In this episode, we are bringing you the second installment in our Voices of Fort Kent series, an interview with Patrick Lacroix, the director of the Acadian Archives at UMFK.

We relished the opportunity to get to know our new colleague at the university’s northernmost campus. Patrick’s professional and personal history is impressive and, however reluctant he was to talk about himself, it is abundantly clear that he is dedicated to the preservation and proliferation of the history of the St. John Valley. During our conversation, Patrick gave us the broad strokes of his professional life, including some compelling context for our journey to Maine's borderlands and the history of Franco-Americans and Acadians in New England. 

Merci et très bonne écoute !

Written and edited by Julia Rhinelander

Music: Robert Sylvain

Production site: WMPG

This podcast is a production from the University of Southern Maine's Franco-American Collection and USM Libraries.

Learn more about the Bates Fabriques with our interviewees Norm Marcotte and Larry Charest.

Welcome back to Franco-American Pathways! We know it is dark and cold out this time of year, so we decided now was the perfect time to talk about one of our favorite winter sports to get those neurons firing. Of course I’m talking about hockey! Lewiston has a long history of hockey teams, figure skating, and other ice related activities. Today we will be talking about one particular hockey team–the Bates Fabriques! I’ve been so excited to share all the neat artifacts we have about this team! 

The Bates Fabriques were sponsored by the Bates Manufacturing company, and competed regionally and nationally against other teams of similar standing. Many textile manufacturers supported sports teams, including Cabot Manufacturing in Brunswick and Pepperell in Biddeford. But did you know that the Bates Fabriques won a national hockey championship in 1950 and traveled to Europe to compete internationally? Today’s interviewees are here to tell us all about it.

Bonjour, hello and welcome back to Franco-American Pathways, a podcast from the University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American Collection. Life at the university has had its twists and turns, but we are so grateful to be back to share with you our trip to Fort Kent last winter. Patrick LaCroix, who had then just taken up the post of Director of the Acadian Archives at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, graciously welcomed us to Madawaska last March and arranged for us to meet some folks who could help us deepen our understanding of this truly unique and fascinating region.

In the first installment of our Voices of Fort Kent series, you'll meet Lisa Lavoie. Lavoie is an assistant professor in Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling at UMFK, and was born and raised in Fort Kent. In 2015 she received her masters degree in Maine Studies through the University of Maine and her thesis focused on the effects of 9/11 on the borderlands of Northern Maine. This thesis is what interested us in her perspective on this region, both as a scholar and as a Madawaska native.

Big gratitude to Robert Sylvain for offering music from his album Memere’s Notebook for our show.

Thanks as well to WMPG, USM’s community radio, for sharing their resources with us and making the production of our show possible.

Merci et très bonne écoute !

Bonjour à tous et à toutes !

It has been a minute! This episode, set to air at the start of the summer, got waylaid. There was a Covid case or two, a trip to Hawaii, and shifting work schedules in the mix, but, at long last,  it is our pleasure to introduce the work of our spring intern, Corra. We are so proud of all that they accomplished for the Putting History to Work internship in the spring; the depth of their research and the nuance of their insights will speak for themselves. This episode diverges a bit from our normal format: Corra, a young Franco and Lewiston native, explores her own family history and how it intersects with her queer identity. Using public records and the resources available at USM's Special Collections, Corra does a deep dive into researching the life of their late Aunt Linda, a family member with whom they had a deep connection. Their research culminated in a rich conversation at the WMPG studio about queer culture and identity with our producer, Julia, and one of USM's Instruction and Outreach Librarians, Megan MacGregor.

Be sure to check out our blog to see photos of Linda and read more about Corra's story and where they did they research. 

We are still editing tape from our Mapping Franco Fort Kent and Brunswick trips, but because of schedule changes, the work is just going a bit slower than before. Not to worry though! New content is coming this fall and we are so excited to share our work with you.

Merci, et très bonne écoute!

This episode was written by Corra St. Pierre.

It was produced and edited by Corra St. Pierre and Julia Rhinelander

Music: Robert Sylvain

Bonjour! This month, we’re bringing you the second half of our Mapping Franco Biddeford episode! If you didn’t listen to part one, we highly recommend going back and giving it a listen; part two will make a whole lot more sense. Last fall, a few days after our Osher visit, Emma Bouthillette, Biddeford native and author, met the Franco-American pathways team and Libby Bischof to take a historic walking tour of Biddeford. We made connections to the maps and documents we’d viewed just a few days earlier.

