Samson Syharath dances gracefully across the stage, donning the baggy silk pants of his ancestors as he tells his story 8-24-9 (Secret Asian Man). The son of Laotian immigrants, he strives first to blend into our grand melting pot, then takes a pilgrimage to understand his ancestral homeland.
His story, like many children of immigrants, is filled with holes. His parents never mentioned that the US dropped what amounted to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years, starting in 1964—more per capita bombing than anywhere ever. Ergo, the title 8-24-9. The unleashed power that shook the world of Samson’s ancestors, propelled his parents to leave it. And they came here to the U.S. of A.
Samson’s story, a work in progress presented through the 2020 Fertile Ground Festival, evokes laughter, tears, empathy, and rage. It begs the question: Who are we? How do we speak to that kind of power? How do we tell the secret stories that make us who we are?
I’m struck not only by Samson’s story as I watch him perform it but also by the power of story in all of us. How do we speak the unspeakable? What stories do our ancestors hide, do we hide, while striving to achieve the American dream?
Once, my Nana told me her story about escaping pogroms in Odessa. Once, and only once, when I asked a quiet question while learning the family recipe for blintzes. After telling some of her story, she rolled it up like a blintz and smothered it with sweet berries.
Nana’s blintzes are my family history. Her stories are mine. My stories are Samson’s. Samson’s stories are Nana’s. All of our stories connect us to each other, to our past. To things we wished never happened on either side of either ocean. And now, we are here on a precious planet we share.
After his performance, the courageous Samson listens to audience reactions, considers how we experience his story and how he can further polish it. I take the story home with me, sleep on it like a pillow, comforted, not by the atrocities performed by our government, but by the powerful voice of one man in a room of rapt listeners.
Samson, the “Secret Asian Man,” continues to polish his story and plans to share it with the world through his aptly named company, Getting Lao’d. I plan to fully attend.
Writing Spark: What secrets does your family hold? How did you unravel the secrets? Why are they secrets? What would it feel like to write your story or tell it to someone you trust?
Write a letter from your current self in your current situation to your future self – five, ten, or twenty years from now.
