Category: Portraits & interviews
Written by Aneta Molenda New York City has served as the hub of the Syrian diaspora community for many decades. In the late 19th century, there was a strong and vibrant enclave known as Little Syria in Manhattan. Within a few short decades, Syrian-Americans created over 300 businesses and community organizations throughout New York City. Families who became financially stable started leaving Little Syria’s tenements and moving to Brooklyn neighborhoods, particularly around Atlantic Avenue. Similar to the fate of many...
Written by Eliza Relman Shahana Hanif was cheering on a phuchhka eating contest at a South Asian festival in Jackson Heights the day Bangladeshi-born Imam Alauddin Akonjee and Thara Miah were executed leaving their mosque across the borough in Ozone Park. A week later, Hanif stepped onto a makeshift stage at Avenue C Plaza in Kensington, Brooklyn to address a crowd of neighbors, public officials, mosque members, and rabbis from the neighboring Orthodox Jewish community. The large, somber,...
Written by Aneta Molenda Stories of immigration often leave out an important piece of the changing American landscape: the steadily growing number of second generation immigrants. There are more than 20 million adults who are US-born children of immigrants. There are another 16 million under the age of 18. Their stories are particularly important in a place like New York City, often hailed as a mecca of diversity where cultures collide, collaborate, and create. It is estimated that one out...
Written by Emily Barnard Each installment of the series “Home Away from Home” will feature a young woman immigrant and the place in New York City that reminds her most of her home country, providing comfort and easing the stresses of starting life in a new country. Steps from the 36 Avenue N-Train station in Astoria, Queens, there is a Brazilian market that Santos (São Paulo state) native Nara Roberta calls her home away from home. Rio Market sells the...
