Astoria Characters: The Guy Who Wears His Art on His Sleeves

From the rack by the entrance to his apartment, Aman Sadiyan plucks a blue leather jacket and slips it on like a second skin. Aman was born in Iran. Sporting snow-white python-scale sleeves and snaps, the vintage varsity jacket is part of Aman’s collection of wearable art. In a flourish worthy of the runway, Aman, an intense man with searing brown eyes, a shaved head and a bushy black bird’s-nest beard that’s gracefully turning grey, flashes the vintage silk lining, revealing…

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Astoria Characters: The Artist Refining Her Self-Portrait

Picture this: A little girl scribbling and drawing as soon as she could grasp a crayon in her tiny fingers. And before she could even walk or talk. A little girl who jumped out of bed every morning at dawn so she could fill in the spaces in her coloring books and work on her art before the rest of the world opened its eyes to see them. Al started drawing before she could walk or talk. That’s the portrait that Al Ruiz paints of herself and the one she keeps adding finishing touches…

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Astoria Characters: The Sax-Playing Konnakol Artist

It happened on his eighth birthday. Arun Luthra was strolling through town with his older brother when suddenly, they turned a corner, and there it was. Arun with his 1938 Selmer Balanced Action sax. A guitar leaning against a wall. Arun, a tall man with a sweet voice and soulful eyes, gets emotional every time he talks about this long-ago surprise gift and the key role it has played in his life. “I still have it,” he says. Arun was born loving music. And how could he not? His…

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Astoria Characters: The Guy Who Grew Up Fighting on the Streets

In the back of the black vest, strapped in surreptitiously like a baby, there’s a shiny, sinister sword. In the front, there’s a dangerous dagger and a menacing mallet and a hive of knives, the kind you would need in a street fight when fists aren’t fast and furious enough. Bonafide Warhawk’s the co-owner of HardKnox. Bonafide Warhawk, a soft-spoken tough guy who possesses the composure of a monk, suits up. He has tats marching like soldiers up his arms, a shaved head…

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Astoria Characters: The Cousins Who Are Like Sisters

When they were growing up, Elena Toumaras-Kampouris and Stephanie Jerome-Narlis had one all-abiding dream: They wanted to – no, they were determined to –open a dance school. Stephanie, left, and Elena grew up together. The cousins – their mothers are sisters – are as close as sisters, and they look so much alike that it’s easy to think they are, indeed, siblings. They spent a lot of time together, much of it in Astoria, which they say still feels like home, so it was a simple…

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