Hot Girl Summer Is a Utopian Notion

We’ll Never Reach Its Coconut-Scented Siren Call, But That Shouldn’t Stop Us From Trying

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Here in Southern California, the Santa Ana winds are blowing, summoning us back to school, back to our routines, back to our lives.

The potential that once hung so heady in the sun-warmed solstice air is no more.

Just another year waiting on Hot Girl Summer.

Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion popularized the phrase “hot girl summer” before COVID, releasing a 2019 song of the same name that became her first No. 1 hit. Of its meaning, she told the Root, “It’s about women and men being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass …

by Jackie Mansky | September 9, 2022

Beyoncé’s Dance Floor Liberation

From the Golden Age of House to ‘Break My Soul,’ Black Divas Continue to Lift Us Up in Hard Times

by H. Zahra Caldwell | July 28, 2022

I can very clearly remember in 1993 the first time I heard Robin S.’s “Show Me Love.” I felt moved.

It wasn’t just me. The infectious groove and Black gospel diva …

Why Americans Love a Dance Challenge

From the Early 20th-Century Grizzly Bear to Lizzo’s Latest, Social Dancing Has Always Been Silly and Subversive

by Jackie Mansky | July 8, 2022

In what already feels like a different year—but was really just a few weeks ago—Reese Witherspoon, Selena Gomez, and just about every single person on the internet was posting a …

tktk | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Elvis Is an American Tragedy. Elvis Is Just Tragic

The Singer's Story Has a Lot to Say About This ‘Pitiful Country’—But Baz Luhrmann's Biopic Ain’t Nothin’ But a Dog

by Jackie Mansky | June 24, 2022

There’s much to be said about Elvis Presley, the quote-unquote King of Rock ‘n’ Roll who shook the country as a white kid singing Black America’s music.

But despite its nearly …

Nobuko Miyamoto and the 120,000 Stories of Japanese America

Melding Art, Culture, and Politics, the Feminist Troubadour Helps a New Generation Reimagine Itself

by Ana Iwataki | May 26, 2022

Since the 1970s, Japanese Americans have observed the Day of Remembrance on February 19, the anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 that authorized the forced removal …

The Immigrants Who Composed L.A.

In the Herald Examiner’s Historic Lobby, the Modern and the Classic Blended Sound and Style

by Talib Jabbar | April 29, 2022

There was no better space—the grand entryway into a bygone era of downtown Los Angeles—to convene last night’s event “How Immigrants Composed L.A.”

The special musical presentation in the historic lobby …

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