AL-BUSTAN NEWS
Covering Philadelphia’s Southwest Asian and North African Communities
‘Black Arab’ Comedian Abbas Wahab Forges His Own Path
By Elissa Odeh
Wahab still remembers his first stand-up show in Ferndale, Michigan: “They gave me five minutes, so I wrote three minutes of jokes and figured the other two would be filled with laughter,” he said. “Let’s just say it didn’t quite work out that way.”
The Dance Troupe Teaching Dabke—and Cultural Survival—in the Diaspora
By Ragad Ahmad
For nearly five decades, El Funoun has understood that keeping Palestinian tradition alive and building upon it constitutes a political act in a context where Palestinians’ very existence remains contested.
How International Students Are Responding to Campus Bans Against Palestine Solidarity (Video)
By Kenza Bousseloub
International students in Philadelphia face growing risks for supporting Palestine. One organizer shares why they continue to speak out.
Rayan Elnayal is Building Futures in Her Art and Her Profession
By Ben Bennett
Informed by her architectural training and her Sudanese heritage, Elnayal’s art envisions a different, personal kind of futurism in Sudan. And at Studio Black, she doesn’t just imagine what a better future for designers might be, she creates it.
Philly-Based Barakka Bridges Cultures Through Their Music
By Elissa Odeh
What began as background music for diners soon evolved into Barakka, a multicultural band that fuses Turkish folk, Anatolian rock, Middle Eastern classics and Western instrumentation.
Art as Resistance | Lebanese Comic-Journalist Tracy Chahwan Wants Her Work to Bear Witness
By Lauren Abunassar
The insistence on storytelling as testimony of survival, and of survival as a defiant act, is a vibrant throughline in much of Chahwan’s work.
Al-Bustan News Team
Editor
Nisa Qazi
Current Journalism Fellows
Gawhara Abou-eid
Amna Khalafalla
Columnists
Lauren Abunassar
Joseph Fahim