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Franco-Fete in Villes Jumelles (the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul) September 28-30, 2012

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

UPDATE Sep 12, 2012: Here’s an interesting hour with samples of Le Vent du Nord music and discussion of Franco-Fete on Bonjour Minnesota radio program Sep 11, 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION: Check in occasionally. Scroll to end of this post.

Francophone, Francophile, French-Canadian ancestry…or know someone who is, or is interested? Consider passing this post along, about a very special event in Minneapolis September 28-30, 2012. That’s only two weeks away. Home website is here.

(click on all photos to enlarge them)

Statue of Pioneers corner of Marshall and Main Street NE, Minneapolis, less than a mile from the conference venue.

reverse side of Pioneer Statue

In 1980, the United States Census asked, for the last time, a question about the ethnic background of Americans.

That year, 7.9% of Minnesotans- 321,087 persons, one of every 12 citizens – declared themselves to be a least partially of French (France and/or French-Canadian) ancestry. Neighboring Wisconsin counted 7.3% Wiconsinites of such ancestry and many other states had very significant numbers of persons in this category. Fr-Can in U.S. 1980001

It is this base, and any of those with an interest in the French language and cultural influence, who will want to set aside the end of September, 2012, for the first-ever Franco-Fete in Minneapolis.

All details, including registration information, are on the web here.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The agenda continues to evolve. Even if you’ve checked before, check back again to get a more complete picture of the entire conference. The music and meal programs especially should be reserved now as we anticipate very significant interest both Friday and Saturday evening.

Franco-Fete will include all the elements of a fine program: family, food, fun…along with academics, history, music…

This will be the first such Fete in Minneapolis-St. Paul, but is not a first ever venture.

Leader Dr. Virgil Benoit, French-Canadian (Franco-American), professor of French at the University of North Dakota and a lifelong part of the Red Lake Falls MN community, has been putting together similar festivals for over 35 years in various places in Minnesota and North Dakota. Dr. Benoit is a professor of diverse talents and great skill, as well as having great passion for the culture and language of his birth.

This years conference will be the largest and most ambitious thus far. Most likely it will be continued in subsequent years.

Virgil Benoit ca 2008 compliments of Anne Dunn

There are two major venues for this years Conference:

Our Lady of Lourdes Church, since 1877 the spiritual home of Minneapolis French-Canadians, will be the venue for Friday night Sep 28. The below photo, taken ca 1968, shows Lourdes as it was before the development of Riverplace around it in the early 1980s.)

DeLaSalle High School, a few short blocks from Lourdes on Nicollet Island in the Mississippi River, and within a short walk of downtown Minneapolis, will be the venue for all of Saturday Sep 29 programs.

On Sunday, September 30, at noon, the French-speaking congregation at St. Boniface Catholic Church in nearby northeast Minneapolis, will host those who wish to experience the Catholic Mass in French. This community, largely immigrants from African countries with French colonial overlays, is a vibrant French-speaking community in the midst of the Twin Cities. While not a formal part of the conference, we urge participants to take part in this ending celebration.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Minneapolis, 1968

Our Lady of Lourdes, August 7, 2012

DeLaSalle High School, Nicollet Island, Minneapolis MN

Fr. Jules Omalanga, pastor St. Boniface Catholic Church, Minneapolis, after Mass March 25, 2012

After a sit-down supper at Our Lady of Lourdes on Friday Sep 28, and tour of the church, noted musician Dan Chouinard and friends will give a concert in the sanctuary of the Church.

On Saturday evening Sep 29 the noted Quebec band Le Vent du Nord will do music workshops and a music program at DeLaSalle. They are internationally noted, and one of Canada’s most popular ensembles. (The web page can also be accessed in French.) UPDATE: More on the Le Vent du Nord event here.. Tickets can also be purchased on-line here. The evening program begins at 5:30 p.m.

The St. Boniface Francophone Choir of Minneapolis, Dan Chouinard and others will also be part of this evening extravaganza.

And Sunday Sep 30 at noon, the community at St. Boniface will host all for Catholic Mass in French.

