NYC in Arabic
by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
Little Egypt is not a big area it is located at the intersection of Steinway Street and 28th Avenue, but by the time I got to that intersection my face couldn’t help hide the jaw drop I had. This was not the U.S. anymore, everything on that street reminded me of my hometown, and everyone in the area talked arabic only. I was looking around me all the time, reading every Arabic sign, listening to arabic songs that are played inside every coffee shop, and looking at the faces of my people. In Little Egypt, storefronts have more Arabic are more than English. Simply those three blocks on Steinway Street is a part from the Middle East away from the Middle East.
What about the rest of the City? One interesting hypothesis that I came up with from my humble perspective about Arabs of New York is that if you are on one of the main streets or avenues of Manhattan there is probably an Arab in your eyesight. It sounds like nonsense, but it is somehow true due to the many food carts around Manhattan that are mostly operated and/or owned by Arabs. It all goes back to more than 20 years ago when an Egyptian businessman and his Greek partner decided to start the food carts business in Manhattan. Through that Egyptian businessman a lot of Egyptians followed him to New York to be part of his business or at least start from there and eventually getting another job or starting their own business.
Right now there is more than 80 food carts in Manhattan owned and operated by more than 3000 Arabs. Some of them are very famous with residents of the greater New York area that sometimes people drive all the way to Manhattan to eat at their favorite food cart, and some carts have reviews on Yelp. Also, some of these carts have lines of people waiting to order, and in those lines you can see tourists, residents, workers, taxi drivers, and businessmen. Most of the carts serve Halal meats like grilled chicken, hot dogs, and gyro, and along with that some serve falafel which is a vegetarian option for the eaters. Also what makes a lot of people eat at those food carts is that they can see the whole kitchen in front of them and how clean and fresh the food is so they feel safe about it.
NYC is known for its famous street art that is not seen anywhere else in the US. Street art has many forms in the city like music performers seen at every corner, graffiti on the unused walls, and murals that can be seen covering a good area of the walls of a building. In my opinion, murals express a lot about the diverse cultural identity of the United States. Usually people take a minute to read what is written or look at the drawing and think about what the artist wanted to express through their art.
As I grew up I was always obsessed with New York City. I used to see it in movies and TV shows, and I dreamt a lot about visiting this beautiful city. In 2012, I had the first chance to make the dream come true by visiting the Big Apple, and my first reaction was “now I am in the movie!.” Those skyscrapers gave me a hypnic jerk (the feeling of falling) when I saw them because we don’t have any in Cairo, Egypt. However, two years later I moved from Cairo to California, and at that time I was introduced to the Arab community in the United States. I knew that about more that half of the Arabs in the US live in certain places and the others are scattered all over the country. Out of these places, New York City was one of them. So I decided to look into that myself and discover the existence of Arabs in the city.
It is interesting how Arabs have immigrated from their home country to all over the world even though Arabs and Egyptians in specific embrace familial relationships and that is why they like to “stick together.” However, in the last couple of decades a lot of Arabs decided to get over those traditions to look for a better opportunity and a decent future in the United States. Out of all places that Arabs have migrated to in the US, Astoria in Queens, NY is special because it has a few blocks called “Little Egypt.”
It is interesting how Arabs have immigrated from their home country to all over the world even though Arabs and Egyptians in specific embrace familial relationships and that is why they like to “stick together.” However, in the last couple of decades a lot of Arabs decided to get over those traditions to look for a better opportunity and a decent future in the United States. Out of all places that Arabs have migrated to in the US, Astoria in Queens, NY is special because it has a few blocks called “Little Egypt.”
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| The intersection of 28th Ave. and Steinway Street, Queens, NY. Taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
https://goo.gl/maps/b8ti5UgAes62
Astoria is known to have a big Arab community and that is because of the fact that we like to stick together even if we are thousands of miles away from our home countries we still have the traditions in our roots. At first Astoria was occupied by Lebanese people, and Egyptians started migrating to Astoria in 1960’s when Gamal Abdel-Nasser was their president. Egyptians were followed by Yemenites, Moroccans, Tunisians, and Algerians.
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Grocery store advertising their Middle Eastern food. Taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
https://goo.gl/maps/8jEAY8YcxdM2
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Egyptian old men smoking hookahs at Maqha Al Khayyam on Steinway St. Photo taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
https://goo.gl/maps/ygRAhBaeTSu
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Storefront displaying Hookahs and Middle Eastern pottery. Taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
https://goo.gl/maps/8jEAY8YcxdM2
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Halal food cart in Manhattan, NY. Photo taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem
https://goo.gl/maps/Z3XZKZgiyDn
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NYC is known for its famous street art that is not seen anywhere else in the US. Street art has many forms in the city like music performers seen at every corner, graffiti on the unused walls, and murals that can be seen covering a good area of the walls of a building. In my opinion, murals express a lot about the diverse cultural identity of the United States. Usually people take a minute to read what is written or look at the drawing and think about what the artist wanted to express through their art.
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| Arabic mural by Emily Jacir seen from the Highline in Chelsea, NY. Photo taken by Mahmoud Abouelmakarem https://goo.gl/maps/61AxcPoR8xH2 |
“This book belongs to its owner Fathallah Saad. He bought it with his own money at the beginning of March 1892” is written in both Arabic and its English translation on a building in Chelsea on the western side of Manhattan. It was created by the Palestinian artist Emily Jacir, and it was part of her art project “ex libris.” The artist’s project was to commemorate the story of thirty thousand books that were stolen from the Palestinian homes and libraries by the Israeli authorities in 1948, and currently some of them are kept in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem under the designation “Abandoned Property.” In the old times people used to document their ownership of the books on the first page, and that explains how books were important to Palestinian readers, and that it was part of their culture. The project’s goal was not only to bring awareness to people about the looting and destruction of books by the Israeli authorities, but also acts as a documentation of the Palestinian culture and history that will never be erased because of this documentation.
Arabic can be heard and seen all over The Empire City due to the high Arabic speaking population that has existed for decades now. Maybe there are other places that I haven’t seen or discovered myself until now. Please leave a comment if you know other places at NYC that has an obvious Middle Eastern existence, or some Arabic mural or artwork.
Arabic can be heard and seen all over The Empire City due to the high Arabic speaking population that has existed for decades now. Maybe there are other places that I haven’t seen or discovered myself until now. Please leave a comment if you know other places at NYC that has an obvious Middle Eastern existence, or some Arabic mural or artwork.
Copyright © 2016, Mahmoud Abouelmakarem all rights reserved.
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