Zócalo Public Square

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has been leading the force for more than twice as long as he served in the same capacity in New York, the city where he firmly cemented his reputation as “America’s Top Cop” and put himself on the short list for high-level law-enforcement jobs around the world. Bratton’s time in L.A. has given him the chance to move beyond being a "turnaround" specialist, putting longer-term plans into place that have led to consistent and significant reductions in crime. Bratton visits Zócalo to talk about his tenure and its impact on the LAPD, the agency’s goals and challenges, and his plans for the future.

Forget superpowers. Hyperpowers are what count, dominating not just their part of the world but the entire breadth of it with their military might and cultural range. The U.S. is the seventh hyperpower in history. Yale Law School’s John Duff Jr. Professor of Law Amy Chua, author of Day of Empire, visits Zócalo to discuss the extraordinary hyperpowers of the past and the fate of the American power in the 21st century.

Not all fiction by contemporary female authors concerns itself with stiletto heels, Martini glasses, or wedding gowns. But in the last decade, material written by women--particularly white, middle-class American women--is increasingly assumed to be a lesser literary endeavor than similar projects by men. From the shocking dearth of female bylines in magazines like Harper's and The Atlantic to novels that are automatically deemed "beach reads" because they feature female characters, we seem to be in the midst of a troublingly sexist cultural moment. Are women the victims of a male-centered world of letters, or do they purposefully choose stories that lack philosophical or sociological heft? Authors Elisabeth Robinson and Laura Zigman visit Zócalo to talk with Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum about whether women could do more to close the literary gender gap.

Barack Obama is said to be the fulfillment of King's dream, the post-racial candidate perfect for helping the country transcend the divide between black and white. But Louis Chude-Sokei and Robin D.G. Kelley beg to differ in their Zócalo dialogue. Hear Chude-Sokei, author of The Last "Darky": Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora, and Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, discuss King's still unfulfilled legacy, and what Obama's election does mean for the country.

In the face of global competition and rapid technological change, the American economy will soon face its most severe test in nearly a century--one that will make the recent turmoil in the financial system look like a modest setback by comparison. Matt Miller, host of KCRW's "Left, Right & Center" and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, visited Zócalo, arguing that our leaders have failed to prepare us for what lies ahead because they cling to old truisms about how a modern economy works. Exploring themes from his new book, "The Tyranny of Dead Ideas," Miller discusses what he considers the greatest threat to our economic future: the things we think we know--but don’t.

Like nearly everyone else, those working in non-profit organizations are concerned with the bleak economic forecast: a diminished public purse, shrunken private foundation portfolios and donor wallets slapping shut. Yet in the fretting corridors outside conference centers, community rooms and local meeting halls nationwide, it’s actually possible to detect a heartening and persistent belief in the resilience of the non-profit sector. What causes some leaders, social entrepreneurs, community activists and service providers to possess such impertinent optimism and to entertain bold ideas and possibilities when the economy appears so grim? A panel of experts--the Weingart Foundation's Fred Ali, California Black Women's Health Project founder Frances E. Jemmott, United Way's Alicia Lara, L.A. Health Action's Yolanda Vera and USC's Adlai Wertman—chatted with moderator Paul Vandeventer at Zócalo to discuss what lies ahead for nonprofits and how they can survive.

The Statue of Liberty’s pedestal lays claim to "world-wide welcome," but U.S. immigration policy has, since its inception, been a muddle of conflicting attitudes towards immigrants and their place in American society. While our nation does not demand ethnic homogeneity, we are deeply divided over how newcomers should assimilate and offer little support to arrivals eager to become American. Tomás Jiménez, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, sits down with Alfonso Aguilar (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), José Luis Gutiérrez (Illinois Office for New Americans), Laureen Laglagaron (Migration Policy Institute), and Urban Planning Professor Dowell Myers (USC) to ask what government should do to bridge the gap between immigration and integration. Should we offer immigrants more help in adjusting to their new country? Or does the American dream need to be strictly self-service?

