Is Zohran's Win A Win For Artists?
The historic mayoral win has many celebrating. The question is, should we?
Even for those who don’t live in New York City, the state, or even the Northeast, the news of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s historic win has probably crossed your feed at least once, maybe mentioned during office coffee breaks or in conversations on campus. This is big news. For a Ugandan-born, self-proclaimed democratic socialist to win the mayoral election of the largest city in the country could mark a real shift in American politics, one that could echo across the world. And since art and politics are often in a kind of dance with one another, it feels important to look at what this win might mean for the art world.
Zohran’s main focus throughout his campaign has been the affordability crisis. He said during a campaign rally for Local 802 AFM.
“Art can't just be a luxury for the few. That requires a city where artists can actually afford to live and create, and where musicians don't just receive recognition but fair pay,” he said during a campaign rally for Local 802 AFM.
Mamdani’s relationship with the arts runs deep. As Artnet News reported, the Queens assemblymember and democratic socialist has become downtown New York’s preferred candidate, earning support from artists and dealers like Aria Dean, Martine Syms, Carol Greene, and Jordan Barse, along with an endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His background also connects him directly to culture: his mother is filmmaker Mira Nair, his father the scholar Mahmood Mamdani, and he once performed as a rapper under the name Mr. Cardamom.
“I’m the son of a filmmaker, I’m a failed artist myself,”(800k plays ain't too bad though) he told Vanity Fair. “Politics and art share a commonality in the act of storytelling.” At a BRIC forum earlier this year, he even said he’s “alive only due to a work of art.” Mamdani and his wife, illustrator Rama Duwaji, embody that intersection of art and activism that could now define New York’s next chapter.
So, is Zohran’s win a win for artists? In many ways, yes, at least symbolically. His victory places someone in power who not only understands art but lives and has lived it. This matters in a city where artists have long been priced out of the very neighborhoods they helped shape. Mamdani’s policies on housing, wages, and affordability could make it easier for creatives to stay, work, and build community, which is already more than most politicians offer.
Still, the proof will be in what he delivers. Lofty ideals about fairness and access only go so far without structural change: studio space, funding, cultural investment, and affordable rent. But for now, his presence alone a mayor who sees art not as a luxury but as labor, and culture not as decoration but as power — is a hopeful start.
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