Searching for My Mom, and the History of La Puente’s ‘Little Watts’

Greenberry, Where She Taught for Decades, Helped Forge Today’s Multi-Racial San Gabriel Valley

I lost my mom to COVID in February 2021. She died alone, after spending 10 excruciating days in the hospital. A year after her death, a white envelope with no return address arrived in my Pomona College mailbox. Inside was a photo of my mom from the early 1970s.

In the photo, she is standing between two corridors of Sparks Middle School’s brick campus in La Puente, where she taught until she retired in 2008. She smiles gently, with her arms by her side. Her hair is long and straight, and …

In L.A., Driving the Road to Black Empowerment

For Families Like Mine, Cars Were an Engine of Social and Economic Mobility

This essay published alongside next week’s Zócalo and Destination Crenshaw event, “Is Car Culture the Ultimate Act of Community in Crenshaw?” Click here to watch …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Artist Maurice Harris

‘I Am Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing’

Maurice Harris is a Los Angeles-based artist and founder of the floral design studio Bloom & Plume, and of a coffee shop with the same name. Before joining the panel …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Poet aja monet

The Energy You Bring to a Word Can Heal or Harm

aja monet is a Surrealist Blues poet. Her 2023 debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do, was nominated for the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album Grammy. Before …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Agent and Former NFL Player Jacques McClendon

There’s Nothing Like ‘Rocky Top’

Jacques McClendon is an agent with WME Sports and represents coaches and executives across professional and collegiate football. He previously spent seven years as an NFL player, and was most …

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 …