festivals

Joyeuse fête nationale

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Today is a day that, while very special to several million people very close to New England, goes almost totally unnoticed just a couple hundred miles away. Originally based on the religious feast of John the Baptist, June 24th has evolved to become la fête nationale in Québec, or the equivalent of our 4th of July. Why a 'national' holiday in a province, you might ask. Well that's a complicated question, as are most things surrounding language and culture just north of here.

I thought I would take the national day to talk about the special article in this month's Merrimack Valley Magazine written by my friend Emilie Provost, "La Survivance". It's "a look at the future of franco-american culture in the Merrimack valley". I was honored to actually be interviewed by Emilie for the article, along with several others including Paul Marion of UMass Lowell. I also had the pleasure to spend a couple of hours visiting with Roger Lacerte, who runs a French language bookstore in Manchester, NH. Incredibly passionate about maintaining québécois culture in New England, visiting with him made me think quite a bit about my father and my other relatives from that generation and the previous one, for whom Québec was much more fresh in their day to day lives.

I hope you check the article out and possibly visit the other world that is a few hours from here.

    

Roger Lacerte

Roger Lacerte

In the vault, where Roger keeps his rare book collection

In the vault, where Roger keeps his rare book collection

From Lowell himself,  and knowing that I had come to the store from Lowell, Roger made a point of showing me a French translation of Jack Kerouac's "Docteur Sax"

From Lowell himself,  and knowing that I had come to the store from Lowell, Roger made a point of showing me a French translation of Jack Kerouac's "Docteur Sax"

Deb and the Community Gardens Greenhouse

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Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Deb Harding, who is the Operations Manager of the Community Gardens Greenhouse in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Vice President of Keep Lowell Beautiful. Interestingly, we also share a background in the high-tech world, and in fact, are both refugees of the same very old and very large computer company. At our first meeting to talk about her projects and my interest in photographing her, we discovered that we had an amazing amount in common in that respect and had, in fact, both decided to walk away from that life.

 

Borrowing from the Community Gardens Greenhouse web site:

"Founded in 2004, the Community Gardens Greenhouse is a not-for profit initiative, the
beautification sub-committee of Keep Lowell Beautiful, dedicated to creating social
change through the art of gardening, growing communities from the ground up."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Please check out their web site for more information including their accomplishments, who is involved, and, if you are interested, how you can participate : http://www.communitygardensgreenhouse.org

The Greenhouse has also hosts The Earth Day Festival at their location at 220 Aiken Street in Lowell. Here are a few shots from this year's event.

Lowell Latin American Festival - 2009

I stopped by another great festival in Lowell last Saturday. The Lowell Latin American Festival (http://www.lowelllatinamericanfestival.com) was at the North Common Park. I cannot believe that it was pretty much the only good weather that we've had, all last week, and it looks like this week as well. But it was an intensely sunny day. I unfortunately was unable to stay past the middle of the afternoon, so missed the music that was planned, but I did meet many really interesting people.

I plan to be at the Lowell Folk Festival, held downtown in Lowell every summer, in my ongoing personal project to portrait who we are. I hope to see you there!