Sara Abou Rashed wears an American flag scarf as she delivers her final words, “I am America.” (Jenny L’Hommedieu’19/Media)
On Friday April 5, Sarah Abou Rashed performed her one woman show, “A Map of Myself” for the Upper School. Rashed grew up in Damascus, Syria, and since the age of eight, she has been a poet in Arabic.
In 2012, her family went on a vacation to Abu Dhabi that turned out to have saved their lives. They stayed in the United Arab Emirates for one year then moved to Columbus, Ohio, fleeing the war that began in Syria. Rashed moved to the U.S. with no knowledge of English, yet after learning it by translating The Odyssey, she became a poet in English, winning the Ohio Poetry Association High School Contest in 2015.
Rashed continues to win awards left and right and currently attends Denison University. Her “Map of Myself” show featured her story from the time when the war in her homeland began in 2012 up to 2019.
Rashed opebd her performance with, Where are you from?” The question that everyone wants to ask when you look different, but can’t. Rashed describes herself as a Palestinian-Syrian-American. She is of Palestinian origin, grew up in Syria, and now lives in America.
Rashed then began her story.
She was living in Damascus, Syria, which was quite different culturally from the U.S. and continued to explain these differences throughout the show, the first being that in Syria, you barter at the market and in the U.S, you don’t.
Her mother was the best bargainer, Rashed said, and a very highly respected woman in Damascus. Rashed spoke highly of her mother and how she has influenced her. Rashed’s grandmother inspired her to write poetry by reciting it to her each night in an apartment building that was left to her family by her grandfather. It had six apartments, one for each of his five sons and one for his two daughters to share. One son had gone to Dubai and another left for the U.S.
Rashed then reminisced about her favorite times of year in Syria: Ramadan and Eid. During Ramadan, the whole city, normally bustling and full of activity, was quiet as everyone fasted. But at night, everything came to life. Everyone ate and drank and celebrated, staying up until the early hours of the morning eating and getting ready to fast the next day. Then at the end of it all, they celebrated Eid, which she described as “Easter, Christmas, and your birthday, all rolled into one.” Talking about it, Rashed seemed to be remembering her happiest memories.
After talking about the happy times in Syria, though, Rashed talked about the war, which began after peaceful protests were held, with people marching every couple of days, asking for peace and for Assad’s resignation.
One day in school, Sarah heard a bomb. Then another. She ran to her friend’s house and cried for hours, distraught by the loudest, scariest sound she had ever heard and worried that everyone was dead. She got home and learned that no one had been hurt, settling her fears. But as the days went on, the family had to cut back on water, electricity, and food consumption, preparing for another bombing.
Finally, her family decided to go on a vacation to Abu Dhabi to get out of Syria for a few days. But they never went back. They stayed in Dubai for a year with their uncle and then met with their Uncle Sam in America.
Rashed taught herself English by translating The Odyssey, her first high school English assignment. She thought it was the dictionary at first. After this, she continued to translate all of her textbooks into Arabic from English and eventually learned the language in which she now fluently speaks and writes.
At school, Rashed told of how she felt alienated for being an immigrant and a Muslim woman, but in college, she met professors who spoke her language. All of whom were of different backgrounds, so she lied and told them she was Italian, Palestinian, and all sorts of other ethnicities so that she would feel a small sense of belonging. Throughout the show, she referenced her grandmother’s DNA test and finally, it returned and showed that she wasn’t lying to all of her teachers at Denison. She was a whole mix of things that she never knew and felt as though she was a part of them.
After talking about all of the countries and places that she belongs to and those that belong to her, Rashed told the story of her grandmother’s naturalization ceremony. They drove to the courthouse and stood in a room full of other immigrants. Only the Canadian immigrants talked to other people, for the others were too tired of being asked where they were from.
At the end of the ceremony, the judge asked Sarah to read one of her poems called “I am America, ”capping off the show and talking about how while America is not her home, it is now part of her and she is a part of it.
Sarah Abou Rashed was vulnerable in her presentation. She portrayed herself at her lowest lows and talked about her experience of migrating to the U.S. The powerful, sometimes explicit, language profoundly moved the audience, making them feel the emotions she did while she relieved some of the worst moments of her life. The poetry she recited was moving as well and got her point across while showcasing her talents in her second language.
Rashed’s story was inspirational and gave insight into the life of an immigrant. She faced hardships that no child should have to and survived, becoming stronger for it. Rashed misses her home but has brought Syria to her new home here.
