Dance Heritage Double Bill
Malikat Al Dabke and Angie Assal
Featuring Ameer Armaly
New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is thrilled to present for its opening this year, an evening dedicated to Arab dance heritage. A double-bill featuring the only all-female Dabke group in the US, Malikat Al Dabke, sharing the stage with Lebanese American classical Raqs Sharqi artist Angie Assal, accompanied by seasoned musician Ameer Armaly. An evening dedicated to Dabke, Palestinian, Lebanese and Levantine dance and music, live at the Jalopy Theatre
April 7th at 7pm
Tickets here
New York Arab Festival
at The Poetry Project
New York Arab Festival and Poetry Project are pleased to announce their first partnership, coming together to honor Arab American Heritage Month, a yearly month celebrated each April. Recognizing the power of language at times of political strife, this event brings poets, writers and public speakers from Arab, Arab American and Asian backgrounds to share with their communities issues of urgency. Dedicated to the memory of beloved Palestinian poet, writer and philosopher Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza in 2023. The evening will shuttle between testimonies, poetry readings, performances and conversations.
Featuring readings by Farah Barqawi, Zeinab Ftes, Sophia Gutchinov, Andrew Riad, Hind Shoufani, and Issam Zeibak.
April 8th at 8pm
Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church
Tickets here
New York Arab Shorts
At the Museum of Moving Image
New York Arab Festival Coming back for its yearly partnership, this program of Arab short and experimental films is a partnership with the Museum of Moving Image and the New York Arab Festival. Featuring films that experiment with form, format and narrative, this year’s program looks at notions of illusion, myth, transformation and reckoning. Featuring filmmakers including Randa Ali, Farahat Khalil, Dibo, Firas Khoury, Balqis Alrashed, and a lineup of paradigm changing young actors and filmmakers from across the Arab region who will speak at the panel ‘Canon Fodder’ after the screenings program, including Danya El Kurd, Amr Kotb, and Karma Alami.
April 14th at 1:30pm
Museum of Moving Image
Tickets here
The Arab Blues
Live at Nublu
The Arab Blues traces a trajectory between tradition and innovation. They embody the call of tradition and the response of the diaspora. The synthesis Rami Gabriel and Karim Nagi create is an auditory expression of the power and persistence of tradition and the validity of its transformation under the unique cultural conditions we inhabit. The Arab Blues was developed by Lebanese-Egyptian oud and guitar player Rami Gabriel through a research fellowship at the Center for Black Music Research, two Illinois Artist grants, and a decade of experience as a jazz and blues musician in Chicago. Native Egyptian percussionist Karim Nagi, a 2-time beneficiary of the Doris Duke Building Bridges grant for Muslim Artists, a TEDx speaker, and an accomplished teacher completes this duo with his energetic & lyrical rhythms on Riqq, Tublah, and alternatively assembled drum set. Join us in an intense and joyful evening of music at Nublu!
April 19th at 7pm
Nublu
Tickets here
Arab Performance Histories
Exhibition
Performance, performing arts, choreography, dance or theater seem like clear and distinct categories within a western canon mode of thinking of the phenomenon of performing. In the Arabic language however, the semantic fields that the word performance evoke are rich and confusing. A tapestry of odds and of alternative historical narratives, the way the canon (if we may describe it as one) of performance in the Arabic speaking region is. This exhibition roots itself in practices that blur the line between theater and performance art, choreography and ritual, dance and sports, as well as between live performance and the processed recorded image. The exhibition acts as an open and temporary archive of contemporary Arab performance, installed at La Mama ETC, the historic and storied experimental theater establishment. Presenting the work of Nuur Taibah, nasa4nasa, Farah Saleh, Balqis Alrashed, among others. Curated by Adham Hafez, produced by ARC.HIVE, HaRaKa Platform, and powered by Wizara.
