New York Arab Festival concludes fourth edition

The annual New York Arab Festival concluded its fourth year with programmes that extended throughout the months of April and May, making it the longest run so far of the nascent event.

The NYAF takes a different approach to many other festivals, highlighting modern culture and experimental artforms, while still building on older traditions.

This year’s festival, featuring 17 events (with several spanning multiple days), focused on art history through resiliency, listening and collective learning, with Arab and Arab American artists addressing war, genocide, the environment and access to food in the Arab World. This year featured artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Palestine.

“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,” the festival organisers said in a statement.

The festival began in April 2022 to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month and to highlight Arab and Arab American artists with ties to New York, a city that has been home to Arabs for three centuries.

The first edition took place at the end of the pandemic while many people around the world were on “lock down” confined to their homes. The festival held virtual events, drawing thousands of online viewers around the world. It also held an event at the New York City home of iconic Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran.

The festival’s past four seasons have evolved into a city-wide multi-genre event with performances and exhibitions in all five boroughs.

NYAF is curated by Egyptian artist Adham Hafez, produced by New York-based Cindy Sibilsky, managed by Sandra Geovany, Nader Hafez and Adam Kucharski, with the RASEEF program on art, with architecture curated by Adam Kucharski.

The two-month-long programme closed at Atelier Jolie, a historic venue founded by American actress Angelina Jolie located in a building that previously housed artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The closing of the festival honoured the life and legacy of Fez-born Moroccan artist Ahmed Yacoubi, author of "The Alchemist's Recipes". who had lived in New York, highlighting his work through food, film a performance.