About Omar Offendum

Omar Offendum is a Syrian-American rapper, spoken word poet, and theatrical storyteller with a unique ability to draw audiences from a variety of backgrounds / generations through his signature blend of Hip-Hop and Arabic poetry. Over the course of his 20-year career, he’s been featured on prominent world news outlets (Aljazeera, BBC, PBS, LA Times), lectured at a number of prestigious academic institutions (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Northwestern, UT-Austin, UCLA, SOAS, Georgetown, American University of Beirut, Education City Doha), collaborated with major museums and cultural organizations (LACMA / Penn Museum / Ithra / Shangri-La / Arab-American National Museum / The Brooklyn Museum), and helped raise millions of dollars for various humanitarian relief groups (Islamic Relief, Karam Foundation, Syrian-American Medical Society). Offendum was recently invited by the Qatar Foundation to perform at over a dozen matches during the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Doha. He was also named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, an Arab America Foundation "40 Under 40" award recipient, and a member of both the Pillars Fund cohort for Muslim Narrative Change and the RaceForward Butterfly Lab cohort for Immigrant Narrative Strategy. After 17 wonderful years in Los Angeles, he currently resides in the great state of New York with his wife and two little children, while daydreaming about the jasmine tree-lined streets of Damascus.

About Rana Abdelhamid

Rana Abdelhamid is an internationally acclaimed human rights organizer, 1st Degree Black Belt, public speaker, and social entrepreneur focused on the empowerment of marginalized communities. In 2022, she ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s 12th congressional district. Her Justice Democrats-backed campaign mobilized thousands of people, received support from over three dozen organizations and elected officials, and raised close to $1 million from small-dollar contributions. 

At age 16, Rana founded Malikah, a global collective of women committed to building safety and power for women through healing, self-defense, economic empowerment, and leadership training. Today she serves as the Executive Director of Malikah. Rana is highly committed to the global human rights movement and was one of the youngest serving Board Members of Amnesty International USA for over six years. Rana is currently curating an exhibition at MoMA PS1 focused on the migration journeys of women from her community in Queens. The exhibition will open on May 5th.

She received her BA in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College and her Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Rana has been named a Truman Scholar and a Running Start Rising Political Star, and she has received an NYC Council Proclamation and an International Youth Advocate award from the UNA-USA Foundation.

About our Emcee Ayat Masoud

Ayat Masoud is a practicing attorney who received her Juris Doctor Degree from New York Law School in 2015. Before 2015, she was the International Sales Representative of Balady Foods, traveling to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Portugal on foods missions to import and introduce a variety of goods to the U.S. She then went on to become the In House Legal Counsel of Balady Foods, negotiating retail, wholesale, and manufacturing product licensing agreements. In the pursuit to expand her horizons, Ayat became an Assistant District Attorney in the Kings County DA’s Office.

Ayat has always been passionately committed to providing services to the Brooklyn community. For 10 years, Ayat served the Bay Ridge and neighboring communities as an Auxiliary Police Officer of the NYPD out of the 68 Precinct. She was published by Home Reporter as the first Auxiliary Police Officer to wear the hijab in uniform and has been awarded by the 68 Precinct for her services. 

Ayat now owns and operates Masoud Law Firm on 72nd and 5th Avenue serving the Muslim community. Amidst her career as an attorney, Ayat fulfilled her long-time passion of cooking, and alongside her husband, Abdul Elenani, opened a chain of Palestinian restaurants called "Ayat", a namesake her husband surprised her with. With 5 locations and counting, Ayat Restaurant is now the fastest-growing national Palestinian restaurant representing the lost voices and culture of the Palestinian people.