The Arab American National Museum holds an open house at the rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The Arab American National Museum held an open house on its rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden to share the unique culture roots it is planting in the community.
Gardening is an ancestral practice throughout the Arab world and remains a tether to family and cultural, nurturing plants that have survived generations and continents that also witness to migration and resilience.
Children explore the rooftop garden during the Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden open house at the Arab American National Museum.
Many of the plants growing in the rooftop garden are from seeds donated by Arab and Middle East and North African American gardeners who also provided the histories of the plants.
Garden Juju Collective, based in Plymouth at Gateway Farm served as a consultant and partner in the garden’s establishment.
The garden is named in honor of Mymonie Elhage Jabara, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1909 from Lebanon. She loved gardening, and was known for her dahlias and violets.
Her son, prominent civil rights attorney Abdeen Jabara, who started a $50,000 endowment fund for the AANM, who then named the garden in honor of his late mother.
Middle Eastern and local plants are featured, along with QR codes that allow one to hear an oral history of the featured plants.
Julia Barhouma-Reynolds, Coordinator of Public Program for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, said the event was designed to introduce people to the garden space.
She said the garden is centered around its oral history program, so if you click on a QR code on a sign next to specific plants, you can hear about a person’s heritage and connection to gardening.
Barhouma-Reynolds said native Michigan plants are interspersed with plants from the Arab world throughout the garden.
“It’s just kind of cool that they get to coexist in the same garden beds,” she said.
Barhouma-Reynolds said the garden, which opened in 2023, was launched with starter plants.
She said they had engineers study the building to make sure the rooftop garden’s weight could be safely supported.
Barhouma-Reynolds said they recently installed an irrigation system for the garden, and they are hoping to install some sailboat-type shading.
“This is just an opportunity to really bring the community together, and it’s so fun because you don’t really notice how much of our community is involved with gardening, and when you see so many community members in our space, interacting, it’s very heartwarming,” she said.
The rooftop garden is open to the public from 5 to 7 p.m. on Fridays, with workshops and musical events planned.
For more information go to arabamericanmusum.org. and check the museum’s calendar of events.
Attendees listen to a musical puppet show on the rooftop garden during the Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden open house at the Arab American National Museum.
Above and below, the Arab American National Museum holds an open house at the rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden.
Above and below, the Arab American National Museum holds an open house at the rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden.
The Arab American National Museum holds an open house at the rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden.
The Garden Juju Collective attends the rooftop Al-Hadiqa Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden open house at the Arab American National Museum.