A longing for home, made into music.
The Brooklyn Nomads began with a longing for home — not just a place, but a feeling: the warmth of a room, the memory inside a song, the joy of being surrounded by people who understand. Since 2014, from a Bay Ridge stoop, every show has been an invitation to gather, listen, and feel at home with one another.
A world where people and cultures that have been flattened, silenced, or dehumanized are experienced in their full humanity through powerful artistic expression and cultural presence.
To build, consistently and on our own terms, a body of work rooted in Arab experience — music, performance, stories, and film — honest enough to matter and beautiful enough to last.
What we believe in.
Real over diluted
We do not dilute the work to make it easier to consume. Cultural specificity is part of the power.
Craft as respect
The quality of what we create honors the stories, the collaborators, and the audience. Excellence is a form of care.
Courage and clarity
We do not avoid difficult questions, realities, or contradictions. We aim to speak with integrity and intention.
Long-term thinking
We build slowly, deliberately, and sustainably. Our goal is lasting cultural impact, not temporary visibility.
A short walk through the years
Who's in the room
A rotating core of musicians and makers. These are the people you'll most often find on the stoop.
Hadi Eldebek
Hadi Eldebek is a New York City–based artist, composer, oud player, and cultural producer whose work brings together Arabic music, storytelling, visual art, and interdisciplinary performance. His projects explore questions of home, identity, memory, migration, and cultural belonging. He is the co-founder of The Brooklyn Nomads, a New York–based music ensemble that creates performances rooted in Arabic musical traditions while building connections across cultures and artistic disciplines. Hadi is the creator of interdisciplinary works including Hanzala, a project drawing on Palestinian cultural memory through live music, animation, and narrative performance, and Dar, a work exploring the idea of home and the ways it changes through migration, memory, and displacement. His artistic and cultural work has included collaborations and appearances with organizations and institutions including Silkroad, the Kennedy Center, BAM, Harvard Graduate School of Education, TED, and Disney Imagineering. Across his work as a musician, composer, producer, and cultural organizer, Hadi uses music and storytelling to create spaces for reflection, connection, and cultural encounter.
Mohamad Eldebek
Mohamad Eldebek is a Lebanese percussionist, educator, and entrepreneur based in NYC.
- Roots
- Lebanon
- Based in
- NYC
Sarah Mueller
Supporters & Partners
The organizations, funders, and neighbors who help keep the room open — and the free nights possible.
With thanks also to Michael N., and Anonymous (×12).