Young South Africans Are Sick of the Status Quo

This Election Season, No One Is Fighting for Our Future—Mandela’s Party Included

This year we celebrate the milestone of 30 years as a democratic state and the seventh general election in which all South Africans regardless of race are allowed to vote.

Our history is long, bloody, and racist. South Africa’s apartheid system lasted nearly half a century, from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was a system that suppressed Black South Africans and where the minority white population controlled political decisions, the economy, and society. The majority of the South African population faced systematic discrimination in all facets of life, including housing, …

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Bildungsroman

Yvanna Vien Tica Wins a 2024 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize four …

What Do Indian Women Want from This Election?

They’re Voting in Historic Numbers. But It Might Not Make Them Happier or More Prosperous

Since April 19, the day general elections began in India, voters have queued up outside polling booths, braving a muggy, scorching heatwave. The mood appears mostly upbeat. Voters talk to …

Headshot of Tommy Vinh Bui

A Pill Bug Mutters Makeshift Myths

Tommy Vinh Bui Wins a 2024 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize four …

Fire Ants

Fatma Omar Wins a 2024 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize four …

from Decorporeal

 

After many hours on the road:
   Indiana and the Hell
is real billboard. I stopped
   in Bloomington
needing food. The sky
   so blue Yves Klein
could have painted it.
   I …