RECAP OF SWAAF MEETING
October 1, 2011
UWM
Note: This was a one-hour meeting – followed by the second day of Francophone
North Africa Workshop, for materials from the workshop, please go to the Picturing
the Maghreb website:
http://french432.ning.com/
Bonjour tout le monde,
This Saturday, October 1 in conjunction with the Francophone North African
workshop at UWM, we had a one-hour fall meeting. Here is a recap for those who
couldn’t attend. Note: We need to set a date for our next meeting toward the end of
January 2012 – please send me a private message if you have a preference for
Saturday, January 21 or Saturday, January 28 (to alkhas@uwm.edu).
Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events that we discussed during
the meeting:
1) The Central States Conference will be held in Milwaukee, March 8,9,10 2012!
http://www.csctfl.org/ Please encourage your colleagues in all languages to attend.
Please let them know that the 3 day conference (see more below) Haiti 2012- Pays
rêvé, pays réel is planned to coincide with the CSC in order to allow attendance in
the late afternoon and evenings (all events will be in English or will have English
interpreters). Please note the cinema day occurs on Wednesday 7th March so that
CSC attendees arriving the night before can come to see a Haitian film and meet
Arnold Antonin, the Haitian director who will be giving the pre-film talk and talk
back. (film to be announced)
2) Haiti 2012: Pays rêvé Pays réel : March 7, 8, 9, 2012 (also MAM After Dark will
celebrate Mardi Gras on Thursday, February 17!! http://mam.org/afterdark/)
This conference, celebrating the rich array of artistic and cultural production in
contemporary Haiti, is being organized by UWM, Marquette, the Alliance Française
of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the cultural services of the Consulat de
France à Chicago (among other partners). Each afternoon/evening will focus on a
different aspect:
Cinema on Wed. the 7th – at Marquette University, Weasler auditorium with Arnold
Antonin, and Yanick Lahens (for the film shorts she helped the youth of Pétion-Ville
produce to record their Port au Prince post earthquake experiences)
Art on Thurs. the 8th -- at the Milwaukee Art Museum with Mireille Jérôme (art
critic and founder of the art gallery in Pétion-Ville Ateliers Jérome) and Duval-Carrié
(painter). This evening will include a guided tour of the Haitian collection.
Literature on Fri., the 9th – at UWM- 21st Century Studies Center, Curtin 175, with 3
authors: Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Yanick Lahens, and Lyonel Trouillot (who was
short listed for the Goncourt this year for La Belle Amour 2011).
(for more infor on these authors, please see the wonderful site “ile-en-ile”
http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/haiti/index.html
All of the invitees will attend all 3 evenings. Please note that it may be possible to
have Louis-Philippe Dalembert visit a class in the community since he will be
staying as writer-in-residence at UWM a bit longer than the conference. He speaks
French, Kreyol, Spanish, and Italian. His latest novel Noires Blessures is set in
Africa, probably the Congo-Brazzaville and talks about race relations between a
white French man and his house servant. A rather troubling read. His other novels
tend to be set in Haiti except his Rue Faubourg St. Denis which is set in Paris in 2003
during la canicule.
3) This spring 2012 at UWM, Sarah Davies-Cordova will be teaching a course in
French on francophone literature (for undergraduate or graduate credit; auditors
can enroll if the enrollment cap is not reached).
The course will focus on the French Antilles (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and Haiti
and look at the key 20th Century literary movements : Négritude, Créolité,
Antillanité and their divergences and influences from Haitian literature. If you are
interested in attending the course, please email Sarah at cordovas@uwm.edu and let
her know if Monday evenings would work (or if you have another day/time
preference).
4) The FIFTEENTH!!! Annual Festival of Films in French at UWM will be held
February 2-February 12, 2012. I am posting links below to most of the featured
films at the end of this message.
5) French Day 2012 will be on Friday, February 10, 2012 – you’ll be receiving an
announcement soon about how to sign up. We would like to have reservations set
before Thanksgiving. If you have any suggestions for this year’s French Day
activities, please let us know. The film will be "Une Vie de chat" Bande annonce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UM8h0kp_KU)
Site pédagogique: http://uneviedechat.crdp-lyon.fr/
6) John Gaebler spoke to us about School Year Abroad.
http://sya.org/s/833/home.aspx
He mentioned that Ameerah Phillips of SYA would be willing to: (a) visit schools and
make presentations to potentially interested students, during class time or lunch
breaks, or after school or maybe even in the evening (ideally, smaller groups of
students identified by teachers as potentially interested and capable who have
already investigated the SYA web site and discussed with their parents); (b) visit
with teachers to introduce SYA; (c) drop off SYA materials w/teachers to share with
students. Please contact Ameerah at aphillips@sya.org or John Gaebler" at
jfg@dewittross.com
Note: SYA had been planning a film for teachers convention, but since it’s not being
held for everyone this year, SYA and the AF will get back to us with more info.
Finally, SYA and the Alliance Française are looking for suggestions for opportunities
for local high school students of French to participate in theater activities – please
email John if you have ideas or students who might be interested.
7) Our treasurer Teri Knight collected SWAAF dues for the 2011/12 school year. If
you didn’t attend the meeting, but would like to pay dues for SWAAF, please send a
check made out to SWAAF to:
Teri Knight
Ronald Reagan College Prep H.S.
4965 S. 20th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53221
We discussed last year that suggested dues is $20 for a fully-employed teacher, $10
for part-time & retired, and free for students and currently unemployed.
Here are trailers and info for most but not all films featured at the 15th Annual
Festival of Films in French at UWM in February:
L'Affaire Farewell
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/Farewell.htm
1981
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWFBHsGcOPE
Joueuse
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/Joueuse.html
Le Père de mes enfants
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/LePereDeMesEnfants.html
An Uncommon Woman
http://www.africanfilm.com/cat1.htm (Scroll down)
Les Amants de l'ombre (Prohibited Love)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlaf341-7zg
Potiche
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/Potiche.html
Le Dernier Metro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2yVKeR15qg
Le Hérisson (The Hedgehog)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edYkWx5QDsM
Les Herbes folles
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/LesHerbesFolles.html
The Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/18306/Four-Adventures-of-Reinette-andMirabelle/overview