Join us for a preview of Bastille Day Fête! Hear a taste of the great francophone acts who will be playing on the French National Day in New Orleans, including Bruce Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots and T’Monde. Then, come out to the festival for the real live thing on Saturday July 11th at the Riverwalk’s Spanish Plaza. In addition to live music, we’ll have the annual Concours de chien, Dog Costume Contest, tours of a fireboat on the river, A French Bread and Butter Hour for kids, French wine and beer, and great francophone food vendors, including Crepes à la carte, Café Dégas, Antoine’s, Petit Rouge French Coffee Truck, and more! Details at bastilledaynola.com
To get some answers, we first attend a lecture organized by the Algiers Historical Society « The Evolution of Francophone to Anglophone Language Identity in Louisiana. » After the conference, Radio NOLA host, Mary Matthews, sits down with the speaker, Joseph Dunn (former director of the state agency CODOFIL), to learn more about the process by which we lost our Francophone identity, and how it is being rebuilt today.
Joseph says it’s a choice to speak French, so our host tries it out, speaking French with the New Orleanians around her, first at the Crescent City Farmer’s Market, then at an Apéro Francophone at Bacchanal. We also get to hear from the musician on stage for the evening, singer-songwriter Eric John Kaiser, who was on tour promoting his latest French/english bilingual album in Louisiana. We’ll get to hear some of his music too!