The hip hop musical "Little Syria" tells a mostly forgotten New York City story

Just below the World Trade Center and Liberty Park in Lower Manhattan, you’ll find Washington Street, a stretch of four relatively nondescript blocks – there’s a hotel, a Starbucks, a burger place.  But from around 1880 to 1940, this street was the hub of a thriving neighborhood called Little Syria.  And that neighborhood gives its name to a new show by the Syrian-American rapper and poet Omar Offendum.

This week, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents "Little Syria," a hip hop musical that tells a mostly forgotten New York story. The show is presented as part of a season curated by the poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.