Zócalo Public Square

Is hip-hop the driving force behind Black business and economic mobility? What can we glean from its innovative strategies and enterprising spirit? And how do the creative economies hip-hop has brokered affect California’s racially diverse and rapidly changing communities?

Tara DeVeaux is a brand marketer influenced by hip-hop culture and Detavio Samuels is a media executive for youth culture storytelling. They discuss hip-hop’s impact on the economy with Robeson Taj Frazier, director of the USC Annenberg Institute for Difference and Empowerment in the Arts, during the opening night of CA FWD’s 2025 California Economic Summit.

This program was co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, ASU, and California Forward (CA FWD) in partnership with Stocktonia.

Part of Zócalo’s series "California 175 — What Connects California?"

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

04:23 - Panel: Robeson Taj Frazier, Tara DeVeaux, Detavio Frazier

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

A panel featuring Stanford IAJS faculty co-director Brian Lowery, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and Jewish cuisine expert Joan Nathan, community organizer and immigration activist Power Malu, and food studies scholar Krishnendu Ray explores how what we eat, and where it’s from, shape our sense of identity.

This program is inspired by "Speak Sing Shout: We, Too, Sing America" (2025) by Pakistani American artist Sarah K. Khan. The piece is commissioned by Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies, and will be on view at BRIC in Brooklyn from October 7 to December 23, 2025.

Visit Zócalo's Youtube channel to watch a performance by artist Sarah K. Khan: https://youtube.com/live/ztRolqNFXoQ

This is the third program in “What Can Become of Us?”, a collaboration between the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS) and Zócalo Public Square, envisioning new perspectives on migration, America’s diverse communities, and how people come together across differences.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

04:17 - Panel: Brian Lowery, Power Malu, Joan Nathan, Krishnendu Ray

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

Zócalo Public Square presents two back-to-back panels moderated by Zócalo’s California columnist Joe Mathews to ask: How exceptional do we want California to be?

The first panel features expert voices in fields shaping California’s identity: business advocate and public affairs specialist Brooke Armour Spiegel, Caltech astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin, and immigrant rights advocate Yliana Johansen-Méndez.

The second panel features youth leaders who are inheriting the state: trans rights organizer, budget advocacy and policy expert Michaé De La Cuadra, community organizer and housing justice advocate Aidan Lin-Tostado, and Tongva, Chumash, and Xicano artist and environmental advocate Isaac Michael Ybarra.

This program is presented with generous support from Latino Community Foundation, the Karsh Family Foundation, and Snap Foundation.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intros

00:03:18 - Panel 1 (Expert Voices): Brooke Armour Spiegel, Konstantin Batygin, Yliana Johansen-Méndez

00:43:02 - Panel 2 (Youth Leaders): Michaé De La Cuadra, Aidan Lin-Tostado, Isaac Michael Ybarra

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

It used to be that Spanish-language artists had to perform in English to succeed in the U.S. Today, they can sing in their native tongue and top the charts. But with increased visibility, does increased industry equity follow for Spanish-language artists? In an era of division over immigration—when so many love Latin music that crosses borders, but question Latin people who do—can music bring America together?

Activist, musician, and Chicanx-Latinx studies professor Martha Gonzalez and "La Banda Elástica" magazine founder and publisher Emilio Morales discuss how Latino music transcends borders.

This program was co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, The Skirball Cultural Center, and Grand Performances.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

04:00 - Conversation with Emilio Morales and Martha Gonzalez

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

This program is inspired by "So, I told her I was half-Indian" (2025) by Chicanx and Punjabi American weaver Kira Dominguez Hultgren. The piece, multiple looms woven together as a suspended sculpture, is commissioned by IAJS and will be on view at Zhou B Art Center from August 12 to September 12, 2025.

Artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren and guitarist and Chicago Immigrant Orchestra co-director Fareed Haque discuss the work’s larger themes, including how race plays out across generations, how public memorials help make hushed histories visible, and how new technology reveals outdated stereotypes.

Then, a panel featuring Stanford IAJS faculty co-director Brian Lowery, Yale historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner David W. Blight, historic preservation leader Bonnie McDonald, and creative consultant and fashion designer Siying Qu explores how migrant communities help stitch together our ideas of American life.

This is the second program in “What Can Become of Us?”, a collaboration between the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS) and Zócalo Public Square, envisioning new perspectives on migration, America’s diverse communities, and how people come together across differences.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

06:40 - Artist Talk: Kira Dominguez Hultgren, Fareed Haque

27:40 - Panel: Brian Lowery, David W. Blight, Bonnie McDonald, Siying Qu

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

Medusa, the “Godmother of West Coast Hip-Hop,” and reparations advocate and business manager to the stars Khansa T. Jones-Muhammad aka Friday Jones, discuss the role of women in hip-hop.

