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Financial District gets a colorful monument honoring its roots as ‘Little Syria’
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 30, 2026
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Catalina Gonella / Gothamist
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 30, 2026
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A newly unveiled permanent public artwork in Lower Manhattan that was more than a decade in the making pays homage to the historic “Little Syria” community that once thrived there.
The city parks department on Thursday revealed the multipart monument, named “Al Qalam: Poets in the Park,” by French Moroccan artist Sara Ouhaddou. The piece, which is located inside Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza in the Financial District, honors what officials described as New York’s first Arabic-speaking community, which took root from the 1880s to the 1940s, and its literary legacy.
The monument's centerpiece is a bright yellow 3D sculpture — a visual representation of the Arabic word “al-qalam,” or “the pen,” in an abstract alphabet created by Ouhaddou. The piece is covered in mosaics, along with plaques naming the writers it honors.
Two long, curved mosaic-covered backrests in the same shade of bright yellow were added to existing stone benches located south of the sculpture. They showcase excerpts from the work of nine writers in Ouhaddou’s colorful calligraphy, including Elia Abu Madi, Nasib Arida and Kahlil Gibran.
The Washington Street Historical Society, which championed the artwork, also created an augmented-reality app to accompany the installation, allowing visitors to point their phones at the mosaic and hear or read the excerpt in Arabic and English.
“This community was one of the first who really questioned the idea of translation, and it's a core question when you're an immigrant: translating the culture you come from,” Ouhaddou said at the unveiling. “So very quickly I asked myself, ‘OK, now this young generation, us from the diaspora, how will we translate everything we inherited?’ And so this is how I came up with the idea of creating my own alphabet, abstracts, impossible to read, really thinking of the future and thinking of being in the legacy of the poets, legacy of the artists that were here.”
Sara Ouhaddou at the unveiling of her artwork on April 30, 2026
Catalina Gonella / Gothamist
The neighborhood was home to a flourishing community of authors and poets, including the local writers association al-Rabitah al-Qalamiyah*,* which heavily shaped modern Arabic literature, according to the historical society. Little Syria was razed in the 1940s to make way for massive construction projects, including the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, according to the historical society.
The project was first conceived in 2011 by members of what would become the Washington Street Historical Society, according to the organization, which aims to restore Little Syria’s history. Two years later, the organization was chartered and the city announced plans to expand the park following damage caused by Superstorm Sandy. Then in 2017, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs held a competition for artists, which Ouhaddou won.
“ It's completely and utterly thrilling,” said Linda Jacobs, president of the historical society. “None of us quite really believed that it would actually happen since it was such a long, long, long process that took forever. And there were many, many obstacles, not the least of which was COVID, but with everybody’s help, we got it done.”
Mosaic-covered backrests for stone benches are part of the piece.
Catalina Gonella / Gothamist
The artwork joins the parks department’s more than 800 permanent monuments in green spaces across the city, about 250 of which are sculptures, according to officials.
“It’s incredibly important to be adding to that collection now more than ever, to really ask ourselves, ‘Who is art for and what spaces can art be found in?’ Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura said at the unveiling. “The answer, at least for the parks department, is everywhere, art is for everyone.”
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new york city
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Catalina Gonella
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