Spoke to over 100 NYU students today about the history of Arab, South Asian, and Muslim NYC in a core undergrad class. Students are all excited about the future of this city, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to give them more grounding in its past and present. Invite me to yours!

Before joining last night’s campaign party, I sat with Marshall Ganz, the social movement scholar who devised Obama’s 2008 campaign strategy. I asked him: Is this an Obama 2008 moment? He said, “It’s different, instead of maximizing support [like Zohran], Obama kept minimizing opposition.”

Quote from me for Al-Jazeera on Cuomo trafficking in Islamophobia while also inciting sectarianism within the Muslim community: “Sadly he knows he can weaponize both Islam and Islamophobia, because treating Muslims both as tools and as targets is politically profitable.”

More people have already voted in the New York City mayoral election on an odd year than the entire populations of Boston, Miami, Detroit, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

I was born and raised in New York City. I’ve never left and don’t really know another “Home.” But I love it—because Home happened to be the most diverse and dynamic city ever known to humankind. Today I voted for my brother Zohran Mamdani because I know he loves every inch of it the way do.

Got up at 5am and into a suit so I could join hundreds of people to walk with our next mayor by 6 on the Brooklyn Bridge as the sun rose to mark the start of a new day in NYC. I wouldn’t do this for anyone else even if they paid me, so you know I’m really about it for our boy.

"Asad Dandia, a New York urban historian who is part of Mamdani’s informal 'kitchen cabinet' that advises him, said many younger voters have only ever known Trump. But with Zohran's campaign, 'they get to be part of something that speaks to them.'" www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

My father and I were invited to a private community event earlier this afternoon to hear my friend Zohran Mamdani speak. Remember: It isn’t *just* young people who’ve been activated by this campaign 😌❤️.

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

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.

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.

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.

May Allah bless and protect you always, my friend.

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

“‘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...

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

“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...

““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.”

“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...

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

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...

Back at my favorite print lab

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.

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-...

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.

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!

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.

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?...

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.

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.

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?

“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.

Wonderful article by Tanvi Misra, and kudos to Politico for publishing it. (If they keep printing ecosystem-constitutive pieces like this, I'd resume reading it regularly). Excellent insights in particular by @jaggas1ngh.bsky.social of DRUM Beats and @asadfromnyc.bsky.social.

🥹

One month since his release, Mahmoud Khalil is on Capitol Hill today talking to lawmakers about Palestinian rights, the domestic crackdown on dissent over Gaza & the US responsibility for bloodshed under both Trump and Biden. Full story coming soon.

Small note about Brad’s mannerisms that meant a lot: We were in a progressive neighborhood so of course everyone wanted a selfie w/him. Each time, he’d say, “Listen you should know Asad. He’s doing this amazing tour for my birthday. Follow him!” He decentered himself every time.

Thanks so much @asadfromnyc.bsky.social for the great tour yesterday! And to my so. Marek for arranging this excellent birthday present. Loved learning more about the history of our neighbors & neighborhoods. Was delicious, too!

Today I spent 3 hours with Brad Lander and his family, giving them a private tour on Brooklyn’s Muslim, Arab, and South Asian histories. I am so grateful for their deep curiosity and desire to support my work and our communities. Happy Birthday Mr. Comptroller. You’re fam now.

I built an NYC-themed home library! —Bottom shelf: Books I use to curate my tours —Middle shelf: Books I assign in class or use as references —Top shelf: Old or rare books, some dating to the 1800s and worth thousands I’ll make a list of the essentials among these 150+ soon…

Really interesting segment on the shifting NYC electorate with @asadfromnyc.bsky.social on FAQ NYC from @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/05/z...

Here @asadfromnyc.bsky.social nails my feelings on the dumb “natives vs transplant” New York debates. I’ll take an intellectually & culturally curious newcomer over a protectionist native any day.

Follow @thecity.nyc. We relentlessly investigate people in power & when we have the goods on them, whatever their political position, we hit publish. What we don't do: Publish crap.

late to the party, but love love love this interview with @asadfromnyc.bsky.social in @thecity.nyc: "when we decide that the contradictions of America’s founding do not represent our ideals… we can take down statues of people who represent them." www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/27/a...

Final results are out. Mamdani beat Cuomo 56-44. 12 whole points. This was not “close.” It was not “tight.” It was not “neck-and-neck.” Our boy totally obliterated a dynasty—and this moment will be studied a century from now.

This morning I was honored to lead a tour for the Chancellor of CUNY—Félix V. Matos Rodríguez—at the Museum of the City of NY. This man steers the ship of the largest public university system in the US and I loved exploring the legacy of Shirley Chisholm with he and other CUNY folks!

Earlier today my friend texted me, “Trump just called for unconditional surrender” and I didn’t know if he was referring to Iran or New York City.

there's been something of a tendency since October 7 to believe the *moral* disasters of Israeli action will result in *military* disaster, and that's likely to pop up again. I'm making no predictions here but I'd treat any 'this time Israel will really be in trouble' takes with a grain of salt.

Michael Bloomberg has just endorsed Cuomo for mayor. I will never let you forget what he did to NYC’s Muslims when *he* was mayor. I wrote this 5 years ago when he stupidly tried to run for president. You spied on us—and now one of our own sons is going to beat your man. Poetry.