Before National Geographic, before the Discovery Channel, Carleton Watkins set the standard for sweeping panoramic photographs of the American West, from vast Yosemite to booming San Francisco. Bob Sipchen, editor of Sierra magazine, leads a panel discussion based on the groundbreaking Getty Center exhibition, "Dialogue among Giants: Carleton Watkins and the Rise of Photography in California." Panelists include Getty Research Fellow Ken Gonzales-Day, UCSD historian Nayan Shah, and Matthew Garcia from Brown University. They explore the dynamic relationship between nature, immigration, and development. How does California's physical environment attract inhabitants and how has it been re-shaped by their efforts to build communities they can call home?

Within weeks of winning the presidential election, Barack Obama has begun to assemble his administration, starting with those charged with addressing the economic crisis and national security. But he still has several key appointments to go. Three former Clinton administratoin officials -- former Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy deLeon, former Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste, and former Deputy Assistant to the President John Emerson -- join moderator Eric Garcetti at Zócalo to discuss the decisions Obama has made so far, what difficult choices await, and how his transition signals what sort of president he will be.

We can be forgiven for thinking of Dashiell Hammett as a San Francisco writer. The Maltese Falcon takes place in Northern California, where Hammett somehow transformed himself from a tubercular detective for the Pinkerton Agency into a novelist for the ages. But Hammett’s roots in Los Angeles run deep. Here, in the 30s, he worked on several pictures while under contract to the studios. Here he began his lifelong affair with Lillian Hellman. And here he returned frequently over the years to visit his beloved daughters. Zócalo and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs brought together a panel of writers, family members, and scholars to culminate L.A.’s month-long celebration of this great California novelist. Among the mysteries discussed, if not solved: Why did Hammett fall creatively silent for the last three decades of his life? Why is there no movie version of ‘The Red Harvest’? How did he influence the L.A. Noir scene? And the ultimate, unanswerable question: Hammett or Chandler?

Europe has received a wave of immigration from the global south in recent decades, similar in scope to the US—but very different in its results. Many immigrant and second-generation communities, particularly those hailing from the Muslim world, have astronomical unemployment rates and a thin connection to European identity. Some have produced riots and terrorism. If Europe has an Islam problem, whose fault is it? Is Islamic belief and culture incompatible with Western institutions? Or is there such a thing as “Islamophobia,” poisoning immigrants’ efforts to integrate on European terms? Christopher Caldwell, who writes for the Financial Times, The New York Times Magazine and The Weekly Standard, visits Zócalo to talk about themes from his upcoming book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

Since the attacks of September 11th, the United States has tried to build new border defenses to keep out terrorists without stifling the flow of people and ideas from abroad, which have always contributed to our country’s dynamism. But have these new measures cut America off from the world and discouraged the globe’s best and the brightest from coming here? Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Edward Alden visited Zócalo to assess the real effects heightened national security measures have had on both Americans and the world at large. Author of The Closing of the American Border, a book James Fallows has called “outstanding and important,” Alden chronicled the tragic stories of many innocent immigrants who have been upended by post-9/11 restrictions, and the offered a more sensible middle road for preserving American security and American ideals.

Thanks to medical advances, we now live longer, but living longer doesn’t necessarily make death any easier when it comes. Forget the good life, what in this world makes a good death? How does culture affect our choices? Palliative care offers some relief to suffering, yet it is our uncertainty about the end of life that keeps our dread alive. Experts visit Zócalo to share first-hand accounts and clinical insight: Dr. Susan Stone, the Director of Palliative Care at the Los Angeles County Medical Center; Dr. Betty Ferrell of the City of Hope National Medical Center; and moderator Dr. Michael Wilkes, Vice Dean for Medical Education at UC Davis, join us for an evening of big questions that demand courage, compassion, and a dash of wit. (This event is made possible by a generous grant from the California HealthCare Foundation.)

