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British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal, who broke out internationally with a role in Netflix’s adaptation of DC Comics’ “The Sandman,” picked up an award for Best Lebanese Actress on the Arab and Global Scene at the AFDAL International Festival in Lebanon.
The actress, who has previously starred opposite Hollywood actor Liam Neeson in “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” attended the gala evening wearing a black gown by Beirut-based label Azzi & Osta.
The star, who is the brand’s Middle East ambassador, was featured in a shoot for the new capsule collection, Dior Or.
Jammal told Hia magazine at the time: “Giving up is not an option, because despite the obstacles faced by anyone on their journey, they should be completely ready to seize the opportunity that arises.”
In “The Sandman,” Jammal plays Lyta Hall, a woman who dreams of her dead husband each night, slowly realizing that he is not a figment of her imagination but is hiding out in the dream world to be with his wife.
It is a part that Jammal managed to play truthfully with subtlety — a subtlety for which she credited her mother.
Jammal, who was raised in Beirut, told Arab News: “I’ve always been extra, and my mom was far more subtle than I am. I had to fine-tune myself to vibrate on her frequency, a frequency that was very sweet and very raw and vulnerable and nurturing. I took that from her.
“I grew up having a simple, community-based life in a place where you have 500 mothers and everyone feeds you and you feel safe — even if it’s not safe at all. At the same time we went through so many traumas, from civil wars to assassinations to losing all our money in another financial crisis.”
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal picked up an award for Best Lebanese Actress on the Arab and Global Scene at the AFDAL International Festival in Lebanon. (Instagram)
US Jordanian contestant Farah Abu Adeela from the state of Illinois was crowned Miss Arab USA at the beauty pageant’s finale in Arizona over the weekend.
The new Miss Arab USA, who is a model, takes over from 2022’s winner, Moroccan American Marwa Lahlou.
The annual pageant, which returned in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was held in Arizona this year. Produced by The Arab American Organization (AAO), the pageant is “founded on the basis of advancing the cause of young ladies of Arab descent,” according to its website.
The swimsuit category does not feature in the pageant, with the stated aim of organizers being to “select an honorable Arab young lady to represent our culture in the US and worldwide for one year.”
This year’s ceremony featured a performance by dance troupe Zeffa of Phoenix.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Farah Abu Adeela nabbed the coveted tiara at the 2023 Miss Arab USA pageant. (Instagram)
The newly established restoration center at the King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh has succeeded in preserving more than 3,000 rare scientific materials of cultural heritage. This includes photographs, documents, maps and rare books, as well as manuscripts.
The center was able to restore rare images depicting the old city of Diriyah, showcasing its location surrounded by a sea of palm trees.
The center restored 415 rare images of the city of Jeddah. The team of experts were also able to also restore 117 rare books, including their leather covers and internal pages.
In addition, the center restored a group of Saudi currencies, issued on 14 Dhu Al-Qa’da 1372 AH, corresponding to July 25, 1953 AD, when the Saudi Monetary Agency issued what was then known as the “receipts of pilgrims.” These were lightweight banknotes distributed and used during Hajj, starting at ten Riyals, of which 5,000 were printed with phrases in both Arabic and English.
The restoration center rehabilitated more than 615 rare documents and restored a series of rare magazines.
The center also cleaned up 2,235 rare and valuable maps in preparation for their restoration and preservation. The most notable was a map of the continent of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, drawn by Abraham Ortelius in 1570 AD.
The restoration center was inaugurated in late 2022, and has served as a space to handle artifacts carefully. Careful consideration is given to each item to maintain and preserve these pieces of history for future generations.
Google search engine features late Sudanese musician Asma Hamza celebrating anniversary of her winning the Laylat AlQadr AlKubra music competition in Sudan.
According to Google’s description on 17 July, “On this day in 1997, Asma was among the winners of the Laylat AlQadr AlKubra music competition in Sudan. This win was a turning point in her career and helped her gain recognition in a male-dominated field.”
