Editor's Note
Tomorrow, Sufi songs in a noodle shop in Gramercy. July keeps delivering.
Tomorrow: Umer Piracha performs Pakistani Sufi songs at Beef Up Noodle, a Chinese noodle restaurant in Gramercy, 3 to 5pm. That sentence is not a typo. It's the premise of a recurring series called From Zayton to New York -- and Zayton is the ancient Arab name for Quanzhou, the Silk Road port city where Chinese and Islamic traders converged for centuries. Vol.14 of the series. The Words section explains why this matters.
July 18: DJ Rekha at Flushing Meadows (free), Barzakh Mehfil at Saint John's in the Village (7pm), and Sharam Nahi! comedy at Cheeni in Brooklyn (8pm). Three ways to spend a Saturday. July 24: Fatimah Asghar reads from her new collection Daughter of the Mountains at Judson Memorial Church. RSVP at mcnallyjackson.com.
-- The Editors, Bollywood.NYC
This Week
Tomorrow, Jul 11: Umer Piracha, Beef Up Noodle, Gramercy, 3-5pm.
Sat, Jul 18: DJ Rekha at Flushing Meadows, 5pm (free). Barzakh Mehfil, Saint John's in the Village, 7pm. Sharam Nahi! at Cheeni Brooklyn, 8pm.
Thu, Jul 24: Fatimah Asghar at Judson Memorial Church, 7pm. Ronobir Lahiri at Sultan Room Rooftop, Bushwick.
01
Editor's Pick
Poetry
Fatimah Asghar and Chani Nicholas, ft. Angel Nafis and Safiya Sinclair
Thursday, July 24
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7 PM
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Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Manhattan
Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani-American Muslim poet and filmmaker. Her debut collection If They Come for Us was a National Book Award longlist finalist. Her web series Brown Girls was Emmy-nominated. Her new collection, Daughter of the Mountains: Poems of Homecoming, is out this month. She reads from it at Judson Memorial Church on July 24 alongside astrologer and author Chani Nicholas, with featured readings by poets Angel Nafis and Safiya Sinclair, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for her memoir How to Say Babylon.
Four writers in a Washington Square church on a Thursday evening. RSVP is required. Go.
RSVP -- McNally Jackson
02
Sufi
Tomorrow
Umer Piracha: From Zayton to New York Vol.14 -- Beef Up Noodle
Tomorrow, Saturday July 11
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3 to 5 PM
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Beef Up Noodle, 352 3rd Avenue, Gramercy
Zayton is the ancient Arab name for Quanzhou, the Chinese port city where merchants from the Islamic world and the Silk Road converged for centuries. Qawwali and khayal from Multan -- one of the oldest cities in South Asia -- performed inside a noodle restaurant in Gramercy, New York, in 2026. That is the premise of this series, now in its 14th edition. Umer Piracha is a New York-based Sufi vocalist trained within the 700-year Qawwali lineage of the Saami Brothers. His sold-out debuts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center were featured on NPR. Presented by See See Records. Tickets refundable up to 7 days before.
Tickets -- Eventbrite
03
Comedy
Sharam Nahi! An Evening of Comedy and South Asian Bites -- Cheeni
Saturday, July 18
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8 PM
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Cheeni, 485 Tompkins Ave, Brooklyn (Bed-Stuy)
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$15
Sharam Nahi means No Shame. Hosted by Kesav Wable, with a dessert takeover by Black Zaffron. Wine, beer, and South Asian snacks from Cheeni. $15. Saturday July 18 at 8pm in Bed-Stuy -- the same evening as DJ Rekha at Flushing Meadows and Barzakh Mehfil at Saint John's in the Village. Pick your July 18 deliberately.
Tickets -- Resy
Wed, Jul 23
Kahat Kabir: BRM Concert and Jam -- Barzakh Cafe, Brooklyn
Kahat Kabir means "Kabir speaks" -- the 15th-century mystic poet whose dohas dissolve the line between Hindu and Islamic devotion. Brooklyn Raga Massive and Barzakh Cafe co-present this concert and jam at Barzakh, 147 Utica Ave, on Wednesday July 23, 8 to 10pm. The night before Fatimah Asghar at Judson Memorial Church and Ronobir Lahiri at Sultan Room Rooftop. A strong 48 hours.
Tickets -- Viewcy
Thu, Jul 24
Ronobir Lahiri: Ronobir Live in Brooklyn -- Sultan Room Rooftop
Sitarist Ronobir Lahiri -- described as the Jimi Hendrix of the Sitar -- performs on the Sultan Room Rooftop in Bushwick. He invented the Dautar, a hybrid of guitar, sitar, and cello. He has worked with Katy Perry, Ziggy Marley, and Lil Nas X, and appeared on This Is Us and Grey's Anatomy. The rooftop has elevator access. 21+. Same evening as Fatimah Asghar at Judson Memorial Church -- two ways to spend July 24.
Tickets -- DICE
Sat, Aug 1
2026 Bengali Film Festival -- SVA Theatre, Manhattan
4th annual Bengali Film Festival, presented by Bengalis of New York. SVA Theatre, 333 W 23rd St, Chelsea. Bengali cinema, filmmaker Q&As, and the Bengali Met Gala red carpet element. Saturday August 1. Tickets via Posh.
Tickets -- Posh
Sun, Aug 2 -- Selling Fast
Vishal-Shekhar: Superhit Tour -- Tilles Center, Greenvale, NY
Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, LIU Post, Greenvale, Long Island. Sunday August 2, 6pm. From $49. Selling fast. Day after the Bengali Film Festival.
Tickets -- Sulekha
Fri Aug 7 + Sat Aug 8
Hans Raj Hans: Live Sufi Night -- HK Hall, Manhattan
Punjabi Sufi and folk artist, former Member of Parliament. Live Sufi concert followed by Bollywood afterparty. HK Hall, 605 W 48th St. August 7 and 8, 8pm to 4am. 21+.
Tickets -- Eventbrite
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Words
"I both belong and don't belong to America."
Fatimah Asghar -- from "On Loneliness," The Good Immigrant USA, ed. Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
Her new collection, Daughter of the Mountains: Poems of Homecoming, is out this month. She reads from it on July 24 at Judson Memorial Church with Chani Nicholas, Angel Nafis, and Safiya Sinclair. This newsletter launches its own version of the same question today. Being Okay in NYC is not about whether you made it. It's about whether you made it yours. Details in the section below.
Know someone who should be reading this? The list grows one good recommendation at a time.
Forward this issue →
Being Okay in NYC -- Now Open
We want stories. South Asian New Yorkers who built a life here without a map, alone or together with someone, and came out the other side knowing they'd made something real. Not the highlight reel. The part you actually remember.
It goes into a living archive, something you and your kids can look back on, a record of the city you built together. Write it yourself or let us do it interview-style. Either works, as long as it's true and all yours.
The inaugural essay, "Alone in NYC," is at bollywood.nyc/features. To contribute, write to us at contact@bollywood.nyc or on Instagram at @212.Bollywood.NYC.
ICYMI: The City Around You
L Shankar at Adler Hall, September 18 (WMI Masters Series, $45/$55). Charli XCX (half Gujarati, half Sri Lankan) plays Barclays Center September 14 and 15. Gaurav Kapoor at Town Hall September 13. Kanan Gill at Town Hall October 3. NYC South Asian Comedy Festival by Laughing Lassi, October 16–18. Carnegie Hall inaugural Indian music festival: May 21–23, 2027.