Skip to main content
Donate

BOOM Magazine

Boom: A Journal of California is a new, cross-disciplinary publication that explores the history, culture, arts, politics, and society of California. Published quarterly by University of California Press, this magazine-format, highly visual journal features scholars, independent writers, and community and civic activists engaging the most pressing issues of the day.

Boom embrace answers in unusual formats, including photos, essays, documents, artwork, first-person accounts, and engaged scholarly essays.

Partner-Main-boom
Support Provided By

Featured

boom_4.jpg
There It Is. Take It: 100 Years of the Los Angeles Aqueduct
William Mulholland gave L.A. water and a motto to live by. David Ulin ruminates on the lifeblood of California.
McCollister_6.jpg
Walking East of West L.A.: The Photography of Kevin McCollister
Photographer Kevin McCollister captures the beauty of L.A.'s lonelier, hidden contours.
Photo: Alex Schmidt.
The Aesthetics of Ikea-fying Los Angeles
Neighborhood change is incremental until it isn't. In a city as diffuse as Los Angeles, it can be hard to spot, unless you know the signposts to look for.
"Pay Me No Mind" by Fabian Debora, 2010, acrylic/canvas. | Courtesy of the artist.
From Gangs to Art: The Salvation of Fabian Debora
Fabian Debora paints like many latter-day Chicano artists, employing visual irony to address wider themes only tangentially related to traditional barrio concerns.
aquadettes
Honey Pies and Aquadettes: Stories That Stretch Forever
Filmmakers Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari are creating haunting portraits of California residents in a series of web videos called "California Is a Place."
Purifoy.jpg
Assembly Required: The Transformative Art of Noah Purifoy
Noah Purifoy spent the final years of his life in Joshua Tree making Junk Art
Contested Spaces: The Glendale Narrows
The Glendale Narrows, the three mile soft bottom stretch of the L.A. River, is subject to conflicting agendas from river advocates, private enterprise, and government agencies.
The Last Gun of Tiburcio Vasquez
Georgia Jeffries tells the story behind a family heirloom: a handsome weapon that was once in the possession of Tiburcio Vasquez, an infamous California bandito.
Contested Ground: Razabilly Boogie and the Latino Rockabilly Scene
A brief history of rockabilly in Los Angeles, a full-fledged regional phenomenon with thousands of aficionados ranging from casual observers to diehard fanatics -- and many are Latinos.
Iraqi Jewish Angeleno Folk Songs
Regine Basha examines the role of dissonance in Iraqi Jewish folk songs and its validation of her otherness in a culture where she is often misunderstood.
First Graders.
Stages of Learning: Theater and Language in San Diego Schools
Elementary schools in "the Southeast" area of San Diego have implemented innovative arts integration programs that have begun to energize schools in neighborhoods that were once left behind.
Active loading indicator