Ahla friends,
Life has reorganized itself around the World Cup and my mom is a full analyst now.
Soccer has never been this political. This year, the field is making it impossible to look away. We are watching world powers play out in real time, and every match, we find ourselves rooting for the underdog. Every single time.
Egypt vs. Argentina. So much in one match. The referee’s decisions. The X of Hassan to Letexier. Salah vs Messi. The symbols they carry. The different ideologies they stand for. Messi won. Hurts. Just this time though.
The Moroccan goalkeeper Tagnaouti, asked to answer in French by a French journalist, answered in Arabic. Because he is Moroccan. A small moment that said everything.
The Cape Verde goalkeeper is 40 years old. Works two jobs. Couldn't afford to fly his mother in to watch him play. This is a professional player at this level struggling to make ends meet.
And we're not even gonna start discussing the Iranian team.
Plenty of examples. Too many stories.
This tournament is a mirror. Of money, colonial powers, injustice, identity, community, inequality, grit, racism and so much more. A mirror of the current state of humanity. We see ourselves everywhere in it. And we cheer, we get mad, we celebrate, we cry, and we wake up the next morning and then watch again.
Here's what's on this week.
Samar
THE SHORTLIST
The Ones Worth Your Time
PANEL
The Syrian Revolution
Wednesday, July 8 | 7:00 PM
Woodbine, 414 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Tribeca
Journalist Anand Gopal and Syrian activist Loubna Mrie in conversation about the Syrian Revolution, literature, politics, community, and what comes after. A talk that won't talk around anything
CINEMA & FOOD
Armenian Viticulture Preservation Night
Saturday, July 11 | 5:30–9:00 PM
The People's Forum, 320 W 37th St, Midtown
Filmmaker Anaïs DerSimonian is making Gini, a documentary about six thousand years of Armenian and Levantine winemaking, and Zainab Saeed of The Gathering Table is feeding the room. Wine tasting, a talk by Roni Ginach, and music from Babagamoush
MUSIC
KHANEVADE: Portraits of Iranian Americans
Sunday, July 12 | 12:30 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, Queens
ArteEast digs into the archive, a program spanning a 1961 time capsule of Iranian American families in the Bay Area all the way to a present-day portrait of Queens. Screening followed by a conversation with curator Nick Kouhi on community, displacement, and continuity.
TALK
Design in Focus: NYC World Cup w Ash Raziuddin
Sunday, July 12 | 2:00–3:30 PM
Cooper Hewitt, UES
Designer Arsh Raziuddin and NYC World Cup Czar Maya Handa break down how the city's visual identity for the 2026 FIFA World Cup came together, wayfinding, street installations, merchandise, digital platforms. For the design nerds in the group.
WORKSHOP
July Oil Painting for Beginners (3 session course)
July 14–18 | Tue & Wed 6:30–9:30 PM, Sat 11:00 AM–2:00 PM
Atelier Dalal, Greenpoint
Three sessions, all supplies included, zero experience required. You leave with a finished canvas and a handle on color theory, underpainting, and glazing. The bring-a-friend discount is a good excuse, $190 (or $145 with a friend)
ART
SummerStage: Morocco – From Dakhla to Casablanca
Wednesday, July 15
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
A full sweep of Moroccan sound in Central Park, Hoba Hoba Spirit, Hamid El Kasri Dakhla, Casa Xpress, and Mr. ID on one bill. From the Atlantic coast to the streets of Casa, free and outdoors
THE FREE ONE
Free and Delightful
MUSIC
Habibi Festival at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!
Friday, July 10 | 6:00 PM
Lena Horne Bandshell, Prospect Park
This is the one. EMEL headlines, Tunisian, fearless, one of the most powerful voices coming out of the Arab world right now. Joining her: Sudanese vocalist Mai Elgizouli and Tunisian cellist Nesrine, with Yacine Boulares and DJ Kofta of Yalla! Party Project opening the night. A SWANA festival in the heart of BK!
EVENT HIGHLIGHT
Interesting Initiatives To Support
Lina Matta Brings A Top Notch Selection of Arab Cinema To BAM July 15- 23rd
Lina Matta started ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema in 2012 because she looked at what was available to New York audiences and decided it wasn't enough. Not enough Arab stories. Not told by the right people. She partnered with the Jacob Burns Film Center in Westchester and built something from scratch, just her, roaming international festivals, picking films, doing the work nobody was doing institutionally.
Fourteen years later, the series is a staple at BAM. It's one of the only recurring Arab cinema programs at a major American cultural institution.
The mission has never changed: Arab filmmakers telling their own stories, in front of Western audiences who have mostly only ever seen Arabs through someone else's lens. "A labor of love," she calls it, "born from a simple, urgent belief."
This year's edition runs July 15–23 at BAM — 12 films spanning Morocco to Iraq.
All info and tickets are on our website
Samar
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