Throughout April, we're honoring the ancient Arab tradition of hakawatis, or storytellers, highlighting the writers, performers, and poets who are driving the conversation around what it means to be Arab American today—and celebrating the rich culture and histories of the diaspora.
“Poetry is the backbone of our language, culture, and heritage,” says rapper and poet Omar Offendum. Born in Saudi Arabia to Syrian parents and raised in Northern Virginia, he roots much of his own contemporary work in an ancient Arab art form: “We have an old and beautiful tradition of storytelling called hakawati in Damascus. People would walk into cafes and listen to an orator, often telling stories that were parables with lessons on life or with political, religious, and spiritual dimensions.”
Offendum’s own storytelling has taken him from Sydney to Helsinki, from Malaysia to Tunisia—and from a residency at the Shangri La Museum in Hawaii to the performances at a World Cup stadium in Doha. But perhaps his most ambitious project is the beautifully mounted Little Syria, which returns to New York this July with shows at Joe’s Pub. Alongside Palestinian American ethnomusicologist and oud musician Ronnie Malley and Syrian American DJ/producer Thanks Joey, he takes on the role of hakawati in a uniquely Arab American way, blending rap, poetry, old Arabic records, archival news reports, and original compositions to bring to life a thriving Arab American community in lower Manhattan a century ago. Offendum’s own family heirlooms make up the atmospheric set, and he worked with Palestinian designer Zaid Farouki on his outfit: a blue taffeta suit. “It’s a fabric that was developed in Baghdad in the 12th century,” he says. “Blue is the color of mourning in our region, and here I am telling you the story of this neighborhood that no longer exists.”
What also doesn’t exist is the Syria he once knew so well—Syrians in diaspora are cut off from their heritage, so preserving it in an Arab American context is essential. “It's bittersweet, I'll be honest,” he says of the Damascus room at Honolulu’s Shangri-La, a space honoring the city’s 18th- and 19th-century history. “The fact that I can't go back to Syria means that that's the closest I can get—7,000 miles away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”
Condé Nast Traveler spoke with Offendum about how he preserves age-old storytelling traditions in a uniquely American way, and some of the other talents defining contemporary Arab American culture today.
Omar Offendum in the Damascus Room at the LACMA in 2015
How did you find yourself bridging Arabic music with hip-hop?
I'd be studying Arabic poetry in school and listening to hip-hop on the bus, so that juxtaposition led to who I am today.
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