“Discussion du Cupbette”* on Franco-American Women’s Future and Life Changing Events
Tuesday, Nov. 17th at 3-4:30 PM.
Rhea Côté Robbins, Susan Poulin, Ellen LaFleche, and Kristin Langellier, Ph.D. will present their views on life changing events and choices they made for their future selves as Franco-American women/girls. The focus of this panel is on the future of the situation Femme Franco-Américaine and how modern women define their lives by their conscious choice of lifestyle.
Topic: “Discussion du Cupbette”* on Franco-American Women’s Future and Life Changing Events
Time: Nov 17, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://maine.zoom.us/j/81197617081?pwd=bWg0eGkzUVFRYUdVL1dwdklDVmZmQT09
Password: 679060
*The phrase, “Discussion du Cupbette” comes from Jeannine Bacon Roy who described this term to me as something that she and her female relatives would do during a family get-together—they would go into the pantry, cupbette, to have a discussion among themselves.
Jeannine Bacon Roy translated the play Françaises d’Amérique, Frenchwomen of North America by Corinne Rocheleau Rouleau, (1881-1963) about the French heroines who came to New France. The play is included in the Canuck and Other Stories anthology.
Rhea will present on becoming an artist, writer in the milieu of the Franco-American culture and the life choices she made to achieve her aesthetic goals. She views the work of the arts as the perfect bridge between the generations as well as a way to go toward the future of the culture.
Susan: I’ll talk about my decision not to have children and how the implications of this choice have changed over time. Also, how this decision has informed and affected my work life and life’s work.
Ellen: Current clinical definitions about grief define “complicated grief” as still struggling after six months. As if all grief isn’t complicated!!! I’ll challenge that, and weave in some cultural issues as well.
Kristin‘s presentation will be about the changes of Retirement (I’ve always used the Big ‘R’ in my journal to note it) that are adaptations for going forward to the future as a cultural woman, a Franco-American femme/feminist. I’ll talk a little about the re-working and re-visioning of my family identity (becoming a mémère) and my writing identity–how I’m doing new etudes and practices.
Bios and Suggested Readings:
Rhea Côté Robbins was brought up bilingually in a Franco-American neighborhood in Waterville known as the South End. She currently lives in South Brewer. Côté Robbins is the author of creative nonfiction, memoirs titled, ‘down the Plains,’ and Wednesday’s Child, winner of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Chapbook Award and taught in many university/college courses. She is editor of Canuck and Other Stories, an anthology of translations of early 20th century Franco-American women writers who wrote about their immigration experience.
She is the founder and director of the Franco-American Women’s Institute, FAWI, which disseminates information about the contributions of the French heritage women’s lives. She edited an anthology—a collection of 130 French heritage women’s submitted works to celebrate FAWI’s 20th Anniversary, titled, Heliotrope—French Heritage Women Create! This book project was crowdfunded by the Franco- American community’s many supporters. Heliotrope was a finalist in the MWPA Anthology competition.
Côté Robbins’ writing and research has appeared in many publications. She is Creative Non-fiction editor for Résonance, the open-access electronic, curated, editor-reviewed literary journal that seeks to encourage, showcase, and disseminate creative works by established and emerging writers, primarily by and/or about the Franco-American communities of the United States. She is currently working on research in expanding the definition of the French heritage women and their “hidden contributions.”
Susan Poulin was selected by Portland Magazine as one of the “Ten Most Intriguing People in Maine,” award winning writer and performer Susan Poulin is a leader in bringing a female voice to New England storytelling and humor. She is the author of eleven plays, six of which feature her alter ego, Ida LeClair, “the funniest woman in Maine.” Susan writes the popular Maine humor blog and podcast, Just Ask Ida, and is the author of Finding Your Inner Moose: Ida LeClair’s Guide to Living the Good Life and The Sweet Life: Ida LeClair’s Guide to Love and Marriage published by Islandport Press. Check out Susan’s popular TEDxPortsmouth Talk at poolyle.com
Ellen LaFleche, I’m in Northampton in western Massachusetts. I’ll be focusing my talk on challenging common beliefs about grief. After my husband passed away from ALS, I read many how-to books about grief. They were helpful in some ways, for example, financial strategies were helpful, but most books missed the mark concerning the loss of a spouse. Nobody seemed to acknowledge the unique aspect of losing a partner — the sensual losses that are so very hard to bear. I worked for three years on a series of poems that honored those losses, and the result was Walking into Lightning, which was published by Saddle Road Press in 2019.
Kristin Langellier, Ph.D., I am a retired as Professor Emerita of Communication at UM where I did research on Franco American family storytelling, women storytelling, and Maine Somali narrative.
Suggested readings:
Heliotrope—French Heritage Women Create, all panelists have contributed to this volume, available online at Amazon.
VOICING IDENTITY: THE CASE OF FRANCO-AMERICAN WOMEN IN MAINE
By Kristin M. Langellier, Ph.D., and Eric E. Peterson, Ph.D., Orono
Presented at the International Communication Colloquium, July 30, 1998, Budapest, Hungary (forthcoming).
http://www.fawi.net/ezine/pastezines/Volume2Number2and3.html