The exhibition will be on view from April 25- to May 9th, Thursdays-Saturdays from 6-8pm and Sundays from 2-4pm at La MaMa ETC’s Downstairs Theater gallery space located at 66 East 4th Street. The exhibition runs in tandem with performance production Lines
Sound of Mecca
Lecture Performance by Ahmed Fakeih
Whether in the Muslim world, or elsewhere in the West, Mecca as a city (also spelled Makkah), is closely tied with the history of Islam, and as the birthplace of Islamic pilgrimage. What many of us fail to often think of, is the racial, cultural and artistic diversity of a city that has hosted an annual pilgrimage for the past millennium and a half. Outside of pilgrimage season, what are the songs and music scales of the people of Mecca, and what does Mecca sound or look like?
With over a thousand five hundred years of visitors flocking to Mecca for their yearly ritual pilgrimage, and with how perilous Hajj (Pilgrimage) used to be before the invention of modern sailing or aviation, many pilgrims after their rituals conclude, would end up settling in the Western provinces in Saudi Arabia where Mecca is, culminating in a culturally and racially diverse population. Through the eyes of one of Mecca's natives, New York City will have a first of its kind event, a lecture-performance journeying us through Mecca's diverse music, sound and folk performance traditions and histories beyond the Hijaz music scale.
April 25th, at 6pm
La Mama ETC, 74A East 4th Street, New York, New York
Free of charge
After the lecture-performance, attendees will be directed to the exhibition ‘Arab Performance Histories’ at the Downstairs Theater gallery space (66 East 4th Street)
Esraa Warda and Fella Oudane
Live at Nublu
In an evening not to be missed, the North African star Fella Oudane will share the stage with New York City’s beloved Algerian dance diva, Esraa Warda, live at Nublu. Experience the union of 2 Algerian queens: Fella Oudane, powerhouse singer and darbouka virtuoso, and Esraa Warda, spirited dance artist, in an electrifying performance presenting Algerian music in feminine force. Fella Oudane, hailing from Bab-El-Oued, Algiers, gained fame through duos with Cheb Nasro and upholds traditional Algerian music, including Kabyle, Assimi, and Rai, even from her base in Los Angeles. In 2023, she collaborated with dancer Esraa Warda at the "For the Sake of Dancing in the Street" exhibition by OXY Arts and the Los Angeles Nomadic Division. Esraa Warda is a prominent Algerian-American dance artist in New York who explores socio-cultural themes in traditional Algerian dance. Catch her on PBS's Bare Feet and NPR's Tiny Desk with Bnat el Houariyat. Warda's work has been lauded by the New York Times, VOGUE Arabia, and The Metric, and she was a BBC 100 Women nominee in 2022.
April 27th at 7pm
Nublu
Tickets here
Esraa Warda and Fella Oudane
Algerian Dance and Drum Workshop
Join us the day after Esraa Warda and Fella Oudane’s lively performance, for this workshop of Algerian dance and drum basics. Taking place at La Mama ETC’s Studios, the workshop will introduce beginners to the rhythms and gestures of Algerian dance, accompanied by seasoned drummer and musician Fella Oudane, and presented by choreographer and dancer Esraa Warda. Sponsored by NYSCA, the workshop is free of charge.
April 28th at 3pm- 6pm
La Mama Studios, 7 Great Jones Street,
4th floor
Free Workshop, Click here to reserve (places limited)
NYAF at El Souq
Bringing you the finest Arab and Arab American design goods, collectibles and beyond, New York Arab Festival partners up with El Souq for their upcoming market. El Souq is a pop-up shopping concept in New York City that centers artists, designers, brands, creatives and craft-makers that trace their roots to SWANA and South Asia. Founded in 2023 by Dalia Ghanem & Hanan Thabet, El Souq is more than just a shopping experience, it is the intersection of art, design and community in the global cultural capital of New York City.
Join us for the next pop up with El Souq
May 4, 2024 from 12 pm - 7 pm
At 9 West 8th Street, NYC.
For updates on El Souq, follow El Souq on Instagram on this link
RASEEF Forum
Conceived and curated by anthropologist and urbanist Adam Kucharski, Raseef (meaning sidewalk in Arabic) looks at the relation of art to infrastructure.
May 11th, 12pm-9pm
UAP, Beacon- NY
Tickets coming soon