Role : Curator

Photographer - Mahka Eslami

Many New Yorkers only became aware of the ethnic background of “their” local bodega guy in 2017 when more than a thousand stores suddenly went on flash strike to protest Donald Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim countries, including Yemen.

“Bodega Boys” chronicles the everyday lives of the many members of New York’s Yemeni-American community who operate local bodegas in Brooklyn.

Often, men from one Yemeni family own or manage these businesses and ensure their opening from early morning to late at night to cater to a neighborhood’s needs. Frequently, shop owners hire close and extended family and friends of all ages, from grandfathers to teenage grandsons, who run the operations behind the counter.

In these corner stores, relationships are formed, cultures are shared, and identities are shaped. The whole spectrum of composite exilic identity is displayed in a bodega—from the connection to a homeland embroiled in civil war to the way of fitting into the mosaic identity of New York.

Saturated with neon-lit mundane goods and pop colors, this place of passage and business is where boys and men spend most of their lives—working, dancing, praying, eating, sleeping, dreaming…

Mahka Eslami’s series captures the layered experience of bodega owners and workers navigating the challenges of exile while contributing to the rich mosaic of New York City life: stories of resilience, belonging, and the pursuit of the American Dream within a confined yet super dynamic, vibrant space.

This project was developed in collaboration with Golbarg Rekabtalaei, Middle East historian