Lao Saturday School New Year Presentation, 2007
SubjectPortrait of
Boualy Ratsombath
(Laotian, died 2015)
SubjectPortrait of
Howard Phengsomphone
(Laotian)
SubjectPortrait of
Sue Phengsomphone
(Laotian)
SubjectPortrait of
Sisivath Inthisone
(Laotian)
Date2007 May 12
Mediumnegatives
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.347.19-.28
DescriptionPhotographs of Lao New Year celebrations for Lao Saturday School at the Jefferson School in New Britain, Connecticut.
2015.196.347.19-.20: Images of young Lao women onstage wearing traditional folk clothing.
2015.196.347.21-.22: Images of khene teacher Boualy Rathsombone onstage with his students who have learned to play khene.
2015.196.347.23-.24: Images of young Lao women onstage wearing traditional folk clothing.
2015.196.347.25-.26: Images of teachers in Lao Saturday School classes. Pictured left to right are: Boualy Ratsombath; Sue Phengsomphone; Samantha Boupha, volunteer teacher; Howard Phengsomphone; and Sisivath Inthisone.
2015.196.347.27: Image of teachers Sue Phengsomphone, Boualy Rathsombath, and Sisivath Inthisone being honored onstage.
2015.196.347.28: Image of young men who learned to play the khene performing onstage.
NotesSubject Note: Lao New Year is celebrated in Connecticut by members of the Lao community each April. Known as the Boon Pee Mai or the festival of the fifth month, this is a time of special meals and ceremonies lasting for several days. Traditionally, on the last day of the old year houses are cleaned and put in order as a symbolic activity intended to expel any bad spirits that may be hiding in the home. On the first day of the new year, people go to the temple where they wash the statues of the Buddha with perfumed holy water. The ceremonies ensure good health and prosperity in the new year. In Connecticut, Lao gather at temples for religious ceremonies, and hold special banquets that feature music and dance by local dance groups such as Lao Narthasin led by dance educator and chef Manola Sidara. Other events have included an annual presentation by the students of Lao Saturday School which ran for many years at Jefferson School in New Britain organized by Manola Sidara and Howard and Sue Phengsomphone. Many of these events are organized by the Lao Association of Connecticut. Many Lao New Year celebrations in Connecticut have involved guest artists from other cultural backgrounds and traditions. In 2008 and 2009, CCHAP collaborated with WNPR’s acclaimed radio discussion show Where We Live to document several ethnic festivals across the state. Words and sound were woven together to create podcasts and audio slide shows that take viewers and listeners right to the festivals. This project visited and documented a festival at the Lao Temple in Morris.2015.196.347.19-.20: Images of young Lao women onstage wearing traditional folk clothing.
2015.196.347.21-.22: Images of khene teacher Boualy Rathsombone onstage with his students who have learned to play khene.
2015.196.347.23-.24: Images of young Lao women onstage wearing traditional folk clothing.
2015.196.347.25-.26: Images of teachers in Lao Saturday School classes. Pictured left to right are: Boualy Ratsombath; Sue Phengsomphone; Samantha Boupha, volunteer teacher; Howard Phengsomphone; and Sisivath Inthisone.
2015.196.347.27: Image of teachers Sue Phengsomphone, Boualy Rathsombath, and Sisivath Inthisone being honored onstage.
2015.196.347.28: Image of young men who learned to play the khene performing onstage.
Subject Note: Lao Saturday School began operation in 1994, inspired by the community’s concern about its children forgetting or ignoring their parents’ culture. The Lao Association of Connecticut developed and managed the program. Because so many of its students were Lao, Jefferson Elementary School in New Britain opened its doors on Saturday mornings for classes in Lao language, history, and arts. At first serving only K-12 children, the School also offered classes in ESL and citizenship to adults who could attend with their children and grand-children. Teachers, who were professional educators and community leaders, divided the classes into age groups and subjects. For several years from January through May the school served about 65 children and a dozen adults from many of the Lao communities in central Connecticut. The School sponsored traditional festivals such as New Year each April, when the students performed the Lao dances, songs, and poems they learned.
Subject Note: The Lao Association of Connecticut (LAC) is a community-based non-profit formed in 1980 to provide assistance to Lao-Americans in areas of need such as cultural preservation, education, advocacy, translation, and access to services. Its Board of Directors is comprised of senior members of the Lao community, including educators and artists. LAC was instrumental in developing Lao Saturday School in collaboration with Jefferson School in New Britain, starting in 1994, and running for several years, offering classes in Lao language, history, and arts as well as ESOL and citizenship to adults. LAC sponsors an annual New Year Celebration in April that brings Lao people together from all over Connecticut, held for many years in New Britain and elsewhere in temples around Connecticut. LAC has also organized events and projects that serve the community; the group collaborated on the Southeast Asian Problem Gambling Project run by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, as well as other health initiatives. LAC also worked with CCHAP and other Southeast Asian communities to recruit students and parent volunteers for after-school classes, involve students and teachers in community activities; and introduce artists from the other communities to each other.
