TimesOC: ‘Hijabi Queens’ murals in Anaheim break stereotypes
Good morning and welcome to the TimesOC newsletter.
It’s Friday, April 8. I’m Ben Brazil, bringing you the latest roundup of Orange County news and events.
A set of murals in Anaheim’s Little Arabia are challenging norms and breaking stereotypes.
My colleague Gabriel San Román this week wrote about how the “Hijabi Queens” murals in Anaheim are quickly gaining traction in the Muslim community. The colorful murals depict hijabis, or Muslim women who wear headscarves.
While the creators of “Hijabi Queens” are being tagged in a lot of Instagram photos, their mission is much larger than that.
“The community is thirsty for this type of representation,” said Doaa Zaher, who created the idea along with her husband Karter. “We’ve been misrepresented for far too long. This feels like we’re taking the mic back and showing the world how beautiful and vibrant hijabi women are.”
In addition, the couple is hoping to get in on the current NFT craze. Karter, a former rapper who recorded the song “Hijabi Queens” nearly a decade ago, said that he and his wife are trying to be the first project “to bring the Muslim community into the Metaverse.”
San Román wrote that the Zahers started their movement by promoting a collection of 5,000 unique art pieces. They will later be followed by 5,000 “Bearded Kings” NFTs.
Karter said that part of the couple’s vision was to allocate some of the money made from the NFTs toward the murals. Karter then met with business owners in Anaheim, chose the walls where the murals would be painted and sought out Los Angeles artist Kodjovi Sevon to paint the murals.
The murals are having an impact.
“I rarely, if ever, saw myself in media and art,” said Enjy El-Kadi, a hijabi and digital communications manager for the L.A. chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose office is along Brookhurst Street. “With the ‘Hijabi Queens’ murals, it is nice to see women who wear hijab portrayed in public art in a way that is positive, empowering, and an accurate reflection of our diverse community. It allows us to feel seen.”
MORE NEWS
An effort to recall three Huntington Beach council members has failed after failing to gather enough support. The recall organizers had to reach at least 13,352 signatures but fell short by more than 1,000 signatures for each of the candidates. The Orange County Registrar of Voters ended up invalidating nearly 2,000 signatures of each petition because they included duplicate signatures and signers who weren’t registered to vote, wrote my colleague Matt Szabo. The city will now have to pay about $144,000 for the counting of the signatures.
Two Buena Park men were arrested this week in the largest drug bust in Orange County in more than a decade. The men are facing felony charges after officers recovered 20.5 pounds of fentanyl pills, 821 pounds of methamphetamine and 189.7 pounds of cocaine from inside a minivan. This comes months after Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer warned that he will seek murder charges against dealers who sell drugs that end up killing people. The decision aims to deter the trafficking of the powerful synthetic drug fentanyl.
Should you be concerned about the new Omicron subvariant? Orange County health officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said to continue to keep your guard up. “We have all been humbled by COVID over the last two years,” Chinsio-Kwong said. “COVID can continue to change … it can decide to escape our immune defenses, even if we’re vaccinated, or it can be more transmissible.”
The Fountain Valley City Council this week approved a project to replace a popular Irish pub and restaurant with a sprawling mixed-use project that includes 270 residential units, a restaurant and an art gallery. Some may be excited about that news, but not fans of the popular Silky Sullivan’s Restaurant & Irish Pub. Residents showed up to the council meeting to voice their support for the local favorite. “Whether we stay here or we move, we’ll tell you guys, ‘You can knock us down to dust, but you can’t keep us down,’” said general manager Amanda Brill. “‘We’re going to go somewhere else.’”
In other drug bust news, Fountain Valley police seized more than $22,000 of illegal drugs and 15 firearms. The authorities also arrested somebody who they suspected was involved in large-scale narcotics trafficking throughout the Orange County area.
LIFE AND LEISURE
Alzheimer’s is a crippling disease for those who suffer from it and the family members who have to witness it. So Alzheimer’s Orange County is providing a number of programs to support families and their sick loved ones. One of those programs is Memories in the Making, an art program where people suffering from dementia can focus on creative expression as a form of communication. My colleague Sarah Mosqueda wrote that the disease can often affect language, so art can be a better way for them to express themselves.
The renowned Pacific Chorale of Costa Mesa took home a Grammy Award over the weekend, fulfilling a longtime dream for the members of the resident chorus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The chorus shared the honor for “Choral Performance” for their participation in a recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major, “Symphony of a Thousand.” Pacific Chorale Artistic Director Robert Istad said that he was elated and honored. “I was talking to a former board chair, and he said 25 years ago, they were all in a board meeting and said if we were to dream what would happen years from now it would be to win a Grammy award,” he said. “And it happened.”
The Bluewater Grill in Newport Beach will return after a months-long closure for renovations. My colleague Lilly Nguyen reported that residents have been eagerly awaiting the reopening of the popular restaurant. The grill will look different when diners return with more of a “contemporary but classic” look.
SPORTS
Skaters have been waiting for San Juan Capistrano to open its own skate park for more than a decade. Luckily, the City Council this week voted to move forward with a proposal for a 42,000-square-foot skate park complex, which will be located on old farmlands. The decision came after several residents spoke out in favor of the project, including members of the San Juan Capistrano Skate Park Coalition.
For the last few years, Aaron Pines has been fighting cancer while coaching the Los Amigos High School baseball team. Despite his illness, he currently has the Lobos in the middle of their best season in decades. My colleague Andrew Turner detailed Pines’ battles both on and off the field.
The family of a boy whose skull was fractured by a baseball during warmups is suing the Angels for the injury. According to the suit, a ball was thrown wildly by a pitcher and ended up hitting the 6-year-old in the head. Reporter Bill Shaikin wrote that though it is common for players to warm up in the area where the incident occurred, the Angels do not have as much protective netting around the field as some other teams do. “For three days, we didn’t know if my son was going to live or die,” Bryson’s mother, Beatrice Galaz, said in a statement. “We were relieved that he survived, but since that day he has struggled in school. He’s simply not the same.”
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