They began arriving in large numbers during the nineteenth century and today about 200,000 Arab Americans call New York City home. Despite the numbers, however, this community is largely unknown to outsiders.
The reason? Perhaps it is because these immigrants come from so many different nations in the Middle East and North Africa. It may be because they’ve never created a distinct neighborhood that caters to tourists, the Arab equivalent of a Little Italy or Chinatown. It might even be due to the fact that they don’t share a single faith.
Whatever the cause, in recent years they have been actively working to help New Yorkers know more about their Arab American neighbors.
Their efforts have led to the establishment of Arab American Heritage Week, which kicked off today with the third annual Arab American Heritage Festival in Prospect Park.
Hundreds came to Brooklyn’s largest park for traditional Arabic food, music, dance and caligraphy as well as the chance to be painted with henna, sip thick coffee, smoke a water pipe and experience more of the city’s diversity.
T-shirt for sale
Folk dancers
Poster recruiting teenagers for research study
At the Tagine Dining Gallery tent
A mom waiting at the bouncy castle
Singer on stage
The stage
Henna tattoo on hand
Smoking the nargile (hookah)
Henna tattoo on upper arm
Arabic Calilgraphy
The diverse crowd
At a food tent
With the WellCare bear
Henna tattoo on lower back
Women sitting on the grass
Little girl with Palestinian flag painted on her face
Alwan for the Arts
Arab-American Heritage Week
Arab-American Family Support Center
Arab American Association Of New York
Tagine Dining Gallery
Alwan: Arab Americans
Gotham Gazette: History Of Arabs New York
A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City
Blather From Brooklyn 
A great tribute to the diversity of the City. You captured a real varity of people.
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superbe, cela me fait penser à la fete du Moussem de la semaine derniere à Evry. J’aime beaucoup les tatouages sur les mains
superb, that makes me think of the festival of Moussem of last week with Evry. I like much tattooings on the hands
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Loved the henna tattoos….and am sure the food must have been great too. Loved all the pictures……
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I would have loved to come to that. I used to teach arabic women English at the Arab-American Center on Court Street in Brooklyn. One of the more satisfying things I have ever done.
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You could entitle this post, “why you should live in a large city” or “how to join the community of mankind”.
It is a good thing to have opportunities to be among those who live with history and tradition different from ones own.
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[…] It was a hot, busy day, and by the time I arrived in Prospect Park, this year’s Arab-American Heritage Festival was nearly over. I still had time, though, to hear some rousing music, rummage through the […]
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Hi, I went there and it was really fun. Anyway, did you get the henna’s artist contact? Thanks for sharing the pictures, they are great!
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This is the right blog for anybody who hopes
to understand this topic. You understand a whole lot its almost tough to argue
with you (not that I personally will need to…HaHa).
You definitely put a brand new spin on a topic that’s been discussed for years.
Wonderful stuff, just wonderful!
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wonderful issues altogether, you just gained a new reader.
What might you suggest in regards to your put up that you just made a few days ago?
Any certain?
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