NEW YORK ARAB FESTIVAL 2025 Edition Running Now Through May 30

The New York Arab Festival 2025 has kicked off its fourth edition, with exciting programs and partnerships in New York City this spring.

Taking place in venues across NYC from April into May to honor Arab American Heritage Month, the New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is programming multiple live in-person events in partnership with pioneering institutions across NYC, the USA, and internationally through satellite events.

NYAF 2025 launches on Tuesday, April 1, at 7pm with its fourth year in partnership with NUBLU (151 Loisaida Ave/Avenue C, NYC), presenting an exciting double bill of Taktouka band and Harmal ($20 in advance, $25 at the door, get tickets HERE). 

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

April 6 from 2pm to 6pm New York Arab Festival (NYAF) partners up with New York's iconic DJ duo ‘Haza Party', for a special Eid-version of the Haza Souk. This souk (meaning marketplace in Arabic) will present a lineup of DJ sets, several artisanal offers, special merchandise and food, at Cafe Erzulie. Tickets HERE.

April 8th at 7pm New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is inviting Palestinian poet Ahmad Almallah to present his latest book ‘Wrong Winds', presented in partnership with and at Wendy's Subway. Ahmad Almallah grew up in Palestine and currently lives in Philadelphia. His newest poetry collection, Wrong Winds, is out with Fonograf Editions (2025). His other collections include Border Wisdom (Winter Editions 2023) and Bitter English (Chicago 2019). He is currently artist in residence in English and Creative Writing at UPenn. More details HERE.

April 13th at 7pm New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is thrilled to present Palestinian rockstar, singer and songwriter Rasha Nahas, with an opening act by New York's iconic DJ from the Haza Party duo. The concerts will take place at Brooklyn Art Haus, and promises the audience an exciting night of fun beats, and heartfelt songs and lyrics.

April 16 at 7:30pm at the Jalopy Theater (315 Columbia St, Brooklyn, NY 11231) is a double-bill dedicated to the centennial of iconic dancer and choreographer Samia Gamal. Live at the Jalopy Theatre, New York based choreographers and dancers Angie Assal and Soumaya MaRose will present us with a double-bill celebrating the history of the late Egyptian dancer and choreographer Samia Gamal, whose work reinvented Raqs Sharqi (or Baladi Dance) as we know it today. Tickets HERE.

An annual festival favorite, the New York Arab Festival Short Film Program returns on Sunday, April 27, from 12:30-3:30pm. NYAF resumes its successful collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, Queens, NY) with the NYAF Arab Shorts Film Program at the Bartos Screening Room, featuring films from across the Arab region by filmmakers including Alia Haju, Khaled Jarrar, and others. The program explores themes of fabulations, dreams, migration and experimentalism. 

From May 1-4 (Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm), NYAF will collaborate with La MaMa ETC for the fourth year in a row with a “festival within a festival” celebrating experimental Arab artists and allies in four multidisciplinary “happenings” featuring spoken word based on texts by the late poets Etel Adnan and Joyce Mansour, dance, music and multimedia visuals at La MaMa's Community Arts Space at 74A East 4th Street, 3rd floor, as a part of La MaMa Moves! 20th Anniversary season. Performers include Andrew Riad, Nadia Khyrallah, Sarah Brahim, and Amr Kotb, among others. The Sunday, May 4 performance at 5pm will be followed by panels dedicated to histories of contemporary Arab performance. Khaled Jarrar is the keynote speaker. Tickets for La MaMa Moves! are $30 (general) and $25 (students/seniors). The first 10 tickets for each performance are $10 (limit two per person). Two, three, and five show packages are available. Ticket prices are inclusive of all fees. Tickets: https://www.lamama.org/new-york-arab-festival-adam-hafez/. 

On May 14, 7:30PM New York Arab Festival (NYAF) presents famed Lebanese American singer/ songwriter H.Sinno's “Poems of Consumption” at National Sawdust, marking the first collaboration and presentation of H. Sinno at NYAF. Poems of Consumption turns Amazon customer reviews into “pop songs” written, composed, arranged, and produced by H.Sinno and their collaborators. The harsh electronica and lush string quartet are accompanied by video work by Sinno and Matteo Zamagni which further saturates the performance with a relentless barrage of phantasmagorical visuals.