Jeyhoun is a photographer based in New York City and Durham, North Carolina as well as a proud founding member of The Inspired Storytellers Collective.
Members of the Masjid-Al-Aman Mosque take part in Friday prayer in the East New York/City Line neighborhood of Brooklyn. The area is home to an extremely dense population of residents of Bengali descent. East New York was formerly an Italian neighborhood before Bengalis began to first move there in the 1950s.
Muslim men attend Friday prayer.
Misba Abdin runs the Bangladeshi American Community Development and Youth Center (BACDYS). He funds the work through profits from his family's grocery store. Misba’s organization is informal and far-reaching in a community that struggles to locate, trust and use much needed resources. Most Bengalis in New York City live below the poverty line. “Because of isolation, They don’t know where to go to ask for help,” say Misba.
A young woman dances at a Bengali-American Cultural Diversity Fair.
Misba’s cousins organize a clean-up to paint an oft graffitied wall with the colors of Bengal flag.
A man poses for a portrait in front of Masjid-Al-Aman Mosque.
Bengali men frequently socialize in various public meeting spots in East New York.
Bengali-American dentists on Liberty Ave. It's very common for Bengali men in the neighborhood to earn a living through small business ownership.
Bengali women are very limited in public spaces where it is generally considered socially acceptable to congregate. Here, two Bengali women enjoy a concert at the weekend-long Cultural Diversity Fair hosted by Misba and BACDYS.
Misba employs two young women from the neighborhood who possess good technological and organizational skills, but are just learning English.
Misba brings plywood into the basement of BACDYS. Misba is in the midst of construction of turning the downstairs space into an informal school. Many of the students will be women learning to speak English as well as read and write in Bengali.
A Bengali woman who does not speak English receives help at BACDYS speaking with an official regarding her attempts to seek American citizenship.
Second generation Bengali youth face an often times difficult position trying to balance their cultural traditions and their distinctly American Youth. Pre-marital sex and drinking are both usually forbidden and many youth are products of arranged marriages.
“I want this whole community, doesn’t matter what race you are, doesn’t matter what religion you are. I want everybody to know each other, everybody cares. This is our neighborhood, this is our community.”