What was it like growing up behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union? Were Soviet kids raised in drawers, force-fed borscht, and forbidden from smiling? Yes, that’s almost how it was. But there was one special boy who learned his grandpa’s magic and developed an antidote to communist propaganda. In this show, award-winning storyteller and former Soviet boy Sufian Zhemukhov will share heartwarming and delightful childhood stories about how he played with his baby buffalo, memorized foreign books, and attempted to solve the dark mysteries of the Cold War.

 Teller bio: Sufian Zhemukhov is an award-winning author and performer featured off-Broadway and nationwide. Sufian’s shows “about romance, culture, and one immigrant’s story” (NPR) are based on his personal experience as a first-generation immigrant and a college professor, which might be funnier than it sounds. Sufian is a featured teller at the upcoming 2024 National Storytelling Festival. He served as the 2023 Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Center and received the 2020 JJ Reneaux Emerging Artist Award from the National Storytelling Network. As a scholar, he won the 2019 Best Book Award from the International Studies Association.

More info and tickets ($15) at https://americanschoolofstorytelling.com/event/sufian-zhemukhov-sep-2024/