Blog

By Julia Yun At the PECO Family Jams Event, I was able to be a part of the artistic collaboration between Al-Bustan and Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, April 10, 2022. The participating staff and I guided visitors to take on an engaging craft, Zellij, or الزليج, a traditional art form of…

By: Bridget Peak After a year of remote learning, Al-Bustan’s After-School Arab Arts program returned to the classroom this past fall. While I believe that authentic connections and learning can occur over a screen, I was so excited and, admittedly, more than a bit relieved to be working in classrooms this year. If the benefit…

Hello, my name is Joy. I am an Art Therapy student at Temple University, and I spent 10 weeks volunteering with Al-Bustan in the Fall. I spent about two hours every Monday at their Hub location working closely with the art students and assisting the wonderful teaching artist Lisa. Each week students would have a…

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, I would often find my curiosity sparked by Arab culture. When I would leave the company compound I grew up on to go to downtown Rahima, I would see signs reading “tailor” or “jewelry” in both Arabic and English languages and I would feel thankful that there was an English translation. Due to a variety of reasons, I was unable to learn the language while living there. After returning…

On October 23rd I got to watch as Al-Bustan hosted a virtual concert titled “The Songs We Carry: Middle Eastern and Venezuelan Memories and Melodies” featuring musicians Miriam Elhajli and Hafez Kotain. For those that do not know, Miriam Elhajli is a Venezuelan-Moroccan-American composer and vocalist whose work is influenced by American Folk, modern Jazz,…