The League of French Speaking Organizations and Communities in Rhode Island gather at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket to kick off Francophonie Rhode Island 2009 on Thursday. Francophonie RI 2009 begins March 19. Suzanne Bernier, vice-president of Richelieu International, seated front left, pours a glass of French wine for guests at the event. Joining her is Michael Hebert, president of the American Association of Teachers of French, center, and Jacques Staelen, right, a member of the Museum’s Board of Directors. Looking on, back row from left, are: Paul Papineau, Club Richelieu Woonsocket; Albert Dumoulin, Club Richelieu Fall River; Anne Conway, co-director of the Museum of Work and Culture; Bill Beaudoin, of the French American Genealogical Society; Enoch Park, Bryant University; Magali Boutiot, French Alliance Providence; Claudette Laliberte; Dominique Gregoire, president of French Alliance Providence; Roger Laliberte, WNRI; Stephane Ferreira, French Alliance Providence; and Roger Bonin, of Le Foyer.  Call Photo/Ernest A. Brown

By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — There have always been plenty of ties to French and French-Canadian culture in northern Rhode Island if you spend the time to look for them.

It’s possible to listen to French being spoken on local radio programs, and you can still find older city residents at the Woonsocket Senior Center who chat in French as easily as they do in English.
The problem for area Francophiles, however, is simply that there isn’t a lot of coordination between the various French-oriented events held in the area or the French Canadian resources located here, such as the American-French Genealogical Society library at 78 Earle St.
Dominique Gregoire, president of Alliance Francais de Providence, hopes to change all that with a new week-long celebration of the area’s French and French-Canadian ties, to be held in conjunction with International Francophone Day on March 20.
Gregoire, a native of Brittany, France, and resident of Rhode Island for the past 22 years, said the events to be held in Rhode Island between March 19 and March 26 are intended to bond the various groups already here into a more active network promoting Gallic culture.
During an announcement of the new collaboration at the Musee du Travail et de la Culture de Woonsocket (the Museum of Work and Culture), Gregoire said he sees the upcoming Semaine de la Francophonie 2009 (French Speakers Week) as an idea that can only grow.
 “The Italians in Rhode Island have their day, and the Irish have their day, and now the French are going to have their week,” he said.
The concept of a week celebrating the area’s ties to the Province de Quebec, Canada, France, and to many of the 40 other French-speaking countries around the world, was raised at a meeting of a small group of like-minded Rhode Islanders about a year ago. It has since been expanded to include members of 10 Rhode Island organizations as well as French officials in the area.
Magali Boutiot, executive director of Alliance Francais, has in turn drawn a list of planned activities created by the group that should whet the public’s appetite for more.
The week should kick off what Boutiot believes will be a notable increase in attention to things French in Rhode Island.
Alliance Francais operates a Web site, www.frenchri.org, that features links to French language instruction opportunities, lists of French restaurants and businesses, French-related events and organizations in Rhode Island, New England and nationally, and information on the other French-speaking nations around the world.
The Rhode Island edition of Semaine de la Francophonie has won support from organizations such Clubs Richelieu, the French-American School of Rhode Island, the League of French-Speaking Associations of Rhode Island, the Museum of Work and Culture, the American Association of Teachers of French, Le Foyer of Pawtucket, the American-French Genealogical Society, Bryant University, Brown University, The African Alliance of Rhode Island, the Consulate General du Canada, the Consulate General du France, the Consulate General of Haiti and more.
The week will kick off on Thursday, March 19, with a Consultation of the Centre de la Francophonie des Ameriques at the Museum of Work and Culture, 42 South Main St., from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The event will invite area Franco-Americans to meet members of the Center de la Francophonie and offer ideas on how the center can help preserve area French culture.
Organizers are expecting a large crowd for that event, and an even larger gathering of several hundred people for the raising of a special flag highlighting Francophonie week at the Statehouse, beginning at 2 p.m.
Other events highlighting the week will include a reception with jazz musician Annie Comtois at the Museum of Work and Culture beginning at 6 p.m.; a French film festival to be held at Bryant University and other venues around the state; and several dinners put on by French organizations such as Le Foyer and Club Richelieu International Woonsocket.
Jocelyne Cazin will offer a lecture entitled “Female and French in America: Survival of French in America” at Bryant University’s Janikies Theater in Smithfield.
Cumberland High School will help out with a presentation on the history on the Eiffel Tower in honor of the Paris landmark’s 120th anniversary. That presentation will feature artist China Blue’s work on the sounds she collected at La Tour Eiffel.
Roger Laliberte, 73, is more than well aware of the local interest in French language and culture: He has been putting on weekly French programs on radio stations around Rhode Island for more than 50 years.
He and his wife, Claudette, deliver the “L’Echo Musical” program in French on WRNI Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons. But Roger also remembers his time doing French programs for WWRI in West Warwick, and even offering contemporaneous weekly shows on both WWON and WNRI in Woonsocket.
The programs have kept Laliberte, a native of Manville, in touch with friends in Quebec, he noted at the museum gathering.
“We’re going to simulcast a program with a live group in Quebec City,” Laliberte said. The connection will be made at 7 p.m. on March 22, and will likely open a lively French language discussion with our neighbors to the north, he said.
Suzanne Bernier, who hosts her own French program on WNRI, said the area’s continuing interest in la vie francaise is evidenced by its support for two such showcases on the hometown airwaves.
“It’s unique to have one, let alone two,” Bernier said. Her own show, Salute! Bonjour!, has enabled her to meet many French speaking residents in the area and throughout New England, she said.
Michael Hebert, a French teacher in Douglas and president of the American Association of Teachers of French, said that while there have always been French groups in the area, the new effort will help them to become more active and more unified.
“Basically when you work together it makes synergies between the groups,” he said.
And because the cooperation is in support of a language, Hebert said it sets aside politics, ethics or economic factors. “It’s purely cultural,” he said. “What we share is the French language and its cultures.”
Boutiot said anyone who is interested in learning more about that culture can contact her group through its Web site, or go to www.franco-newengland.org for information on French programs throughout the region.
Jacques Staelen of Club Richelieu Woonsocket said he believes Semaine de la Francophonie will be a tremendous success, drawing plenty of attention to the French heritage of the area.
“Everything is falling into place very well,” Staelen said. “We’ve been silent for too long.”