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Mohammad Zuhoor-ul-Haqq, Spiritual Street Vendor
“M.D. Zuhoor-ul-Haqq is my name,” says the man in the shalwar kameez, his spine as straight as the Arabic letter alif. “M.D.? Are you a doctor?” “No, miss. M.D. is short for Mohammad,” he clarifies,...
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New DREAMs: Jeff, 20
Part 4 of an Open City series profiling undocumented New Yorkers. (Click to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) In a few weeks, Jeff Louie will stake his future on an immigration form. Twenty years old,...
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YouTube Channel “Sameer’s Eats” Puts Halal Food on the Culinary Map
Halal food/Courtesy of Sameer’s Eats For Muslim Americans who observe Islam’s dietary guidelines, sampling a new menu poses a unique problem: not all restaurants prepare and serve food that is halal....
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The Story Behind Great Taste’s ‘Five Dumplings for a Dollar’ Deal
Sunset Park is often cited as an example of how immigrant entrepreneurs can revitalize a dying neighborhood. In the 1970s, Eighth Avenue was home to empty storefronts; now, it’s a bustling commercial...
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VIDEO: Immigrants Behind the Wheel
Kalsang Dorgi, is a 35 year-old Tibetan immigrant (from India) who has driven a cab for the past four years. He is trying to change his career from driving cabs to accounting after he finishes an...
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Ramadan: 5 Commonly Asked Questions
Editor’s Note: Today marks the midway point of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim observance when fasting is key. Open City’s Nadia Q. Ahmad enlightened us last year with this tongue and cheek FAQ. This...
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Designer’s Choice: A Conversation with Mary Ping
Mary Ping’s fashions are clever and sharp-witted, humorous, and anthropological from the inside out. Her clothes and designs critique the fashion world through jokes, nuanced readings, and an...
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Turkey Pho Sunday
[Editor’s Note: When we received a text from Phu Diep in Washington, DC that read “Happy Thanksgiving! At home with the fam. Mmmm turkey…and turkey pho on Sunday!” we had to request the recipe. This is...
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Jah Guide Me Through
[Editor’s Note: This is Open City’s first installment of “Lyrics To Go,” a collaboration between writer Rishi Nath and multimedia journalist Nabil Rahman. The series features conversations with...
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Remembering in Vinyl
I’m running several minutes late. When I feel the elevator jimmy to a stop and the doors creak open onto WFMU’s fourth floor, I recognize Nate Hun immediately. He’s at a table in the middle of the...
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Write Like a Fugitive
A few weeks before his book, Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York Hyperghetto, was released in October, Eric Tang sat down for a brown-bag lunch with staff and interns of the Asian American...
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‘I Am a Sex Worker’
I met A Lan one hot summer afternoon in front of a bakery on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing. She is an undocumented immigrant, working in a massage parlor in Queens’ Chinatown. I was walking the streets...
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Giving up on the “American Dream”?
I see them sell stuff on the street – toys, fruits, skirts, shirts, etc. I have heard them speak to their customers, and they hardly speak English. This daily scene plays out on the street of...
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New DREAMs: Lis, 24
Part 1 of an Open City series profiling undocumented New Yorkers. Today, June 25: an anxious morning for Supreme Court watchers and anyone interested in immigration. The decision was announced, key...
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Searching for Soca Paradise: An Afternoon With DJ Rekha
4:51 p.m. 111th Street J Train Station, Richmond Hill, Queens A mint square materializes on the screen of my phone, bearing a message. Cool five stops away. The text is from Rekha Malhotra—DJ Rekha. It...
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Little Pakistan’s Mission Man
Shahid Khan has two faces. In Little Pakistan, he goes about his day-to-day life blending in with his south central Brooklyn neighbors, stopping to shake hands or nod an as-salaam-alaikum to those he...
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The Education of an Immigration Lawyer
I first met Pertinderjit (Pert) Hora in 2008 when I was leading a city-wide campaign against bias-based bullying as a community organizer at the Sikh Coalition. At the time she was an outspoken teacher...
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The Free-Spirited Journey of A Taxi Union Organizer
Javaid Tariq sits in the kitchen of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) office in Long Island City in Queens. With his long grey ponytail, three earrings in his left ear, and a choker necklace,...
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The Right to Stay
I wait for Jong-Min You in a small Asian bakery close to the Bay Parkway subway station in Bensonhurst. It’s an early summer evening in May and Bensonhurst is lively and bustling with Chinese-run fresh...
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