Press Releases: Lao Saturday School, 2000
Subject
Manola Sidara
(Laotian)
Subject
Sue Phengsomphone
(Laotian)
Date2000
Mediumpaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.83.41a-b
DescriptionPress releases for Lao Saturday School, December 5, 2000.
NotesSubject 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 (English as a second language) and citizenship to adults who could attend with their children and grandchildren. 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 Laotian dances, songs, and poems they learned. Biographical Note: Manola Sidara is a Lao dance educator and community activist whose life has been devoted to serving her community. Born in 1969, in Vientiane, Laos, Manola joined the National Dance School at the age of five, along with her sister. After her family fled Laos, she continued learning traditional dance with master dancer Sone Norasing in Colorado until moving to Connecticut in 1989. From her grandmother and aunts Manola learned to make pah khuane, the ornaments of bamboo leaves and flowers which are part of every Lao ceremony and celebration in both temple and home. She worked as a wedding consultant, organizing all the arrangements for traditional Lao weddings, and became known as a brilliant cake decorator. Manola helped to produce the exhibit "The Ties That Bind: Southeast Asian Wedding Traditions" at the Institute for Community Research (ICR) in 1995. In 1999-2000, she served as the Bilingual Program Assistant at Garfield School in Bridgeport, teaching ESOL, computers, and cultural awareness to elementary school children, both Lao and Latino. Manola taught traditional dance at the Lao Saturday School in New Britain from its inception. With her high-school age students from the school, Manola formed the Lao Narthasin Dance Troupe, instructing the members in classical Laotian dance, folk dances of different ethnic groups in Laos, and traditional values and manners such as respectful behavior, honoring elders, and service to the family and community. The dance group, which has performed throughout Connecticut and Rhode Island at cultural centers and Lao temples, now includes a third generation of dancers. From 1998 to 2001, Manola was the New Britain Coordinator for the Urban Artists Initiative, a statewide training program run by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Institute for Community Research. In 2001, Manola received an award from the Lao Association of Connecticut at New Year for her work with the Lao Narthasin dancers and was selected as a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist. In 2011, Manola coordinated the community oral history project, "After the Trauma: Holocaust Survivors and Laotian Refugees Confront the Past," displayed at the University of Hartford. Manola is also known as a master chef at East West Grille, her award-winning and beloved Lao-Thai restaurant on New Park Avenue in Hartford from 2000-2019, and the East-West Grille Food Truck. Manola is very active in assisting the Lao Temple in Morris, Connecticut, with cultural programming, social service, and providing food for the monks and their ceremonies. For Manola, her tireless activities in dance, education, ceremonial decorations, and cooking all promote wellness, spirituality, bonding, and healing.
Biographical Note: Sisomphone (Sue) Phengsomphone was born in Luang Prabang, Laos. After graduating from high school she attended pedagogy school for four years then taught high school for nine years in Laos until the regime changed to Communist. She escaped from Laos to join her husband Howard (Houmpheng) in the refugee camp Nongkhai, Thailand in 1979. In 1980, the family arrived in the United States, settling in Old Lyme, Connecticut where Sisomphone attended English classes provided by the church in Old Lyme. In 1981, the family moved to West Hartford. Sisomphone was hired by the Hartford Board of Education as a bilingual teacher to work with Lao refugee children ranging in age from kindergarten to grade eight, developing a flexible and challenging program that served the special needs of the students. She also taught the students Lao traditional dance, providing many dance programs for organizations including the Mark Twain House and the Noah Webster House where the Connecticut State Governor attended the performance. Sisomphone joined her husband and other Lao leaders in establishing Lao Saturday School at Jefferson School in New Britain, and she taught there for many years.
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
