, Is a Lose-Lose Proposition. And the California Governorship Is About to Be Open

    by Joe Mathews |

    Come back, Kamala. Come back.

    Back to California, where you might have a future.

    Away from Washington, D.C., where they will never give you a fair shake.

    You’re politically trapped. You’re the unpopular …

  • Essay

    A Black Neighborhood, Upended by a Highway, Looks to Reconnect

    Communities of Color in St. Paul, and Across the Country, Are Making Efforts to Remember and Rebuild

    by Ryan Reft |

    How do you remember—and reconnect—a neighborhood destroyed by highway construction over a half-century ago?

    Since 1983, this has been the mission of Saint Paul, Minnesota’s annual Rondo Days festival. “[You see] …

  • Essay

    Interstate 10 Is More Than a Road

    Its Recent Closure Reminds Us of How We Need to Rethink Our Transportation, and Ourselves

    by Wellington Reiter |

    Funny thing about the world we have created and the structures we build—they are only really seen for what they are when in states of abandonment. Our built environment reveals …

  • The Takeaway

    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 |

    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 …

  • Essay

    In Gaza, Storytelling and Silence

    A Mentor Stays Glued to WhatsApp, Awaiting Word from Young Writers

    by Sarah Jacobus |

    Mustafa was one of the first young writers I mentored through We Are Not Numbers (WANN), a youth-led program based in Gaza that tells the stories behind the numbers in …