summer

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 |

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Could Your Vacation Change the World? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Could Your Vacation Change the World?

Tourism Has the Power to Shape Politics, at Home and Abroad

by Christopher Endy |

As the United States sends stockpiles of weapons to Ukraine, another transatlantic mobilization is underway. Freed from two years of COVID restrictions and testing requirements, Americans are once again traveling …

The Bridges My Father Built

A Lifelong Educator, He Left Behind Many Legacies—Including a Suspension Bridge and a Bust of JFK I Spent Years Trying to Find

by Cindy Wenig with Cari Lynn |

In the 1960s, my father’s crowning achievement was building, entirely by hand, a 60-foot steel suspension bridge over the lake at Camp Pontiac, the summer camp his family owned in …

Zócalo’s 2022 Summer Reading List Charts New Waters

From Poets to Politicians, Our Friends Suggest Intellectual Travel Companions as We Set Sail for the Season

We at the good ship Zócalo are setting sail for another summer of intellectual exploration. As always, to aid us on this important voyage, we’ve recruited an intrepid crew of …

How Textiles Became the Fabric of Summer | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How Textiles Became the Fabric of Summer

And What Rally Towels, Picnic Blankets, and Pride Flags Tell Us About Being Human

by Virginia Postrel |

Wedding dresses and bridal veils. Graduation caps and gowns. The Stars and Stripes and the rainbow Pride flag. Rally towels and baseball caps. The flags and fashions of the Olympic …


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