Zócalo Public Square

Live from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA: Artist and Bloom & Plume founder Maurice Harris, sports agent and former NFL player Jacques McClendon, and poet aja monet visit Zócalo and Kinsey Collection at SoFi Stadium to discuss what one of the world’s largest private collections of Black art and historical objects is doing at one of the world’s grandest football stadiums, why it matters, and where similar efforts are scoring big. This discussion is moderated by Khalil Kinsey, curator of the Kinsey African American Art & History Collection.

Live from the New Parkway Theater in Oakland, CA: Gig worker and advocate Sergio Avedian, Gigs founder and CEO Allen Narcisse, and the Workers Lab chief research officer Shelly Steward visit Zócalo to help us understand how we might make gig work good work. This is the fifth event in Zócalo's series “What Is a Good Job Now?,” co-presented with the James Irvine Foundation. This discussion is moderated by CalMatters reporter Levi Sumagaysay. Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events.

Maxwell L. Stearns, constitutional law professor and author of the new book Parliamentary America, visits Zócalo to outline a three-part plan to turn the United States into a multi-party parliamentary democracy that could make our politics less maddening, more collaborative—and perhaps even more fun. What are the legal, constitutional, and political steps needed to modernize American democracy and reignite civic zeal and joy? And how different might the U.S. look if governed by a parliament of multi-party coalitions? This program is co-presented by the Los Angeles Times, and is moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist Erika D. Smith. This program is part of Zócalo’s inquiry, “Can Democracy Survive This Election Year?,” an editorial and event series about voters’ experiences around the world in 2024, the biggest election year in history.

What are the best ideas and models for finding good jobs for the formerly incarcerated? How can we improve the low pay and challenging working conditions in those industries that are most likely to employ people who have been in the system? And what policies and economic changes would open more possible career paths and economic opportunities for this population? Amity Foundation president and CEO Doug Bond, Root & Rebound executive director Carmen Garcia, and Anti-Recidivism Coalition executive director Sam Lewis visit Zócalo to discuss how to build better career pathways for formerly incarcerated people. This is the fourth program in Zócalo's series “What Is a Good Job Now?” supported by the James Irvine Foundation, and was presented on January 24, 2024. Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Follow Zócalo on X: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalop

Artists across disciplines have harnessed generative AI as mind-extenders, expanding the possibilities of their work, and unleashing new ways to see the world. But as bots get more adept at human-like thought, writers, actors, and others protest in lawsuits and on picket lines, asking: What’s left for artists? Should tech companies be allowed to use existing art to train AI engines? Who gets credit—and paid—for AI-assisted creative work? What do we lose when machine brains take over aspects of our creativity, once a defining feature of humanity? And, tantalizingly, what do we gain? LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab program director Joel Ferree, Concept Art Association co-founder Nicole Hendrix, Writers Guild of America AI working group member John Lopez, and interdisciplinary artist Sarah Rosalena join Zócalo, Arts for LA, the ASU Narrative and Emerging Media program, and LACMA to discuss whether AI heralds the end of humans making art to make sense of the world, or a new key to being and seeing. Moderated by Anu

How are institutional leaders navigating the warring tides of politics and public opinion—tides that may steer them toward uncertain futures? Can organizations help artists, patrons, and the public find common ground, or productive ways to discuss their differences, in this moment of deep democratic and cultural conflict? And, even as they themselves struggle to stay afloat, how do arts institutions serve as spaces of civic engagement, community, and inclusion? MOCA director Johanna Burton, Center Theatre Group artistic director Snehal Desai, former Oregon Shakespeare Festival executive artistic director Nataki Garrett, and Whitney Museum director emeritus Adam D. Weinberg discuss how the culture wars have impacted their work, and where they see institutions, and the arts at large, going next. Moderated by Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. This program was co-presented with the Thomas Mann House and Los Angeles Review of Books as part of “Arts in Times of Cri