Considered the first female composer in Sudan, Hamza was born in 1932 and loved music while growing up, dreaming of becoming a singer. However, her vocal cords were not equipped to handle singing safely, so she switched to whistling the tunes instead. When her father heard her whistle in harmony, he borrowed an oud (similar to a lute but with a thinner neck and no frets) so Asma could practice.
Despite the fact that it was not socially acceptable for women to practice music in Sudan during her time, her father encouraged her interest in music. In fact, the whole family enjoyed singing and was fond of music.
Hamza did not like her own voice and directed her interests towards playing the oud, which her father purchased for her. Surrounded by musicians who often visited her family home, including Ahmed Mustafa, Osman Hussein, Hassan Attia, and Abdel Aziz Mohamed Daoud, Hamza started by playing the oud while listening to other performers and copying their strokes by ear. As she began mastering the instrument, she soon became the very first Sudanese woman with formal training on the oud, which she received in response to her perseverance.
As she started carving her own place in Sudan’s music scene, she performed in small gatherings, followed by bigger stages. She often used lyrics by renowned poets, leading to compositions that were then performed by renowned singers. Her melodies resonate with many people in Sudan and across the Arab world.
On 17 July 1997, Hamza was announced as one of the winners of the Laylat AlQadr AlKubra song competition held in Sudan, standing among many male musicians. This win is considered an important turning point in her career.
Egyptian-Scottish classical duo the Ayoub Sisters are scheduled to perform at King Charles III’s coronation in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
“We are delighted to share that we have been invited by HM King Charles III to perform at his coronation in Edinburgh next week,” wrote the Ayoub Sisters on Facebook on Saturday.
“The ceremony is part of Royal Week, with the King and Queen undertaking several engagements in Scotland, and will be broadcast live on BBC One. Tune in on Wednesday 5th July at 1:30pm to watch the celebration unfold,” they added.
The Ayoub Sisters have taken the international music scene by storm since their debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016. Laura Ayoub plays the violin – performing on an 1810 J. Gagliano – and Sarah Ayoub masters the cello. Both play the piano.
The internationally renowned duo were discovered by producer Mark Ronson.
Their young, albeit sparkling, career has led them to sign a contract with Decca Records, one of the UK’s biggest record labels playing at the BRITS and the BAFTAs. Their album topped the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart.
The duo explore many musical genres, starting from classical music to Scottish traditional repertoire, topping it with captivating arrangements of pop, funk, and world music.
Their virtuosity and creativity have taken them to many prestigious halls in the UK (the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, London Palladium) and the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Competition also had a new category this year for disabled pupils.
An Abu Dhabi pupil was crowned the winner of the UAE Arab Reading Challenge in Dubai on Friday.
Emirati schoolgirl Amna Al Mansouri, who read 128 books during the academic year, took top spot ahead of more than 500,000 pupils.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, praised those who took part.
“Today, the UAE celebrated 514,000 students from state schools who participated in the Arab Reading Challenge – whose Arab and international participation reached 24.8 million students,” he said on Twitter.
“I congratulate Amna Mohammed Al Mansouri, and her family, for coming in first place. Amna read 128 books during the academic year.
“Two years ago, Amna lost the ability to walk, but that did not stop her. She soldiered ahead and sailed across the vast ocean of knowledge and literature. The challenge was the beginning of a life-changing experience.
“Today, Amna can walk once again, she has won the Reading Challenge and has authored two stories.
“She will represent the country in a few days at the International Physics Olympiad in Tokyo.”
Amna took the top prize ahead of Mohammed Al Hammadi and Iman Daoud.
The competition had a new category this year for disabled pupils. Emirati pupil, Ghareeb Al Yamahi, won first place, with Ghaya Zainallah coming in second place.
“I also congratulate the student Gharib Al Yamahi who won first place in the reading challenge in the category of people of determination,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
“Gharib is blind in sight but he is not a stranger in the path of achievement.
