New York City unveiled its first commemorative public artwork in Manhattan's Financial District to honour the city's early Arabic-speaking community, known as 'Little Syria'. The installation, titled “Al Qalam (The Pen): Poets in the Park”, was created by French-Moroccan artist Sara Ouhaddou and recognises nine members of the neighbourhood’s flourishing literary circle from the early 20th century.

Among the honorees is the renowned Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, who co-founded 'Pen Bond', a local writers' association, in 1920. By 1900, around 1,500 individuals lived in this enclave before it was destroyed during construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in the 1940s.

Ouhaddou's artwork consists of two curved mosaic benches and a large yellow sculpture spelling out 'al Qalam'. The artist has translated quotes from the works of nine Little Syria’s writer tenants into a geometric alphabet inspired by Islamic architecture, representing the challenge these writers faced with translation upon their arrival in America.

Elia Abu Madi, a poet and journalist who fled British colonial Egypt around 1910, is also honoured. His grandson, Bob Madey, attended the unveiling ceremony, noting his appreciation for the abstracted alphabet as it makes the monument accessible to a broader audience.