YALLA NYC!

Spice Traders are coming to @yafabrooklyn in Brooklyn next week. Yafa will keep us sippin, Nawal will be slinging falafel, For Your Own Viewing Pleasure + Sanad Collective will be updating your wardrobe and Lamsa’s got your one of a kind handbag from Lebanon. Come hang with the crew. We’re excited to meet our East coast fam 🖤❤️💚

June 27th 6-9pm
4415 4th Ave BK, NY 11220

Join us Wednesday April 24 from 5-7 pm for "No Small Talk," an evening of meaningful conversation and building community. No small talk, just real, thought-provoking dialogue that leads to genuine connections. Come with open minds and hearts and get to know your neighbors over a meal or hot beverage. Let’s spark conversations that matter. Hosted by Cenithia & Carmen.

RSVP here:

Join us Friday, January 26 from 6-8pm, at Yafa Café for a reading and teach-in for Palestine facilitated by Aamir Azhar. This event will include readings by Palestinian and Arab writers of all genres, as well as a teach-in on connected struggles in Palestine and the United States.

Behind all violence is history, and behind history, there are people who have shaped, and been shaped by it. A better world is possible.

THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT. PLEASE RSVP AT THE LINK BELOW.

https://partiful.com/e/Jqzv7gB6h3ieqT2XQR4N

Join us Wednesday January 10 from 5-7 pm for "No Small Talk," an evening of meaningful conversation and building community. No small talk, just real, thought-provoking dialogue that leads to genuine connections. Come with open minds and hearts and get to know your neighbors over a meal or hot beverage. Let’s spark conversations that matter.

RSVP here:

If you've ever caught yourself mesmerized by Islamic geometric patterns and thought "HOW on earth do they do that?"... Now is your chance to learn how! Whether you’re an experienced artist or someone who’s never picked up a ruler and compass before, you can become a geometer for a day and learn the skills needed to create a painting inspired by this ancient art form.

Our workshop facilitator will guide participants as they draw a rosette pattern that shows up across the Islamic world from Granada, Spain to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. As we draw, we’ll explore the historical, artistic, and mathematical context of the pattern.

Want to join but have kids who need entertainment? We’ll have coloring pages of the pattern to keep everyone busy. All equipment and materials will be provided during the workshop, but feel free to bring markers, paints, or other media that you like working with.

Our facilitator, Laura Alcantara-Wooley, is a Sunset Park resident who loves exploring her faith through art. By day, she represents immigrants as a public defender; by night, she enjoys cooking, growing, and crafting anything that can by DIY’d.

Registration is required due to limited space.

Sunset Social is Yafa’s bi-monthly community gathering that celebrates poetry. In our second social, we will host a workshop with Kamelya Omayma Youssef and Jenna Hamed, where we will make books of poems that already exist in your own diary pages. As we find ways to say what needs to be said out loud, we speak to ourselves in private. We have the right to practice expression in the meantime.

In this workshop, we will guide participants to assemble poems in the practice of the fragmented journal, in which we will seek to explore omission and pronounced silence as a tool of agency. We will play along the spectrum of visibility and non, in fugitive SWANA girl fashion, an art we have mastered for as long as secrets exist.

We invite participants to bring their private journals with them (yes, your diaries, with deep respect for confidentiality), as well as material to collage. Together we will explore the poetic space along the spectrum of private and public expression, guided by sound, breath, and urgencies, disrupting linearity and interrogating it. In the same session, we will guide writers to make books structured by the poems they contain (and not the other way around). We will prepare to make accordion books but participants can also practice their own book forms, as fit their texts. Materials provided include ink pens, typewriters, watercolor, pastels, colored waxed thread, collage materials.

Participants should bring excerpts from their journals as well as any other collage material or ephemera they may want to incorporate into their book.

Kamelya Omayma Youssef [poet] teaches, writes, edits, works, and lives in NYC. She is the author of A book with a hole in it (Wendy’s Subway). Jenna Hamed is an artist and art worker based in Queens.

Due to limited seating capacity, registration is required.

Join us on Saturday (12/3) from 6:00pm to 9:00pm for the Yafa x Sunset Botánica Winter Market. Enjoy a mix of vibrant art pieces, decorative and functional ceramics, locally baked goods and much more. Shop local, support your community and pick up the gifts you need for everyone on your list.

The evening will be accompanied by complimentary cocktails from Sunset Botánica. We can’t wait to see you at our winter market.

Happy Holidays!

At Yafa, we take pride in our hospitality. In collaborating with other cuisines, we continuously celebrate different flavors and traditions from our part of the world.

We will come together with members of the Iranian community in Brooklyn to bring you our version of Persian flavors on Saturday, November 19th. Throughout the night, you will enjoy the creations being made inside our kitchen. An ode to Iran in these particular times is our way of standing with the women of Iran. All proceeds from the night will go to supporting United 4 Iran.

Chef Hakim Sulaimani and guest hostess extraordinaire Ariane Mallon will ensure our Persian version is a night to remember.

What to expect | to drink:

SAFFRON GOLD MARTINI (Gin, dolin dry, saffron, orange bitters)

LIMOO JOON MARGARITA (Mezcal limoo amani, cointreau, grapefruit, tajin salt rim)

THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (Vodka, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice)

SHARBATEH ALBALOO MOCKTAIL (Persian sour cherry, sparkling water)

What to expect | to eat:

WELCOME: Nuts and Dried Fruits

STARTERS: Zeytoon Parvardeh, Sangak Bread, Borani Dip, Mirza Ghasemi Dip, Salade Shirazi

MAIN COURSE: Pomegranate Walnut Fesenjoon Chicken with Saffron Rice. Asheh Reshteh (Veg)

DESSERT & CHAI: Ahmad Cardamom Tea & Pistachio Saffron, Baklava Ice Cream with Bastani Wafer

Need to know:

This menu is specially designed for this collaborative event

There are limited seatings and no refunds

Tickets are priced per person. One ticket is one seat at the table

Ticket price include a three course meal and three drinks — there will be non-alcoholic options.

For this event, we are unable to accommodate any dietary restrictions

Don’t expect to leave after dinner, because that is when the Persian dance party starts

Persian Version is made possible with the support of The Infatuation.

For questions or inquiries, DM us or email ibi@yafabrooklyn.com

Join us on Saturday (10/29) from 7pm and onwards to celebrate the New York launch of Picture an Arab man, the debut photobook by Iraqi Canadian photographer Tamara Abdul Hadi.

With select images from the portrait series of the same name, this monograph presents the viewer with an alternative visual representation of the contemporary Arab man by Abdul Hadi and a reflection on how the Arab man might be seen – reframed and reimagined. The book features a foreword by Randa Jarrar and comes with a written contribution by one of three men photographed within the book- Yassin Alsalman, Omar Offendum and Hamed Sinno.

Join us for an evening of giving back on Saturday, September 24 at Yafa Cafe in Sunset Park, brooklyn — featuring the best of Ukraine: Vareniki, Nalysnyki, and other delicacies — Uki-flavors-inspired cocktails, great wine, beer, and music. All proceeds from the night go towards helping the rebuild of Kharkiv University of Humanities in Kharkiv, Ukraine.