“Gharib read 130 books during the academic year in Braille. He is a writer of articles, a speaker and an inspiration to all of us. When a blind person reads 130 books, sighted people should review themselves.
“All the best to Gharib who, with his persistence and willpower, represents the saying that ‘nothing is impossible in the UAE’.”
The ceremony was attended by Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology.
Largest in the world
In May, Sheikh Mohammed said the annual Arab Reading Challenge had become the largest event of its kind in the world.
He said 24.8 million pupils from 46 countries had taken part in this year’s competition.
It was launched in 2015 to encourage a million young people to read at least 50 books in a year.
The challenge usually starts at the beginning of the academic year, around September, and continues until the end of the academic year.
The Arab Reading champion is selected based on the pupil’s ability to articulate general knowledge, critical thinking and communication skills, plus the diversity of books they have selected.
A Syrian schoolgirl who survived a deadly missile attack during the civil war in her country was crowned the Arab Reading Challenge Champion in November.
Sham Al Bakour, who was seven when she was named winner, was only six months old when her family’s car was struck during violence in Aleppo in December 2015.
Her father was killed while she and her mother survived the horrific attack.
She completed a remarkable journey from tragedy to triumph to win words of praise from Sheikh Mohammed.
The young literature lover read 70 books to win the competition.
When asked about what she would do with the Dh1 million ($270,000) prize money, she said she would give it to her mother.
Hard truths beneath the exuberant arrangements of the Somalian-British singer-songwriter and activist strike a chord for others uprooted from their homeland.
The small stage at the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room is bathed in lilac light as an acoustic drummer, a conga percussionist, two guitarists and then a saxophonist and keyboard player take their places.
For a few minutes, a laid-back jam session ensues until the lead singer weaves his way towards the microphone, expertly adjusts the stand and, without preamble, begins the set.
It is opening night of the city’s annual Arab arts festival, and the intimate audience, though it’s a decade since Aar Maanta and the Urban Nomads’ debut UK tour, is in for a rare treat: live Somali music played with instrumental accompaniment.
“Always with a band,” Maanta confirms to The National, “because there has been a cultural tendency to sing with playback music. I wanted something a little more genuine. I just thought: ‘I’ll be strict and do live shows.’
“I did playback one time when I was in my home town in Jijiga and I felt like I was cheating people, you know?” he adds, laughing.
Those gathered are making the most of the opportunity, clapping, bobbing their heads, dancing and singing along with Maanta’s soulful voice, the smooth tones of which a reviewer once aptly described as coloured by “the dusty echo of the desert”.
Midway through the live performance, he introduces a song called Uur Hooyo (Mother’s Womb) written by the oud virtuoso and renowned composer Ahmed “Hudeidi” Ismail Hussein.
“Unfortunately, he passed away in 2020 due to Covid in London,” Maanta tells the audience. “He was my teacher and taught me about music and generally about history, the connections between the Horn of Africa, Yemen and this area. There are so many connections here.”
As Maanta tells me, the gig is packed with significance as the port city welcomed the earliest members of the UK’s now 100,000-strong Somali community in the late 19th century.
Some of those mostly seamen and traders arriving by ship from the former British colony of Aden brought ouds – the short-necked, stringed instrument whose earthy notes are the signature of Somali folk music.
Maanta’s body of work across two albums and an EP is a poetic and, at times, urgent soundtrack of that migrant experience.
Finding his voice
Born Hassan-Nour Sayid in the capital of the Somali Regional State in Eastern Ethiopia, his creative journey began in the home of his auntie in Hargeisa, where he and his two siblings were raised.
“It was a good house,” he says. “Altogether, there were 10 children inside and it was fun. I was well cared for and, because there were so many of us there, I felt like I had many older sisters.”
Though his great-grandfather was Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Somali nationalist revered as a skilful oral poet, his maternal aunt was the one responsible for encouraging an early love of the arts.
