Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Asad Dandia

The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian @janus.bsky.social · 3d

i will defend to the death my country, the New York City Subway System 🫡

Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 3d

Happy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 3d

Happy 121st birthday to the NYC Subway, opened on this day in 1904. Like the city itself, you can’t truly love it until there are days where you hate it. But I will always be grateful for it every one of those days.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 3d

13,000 people attended tonight’s rally. I’m sorry to be always be that New York Exceptionalist, but this could not happen anywhere else, and no mayoral candidate in modern US history could do it except one of our own.

And what a blessing to witness it all.

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Laura Tamman @lauratamman.bsky.social · 4d

Life is pretty rough for our Muslim friends on the other site, so I’m reupping this piece on one of the very greatest New Yorkers @asadfromnyc.bsky.social to try and get him to spend more time here, where it’s much more sane.

THE CITY @thecity.nyc · May 27

Historian Asad Dandia, a city character in his own right, is showing the history of Muslims in New York while also trying to help elect the city’s first Muslim mayor.

buff.ly/HMbY2zn

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 3d

May Allah bless and protect you always, my friend.

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Rusty Zimmerman @rustyzimmerman.bsky.social · 6d

My man @asadfromnyc.bsky.social 🙌🏼🙌🏼🔥🔥🙏🏼🙏🏼😌😌

Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 6d

“For Asad Dandia, an urban historian, Mamdani’s success to date is a culmination of 400 years of Muslim history in the city, stretching back to the enslaved Africans brought to New York, about 30 percent of whom were Muslim.” www.aljazeera.com/news/longfor...

NYC working-class Muslims see progress in Mamdani, but policies win votes

History-making run met with pride, prejudice, but many Muslim New Yorkers more focused on message of affordability.

www.aljazeera.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 6d

“‘We could not hide that we are Muslim,’ Dandia said, referring to himself and Mamdani. ‘Yet we do not anchor our politics on identitarian terms. Adequate housing is a ‘Muslim issue’, public transit is a ‘Muslim issue’, universal childcare is a ‘Muslim issue.’” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

From scapegoats to city hall: how New York Muslims built power and shaped Zohran Mamdani

Muslim New Yorkers have steadily become a political force amid post-9/11 Islamophobic sentiment. Mamdani is their most accomplished expression

www.theguardian.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 6d

Such kind words from a scholar of New York City! One day we will co-curate a walking tour together based on your book! :)

prithi @prithik.bsky.social · 10d

Loved seeing this @asadfromnyc.bsky.social Shout out to this wonderful CUNY colleague

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

www.thenation.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 6d

“For Asad Dandia, an urban historian, Mamdani’s success to date is a culmination of 400 years of Muslim history in the city, stretching back to the enslaved Africans brought to New York, about 30 percent of whom were Muslim.” www.aljazeera.com/news/longfor...

NYC working-class Muslims see progress in Mamdani, but policies win votes

History-making run met with pride, prejudice, but many Muslim New Yorkers more focused on message of affordability.

www.aljazeera.com

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ProfKFH @profkfh.bsky.social · 9d

““I want people to understand that the city progressively unfolded through these struggles, and the best way to do that, I think, is to walk the streets and to see the sites of contestation,” he added. “The streets of New York bear witness to our labor.”

Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 14d

Just over one year after launching my own walking tour company, my work now has a feature profile in THE NATION:

“I don’t want New York to be seen as just a collection of monuments and structures. I want it to be understood as a collective of stories and people.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

www.thenation.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 12d

“Dandia takes New York back from the systems that surveilled him. In East Harlem, he chronicles the rise of Muslim Boricuas. In FiDi, he traces the forced displacement of Syrian émigrés. In upper Manhattan, he follows the specter of Malcolm X.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

www.thenation.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 14d

Thank you both! Indeed New York is a paradox and we are always confronted with the decision to choose where we stand :)

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 14d

This is both everything good about New York and everything bad in New York, in one single story: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

www.thenation.com

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 14d

Just over one year after launching my own walking tour company, my work now has a feature profile in THE NATION:

“I don’t want New York to be seen as just a collection of monuments and structures. I want it to be understood as a collective of stories and people.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

www.thenation.com

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Reposted by Asad Dandia

Molly Crabapple @mollycrabapple.bsky.social · 17d

Back at my favorite print lab

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City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · Sep 19

Through his tour company New York Narratives,
@asadfromnyc.bsky.social tells the untold histories of Muslims and other New Yorkers. “I want people to know not just the stories of success and survival but also the stories of struggle,” he said.

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC - City Limits

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high places.

citylimits.org

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Guides Association of NYC (GANYC) @gaofnyc.bsky.social · Sep 19

GANYC member Asad Dandia ( @asadfromnyc.bsky.social ) is profiled in City Limits, on telling the stories of New York’s past, and helping shape its future.

citylimits.org/take-a-walk-...

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC - City Limits

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high places.

citylimits.org

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · Aug 26

I had a lovely meeting today with the Brooklyn President Antonio Reynoso, where we spoke about the history of Muslim Brooklyn at Ruhani Cafe on Atlantic Avenue.

Any opportunity to enhance the cultural literacy and political education of our elected leaders is one I’ll take. Thank you Antonio.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · Aug 23

Spoke to NPR’s Bronx affiliate today after a 3-hour “Muslim Harlem” tour (yeah I make you get in your steps) about today’s NYC and my forecast of the city’s future based on my work. The final audio interview should be out in a few weeks!

Email [email protected] to book!

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Aug 19

At (another) Hampton’s fundraiser with Republican donors on Saturday, Andrew Cuomo said it plainly: he’s expecting Trump’s help to defeat us in November.

“I feel good about that,” Cuomo said.

New Yorkers won’t.

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Ella Yurman @ellayurman.bsky.social · Aug 17

what is UP!! ICYMI we made a brand new @goingdowntv.bsky.social featuring @asadfromnyc.bsky.social, Joseph Lymous, Ella Jane, and GG! We talk about the catholic church, the american south, the history of new york city, and stephen colbert 😎 youtu.be/0XntCWuhTe8?...

Getting to God's Country Ft. Joseph Lymous, Ella Jane, & Asad Dandia | GOING DOWN

YouTube video by Going Down with Ella Yurman

youtu.be

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · Aug 16

One year ago today, this man called to meet me to discuss a big plan of his. A long shot, we thought. One year later, his work has paid off. He won’t be able to walk like this in Greenwich Village anytime soon, but the plan was a success.

Lock in, Mr. Mayor.

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Nausheen Husain @nausheen.bsky.social · Aug 10

Yesterday, my research team and I had the privilege to host a walking tour and oral history workshop with @asadfromnyc.bsky.social. It was exactly the mix of history, journalism, community and critique I've been wanting to put together through my work with @lendercenter.bsky.social.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · Aug 2

the free press is completely unhinged. this is about the NYT initially omitting from its story about starvation in Gaza that one of the profiled children has a pre-existing medical condition. what is the "damage" what was done by that omission, exactly?

The Free Press @thefp.com · Jul 31

The paper’s blockbuster story on Gaza starvation gets a correction. But the damage has already been done.

Mistakes at ‘The New York Times’ Only Go in One Direction

The paper’s blockbuster story on Gaza starvation gets a correction. But the damage has already been done.

bit.ly

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · Aug 2

“Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud.”

Happy 101st Birthday to my fellow Born-New Yorker James Baldwin. He was right about us.

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