Subject Note: Connecticut was a major resettlement site for Southeast Asians in the 1980's. The Lao population numbers over 3000, living primarily in urban areas such as New Britain, Bridgeport, East Hartford, and Danbury and for a time in the 1990s-2007, in rural eastern Connecticut. While many Lao have found employment in factories, service industries, farming, and trades such as food, they continue to face barriers of language, lack of education, and lower income levels, all against a common backdrop of serious emotional wounds from the Viet Nam War era. Youth aged 10 - 19 years old have been by far the largest age group among Connecticut Southeast Asians. Maintaining young peoples’ awareness of heritage, culture, values, and language is a major goal of Lao leaders and parents. The Lao community sustains its traditional cultural practices in several ways. Several temples around the state provide gathering places where Buddhist monks and nuns offer spiritual services and cultural festivals. The largest temple is in Morris, where the resident monk Khoutavong has created exquisite Buddhist statues and traditional architecture with symbolic carvings, ornamentation, and shrines. Dancer and educator Manola Sidara developed and has directed Lao Narthasin, a traditional dance group now in its third generation of dancers. They perform classical, folk, and social dances that highlight cultural values such as respectful behavior and appreciation for elders. Manola also specializes in creating ceremonial decorations that express wellness, spirituality, and bonding during community celebrations, and she also promotes health and healing through her work as a master chef. The Lao Association of Connecticut formed in 1980 to unite the community and assist in economic development, cultural preservation, education, and health. For many years LAC offered classes in language, history, food and medicine, verbal arts, traditional music, and singing at Jefferson School in New Britain, and the group organizes several heritage festivals each year at the Morris temple that are attended by hundreds of Lao people. Other Lao community groups around the state also develop and present spiritual and cultural programs as well as health initiatives.
Biographical Note: Howard (Houmpheng) Phengsomphone (Project Manager) retired from a long career as a counselor and administrator of several federal and state substance abuse and violence prevention projects in Rhode Island and Connecticut. In 1999, U.S. Department of Health selected his program as one of the best refugee services for youth and families. He has spoken at national conferences and universities on his work with gangs and violence prevention. A survivor of imprisonment by the Communist regime in Laos, Howard’s volunteer community involvement has been his way of supporting Lao in America who still struggle with emotional and cultural losses from the war and its aftermath. He served on the Rhode Island Coalition for Affirmative Action, the Southeast Asian Advisory Council for Parents and Schools (RI), the Providence Mayor’s Council on Human Relations, and the Governor’s (RI) Juvenile Justice Commission. He has been a Board Member of the Lao Association of Connecticut since its inception, and was a founder, along with his wife Sue, and teacher of culture and history at Lao Saturday School in New Britain for years beginning in 1994. Howard has spearheaded the collaborative development of expanded cultural heritage opportunities for Lao teens in Connecticut, leading to a partnership with CCHAP and Cambodian, Hmong, and Lao cultural leaders to offer afterschool programs, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The longtime Executive Director of the Lao Association of Connecticut, he continues to work in the area of culture, health, history, and community service for the Lao community.
Biographical Note: Sisivath Inthisone (Language Arts Teacher) learned to perform as a Molam, a singer of the traditional improvisational sung poetry of Laos called Lam, a rhythmic extemporaneous sung poetry , as a boy living in a rural province in central Laos. He enjoyed singing, and learned the skilled wordplay from an older friend who encouraged and instructed him. Later Sisivath deepened his interest while in high school, also continuing “to lam” orally. After resettling in the U.S., he organized a band to play at community festivals and parties, and is in demand here because there are few singers who can evoke the traditional content (courtship, village life, politics) and song style as a Molam. Lam remains very popular as a sort of Lao hip-hop, rhythmic, urgent, funny, vivid, competitive, and communal. Sisavath has served as President and Treasurer of the Lao Buddhist Temple in New Britain, Connecticut, and taught Lao language and arts at Lao Saturday School since 1997 and in the Southeast Asian After School Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and coordinated by CCHAP. He shared musical skills with khene player Boualy Ratsombath in Year 10 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. He was a machinist at Westinghouse Electric Co. for many years.
Biographical Note: Boualy Ratsombath (Khene teacher) was an elder who learned to play the national instrument of Laos known as khene (a complex bamboo flute) as a boy from his father. Revered as a master khene player, he came out of retirement to teach students at Lao Saturday School for several years under the Southeast Asian After School Program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and coordinated by CCHAP. This opportunity was a great boost to his spirits, and brought his music into the community’s cultural life. He also shared musical skills with molam singer Sisivath Inthisone as part of Year 10 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. He passed away in 2015.
Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community and its artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