Again, Franco-Fete is only two weeks away!

Now is the time to enroll.

NOTE: You can find many related commentaries using search word Quebec or French-Canadian. Or enter any of the following numbers in the search box and click enter: (Each has a basis in French-Canadian or Quebec) #15 Grandpa; 28 Weller; 43 Fathers Day; 280; 306; 313; 388; 449; 450; 459; 481; 486; 510; 550; 573; 582; UPDATE Sep 5: 585; 610; Aug. 17, 2012; Sep. 1, 2012;

You are invited to submit your own commentaries, either as a distinct blog post, or as a comment to be added here. Dick_BernardATmsn.com

CONTACT INFO:
General, local contact:
Dick Bernard
dick_bernardATmsn.com
cell 651-334-5744 (leave message, with return phone #).

Specific, including interview requests:
Dr. Virgil Benoit
University of ND at Grand Forks
virgil.benoitATund.edu
toll-free: 855-864-2634

Clotilde Blondeau and Octave Collette about July 12, 1869

Clotilde Blondeau and Octave Collette married at St. Anthony of Padua in then-St. Anthony, now-Minneapolis MN July 12, 1869. In 1871 the City Directory showed them, and the rest of Collette family, living at what is now the corner of SE 2nd Street and SE 6th Avenue at what is now a block or two from Father Hennepin Park and Minneapolis’ Stone Arch Bridge, and perhaps three blocks from I-35E bridge. More here.

Additional information for those with a continuing interest in matters French-Canadian are invited to visit here. This space will be updated and may well become a continuing presence for those with an interest.

Posted in Community, Education, Family History, History, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quebec/French-Canadians | No Responses »
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#339 – Dick Bernard: Part 9. The Rich

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Pretty clearly, the Rich have won, at least temporarily. Not the ordinary rich, but the Filthy Rich.

Take a moment to look at what “rich” means, thanks to a series of charts published in Mother Jones magazine.

Then, there’s an interesting commentary entitled “Koch Dreams” which refers to a David Koch piece in the Wall Street Journal, and some counterpoint. That is here.

There are over 2500 comments to the Mother Jones piece. One can get a flavor by just looking at a few of them.

I am always interested in the apologies/justifications for the Rich folks: they’ve earned it, they deserve it; it’s to their credit, etc. The poor, were they not such dolts, could do as well. The America dream is open to everyone, or so the Ayn Randians suggest. Go for it.

For some of the rich, money does indeed grow on trees…until the tree dies. Ask the supposedly savvy folks who queued up to be accepted as investors by Bernard Madoff. Each of them had heard of the risk pyramid – the greater the return, the greater the risk. But the siren song of guaranteed high returns on investments proved irresistible. And then the crash came and they lost anything, and it is everyone’s fault but theirs. They earned that money, they say. Until it disappeared.

There are lots of followers of Bernie Madoff-likes….

Money does grow on trees, only because it is abundantly fertilized by those of less means. It is the middle and lower classes that fuel wealth in this and other countries. One wonders, then, why the wealthy is obsessed with making the middle class poorer, and weaker, and the lower class destitute. That is what seems to be happening these days.

If I venture outside my suburb to the inner cities, I’ll come across pan-handlers working very hard to collect enough money for their evening delight, whatever that happens to be – or for their very survival.

If I accept the stereotype – that it’s cheap booze they’re after – they have to buy the booze, and in so doing contribute to an entire food chain of wealth, right up to the super wealthy. That panhandler contributes to the wealth of that entrepreneur who markets the cheap wine. It’s legitimate business. But without the addict, it would be a little more difficult for the rich guy.

This doesn’t stop at my communities poor. I have a particular affection for Haiti. If one goes to Haiti these days, the only rice one sees is labeled American rice. That’s because the domestic Haitian rice farming enterprise was deliberately destroyed back in the 1980s by American government policy, giving the long term competitive advantage to American rice growers. Sell cheap rice, drive Haitian farmers out of business, corner the market and increase the prices…. It’s easy.

