iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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talia jane @taliajane.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

our good friend @asadfromnyc.bsky.social has just learned about the sicko bend that birthed the juice factor of the early days of bluesky

tweet from asad posted at 5am which says “Checked in on BlueSky and they referring to their tweets as "skeets." That meant something very different when I was growing up!”

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Inquest @inquest.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"When counterterrorism forces make you a focus of their interest, people are afraid of associating with you. People don’t talk about how the consequences affect your relationships." @asadfromnyc.bsky.social on being surveilled by the NYPD for being Muslim. inquest.org/when-counter...

inquest.org

When Counterterrorism Comes for You - Asad Dandia interviewed by Hira Ahmed - Inquest & Acacia

At nineteen, Asad Dandia discovered that an NYPD informant was spying on him. He joined a landmark suit against the department—and won.

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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Black kids protecting their Latino neighbors from ICE

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

@asadfromnyc.bsky.social is facilitating walking tours that bring the histories of NYC policing to life through November. Looks like the next tour is on Aug 29 crookedideas.org/empirecity/

crookedideas.org

Empire City Live - Crooked Ideas

Empire City - The police tell us their job is to “serve and protect” — but what if their original purpose was something else altogether?

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Rima I Anabtawi @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

“The mayor’s statement on Benjamin Netanyahu affirms his commitment to universal human rights and dignity for all…Even if he does not have the power to enforce an I.C.C. warrant as a municipal leader, it’s about the principle of the matter.” @asadfromnyc.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/n...

nytimes.com

Mamdani Knew He Couldn’t Arrest Netanyahu. But He Could Denounce Him.

In a video message, the mayor of New York City said he could not legally arrest Israel’s prime minister but reinforced his position as a voice of the international left.

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Charles Sumner @charles-sumner.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I am going to break my rule about reading the article first again to make the point that OF COURSE Brooklyn chose the most Brooklyn-looking man on earth to be its (His? Her?) historian.

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Gary Hershorn @garyhershorn.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

After about 7 years of being hidden behind scaffolding and netting, the Flatiron Building is finally showing its facade again seen during sunset in New York City, Wednesday evening #newyork #newyorkcity #nyc #sunset #flatironbuilding

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Darializa for Congress @darializaforny.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Nothing I love more than to be out connecting with our community & our history, and excited I had the chance to do it with @asadfromnyc.bsky.social! Thank you Asad for helping showcase some of our rich & diverse history uptown — and how our working class community is at the heart of it all.

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Omair Ahmad @omairahmad.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

"Mamdani represents something that, until recently, was considered impossible: an Indian American rising to one of the most influential elected offices in the country, without the backing of the pro-Modi lobby." Hat tip to @asadfromnyc.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

newlinesmag.com

The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States

Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

“It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to win a citywide election without the support of South Asian communities,” Dandia said. “It’s not just that South Asians are building power. They’re building progressive power. They’re building socialist power.” newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

newlinesmag.com

The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States

Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America

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New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

The rising political power of South Asians can be compared to that of the Irish at the turn of the last century, who went from being outsiders to dominating the Catholic Church, politics and labor unions in New York @asadfromnyc.bsky.social tells @yashicadutt.bsky.social

tinyurl.com

The New South Asian Power Brokers in the United States

Zohran Mamdani’s win reveals how Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other working-class organizers are reshaping the region’s diaspora politics in America

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

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!

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

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.”

A brown man with glasses and a beard and an older white man with glasses and a mustache.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

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.”

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

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.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

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.

Brown man with glasses and a beard wearing a houndstooth jacket and holding an “I Voted” sticker

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

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.

Mamdani supporters walking the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn into Manhattan

A selfie featuring two men at the Brooklyn Bridge entrance

Walking behind Zohran Mamdani on the Brooklyn Bridge

Zohran Mamdani delivering a press conference at City Hall surrounded by supporters and the press

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

"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...

usatoday.com

'Our country has failed them.' Zohran Mamdani talks to USA TODAY about younger voters.

Early voting has appeared to skew towards older voters and Andrew Cuomo has gained in the NYC mayoral polls, making youth turnout key for Mamdani.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

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 😌❤️.

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The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian @janus.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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.

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Laura Tamman @lauratamman.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

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.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

May Allah bless and protect you always, my friend.

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Rusty Zimmerman @rustyzimmerman.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

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

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

“‘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...

theguardian.com

From scapegoats to city hall: how New York Muslims built power and shaped Zohran Mamdani

Muslim New Yorkers have steadily become a political force amid post-9/11 Islamophobic sentiment. Mamdani is their most accomplished expression

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

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

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

“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...

aljazeera.com

NYC working-class Muslims see progress in Mamdani, but policies win votes

History-making run met with pride, prejudice, but many Muslim New Yorkers more focused on message of affordability.

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ProfKFH @profkfh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

““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.”

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

“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...

thenation.com

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

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...

thenation.com

The Man Behind the Radical Walking Tours of New York City

Asad Dandia sued the NYPD after it spied on his family and community. Now he uses people’s history to reclaim the streets from the systems that surveilled him.

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Molly Crabapple @mollycrabapple.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Back at my favorite print lab

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City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

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.

citylimits.org

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC - City Limits

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high places.

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Guides Association of NYC (GANYC) @gaofnyc.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

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-...

citylimits.org

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC - City Limits

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high places.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

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.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

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 asad@newyorknarratives.com to book!

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

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.

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Ella Yurman @ellayurman.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

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?...

youtu.be

Getting to God's Country Ft. Joseph Lymous, Ella Jane, & Asad Dandia | GOING DOWN

YouTube video by Going Down with Ella Yurman

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

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.

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Nausheen Husain @nausheen.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

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.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

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?

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

“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.

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Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.myatproto.social · 28/07/2025

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.

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Akbar Shahid Ahmed @akbarshahidahmed.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

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.

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Asad Dandia @asadfromnyc.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

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.

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