Looking back, Maanta recalls the rhythms and melodies of the Iftin Band and those of Hudeidi himself emanating from an old transistor in the kitchen to intermingle with the aromas of Mandi, the traditional Yemeni dish of meat and richly spiced rice.
“My auntie used to sing these old Somali songs on the radio, and I would always listen and sing along because I loved the music,” he says.
“Now, this was the Eighties, so radio was very limited. Whenever the radio goes off, she would basically ask me to sing some of her favourite songs again and I would. It was beautiful.”
Though Maanta doesn’t much like talking about it now – “It’s a pretty common story and not a good one,” he has said – he was separated from his brother and sister when taken by an uncle to relocate to London in the late 1980s, on the cusp of the civil war.
“When I first arrived in the UK, I remember how strange it all was. We moved from a big house to a small apartment and the corridors were so tiny.”
Those tighter living conditions, however, were offset by the expansive music options afforded by the multicultural society of his adopted home where the rustic tracks favoured by Maanta’s auntie soon made way for hip-hop and R’n’B.
“I lived in Brixton and when you are younger you don’t realise it was the hood in those days. I remember it was a rough area, but I made plenty of Pakistani and West Indian friends,” he says.
“Then, of course, there was the Brixton Academy, a famous music venue. As a child, I wasn’t allowed to go in but I remember the posters outside of some of my favourite groups like Jodeci and Guy.”
For somewhat different reasons, a famous band from Liverpool featured at that time, too. As a newly arrived pupil in an inner-city primary school, the young Hassan could often be found scribbling words such as: “You think you’ve lost your love, well, I saw her yesterday,” into an exercise book.
“I had a teacher for English support who was amazing. He would say: ‘Right, if you like music then listen to these and write them down.’ He was into The Beatles. There was one song in particular: She Loves You.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,’’ Maanta says with enthusiasm, unconsciously repeating the refrain that took the world by storm in the mid 1960s. “They’re effective. The lyrics show the economy of language and how to structure as well. It’s better, I think, than studying Shakespeare because you learn that sometimes five words are more important than 10 if you know how to use them.
“Literally, music was a weird and easy way of learning.”
Maanta was shy and introverted growing up, which meant a lot of alone time that he used to teach himself the oud and piano in his late teens and early twenties.
His family were disapproving of music as a career so he embarked on a science degree at Sheffield University, but resistance was useless: “If it’s your dream,” he says, “it’s what keeps you alive.”
Averse to the idea of becoming a solo singer, he decided to work with other UK-based Somali artists as a producer and arranger.
But after one artist refused to take part in a function in London in 2001 due to a last-minute financial dispute, Maanta stepped in to perform the planned classic Somali hits.
“I remember how nice it felt to be able to convey a message to an audience from the stage. It gave me the encouragement that I can do this.”
But Maanta, whose professional name combines his nickname (Aar, meaning Lion) and the title of one of his most popular songs (Maanta, or Today), wasn’t planning on being just another vocalist for hire.
Seeking a distinct sound, he composed his own songs for a new generation of Somalis who, seeing live bands from other countries, yearned for the same form of entertainment from their own homeland.
“It’s mostly the same band line-up but, if people are not available, because of logistics and all that, then I go with whatever I can find.
“I just genuinely feel like if you’re gonna perform, you’re gonna perform. If you don’t wanna perform, and you wanna do playback, it’s fine. But live music is meant to be with live instruments.”
Part of the appeal is that expatriates hear their own experiences reflected in the mix. Hiddo & Dahqan, the debut album released under his label Maanta Music, is a revelation for its fluid blend of percolating Somali pop with oud-centred love songs – a genre called Qarami – and the bobbing bass lines of Afro-pop.
Dig beneath the exuberant arrangements, however, and there are some hard truths to be heard. By the time the album came out in 2008, Maanta had been touring regularly across Europe and the US but visa delays and long vetting by immigration officials were making a gruelling schedule more intolerable.
