Al Qalam Monument
A campaign for an independent scholarly review of the Al Qalam sign and for adding ʿAbd al-Masīḥ Ḥaddād to the monument’s central sculpture.
Objectives
- Establish an independently administered neutral academic committee to review the historical sign, including the questions raised by Haddad’s omission, recommend an accurate and balanced account of the community’s overlapping historical identities, and deliver recommendations to NYC Parks
- Add Haddad’s name in English and Arabic to the central Al Qalam sculpture and use the same transparent scholarly process to consider three additional Pen League members
Al Qalam is a major civic achievement honoring New York’s first Arabic-speaking literary community. Its historical interpretation should be durable enough to withstand political pressure and complete enough to represent the writers central to that history.
The Washington Street Historical Society commissioned the artwork. This campaign therefore addresses the Society directly and asks it to work with NYC Parks, Community Board 1, and independent scholars to repair the record.
What the sign implies
The sign’s wording makes Haddad’s omission conspicuous.
The revised sign introduces its selective roster with “Among these writers whose work is reflected in this artwork are …” It names Nadra Haddad and eight other writers and assigns them to Lebanon or Syria, but leaves out ʿAbd al-Masīḥ Ḥaddād. Haddad was born in Homs, then part of Ottoman Syria and now in present-day Syria, so his omission is conspicuous even within the sign’s own present-day national framework. Those attributions are themselves consequential and contestable interpretive choices. By sharpening national distinctions among selected writers while omitting a co-founder altogether, the revision compounds rather than resolves the problem in the historical record.
The next paragraph says the Pen League was “formed first in 1916 and reconstituted in 1920,” yet does not name the co-founder linked to that first formation. By acknowledging the 1916 formation without naming one of the two people responsible for it, the sign’s wording can read as a slight to Haddad’s foundational role—even if no slight was intended.
The two demands
1. A neutral academic committee for the sign
An independently administered committee of scholars of mahjar literature, migration, New York history, and the Ottoman Levant should review the interpretive sign, including the questions raised by the omission of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ Ḥaddād. The Washington Street Historical Society may participate and provide relevant records. The committee should recommend an accurate, balanced account of the community’s overlapping Ottoman Syrian, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Arab, and American contexts.
No single institution, government, or national constituency should control the wording. The committee should publish its source memorandum and draft, invite public review, consult the Washington Street Historical Society and Community Board 1, and deliver its recommendations to NYC Parks before fabrication.
2. Add Haddad to the central sculpture
Add Haddad’s name in English and Arabic to Al Qalam’s permanent central roster, following the treatment of the other writers. The roster need not correspond one-for-one with the authors whose quotations appear on the benches. Even if that alignment was an original premise, the sculpture’s list has an independent commemorative purpose.
Every monument requires a reasonable limit, but excluding a Pen League co-founder of Haddad’s significance is historically indefensible, particularly when the sculpture has ample space for additional names. The same transparent scholarly process could reasonably recommend three other Pen League members as well.
Why Haddad belongs in the record
Haddad was a founding member of al-Rābiṭa al-Qalamiyya, editor of the influential New York Arabic newspaper al-Sāʾiḥ, and author of the 1921 collection Ḥikāyāt al-Mahjar. Peer-reviewed scholarship describes the collection as a unique contribution to mahjar literature.
The Society’s current Al Qalam guide names other writers while omitting Haddad.
A missing translation can produce a missing author
Haddad’s absence may have been easier to sustain because one of his major works was not available to English-language readers. That is a possibility, not a documented explanation for the monument’s choices.
This project removes that access barrier. Readers can now examine Haddad’s preface and all thirty-two stories, search the complete text, and download open editions.
Read and download Tales of the Mahjar
This is an AI-assisted working translation prepared from the Arabic text and supplied with editorial notes. AI translation is not perfect, and the edition does not claim the authority of a peer-reviewed critical edition. Corrections are welcome.
A standard for independent review
- Convene independently. Include scholars of the Ottoman Levant, Arab American migration, New York immigration, and mahjar literature, with Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian expertise. The Washington Street Historical Society may participate and provide records.
- Document the record. Publish the sources behind every demographic number, institutional name, historical label, and writer attribution.
- Draft for visitors. Distinguish period labels from present-day countries, date geographic claims, and explain the historical context that produced the name “Little Syria.”
- Review in public. Treat the July 2026 wording as interim, release the proposed draft publicly, consult the Washington Street Historical Society and Community Board 1, and deliver the recommendations to NYC Parks before final fabrication.
Send the request to the Washington Street Historical Society
To the Washington Street Historical Society: I support a complete and credible Al Qalam monument. Please support and participate in an independently administered neutral academic committee of scholars of mahjar literature, migration, and public history to review the interpretive sign, including the questions raised by ʿAbd al-Masīḥ Ḥaddād’s omission, and recommend an accurate, balanced account of the community’s overlapping historical identities. The committee should deliver its recommendations to NYC Parks. Please also support adding Haddad’s name in English and Arabic to the central Al Qalam sculpture, following the treatment of the other writers. Its central roster need not match the bench-quotation authors exactly, and the same transparent scholarly process should consider three other Pen League members.
Email this request to the Washington Street Historical Society →
This uses the Society’s general contact email, published on its official contact page.
Evidence and campaign documents
- Peer-reviewed study in Mashriq & Mahjar
- Washington Street Historical Society’s current Al Qalam guide
- Hindawi Foundation Arabic source edition
- Original and revised sign text comparison
- Download the four-page sign comparison prepared for Community Board 1
- Download the Community Board 1 presentation
The presentation is dated for the July 21, 2026 Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee meeting and is described here as prepared for that meeting until it has taken place. Linked institutions are cited as sources; citation does not imply endorsement of this campaign. The presentation and sign comparison document the campaign’s analysis and are not substitutes for independent peer review.
This campaign page and translation publication were developed with research, translation, document-organization, and editorial support from Codex. The Washington Street Advocacy Group reviewed and is responsible for the published content.
Related Updates
Why We Are Undertaking the Al Qalam Campaign
After careful consideration, WSAG has decided that the concerns surrounding Haddad’s omission from Al Qalam require a public campaign.
New Al Qalam Sign Text and Full Diff
A revised Al Qalam sign is now posted at Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza, and WSAG has published a side-by-side diff of the original and revised text.