Arab American Heritage Week [Archives:2005/862/Letters to the Editor]
Faozia Aljibawi
[email protected]
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 was a historical day that will forever be remembered by Arab Americans. This day changed the lives of more than 200,000 Arabs residing in the NYC region. It is the day that NYC's Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially declared Arab American Heritage Week as a part of NYC's history and to be celebrated for one week yearly throughout the city.
Arabs came together from 22 different countries and different religious beliefs to celebrate this great moment in their life. Throughout the Arab American Heritage week, Arab-American organizations and museums hosted events in order to introduce New Yorkers to the vast diversity of Arab people, their cultural traditions, customs, cuisine, art, music and dance. Arab American Heritage Week was kicked off with an Arab street festival in one of NYC's busiest boroughs (Manhattan) which was sponsored and coordinated by the Network of Arab American Professionals and the Algerian Cultural Center. Throughout the week the city celebrated Arab Heritage in many ways such as Comedy workshops, Cultural Arts, concerts, Arab Community Tours, etc…
Finally, Arab American Heritage week concluded with an amazing Park festival sponsored by the Arab American Association of NY, Arab American Family Support Center, and The Yemeni American Association. The Festival had approximately 500-600 attendees from different Arab regions in the Middle East and was combined of several performances representing many Arab countries. Amongst the performers/performances was an Iraqi Singer (Firas Al-Iraqi), Yemeni singers such as Sham' a yrian DJ, an Egyptian skirt dancer, Palestinian Puppet Show, Yemeni Traditional Dances (Bara'a, Sana'a dance), Youth Dabke Dancing, etc. The festival also had food vendors selling food and sweets, Arab Calligraphy writing, Henna, face painting, etc.
This whole week brought great change and a sense of pride and dignity to many Arabs especially the younger generation who have been feeling torn between two cultures and afraid to represent their Arab ethnicity because of certain stereotypes and lack of understanding from their peer groups and larger community.
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[archive-e:862-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-07-25-p:letters]
