Festivities for Arab American Heritage Month

Ellen Jordan ’26 in News | April 19, 2024

As the hollow beat of a drum echoed throughout the auditorium of the Kirby Arts Center, a quartet of dancers, sporting traditional Arabic dress, emerged onto the stage. Members of the Afrah Events dance group proceeded to perform the Dabke dance, a traditional Arabic folk dance.

Soon enough, after being invited onstage by the dancers, audience members began to join in on the festivities, and the stage became swarmed with students and faculty alike, hand-in-hand, dancing to the beat.

The performance from Afrah Events marked the beginning of Lawrenceville’s celebrations for Arab American Heritage Month (AAHM). AAHM, declared by President Joe Biden in 2021, aims to honor Arabic culture and traditions and recognize the contributions made by Arab Americans.

This year marked the first time that Lawrenceville will be hosting events to commemorate AAHM. Lawrenceville’s Office of Multicultural Affairs mainly planned these events, collaborating with various affinity groups on campus. In AAHM’s case, the Office chose the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) group to lead the festivities. Currently, SWANA is composed of students with backgrounds from countries such as Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

SWANA student leaders Clara Khabbaz ’26 and Isabella Danker ’26 originally joined the affinity group to connect with their culture on a deeper level and to meet students who share similar heritage and background.

“I joined [SWANA] because [the group] represented the region I am from, and I wanted the opportunity to share my culture with my peers,” Danker explained.

Khabbaz echoed Danker’s sentiments and additionally pointed out that the small size of the affinity group enabled its members to connect on a more personal level.

“I think that because [SWANA is] such a small affinity group we have a very close community, so we’re always there to support each other… it’s just a place where we can all share our culture and find community through our shared heritage,” she elaborated.

During this past winter, members of SWANA reached out to the Office of Multicultural Affairs to inquire about the possibility of hosting events on campus in celebration of AAHM. Upon getting the green light from the Office to organize events for AAHM, members of SWANA met weekly to prepare for the celebrations to come.

Following this school-wide performance, SWANA will continue to lead the celebration of AAHM at Lawrenceville with Arabic desserts in the Abbott Dining Hall on April 19 and a Lunch and Dialogue Session in the McGraw Reading Room on April 24. “I think that dessert night is just a great opportunity to show off amazing desserts from our [Arabic] culture, and I’m so excited to share my heritage with the Lawrenceville community,” Khabbaz added.

Danker additionally was in full praise of the upcoming dessert night and hopes that through having the opportunity to sample Arabic dishes and to learn about Arabic culture, Lawrentians will have the opportunity to gain greater insight into what being Arabic truly means.

“I feel like [the dessert night] gives people an opportunity to know that Middle Eastern culture is more than just like the conflict that’s going on [in Israel and Palestine] right now and I feel that [the dessert night] will get people to engage with a culture they may not be familiar with,” Danker concluded.

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Festivities for Arab American Heritage Month