Ep 14: 'Afterparties' w Samantha So-Lamb

Today’s guest is someone Colin has known for  close to a decade. They were both Teachers and Deans at sibling schools in Richmond, CA; she at Aspire Richmond Technology Academy Elementary, and Colin at Richmond Cal Prep 6-12. The two were also members of an Asian American & Pacific Islander Affinity Group, where they got to know each other and build community with other AAPI Educators in Aspire Public School’s Bay Area Region. Their children attend the same daycare and she is currently the Principal of Richmond Technology Academy, which is also where Colin's eldest daughter’s goes to school. Colin is am beyond honored to be in community with this incredible sister, colleague, and comrade, and today, it is a sincere gift for him to be discussing her late and brilliant brother’s award-winning book of short stories, 'Afterparties'.

Samantha So-Lamb is a proud Cambodian American, born and raised in Stockton, California, and now living in the Bay Area. The daughter of refugees who survived the Cambodian genocide, she carries her family’s legacy of resilience into everything she does. She began her career as an elementary school teacher and went on to become a school principal, dedicating her life to empowering students and building inclusive school communities. She’s also a devoted wife and mother of three boys. And yes—she’s the sister of the late Anthony Veasna So, acclaimed author of 'Afterparties' and a New York Times bestseller.

Anthony Veasna So (February 20, 1992 – December 8, 2020) was an American writer. His short stories were described by The New York Times as "crackling, kinetic and darkly comedic" and often drew from his upbringing as a child of Cambodian immigrants. So died from an accidental drug overdose in 2020, and his debut book, a short story collection entitled Afterparties, was published in 2021.

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...