ABOUT

New York Arab Festival (NYAF) presents its ‘festival within festival’ program at La MaMa for its 2025 edition, rooted in experimental Arab and Arab American choreography, theater and performance. Curated around surveying underground and experimental practices by Arab artists from the 1950s through today, this edition promises a diverse program that shuttles between performance, readings, choreography and community engagement. Through readings from the plays of the late Moroccan visual artist and playwright Ahmed Yaccoubi, the absurdist choreography and concrete poetry of Cairo’s ‘happenings’ called AATAAB, the ceremonial and ritualistic dance-cinema of Saudi American artist Sarah Brahim, the choreographic experiments of Marie Alfajr or the centennial of Egyptian dance diva Samia Gamal, this program activates histories past and performs futurist dreams.

NYAF was established in 2022 to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month and fight the erasure of Arab and Arab American identities from New York City, a place that Arabs have called home for over three centuries. Many are unaware that the first country to acknowledge the American Declaration of Independence was Morocco, an Arab country, cementing centuries of cultural, diplomatic, economic and political relations between American and Arab people. At the NYAF, we believe in the urgency of dialogue between cultural practitioners in the US and Arabic-speaking regions, with a special focus on Arab American histories and practices.

NYAF was founded by Arab, Arab American, and American artists, curators, and cultural operators and is organized and run by its founding members: Artistic Director and Curator Adham Hafez, Urbanist and Curator Adam Kucharski, and the festival’s founding Senior Producer Cindy Sibilsky. NYAF is produced by HaRaKa Platform and powered by Wizara LLC in partnership with many celebrated institutions in NYC and worldwide.

Website: www.newyorkarabfestival.com

Instagram: @newyorkarabfestivalofficial

CREDITS

New York Arab Festival, and pioneers from the Arab and Arab American dance, performance and theatre scenes including Marie Alfajr, Sarah Brahim, Marilena Roussoglou, Ohoude Khadr, Ali Andre Ali, among others.

BIOS

New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is a multidisciplinary festival spanning all genres of art, culture, design, cuisine, philosophy, and intersecting industries. It programs arts and culture from the Arabic-speaking region and the Arab diaspora and showcases Arab American artists. NYAF was established in 2022 to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month and fight the erasure of Arab and Arab American identities from NYC, a place Arabs have called home for over three centuries. NYAF is organized and run by its founding members: Artistic Director and Curator Adham Hafez, Urbanist and Curator Adam Kucharski, and founding Senior Producer Cindy Sibilsky. NYAF is produced by HaRaKa Platform and powered by Wizara LLC in partnership with many celebrated institutions in NYC and worldwide.