The Republican Party is facing extinction. Movement conservatism is intellectually exhausted, the evangelical right feels ignored if not betrayed, and younger voters have embraced the Democrats as the party of the future. How can the GOP get back in tune with the aspirations of American voters? Reihan Salam, associate editor at The Atlantic and co-author of Grand New Party: How Conservatives Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, visited Zócalo to explain how and why the Republicans must break out of their demographic box.

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in aid, most of Africa remains as desperate today as it was half a century ago. That's because much of that aid is lost to the grabbing hands of corrupt governments and destroyed through clashing warlords and civil strife. Edward Miguel, U.C. Berkeley economist and co-author of Economic Gangster: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations, visited Zócalo to explain how the twin evils of violence and corruption keep nations in poverty. He argues that before we can help poor nations, we must first understand the violent, lawless thugs who have wrought havoc throughout the developing world. And to understand these gangsters, he says, we must first get inside their heads.

The bubble has burst; the era of sunny-side up capitalism is over. Washington may resuscitate the credit market, but will U.S. politics ever be the same? Paul Krugman, author, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, and New York Times columnist, visited Zócalo to explore the impact of what he has called, "the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression" on politics, parties, and people. Will the drive for tighter regulation dissuade Ronald Reagan's faithful believers?

10/8/2008 - Gustavo Arellano, the unofficial mascot of Orange County, talks to an L.A. crowd about their southern neighbor (he was surprised anyone showed up). From its settling by the Spaniards to today's popular television shows, residents of Orange County, California have always imagined their homeland as Eden on the Coast, a respite from urbanization, where one only needed to work, vote Republican, and hate Mexicans to partake in the American Dream. But behind this bucolic veneer is a more complex picture. OC Weekly staff writer Gustavo Arellano unveils the truth behind the OC (don't call it that) by discussing his new book, Orange County: A Personal History, a history of the biggest little county in America as seen through four generations of his Mexican family.

Shamim Sarif brings her award-winning debut novel, "The World Unseen," to the screen for a sweeping tale of forbidden love in unforgiving times. Inspired by her grandmother's stories of 1950s South Africa facing the birth pangs of apartheid, Sarif introduces the fiercely free-spirited Amina who disregards the rules of her own Indian community and runs a café for apartheid's misfits, the ones who, like her, are neither simply “white” nor “black.” When she and the married, traditional Miriam find themselves powerfully attracted to each other, the possibilities for both love and tragedy are cast in the conflict that surrounds them. Distributed by Regent Releasing on November 7th, "The World Unseen" offers what the British Film Institute has called "a rare combination of intricate character study and engaging narrative" along with a compelling statement about the individual's quest for fulfillment against a backdrop of social coercion, violence, and pain.

Novelist and literature professor Philippe Claudel makes his directorial debut with the powerful yet subtle “I’ve Loved You So Long,” about secrets and the possibility of being reborn. In perhaps her most nuanced and soulful film performance to date Kristin Scott Thomas sets the tone for the story that focuses on two long estranged sisters who are trying to reestablish a relationship. Smart, intense, psychologically textured, and clearly written with a novelist’s eye, “I’ve Loved You So Long” (to be released by Sony Pictures Classics on October 24) is a story about the power of forgiveness and the universal need to reach out beyond ourselves.

The garment industry provides more than 50,000 jobs in Los Angeles County, including many that are tied to a commercial underground where safety rules don't apply, there's no minimum wage, and a labor pool of illegal immigrants keeps quiet about violations out of fear of deportation. Legitimate garment makers, meanwhile, face a disadvantage in battling underground competitors who skip workers compensation payments and other safety standards, and often shift locations suddenly in order to stay a step ahead of the state’s handful of inspectors. How big and dangerous is this floating world of the garment underground? Miguel Morales of the Garment Worker Center, a Downtown-base advocacy group, Garment Contractors Association Executive Director Joe Rodriguez and T.A. Frank, New America Foundation fellow and editor at The Washington Monthly, visit Zócalo to sort it out. (This event was sponsored, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation.)