Haiti is one of the world’s poorest nations. Every time I’d go to a meeting about Haiti someone would ask why there is such an interest in keeping Haiti down. There were a number of different answers.

The one which made the most sense to me was this: there are about 8,000,000 Haitians, and if they have an average resource of $1 a day, perhaps one-fourth of that, a quarter in American dollars, goes for food, usually rice. Doing some simple math, that’s $2,000,000 a day, or $730,000,000 a year – and this in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Low hanging economic fruit.

Bigger picture: the only advantage the rich do not have is the numbers. For every rich person there might be as many as 99 who are not so rich.

This is a known problem for the wealthy, and the strategy is how to keep the vast majority quiet and in chains.

So far they’ve been successful.

But they always live in fear of being found out.

More on that in a following post.

Posted in Economics, Haiti, History, Labor, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
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#314 – Dick Bernard: Meeting Martin Luther King Jr in Minneapolis, yesterday

Monday, January 17th, 2011

I met Martin Luther King yesterday, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I sat near him in the Choir Stall at Basilica of St. Mary yesterday afternoon.

He appeared there in the body of two women sitting next to each other. Mary Johnson and Janice Andersen.

Janice is the tireless and remarkable Christian Life Director at the Basilica of St. Mary. Where there is a call for justice and peace, there you will find Janice Andersen. Without Janice, I would not have met Mary Johnson.

Mary Johnson was at Basilica because of Janice Andersen. Mary is a Mom from the north side of Minneapolis whose son was killed 18 years ago by a man, now named Oshea Israel, who went to prison for his crime. On his release from prison, Mrs. Johnson not only reconciled with him, but adopted him, and formed From Death to Life, “an organization dedicated to ending violence through the facilitation of healing and reconciliation between the families of victims and perpetrators.”

Mary spoke briefly, very quietly and very powerfully, at Basilica’s Vespers for Peace yesterday.

Read Mary’s story here (simply click on “from death to life” under the photo of the man and the smiling woman, Mary Johnson, who is hugging him, and read more of the whole story.)

Then donate a few dollars or more to her work (see the website), and even more important, let others know who might help, or might draw inspiration from her witness to forgiveness and reconciliation.

Earlier in the day, at the same church – my church – I met Martin in the form of Fr. Greg Miller, one of our regular visiting Priests from the St. John’s University community at Collegeville MN. Fr. Miller is in charge of the Guest House at St. John’s, and yesterday in his homily gave quiet and very powerful witness to Martin Luther King, what he said, and what his work might mean to our lives.

I met Martin in the form of my friend, John Martin, who was also there at Basilica yesterday afternoon. John shows up in life to make a difference. It was John who sent around the reminder notice that gave me the final nudge to take an afternoon trip back into Minneapolis when it would have been easier to just stay home and relax. Martin could as well be Brian Mogren, the man moved and inspired to build the website that helps bring Mary Johnson’s story and her work to the world.

I could continue this list, and make it much longer. Indeed, Martin Luther King is around me all day, every day, everywhere I am willing to look. Martin is all of us, if we stretch a little to be a bit like him.

He’s there in the person of anyone who dares to stretch a tiny bit amongst him or herself and quietly make a difference in his or her own environment. The key is that “stretch a little bit” beyond one’s own self-imposed limits to take even a little risk to make even a little difference.

Today is Martin Luther King Day.

Become Martin, a little bit more, every day. Our world will be a better place because of you.

Yesterday I noticed Mary tear up at the singing of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen“. Here’s Louis Armstrong’s version from YouTube for today.

Earlier, at Mass, the phenomenal Yolanda Bruce, backed by the Basilica Choir, sang a powerful version of another spiritual, Wade in the Water. Here, also, is a YouTube version of that song, sung by young people.

***

Added comment on the overnight BREAKING NEWS that Baby Doc Duvalier has apparently returned to Haiti:

I envisioned and wrote in my head the above reflections before I saw the headlines about the news in Haiti.

I wrote and published the post before I read any of the first reports.