The frustration of being constantly under suspicion is encapsulated brilliantly in the song Deeqa, a popular girls’ name that Maanta translates as “Suffice” but points out that it was also how Somali Airlines, which ceased operating in 1991, became known.
For the music video, a recreation of an interrogation at Heathrow Airport, a tired Maanta is quizzed by officials about his travel plans in scenes that struck a deep chord within and beyond the Somali diaspora.
“I still keep getting messages to this day from all over about how people relate to this song, and it makes me feel so proud of it.
“There was even a barrister in the UK who tweeted how he used that song to train immigration officials on how to not deal with people in this kind of situation,” he says.
Music with purpose
Deeqa proved a turning point for Maanta in harnessing the power of the protest song. He began to infuse more sociopolitical subjects into his lyrics while leveraging his burgeoning profile to raise awareness of issues such as the refugee crisis.
Some of his frustration was particularly channelled into 2016’s Tahriib, or “Dangerous Crossings”, an a cappella piece written after a family member fell victim to human trafficking.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees subsequently reached out to ask him to re-record the song with collaborators including the Somali singer and former refugee Maryam Mursal, the Egyptian musician Hany Adel, and the Ethiopian singer Yeshi Demelash, in a multilingual campaign highlighting the perils of fleeing across the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from Africa.
Maanta returned to Jijiga in 2015 as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and visited two refugee camps. “The environment was not really new to me. Even for some of us Somalis who didn’t go through this, we know our family experienced those situations,” he says.
“But it was tough to see the young people there. Yes, while they have some facilities like schools and food, they need more than that. They have dreams, they want to go out and achieve things, but they are not able to leave those places.”
Three years later, Maanta took his insights right to the top at a meeting with the then Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
“We spoke about how there are a lot of Somali youths in difficult situations, such as camps in Libya or even forced into slavery,” he recalls.
“I just told him: ‘You guys need to do your job more and help those people.’ ”
No surprises, though, to hear that Maanta’s potent advocacy is not part of a plan to pave a way into the febrile world of Somali political life.
“Absolutely not,” he says. “Politics is generally very toxic and I do feel that African political leaders really don’t have much influence to change things at the moment.”
For the children
It was in Minneapolis rather than Mogadishu where he found an example of inspired leadership. Arriving in the US state of Minnesota in 2021, home to the country’s largest Somali population, Maanta was an artist in residence at The Cedar Cultural Centre for two years.
In a project funded by The Joyce Foundation, the Chicago-based philanthropy organisation, he teamed up with the esteemed poet, playwright and custodian of the Somali language Said Salah to compose and record songs that would become Ubadkaa Mudnaanta Leh (Children Have Priority).
“Myself and Professor Said Saleh didn’t decide to sit there and write the songs – we wanted the kids to share their experiences,” he says of promoting Somali heritage by seeking the lyrics and vocals of children aged five to 15.
“They were so enthusiastic about the whole process mainly because of the Somali language itself. They were curious and excited and that really influenced the way we created the songs.”
Form of creative therapy
The resulting EP is a stirring collection of bilingual offerings from a proud yet sometimes misunderstood community, the centrepiece of which is I Am Part 1 & Welcome to Cedar Riverside, a two-song suite in English that sheds light on the lives of those who live in “Little Mogadishu on the Mississippi”.
Through the album’s recording process, Maanta realised he was providing a form of creative therapy for Somali youth by giving them a platform to voice what they were facing in the West such as being in a minority with a different faith; struggles with their mother tongue; and the politics of the then-President Donald Trump.
“I also met a few kids who were autistic, and I realised how important an issue it was within the Somali community, particularly in the diaspora. One of the songs in the album is sung entirely by an autistic child.”
Some of these compositions were heard live for the first time in The Music Room on Friday, where the 25-degree heat prompted Maanta to half-lament that it’s always “the hottest day” whenever he goes to Liverpool.
