Ahla friends,
Full transparency: this is the first time I'm finishing writing the newsletter the day of sending it. Type A Samar is not happy about it, but I’ve been working on more projects for this community.
I've been getting so many emails from people who feel the same thing: that our community in New York is scattered, that we're craving more than a screen and not everyone is as extraverted as a SWANA mom. I've been quietly working on a response to that. But before I go further, I want to talk to some of you.
If you feel passionate about the SWANA community in New York, if you want to help shape how we connect, or if you're simply looking to meet people who get it, I would love to chat. Your opinion, your ideas, your perspective matter more than you think. This journey can get lonely, and sometimes one conversation is all it takes to change the direction of something that could impact so many of us.
Just reply to this email. That's it.
Samar
ART. POLITICS
Dear Laila By Basel Zaraa
June 2–6th, 15-min slots throughout the day
Salam Arabic Church, Bay Ridge
Palestinian artist Basel Zaraa rebuilt his destroyed childhood home in miniature. You enter alone, fifteen minutes, Walkman narration in Arabic or English: family, displacement, the slow work of learning a parent's past. Five days only in Bay Ridge. Work from the Gaza Biennale shows alongside.
PARTY. FUNDRAISER
Party For A Change: Fundraiser For Lebanon
Friday, June 5th, 4 PM – late
314 Scholes Street, Williamsburg
Twelve DJs across rooftop and warehouse on Scholes Street, sunset upstairs, late-night below, your call which to catch (or both). All proceeds to Slow Factory's Super Fund for Lebanon. A daylight-to-night party with a purpose.
CINEMA
Unidentified
Jun 9 (8:30PM), Jun 10 (5:45PM), Jun 11 (5:45)
AMC 19th St East 6 · Tribeca
Haifaa Al Mansour returns with a Saudi crime thriller, US premiere at Tribeca. An unidentified woman's body surfaces in the desert; an amateur sleuth and podcast obsessive named Noelle gets pulled in, through her own trauma and through systemic walls. Mila Al Zahrani stars. Three screenings.
CINEMA
How To Feed A Dictator
Jun 10 (8PM), Jun 11 (6PM), Jun 13 (11:15 AM)
Village East by Angelika
Sit with the question of where, with whom, and how we belong, a facilitated circle for people navigating life between cultures, expectations, and the different versions of themselves that come with that. Saturday afternoon, in the grass, with your inner and outside worlds.
COMEDY
Boozy Books Comedy x Huda
Wednesday, June 10
Huda, Williamsburg
A night of standup comedy at Huda Brooklyn featuring established and up-and-coming comedians seen on Comedy Central, Netflix is a Joke, and Just for Laughs. Curated by Shatha Yasin.
WORKSHOP
Tatreez Your Wardrobe Workshop
Wednesday, June 10 · 7:00 PM
Bolo Bolo Café, Cobble Hill
Lina Barkawi (founder of Lina's Thobe) teaches you to embellish your own clothes with traditional Palestinian tatreez. Bring a cotton or linen garment; she brings the rest. Beginners welcome. Small group, hands working through the afternoon.
THE FREE ONE
Free and Delightful
POETRY
Summer Nights: Kinsale Drake, Hayes & Miriam Elhajli
Friday, June 5th, 7–9 PM
Wagner Park, Battery Park City
Poets House's outdoor series returns. Kinsale Drake (Diné poet, The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket), Terrance Hayes (American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin), and Moroccan-American musician Miriam Elhajli reading and playing into sunset over the Hudson. Bring something to sit on. Gosh I love an outdoor plan when it’s sooo good outside.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Cool Initiative To Support
I had No Idea An Arab Did This & Now There Is A Documentary In The Making
I had absolutely no idea that the restroom signs, the no smoking symbol, the pictograms that guide you through every airport, train station, and public space in the world, that those were made by a Palestinian-American man. These symbols are so foundational to the history of graphic design, so embedded in how we navigate daily life, that they feel like they've always existed. Like nobody made them. But somebody did.
His name is Rajie Cook. Born in 1930 in Newark, New Jersey, to a Palestinian family. When a school teacher found his name too difficult to pronounce, he became "Roger" for years, a story so many of us know in different ways. He eventually reclaimed his name, Rajie, in honor of his Palestinian heritage.
In 1974, his firm Cook and Shanosky Associates won a contract to develop a set of symbols that could be universally understood, signs that could guide people across language barriers in public spaces. They designed 34 pictographs. All 34 are still in use today, everywhere in the world. In 1984, Rajie received the Presidential Award for Design Excellence.
In the latter part of his life, he turned to art, sculptures and posters that grappled directly with Palestinian identity and exile.
Thx to Paul, a wonderful human from our menna community, I got connected to a team of creatives trying to spread the story of Rajie. Now, there are just 24 hours left to support a documentary about his life and work. The film has already reached its baseline goal on Kickstarter, which means editing is moving forward, but more funds are needed to bring it to life through archival footage, music, and animation. These are the stories that show we've never stopped shaping the world.
— Would love to meet you —
Let’s chat!
If you feel passionate about the SWANA community in New York, if you want to help shape how we connect, or if you're simply looking to meet people who get it, I would love to chat. Your opinion, your ideas, your perspective matter more than you think. This journey can get lonely, and sometimes one conversation is all it takes to change the direction of something that could impact so many of us.
Just reply to this email. That's it.
Samar
Self Funded. No Compromise
Allowing us to stay editorially independent and guided only by our values and the community we serve. If our work resonates with you and you’d like to support it, you can do so through the link below.
As always, thank you for being here.
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