What would Martin Luther King say about this news about Baby Doc coming back to Haiti? How about his teacher, Gandhi? What would he say?

For that matter, how about Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu? Or former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, exiled in their country of South Africa? Or Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, President Aristide’s supporter, whose passion I heard in person in 2003 in Port-au-Prince and again in 2006 in Miami’s Little Haiti? Gerard Jean-Juste, who spent much time in Prison in Port-au-Prince, and who died three years ago after a long struggle with leukemia.

Really, what would they say? What will those of them still living have to say in coming days?

I would guess that there is much, much more behind the ‘cover’ of this ‘book’, whose cover we are just now seeing. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the action was intended to happen on this day we remember Martin Luther King.

Hold, on rushing to judgment.

I have published posts generally related to this theme in the last several days: see Jan. 12, 13, 14

Posted in Community, Haiti, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
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#303 – Dick Bernard: A Christmas Message “what’s in a word”

Saturday, December 25th, 2010

We attended Christmas morning Mass at Minneapolis’ Basilica of St. Mary, where the celebrant was Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Diocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Basilica of St Mary, Minneapolis MN, Christmas 9:30 Mass, 2010

The Archbishop’s homily was on the theme of the importance of words: “what’s in a word”. I was particularly struck by a story he related at the end of his sermon.

He had recently read, he said, a story about a woman in New York City who was shopping. She came across a couple of kids who were warming themselves over a grate on the sidewalk, and she noted that their shoes were particularly tattered, in need of replacement. She went in a store and purchased new shoes for the boys, and a pair of warm socks as well.

On presenting the boys with the gift, one said “you must be God’s wife”. She replied, “No, but I am one of God’s children”.

It was a neat story.

I thought, as the Archbishop was relating his story, about another story I’d heard on public radio some years ago.

The subject being interviewed was a minister in some evangelical denomination who had built a large congregation in a southern state, and earned a national reputation. His specialty was hellfire and damnation sermons. He was very descriptive. He described hell as he and his congregation and followers thought it was.

Sometime during the 1994 Rwanda genocide he related that he was watching a TV news clip about the flight of men, women and especially children from the ravaged nation. That instant, he said, he changed his concept of hell: that those innocent Rwandan children were living in hell on earth.

He came back to the pulpit a changed man, and it was a change with consequences: his flock was not interested in his new reality and he went from relative fame to near obscurity.

He had defined heaven and particularly hell, and he had attracted people who believed as he had believed. When the message changed, they left his congregation, and took their financial support with them.

He had to start over.

As Christmas Day continued, I remembered a personal experience in Haiti on December 7, 2003.

I had never been in Haiti before, and I had not yet been in the country for 24 hours when we went to Sunday Mass at St. Clare’s parish in a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. We six ‘blans’ (whites) were seated in a pew, and a young boy and his Dad were seated next to me.

It became pretty obvious that the boy was angling for a handout, and I was tempted, but I remembered a bit of advice from before I left: be careful with this kind of generosity. Once the word gets around it will be more troublesome than it’s worth. I followed the advice, and while I wasn’t happy, it was probably prudent.

The Pastor, the charismatic Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, gave a spell-binding sermon, especially riveting when he switched from Kreyol to English to remind we whites in the pews of the immensely wealthy country from which we came, and our obligations to the poor.

Collection time came and a few people came forward with random coins. This was, after all, a poor parish.

Mass over, we filed out of the church with the congregation, and facing us in the choir loft was a mural of an imploring Christ.

Christ at St. Clare's Port-au-Prince Haiti December 7, 2003

I happen to believe in God. I have no idea who, exactly, God might be, or what God might think of this, or that. No one does, regardless of how learned. I rather expect, though, that God is not as usually portrayed: a powerful White Man.

Perhaps God is really those kids for whom the lady bought the shoes in New York City, or is that kid who sat next to me in the pew at St. Clare’s in Port-au-Prince, or especially those kids in Rwanda.

Just perhaps.

Posted in Haiti, Peace & Justice | No Responses »
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