After more than three decades in the UK, he has come to prefer the cooler months of autumn to those of summer not least because of their unpredictability.
“It seems like you don’t know what’s to come. Everything’s kind of changing,” he explains.
Maanta seems as mutable as his favourite season, telling The National that he now wants to make working with youth the focus of his future efforts.
“Any artist can make songs with the aim of becoming popular but when you cater for children it leaves a lasting impression, especially when there is a need.
“And when it comes to Somali children, the need is the greatest now because there is nothing really out there to cater for them musically. If your country is struggling, obviously making music for children is not going to be a priority.
“I want to make that change,” he says with a passion that echoes some of the poetry for which Somalia is famed.
As a musician he is already widely regarded as the bridge between the old generation and new, but he just may be about to perform his greatest gig of all.
The Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2023 continues until July 16. For more information, go to: www.arabartsfestival.com/
Young Moroccan women are bringing new and inclusive energy to the centuries-old art of Gnaoua, a spiritual musical repertoire traditionally reserved for men.
Also known as “tagnaouite”, it gained worldwide recognition after it was listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2019.
“Why shouldn’t women be part of this dynamic?” asked Asma Hamzaoui at the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira, a southern coastal city steeped in the musical tradition.
The 26-year-old Casablanca native is one of the first women to perform Gnaoua, which blends African rhythms with spiritual chants and poetry.
Her father, a Gnaoua master, initiated her into the artform at a young age.
“I’ve accompanied him to his evening gatherings since I was seven years old,” recounted the young woman, who in 2012 formed the group “Bnat Timbouktou”, or The Girls of Timbuktu.
“I gradually learned to play the guembri, a three-stringed lute made of camel skin. My father made sure that I learned as much as possible before I flew solo.”
The all-female ensemble wowed the festival-goers — with Hamzaoui on vocals and the guembri, and four musicians on qraqeb steel castanets.
They played alongside the Amazones d’Afrique, another all-female group, from Mali.
‘Feeds the spirit’
“It’s exceptional to have women playing Gnaoua music, which shouldn’t be reserved for men,” said Hamza Tahir, a member of the audience. “They bring fresh air into this music.”
Inspired by Bnat Timbouktou’s success, rising star Hind Ennaira developed her passion for tagnaouite in her hometown of Essaouira.
Its fortified citadel on the Atlantic coast is a breeding ground for the mystical musical tradition, in which religious hymns invoke ancestors and spirits.
Originally practised by enslaved people and dating back at least to the 16th century, Gnaoua has gone from being practised largely in private gatherings, where therapeutic rituals accompanied the music, to public events such as concerts and festivals.
“The city of Essaouira is the cradle of tagnaouite,” said Ennaira, who was taught to play the guembri by friends. “It is beautiful heritage that feeds the spirit. It is important for young people to value it.”
Ennaira put her own touch on the tradition by bringing in a guitarist and drummer to accompany the traditional ensemble.
“At first, there were some differences because they were not used to working with a woman,” she said. “But after some challenging exercises, they adapted to me and we became complementary.”
‘Jimi Hendrix’ style
Yousra Mansour — the front woman of the band Bab L’bluz (“The Blues Gate”), which fuses Gnaoua, rock and blues — also encountered challenges entering the music scene.
“There were two constraints for me: first, the fact that this field is usually reserved for men, but also how we interpret traditional music,” the musician told AFP.
“It is not very accepted or even tolerated by some of the stricter individuals.
“We replaced the bass with the guembri and the guitar with the awisha (a small guembri) and created a kind of ‘power trio’ in the style of Jimi Hendrix with reimagined traditional instruments,” explained Mansour.
The 32-year-old vocalist passionately defends women’s freedoms, saying that “as a woman, I have not had an easy life”.
“There was a lack of women in this field. When I see Asma Hamzaoui or Hind Ennaira, they are magnificent,” she said.
