Actor Jean Reno, (His real name is Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez) was born in 1948 and raised in Morocco, then a French protectorate. Ever since appearing in The Big Blue in 1988, a cult movie by Luc Besson, he has worked in the U.S. and in France and in international productions, including Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, The Pink Panther, Ronin, Les Visiteurs, The Big Blue, or Léon: The Professional, and many more.

As a parent at the school, he took some time this year to preside over the Lycee Francais de New York Theater Festival, Première Scène, and give a masterclass to the students.

In this episode of La Culture Oui, But Why? he recalls his training and lengthy career and gives tips to the young aspiring actors.

Mostly in French with some English.

Every morning on France Inter in MusicAline, music critic Aline AFANOUKOE welcomes her audience with her now famous "Holà Todos" and delivers her 3-minute-and-a-half vocal postcard on what is happening on the musical scene.

We invited her to the Cultural Center of the Lycee Francais de New York, to emcee a concert of francophone voices that took place on March 20th, on the International Day of Francophonie.

Born to Togolese parents, and raised in Paris, Aline is a rising star in French media. We invited her on our podcast la Culture Oui But Why to talk about her journey, music, and francophonie. The podcast is in French.

Season 3 Episode 4 Annie St Pierre and the Cirque du Soleil

The Cirque du Soleil was in residence at the Lycee Francais de New York with our first graders. We decided to interview Annie St Pierre, one of the company's artistic directors who came from Montreal, on this extraordinary company and what it means to work there.

Her bio: After ten years of professional study in classical ballet at Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, Annie leads her career as a jazz-cabaret-musical dancer to join multiple projects and shows worldwide. She has worked principally as an artistic quality director, choreographer, and director for live shows and events for many years. She has been part of the Cirque du Soleil family for over 15 years. Collaborating in a variety of projects, from special events to touring shows. Such as Amaluna, Dralion, MJ One, MJ immortal Tour, Cirque du Soleil at Sea, Joyà, Creative, Twas the Night Before Christmas and much more. Passionate and with a lively spirit, Annie also has a Bachelor's in Communications and is completing a DESS in Management to sharpen her skills as a creative leader. True to her creation process, eliciting the meeting of human beings continues to be at the heart of her motivation and of her inspiration!

Jazz Musician Oran Etkin was our Artist in Residence at the Lycee Francais de New York with our third graders, together with percussionist Sasha Berliner.

Born in Israel, Oran moved with his family to Boston when he was five and started taking instrument lessons. At fourteen, he studied clarinet with Yusef Lateef and George Garzone. He attended Brandeis University and the Manhattan School of Music. He plays the alto clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone. Etkin invented a teaching method called Timbalooloo to teach music to children as young as three. Etkin has also been collaborating with musicians from Mali. His debut album, Kelenia (Motema, 2009), combined jazz with Malian music.

He talks about his life and his musical influences. He will play at Mezzrow in Manhattan on June 1, 2023. 

Fencing Champion Laura Flessel began fencing at age six and quickly became a very talented fencer. She progressed quickly and became the champion of Guadeloupe. She won her first world stage success in 1995, After her gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics and her victory at the 1998 World Cup, she became the eighth French fencer and the first woman to win the Olympic and World Champion titles. She has won the most Olympic medals of any French sportswoman, with five. She was France's flag-bearer at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, which was her fifth and last Olympics. She was appointed Minister of Sports in 2017 and is on the selection committee for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She came in November to the Lycee Francais de New York to speak to the students, participate in a fencing workshop, and to a public conversation with Alvin Patrick, executive producer at CBS News, together with a senior student, Ariane Chevrier. 

We asked her what it takes to become a champion in your life.

In French

On November 6, 2022, French-born Karine Jones, mother of 4 and a parent at the Lycee Francais de New York, run her 7th New York marathon. She tells us about her passion, about this 51st edition with high temperatures and humidity, and gives tips and advice to those who want to try it.

In French

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La Culture Oui, But Why? is starting its third season with a new format. The podcast will sometimes be in French, sometimes in English, depending on our guest's native language.

Let me know if you like it or not at [email protected]

Image by Serge Bloch

Music by Maxime Boublil

French Writer Marc Levy was invited to the Lycee Francais de New York as part of an artist-in-residence project. He spent a week with the 8th graders on the Power of Imagination.

Marc Lévy is a French novelist whose books have been translated into over forty languages. He is the most widely read French author in the world. New Yorker at heart, Marc Levy chooses the Big Apple as the backdrop of many of his novels. He talks about his beginnings and writing in a bilingual world.

Laura Nsafou is our guest for this episode. Also known as Mrs Roots, she is a French blogger and author and artist in residence at the Lycee Francais de New York.

Founder of the Afrolab workshop, Laura is the author of the eleven-times reprinted picture book Comme un million de papillons noirs (Like A Million Black Butterflies) published at Editions Cambourakis, A mains nues (Editions Synapse), Le chemin de Jada (Jada's Journey, Cambourakis), Fadya et le chant de la rivière (Lunii), La demeure du ciel (Cambourakis). In September 2021 she wrote her first Yound Adult novel NOS JOURS BRÛLÉS (éditions Albin Michel). The second volume of this saga is due very soon. She is also working on a bande dessinée or graphic novel. In February 2022, French Vogue listed her among "the most promising authors of the moment".

In France, Laura Nsafou embodies a whole new generation of authors, As a committed Afro-feminist, she tackles social representations, history, and culture of black women on her dedicated site: mrsroots.fr. Her motto is: “Write. So that it is no longer possible to say once again: I didn't know."

In this podcast, Laura Nsafou talks about her own childhood, and her desire to write. She has been in residence at the Lycee Francais de New York with the 5th graders in the Spring of 2022. She gives some details about the writing project she has led there.

Many thanks to Somi for other music.

BACK

In this new episode of our bilingual podcast, as we celebrate Earth Day with climate change on our minds, we invited an alum from the Lycée Francais de New York, Charles Cohen (Class 2015) who decided to study forestry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and now works in the wilderness in Canada. He tells us about his choice, about his life among the trees far from his early youth between Paris and New York.

At the Lycee Français de New York, we are organizing a panel talk on "How Important Are Forests" on April 26th - free and open to all - because we strongly believe that protecting the environment is key to the future of the young generations at the Lycee and all over the world. This podcast with Charles Cohen, hopefully will inspire young people look at their future with wide-open eyes on nature. 

In French and in English

With a tribute to Josephine Baker within excerpt from her 1927 recording of Blue Eyes

Check online at cultural center.lfny.org