Can artists shield themselves from the demands of politics and polarized discourse or—in places and periods where activism puts their life and liberty at risk—from bodily danger? Does all their work, in a moment of crisis, have to address that crisis? And how can they know when that moment has come? Two women artists—social-practice artist Suzanne Lacy and photographer Catherine Opie—discuss the role they see themselves, their work, and their peers playing in sustaining, enhancing, or even strengthening democracy when it feels like everything is going up in flames. Moderated by Karen Mack, Founder and Executive Director of LA Commons. This program was co-presented with the Thomas Mann House and Los Angeles Review of Books as part of “Arts in Times of Crises: The Role of Artists in Weakened Democracies,” on November 18, 2023. Follow Zócalo: X: twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (Xochimilco), L.A. LGBT Center communications officer and former editor-in-chief of Out magazine Phillip Picardi, and “On Being” founder, executive producer, and host Krista Tippett visit Zócalo to discuss how society might draw strength and coax vision from the shortcomings and failures of its collective past, moderated by University of Pennsylvania historian and author of Hattiesburg, William Sturkey. Featuring a special live performance by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arktet. This is the final program in Zócalo's series, “How Should Societies Remember Their Sins?,” supported by The Mellon Foundation. Find all essays and previous programs in the series here: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/feature/societies-sins-mellon/ Follow Zócalo: X: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

The state of California has some of the nation’s strongest legal protections for workers. But Californians continue to suffer from various forms of abuse by their employers—from unpaid overtime to dangerous working conditions; from wage theft to racial, ethnic, gender discrimination. What are the biggest challenges for agencies and communities as they seek to turn pro-labor legislation into better workplace realities? To what extent do our systems—from the courts to workers’ compensation to federal and state labor enforcement—create obstacles to realizing California’s promises to workers? And what steps could state and local governments, and workers themselves, take to make jobs safe from discrimination and abuse? California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, warehouse worker Sara Fee, and California Labor Commissioner Assistant Chief Daniel Yu talk with Zócalo on the Capitol steps in Sacramento to discuss how to make jobs more fair for workers. Introductory comments by Don Howard, President & CEO of The Jame

Early this year, an uncrewed Chinese-operated high-altitude balloon floated across U.S. airspace, stoking anxiety and fascination among Americans, who assumed it was spying on them, and ultimately provoking President Biden to order the Pentagon to shoot it down. Just as alarming as foreign espionage, though, is the fear of information-gathering turned inward. American anxieties around the “surveillance state” have only grown since the Watergate scandal; with the post-9/11 passage of the USA PATRIOT Act; and with revelations that federal agencies sift through ordinary Americans’ phone and email communications, financial information, and Internet usage. Add in the rise of artificial intelligence, and our addictions to smartphones and sharing personal data, and pressing questions arise: Is Big Brother watching, and do we like it? What is the role of surveillance in our democracy, and to what ends do government and business use it? Does being watched keep us safe, or are we being snookered into becoming our own u

We know cooking best as an act of nourishment, love, and tradition—but it can also cut as sharply as the knives that chop an onion. In Sinaloa, Mexico, a group of relatives of desaparecidos (the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared from the country), have banded together to fight back against government indifference and complicity. Dubbed Las Rastreadoras del Fuerte, the members’ main method of resistance is to search for the bodies of those they love. But they have also brought their battle to the kitchen, where they cook missing family members’ favorite dishes, preserving their memories and reminding the world of the void their absences create. What makes feeding people an act of protest? How do the families of the disappeared continue to find communion, hope, and joy at the table? And where else can cooking be a potent weapon in the face of a fight that feels never-ending? An exhibition based on Recetario para la memoria, a cookbook that collects recipes and remembrances from these families in

Benjamin W. Rawlins Professor of Communication Andre E. Johnson, Monument Lab co-founder and artist Ken Lum, and reparations leader Robin Rue Simmons join Zócalo and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis to discuss what repair looks like, and how different people and places have stumbled and succeeded in its pursuit. This program was co-presented with the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN and is the third program in Zócalo's series "How Should Societies Remember Their Sins?" supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Public health professor Helda Pinzón-Perez, health care workforce researcher Janette Dill, and in-home supportive services provider Martha Valladarez visited Zócalo to discuss how to build a healthier health care workforce. This discussion was moderated by KVPR News Director Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado at The Fresno Center in Fresno, CA on Thursday, August 23. This is the second program in the "What Is a Good Job Now?" series, presented in partnership with The James Irvine Foundation.

