Kayaking with so many orioles and other warblers this morning in one of my favorite places in the world, the backwaters of Lake Roland on the Jones Falls in Baltimore.
What are the walls we live with?
The ones we build without even noticing
Not just at borders, but in our homes, our routines, our media… even in the way we move through each day.
This question will be explored with Johns Hopkins anthropologist Anand Pandian, winner of the 2026 Zócalo Book Prize for Something Between Us, in conversation with Mike Madrid.
It’s a night to name what divides us… and imagine what we could build instead.
And then the practice begins.
After the conversation, you’ll step into a Jar-style reception: a Salon experience where the “walls between us” come down in real time, through guided connection.
To close the night, you’ll experience a live reading from 2026 Zócalo Poetry Prize winner Deborah Ager, plus book sales + signings with Octavia’s Bookshelf.
🎟️ Register via link in bio
Thu Jun 25 • 7pm – 9:30pm PDT
ASU California Center Broadway
1111 S Broadway,
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Venue note: Clear bags only (max 12” x 6” x 12”) or small clutch (max 8.5” x 5.5”).
Accessibility: wheelchair lift available at the Broadway entrance.
#TheJar #ZócaloPublicSquare #ArizonaStateUniversity #LAEvents #CommunityBuilding
Baltimore folks! Please join us this Friday evening for the opening of CONFLUENCE: REIMAGINING BALTIMORE'S WATERWAYS at the Area 405 gallery in Baltimore (405 E. Oliver St). The exhibition opens May 8th and runs through Jun 12th. More details at the link below and in my bio.
CONFLUENCE brings together contemporary artists, local university students, and community voices to explore the past, present, and future of Baltimore’s waterways. The exhibition is part of the broader Jones Falls 2076 project, a year-long initiative imagining the future of the Jones Falls river through art, design, and public engagement, led by MICA designer Lee Davis, public artist Bruce Willen (creator of Ghost Rivers), and Johns Hopkins anthropologist Anand Pandian.
Jones Falls 2076 is a public imagination campaign to envision alternative futures for this river at the heart of Baltimore and ways of reframing our connection to the watershed. CONFLUENCE will showcase the work of leading environmental artists in the region, the creative work of students at Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University, and the imaginative outcomes of the series of River Reimagining Workshops that we've held this spring with environmental advocates, civic leaders, designers, and engaged Baltimore residents.
Visitors to the gallery will have the chance to add their own river visions to the exhibit. Private tours can also be arranged, do reach out if interested. Please join us and help shape this ongoing conversation on the future of our waterways. Hope to see you there!
/confluence-reimagining-baltimores-waterways
Some years ago, I had to acknowledge that I hardly knew this country where I was born and where I’ve spent most of my life. I wanted to try and understand the impasses that we remain caught in as a country, as well as what it would take to work beyond inherited histories of violence and indifference.
This profession that I’ve fallen into, anthropology, is one that allows us to explore those questions through personal experience, conversation, and storytelling. I saw some very difficult things in my travels around the United States. I also had the privilege of meeting many inspiring people who are working out, in practice, what a more just and humane future could look like for this country, and all those elsewhere whose lives are intertwined with ours here.
That’s what this book is about, and I’m so very grateful to all those who shared their stories and ideas with me, and everyone who has believed in and supported this journey. There’s a reason yet for hope in these United States, and organizations like Zócalo Public Square are showing us how to navigate the path ahead.
I’m thankful for this chance to think together with them and other fellow travelers on this road, as we seek to nurture common spaces and sensibilities that nourish us all.
Folks in LA, please join us in June!
/anand-pandian-2026-zocalo-book-prize/
You’re invited to the 16th annual Zócalo Book Prize event honoring this year’s winner, anthropologist @alainthavan . Inspired by his book, “Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down,” we’ll explore the question: “America, Can We Take Down the Walls Between Us?”
The evening will feature a lecture by Pandian, who will also be interviewed by political strategist Mike Madrid, and a poetry reading by @deborah.ager , winner of this year’s Zócalo Poetry Prize.
Co-presented with @jumpinthejar , an organization that inspires people to connect across differences, a reception will follow that asks the audience to bring the event’s ideas to life and bring down the walls between us in real time.
Register to attend the free program on Thursday, June 25, at 7 PM PT in downtown Los Angeles, in person or online at the link in bio.
Zócalo’s 2026 Book and Poetry Prizes are generously sponsored by @timothy_disney .
What does freedom look like when you take relationships seriously: to the land, to your people, and the kin you find along the way. I’m so grateful for the chance to take in SURRENDUR at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, a new feature film by @lucid_decapitation . The film stages a space of intercultural imagination in the company of those who have defended the land of Turtle Island in Minneapolis and beyond, honest about the violence of inherited histories and yet surprisingly hopeful about the possibility of radical transformation. It gives you the feeling of revolutionary change: the energy, frequency, vibration. And it’s just so beautifully alive.
Baltimore folks, please join us on Tuesday 4/28 at JHU for the public launch of four terrific short films on the history of waste and pollution in south Baltimore, a university & community collaboration I’ve been grateful to work on together with Chloe Ahmann and a wonderful team of students at JHU and Cornell along with the South Baltimore Community Land Trust. Screening, panel, refreshments—all are welcome! Link below and in my bio.
/event/polluted-by-design-launch-event-for-environmental-justice-documentary-series/
I'll be talking online with the Democracy Innovation Program at Bard College and two kindred networks in Aotearoa / New Zealand, the Goodlife Collective and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Join us on Monday 4/20 at 5pm ET / Tuesday 4/21 at 9am NZDT. Link below and in my bio.
/something-between-us
It was great to join Texas Public Radio to talk about our social and political predicaments in the United States. We began on the Texas border and wound up talking about Christian ethics, humanoid teachers, dystopian fiction, and much more. Listen via the link below, or my link in bio.
/podcast/the-source/2026-03-25/from-the-border-wall-to-the-suburbs-exploring-americas-isolation
Back on the shores of the Vaigai River in Madurai, and an inspiring river cleanup event that drew hundreds this morning, organized by @madurai_manvasam
✨Thanks to @WAMU for featuring our inaugural What’s Next Series, happening tomorrow at THEARC!
Join us for a conversation on what divides us—and how we can come together. Hear from Anand Pandian on strategies for connection and collective action, enjoy a spoken word performance on hope by Life Pieces to Masterpieces, and mingle over a catered reception from @sweettoothcafeandcakes your chance to connect, reflect, and savor some treats!
RSVP for free—spots are filling up fast: bridgepark.org/whatsnext
📖 Read WAMU’s full story here: https://bit.ly/dcwamu
#DCBridgePark #DCFreeEvents #BuildingBridgesDC