“It is not easy to evolve in a predominantly male universe, but we see changes emerging.”
Longtime scholar Linda Jacobs calls it “the best-kept secret in New York history.” She is talking about New York City’s forgotten Syrian enclave of immigrants (often referred to as Little Syria) that once thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, forming the first Arab-speaking community in the US.
As part of an initiative supported by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Jacobs led in-person walking tours on Washington Street, the main hub of Little Syria, this summer. For Jacobs, it is a story that hits close to home.
Just-landed Middle Eastern immigrants at Ellis Island, ca. 1905. (Supplied)
All four of her grandparents emmigrated from modern-day Lebanon in the late 1800s, moving to Washington Street. “I was just interested in doing my family genealogy, and more importantly, for me, understanding if the myths or stories we were told as children in our family matched the reality … Some made it, some didn’t,” she told Arab News.
Aside from the presence of Arabs, Washington Street was home to other nationalities, including German and Irish families. It was an economic and cultural center, full of stores, cafes, and factories. It was not a bed of roses, though, according to Jacobs.
Built on landfill, Washington Street suffered from poor living conditions and a lack of clean air. Because the area was located near the tidal Hudson River, water would come up through the basements of tenement buildings.
60-62 Washington Street, where dozens of Syrian-owned businesses were located, 1903. (Supplied)
To make matters worse, the rate of infant mortality, due to tuberculosis, was high. “It makes you cry, it’s really sad,” said Jacobs. “You can imagine that people did not want to remember this time of their lives, and I think that’s why my grandmother never talked about it. She never mentioned the word(s) ‘Washington Street’.”
A majority of the people referred to as Syrians who came to New York City most likely hailed from Lebanon, seeking better economic opportunities. Those who initially arrived were farmers and laborers, later followed by wealthier classes. The lucrative trade of peddling was a common profession amongst Syrians, who saved up money to open their own businesses and relocate to safer boroughs, such as Brooklyn.
By the 1940s, the Syrian community was non-existent on the street. The physical neighborhood was destroyed, making way for building the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. Today, Washington Street is a neglected area, where only three buildings, including the facade of St. George’s Melkite Church of the Syrian Community, have survived, but most lack landmark status granted by the city.
Conducting such walking tours around the area is important for Jacobs. “All were surprised because no one had any idea that this community existed,” she remarked. “It’s a mixed blessing, because in a way, it’s a real lesson to others to try and save their communities from total destruction. And on the other side, it’s very sad to have it all be gone.”
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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New York City’s forgotten Syrian enclave of immigrants (often referred to as Little Syria) thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Supplied)
Dalila’ will join ‘Mousa’ as part of director Peter Mimi’s action-packed cinematic universe, ‘The Underdogs’.
Actress Yasmine Sabri is suiting up as Egyptian cinema’s first female superhero!
Peter Mimi – the director of famed Ramadan series ‘Al Ikhtiyar’ (The Choice) – is expanding on the superhero cinematic universe he created for his 2021 action film ‘Mousa’ starring Karim Mahmoud Abdelaziz and Eyad Nasser, in which a shy engineering student creates a powerful robot to avenge his father.
Joining ‘Mousa’ as part of Mimi’s ‘The Underdogs’ franchise will be ‘Dalila’, where Yasmine Sabri will star as a badass motorcyclist on a mission for justice. Filming for ‘Dalila’ has already begun, with Sabri currently undergoing intense physical training and motorcycle training to prepare for the film’s intense action sequences (which, if ‘Mousa’ was anything to go by, will be absolutely explosive). The Avengers who?
While Sabri is working on her super stunts, the actress has already wrapped up filming for ‘Bo’ Bo’ starring Ami Karar and ‘Abou Nasab’ starring Mohamed Emam, both of which will come out during the Eid al-Adha holiday.
‘Dalila’ is set to hit movie theatres in 2023, although details on the rest of the cast has yet to be announced.