Boxing is a sport of contradictions. Known as the “sweet science” because of the technical skills its fighters need to succeed, it is also incredibly brutal. Boxing has provided a creative outlet and a path out of poverty for generations of California strivers, forging cultural and individual identity, promoting dignity, pride, and agency, and delivering million-dollar paydays for some. But the sport has also destroyed some of its most talented practitioners, seemingly abandoning them to post-career bankruptcies and grievous injury. What accounts for boxing’s disconnects? Boxers themselves, who take epic risks with few safety nets? Promoters, agents, and managers who forget clients once they’re past their prime? The industry’s structure and sanctioning bodies, that allow abuse and neglect? California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster, former middleweight champ Sergio “the Latin Snake” Mora, and Kali “KO” Mequinonoag Reis, professional boxer and actress, visit Zócalo for a panel discuss

Beyond debates over keeping statues up or tearing them down and changing the names of schools and streets lie more fundamental questions at the intersection of personal and public memory. We know how to honor and memorialize idealized heroes; we know less about remembering complicated, real people, who did extraordinary things—let alone how to remember historical figures who changed the world for the better but also contributed to systems of oppression. And we struggle to lift up the people and places that don’t appear in history books, or fit in with the bigger narratives of our shared past. How do we decide whom we remember and how? What do we owe those who lived before us, and those who will come after us? How can we expand our definition of monuments to include not just physical, public works, but other types of remembering? Civil rights historian Daphne Chamberlain, visual and performance artist Richard Lou, and Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, visit Zócalo to di

There is a long and global tradition of artists—visual, performing, and literary—creating arresting, even beautiful works that address the horrors of war. How is art used as a form of protest, to change minds as well as hearts? What happens to its meaning over time—as war persists, and as new battles erupt? And what does it say about us all that war has inspired acclaimed works from artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso, Pussy Riot, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? In 1932, amid Hitler’s rise to power, the German choreographer Kurt Jooss created The Green Table, a ballet subtitled A Dance of Death in Eight Scenes. As the Paul Taylor Dance Company brings this work to The Music Center—as part of its Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center series—join us for a panel discussion, moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Can such art help us now, in a moment of many international crises? And how do warmongers and politicians co-opt and commission art as propaganda? Panelists included Gel

Live from The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture at the Riverside Art Museum: One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman, hospitality expert Lesley Butler, and restaurant worker Ralph Prado IV visited Zócalo to discuss the future of tourism and hospitality work in the Inland Empire and throughout California. This event was presented in partnership with The James Irvine Foundation and moderated by freelance journalist Elizabeth Aguilera. Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Follow along on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Recorded live from ASU California Center at the historic Herald Examiner Building: Artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, and essayists and novelists Laila Lalami and Pankaj Mishra visited Zócalo to discuss why the English-speaking world can’t seem to fully absorb one of the central events of the recent past, and what it all means for our collective future. This event was presented in partnership with UCI Forum for the Academy and the Public and moderated by international relations expert Kal Raustiala. Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Follow along on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

The headlines that make breaking news in the art world most often concern a piece’s financial worth, which nearly always means how much a private collector paid for it. But for most of us, the value of art has very little to do with a dollar amount. Rather, art provides an avenue to a diverse range of critical discussions, evokes a feeling or a memory, helps us process deep emotions, or calls us to action—and the stronger the response, the higher the value. Where do these economic and non-monetary forms of value meet? How can art world movers and shakers—artists, curators, museum professionals, and nonprofits—continue to leverage the money and attention around blue chip artists into support for social change and community building? And what larger, deeper questions posed by art does our obsession with skyrocketing price tags obscure? The week before the international art fair Frieze Los Angeles descends upon Southern California, contemporary artist and activist Andrea Bowers; artist, cultural organizer, and

Live from ASU California Center at the historic Herald Examiner Building. Tech entrepreneur Nonny de la Peña, author Charlton McIlwain, and internet activist Ethan Zuckerman joined Zócalo and Future Tense to ponder human decision-making’s impact on the digital world–and the ways that code, in turn, has impacted humanity. This event was hosted on January 31, 2023 and was moderated by Torie Bosch, editor of "You Are Not Expected to Understand This” Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events. Follow along on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square