Hip-hop is a conversation across communities. But power and privilege exert control inside this industry as they do outside. It is all interconnected. Many talented female hip-hop performers have fallen prey to fear and exploitation, and continue to fight for recognition while battling abuse and stereotypes imposed by industry insiders and general audiences. Meanwhile, streaming and predatory contracts have opened the doors for new modes of financial manipulation in the fine print, impacting royalties and devaluing artistry. What do reparations for these unfair practices look like? How can women in the industry support the next generation and build pathways for their success? And how can hip-hop respond to the changing political climate?

This program was co-presented with Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles.

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events.

Follow along on X: twitter.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Jean-Martin Bauer is the author of “The New Breadline: Hunger and Hope in the Twenty-First Century” and the winner of the 2025 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize. He’ll visit Zócalo to explore the role hunger plays in our world today, and what it takes to help people come together and feed one another. This discussion is moderated by Ertharin Cousin, Food Systems for the Future CEO.

Zócalo Public Square is proud to award the 2025 Zócalo Poetry Prize to Jennifer Blackledge for her poem "Mt. Trashmore."

The 2025 Zócalo Book and Poetry Prizes are generously sponsored by Tim Disney.

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events.

Follow along on X: twitter.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

This program is inspired by "Coatlicue & Las Meninas: The Stanford Edition" (2007/2025) by Mexican American artist Pedro Lasch, commissioned by IAJS and on view at Asheville Art Museum from April 16 to July 13, 2025.

Asheville Art Museum associate curator Jessica Orzulak and artist Pedro Lasch discuss the work’s larger themes, including how mirrors encourage viewers to reflect on the movement of people, ideas, and objects across time and space. Then, a panel featuring Stanford IAJS founding faculty co-director Tomás Jiménez, philosopher and ethicist Kwame Anthony Appiah, immersive journalism and extended reality (XR) pioneer Nonny de la Peña, and immigrant integration advocate Federico Rios will discuss the ways Americans, old and new, see ourselves in each other.

This is the first program in “What Can Become of Us?”, a collaboration between the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS) and Zócalo Public Square, envisioning new perspectives on migration, America’s diverse communities, and how people come together across differences.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

04:06 - Artist Talk: Pedro Lasch, Jessica Orzulak

32:11 - Panel: Tomás Jiménez, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Nonny de la Peña,

Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

Follow Zócalo on X: https://x.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square/

America’s high-poverty cities and counties have suffered for decades, enduring skyrocketing inequality, the opioid epidemic, rising housing costs, and widespread disinvestment. Governments have offered a variety of failed solutions, from luring wealthy outsiders to slashing public services. But four communities are turning inward instead: Stockton, California; rural Josephine County, Oregon; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Detroit, Michigan. In these diverse places—all of which went broke in the wake of the Great Recession—locals are building networks and trust in one another and their institutions, to promote health, wealth, and opportunity. In Stockton, this meant designing organizations to help residents cope with trauma. In Josephine County, people convinced freedom-loving, government-averse voters to increase taxes. Lawrence is building a new model to secure living wages. Detroit is battling to stabilize low-income housing.

What did these strategies look and feel like on the ground? How can other struggling places borrow from their playbooks? And what can the rest of the country do to support towns as they try to help themselves? Stanford Law School’s Michelle Wilde Anderson, winner of the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize for The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America, visits Zócalo to talk with Alberto Retana, president and CEO of South L.A.’s Community Coalition, about how a place with the odds against it can draw on historic strengths and resilient residents to thrive.

Zócalo Public Square is proud to award the 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize to Paige Buffington for her poem "From 20 Miles Outside of Gallup, Holbrook, Winslow, Farmington, or Albuquerque."

The 2023 Zócalo Book and Poetry Prizes are generously sponsored by Tim Disney.

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events.

Follow along on X: twitter.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Live from the Arizona State University California Center Broadway in Los Angeles, CA:

As coalitions, partnerships, and allegiances shift and emerge, Zócalo and an alliance of partners convene two back-to-back panels to discuss how we might best ally to survive this moment in history.

The first panel explores how alliances are rebuilding Los Angeles in the wake of January’s fires, and features Altadena business owner Nadeerah Faquir, Center for Cultural Innovation president and CEO Angie Kim, climate action strategist Nina Knierim, and California Community Foundation president and CEO Miguel Santana, moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano.

The second panel explores state, national, and global governance as a new U.S. administration takes power, featuring American diplomat Nina Hachigian, immigrant rights advocate Angelica Salas, and global democracy expert Laura Thornton, moderated by Zócalo columnist and Democracy Local founder Joe Mathews.

This program was co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, ASU Mechanics of Democracy Lab, UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, California Humanities, Los Angeles Local News Initiative, LA2050, KCRW, and Los Angeles Times.