program > under construction
Omar Offendum
Little Syria: In Concert
Presented by Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater
photos: Sachyn Mital
“A supremely gifted storyteller with considerable swagger” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Set in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood once known as Little Syria (1880~1940), this genre-bridging performance – spanning Hip-Hop, Arabic instrumentation, and ḥakawātī oral storytelling traditions of the Levant – Little Syria reimagines early 20th-century life in the heart of Arab-America. Just south of the current World Trade Center, this once vibrant cultural hub for New York’s Middle Eastern immigrants was home to artists and intellectuals including Ameen Rihani and Kahlil Gibran. This concert performance of Little Syria, Omar Offendum’s creative retelling of a tragically underrepresented historical narrative, draws an audience attuned to stories of immigration, xenophobia, and the ever-evolving American dream.
Note: This production is performed in a bilingual mix of English and Arabic.
SCHEDULE
Sunday, January 12 @ 6:00pm
Run time: 90 minutes
CREDITS
to be announced
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Omar Offendum is a rapper, spoken word poet, and theatrical storyteller. He was named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist and Arab America Foundation “40 Under 40” award recipient. His off-Broadway hit production Little Syria has sold out venues across America, including at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, CAP-UCLA, and Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in NYC.
CREATION + FUNDING
This project received partial support from Joe’s Pub as part of their New York Voices artist commissioning program. New York Voices is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
