Is Anything More American Than Oklahoma! in Oklahoma?

Forget Broadway’s Reopening—The Nation’s Artistic Heartbeat Is at Its Center

If there’s a more rambunctious and promiscuous genre than musical theater, I haven’t met it yet.

Musicals are an everywhere phenomenon. They touch an enormously broad swath of American lives, unapologetically building worlds that don’t yet exist. I see this commitment to the not-yet as an aspiration for the rest of us stuck living in the here-and-now.

I recently wrote a book about musicals, and visited communities in the heartland that were using musical theater to help understand their place in this country. I watched an original musical about Samson and Delilah …

by Jake Johnson | September 13, 2021

Angelica Esquivel Wins Zócalo’s 10th Annual Poetry Prize

In ‘La Mujer,’ a Silver-Haired Believer Bridges a Generational and Cultural Gap

Interview by Kelsey Schoenberg | April 21, 2021

Each year for the past decade, the Zócalo Poetry Prize has been awarded to the U.S. poem that best evokes a connection to place.

The power of this concept to unite …

Announcing the 10th Annual Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize

Awarded Annually to the Poem that Best Evokes Connection to Place

September 4, 2020

Zócalo is delighted to announce that we are now accepting submissions for the 10th annual Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize. The deadline for entries will close on January 29, 2021.

Since …

Griffith Park, a Place of and Apart From Los Angeles

Like Its Namesake, Griffith J. Griffith, This Huge Urban Space Is a Story of Contradictions

by Casey Schreiner | May 21, 2020

Griffith Park is one of the wildest and largest urban parks in the United States. And yet it sits smack in the middle of the country’s second-largest city, a place …

Where I Go: Peñasquitos Gardens | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Where I Go: Penasquitos Gardens

Traversing the Gulf Back to a San Diego Apartment

by Oscar Villalon | May 15, 2020

I haven’t brought my wife or son to see where I mostly grew up. I keep meaning to. But even though it’s less than a mile from my father’s condo …

Jai Hamid Bashir Wins Zócalo’s Ninth Annual Poetry Prize

In ‘Little Bones,’ a Girl Considers a Utah Sunset, Intoxicated on ‘Untold Plans for Eternity’

Interview by Jackie Mansky | April 16, 2020

Since 2012, the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize has been awarded annually to the U.S. poem that best evokes a connection to place. This year, talking about “place”—a concept always …

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