Our visit concluded with a stop at the McArthur Library where Renée Burkett and her team in Special Collections gave us a tour of their space and their extensive collection of artifacts relating to Franco Biddeford.

Music for Franco-American Pathways was composed and performed by Robert Sylvain and is available for purchase on his website, robertsylvain.com.

Special thanks to Dr. Libby Bischof at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, Emma Bouthillette, and Renée Burkett for making our mapping of Franco Biddeford possible.

All editing and production for this episode was done at WMPG, USM’s community radio.

Merci, et a la prochaine !

This month, we present you with the first part of one of the larger projects we tackled in 2021: a second Mapping episode, this time focusing on the city of Biddeford. Today, we take you back to the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education with Dr. Libby Bischof, as well as another special guest: Emma Bouthillette, a Biddeford native, yoga teacher, and writer. Emma is the author of A Brief History of Biddeford, a book about this historic mill town that was shaped by the Franco-American exodus at the turn of the century.

True to form, Libby met us in the reading room of the map library ready with every table covered in maps and documents relating to Biddeford. I would suggest heading over to our blog to take a look at the documents we viewed as you listen along.

Bienvenue et très bonne écoute !

Music: Robert Sylvain

Production: Julia Rhinelander and Corra St. Pierre

Our archivist, Anna, had the chance to sit down with Cindy Larock a few months ago, and what came out of it is just so special.  For those unfamiliar, Cindy Larock is a Franco-American who grew up in Lewiston, Maine. She has been actively involved in traditional music and dance from Quebec to Maine and all over New England for over 40 years. This month, we present you with Anna and Cindy's conversation, plus some treasures from the collection.

To learn more about Cindy Larock, the Maine Folque Coop, and her Maine Bicentennial Grant, be sure to read our blog post for this month.

Music: Robert Sylvain

Writing: Anna Faherty

Editing and Production: Julia Rhinelander and Corra St. Pierre

Welcome back to Franco-American Pathways! We hope you had a great holiday, however you celebrate. In this longer episode, we present you with an interview we conducted in person, at our collection, with Ryan Fecteau, a young Franco-American and Maine’s Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Anna brought out a bunch of artifacts to share with Speaker Fecteau during our interview and we had a great conversation about his experience growing up as a Franco-American in Biddeford, his career in politics, and his vision for Maine’s future.

Maureen also unearthed some compelling written documents pertaining to the history of Francos in Maine politics for La Collection Parle. Check out our blog for images of the archival materials we shared this week!

Très bonne écoute !

Hosts: Anna Faherty, Maureen Perry, Julia Rhinelander

Special Guest: Ryan Fecteau

Music: Robert Sylvain

Editing and Production: Julia Rhinelander

Welcome to Franco-American Pathways, a podcast from the University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American Collection. This month, we spoke with Steven Riel, a New England poet of Franco-American descent, who just released his fifth poetry collection, Edgemere. We discussed Riel’s upbringing in Massachusetts, his relationship to his Franco-American heritage, in addition to the themes of memory, identity, and selfhood in his poetry. In The Archivist’s Corner, Anna will introduce the Nandette Poetry book, a collection of poems and ephemera from Fernande Audet. In La Collection Parle, Maureen will read some of Audet’s poetry, in French and English. Welcome and Happy listening!

Music: Robert Sylvain

Production and Editing: Julia Rhinelander

The Archivist's Corner: Anna Faherty

La Collection Parle: Maureen Perry

Welcome to this month’s episode of Franco-American Pathways, the second in our Mapping Franco Lewiston series. If you haven’t heard part one, we suggest going back and giving it a listen. It’ll give you some context for this month’s conversations.

In part one, we focused on connecting the physical and cultural topographies of Lewiston in order to better understand its history; we visited Libby Bischof at the Osher Map Library to look at several different renderings of Lewiston-Auburn throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and then spent a day on foot together in Lewiston to deepen our understanding of the Franco presence there. For this second part, we rounded out our exploration of Franco Lewiston talking with James Myall, co-author of The Franco-Americans of Lewiston-Auburn, historian, and policy analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

Be sure to check out our blog to take a look at the resources mentioned and stay up to date on all our news.

Music: Robert Sylvain

Host: Julia Rhinelander

Production and Editing: Julia Rhinelander

The Archivists Corner: Anna Faherty

La Collection Parle: Mauren Perry

Merci, et très bonne écoute !