LA PAROLE Newsletter of the Acadian Museum By: Chairman Warren A. Perrin Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation, Inc.

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1 LA PAROLE Newsletter of e Acadian Museum By: Chairman Warren A. Perrin Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation, Inc. 203 S. Broadway, Era, Louisiana (337) ; October 21, 2009 You are on e museum s list to receive La Parole. If you know of anyone else who would like to receive it, please forward eir name and address to my secretary Darylin at: darylinb@plddo.com. If you no longer want to receive future issues, please advise at e noted above. If you have had an opportunity to attend some of our programs, we hope at you have enjoyed em. For ose who have not yet been able to do so, please check our website for upcoming events: As you are aware, e streng of e Acadian Museum is built upon e generosity and kindness of e people we serve. We are sending is request wi e hope at you will consider making a tax deductible donation to support our Acadian Museum for e upcoming year. The museum is a 501(c)(3) corporation and we will provide all donors wi proof of e donation for tax deduction purposes. Thank you for your ongoing support. I will be representing CODOFIL and e Acadian Museum for+ two upcoming trips to New Brunswick and Quebec. I will be in e Moncton/Dieppe area from October attending e Salon du Livre Dieppe. While ere, I will also be meeting wi various linguist, historians and culturalist, including Ronnie Giles-LeBlanc, Richard Laurin, Paul Surette and Marie Girouard. I look forward to seeing many of my friends from at area. I will en be in Quebec from November to participate in events in Ottawa, Gatineau, Quebec City and Montreal. I will be accompanied by local Cajun cooks. I look forward to seeing many of my friends in bo areas and invite all my Canadian friends to try to attend e upcoming events noted in e two attached itineraries. Invitation to all to attend Living Legend induction ceremony: On September 26, e 1

2 Acadian Museum honored Living Legend Earl Joseph Nickey Picard. Upcoming inductions are as follows: Armand Brinkhaus on November 7, Raymond LaLa Lalonde st on November 21, Dr. May Waggoner on December 5 and Marcelle Bienvenue on January 16, The programs begin at 4:00 p.m. at e Museum Café in Era and include a Cajun music jam session beginning at 1:00 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend. For more information, (337) Anyone interested in learning to speak French in a social setting is invited to Le Pique-Nique which is held monly in Lafayette s Girard Park. Look for e Acadian flag. For more information, call Mike LeBlanc at (337) We donated 30 Beausoleil t-shirts to e UL BeauSoleil home project. The U.L. BeauSoleil team departed for Washington, D. C. on September 28 and competed in e U. S. Department of Energy s Solar Decalon. The team won e Market Viability and e People s Choice award of e competition. Gretchen Lacombe Vanicor, BeauSoleil project manager said, We knew form e beginning at if we couldn t bring is home to e people of Louisiana, we wouldn t accomplish anying. We paid a lot of attention to our Cajun culture and produced a product at is viable. The promotion of e event was aided by e unique Beausoleil t-shirts. Andy Perrin of Perrin Architecture was coordinator for e event. The Louisiana Orphan Train Museum held its grand opening October 10 at Le Vieux Village on Academy Street in Opelousas. For information, (337) In an article in The Acadian (September, 2009) Alice Bernard, a Living Legend of e museum, was featured and noted to be e only known survivor of e Orphan Train. Jean-Robert Frigault and I recently met wi Grace Wilson, New Orleans Marketing and Tourism Board, to discuss mutual promotional opportunities. We were delighted to receive copies of eir new bumper sticker La Nouvelle-Orleans, C est chez nous. For more information or copies, contact Wilson at ggrace@nomc.com. On November 11, 2009, e "French Will Never Forget Organization" will present e Normandy Liberty Bell to The National World War II Museum. Delegations from Normandy, New York, Washington, D. C. and Houston are expected to attend. For more information on 2

3 e Normandy Liberty Bell, please check eir web site normandylibertybell.com or just Google Normandy Liberty Bell. Bernie David, musician and culturalist, attended e Mi kmaw-acadian Culture Festival and reunion at Fort Point Lahave, Nova Scotia where he was invited to perform wi Anne Marie, a descendant of e Mi kmaw Chief Membertou. He performed e song Les Valse De Anne Marie. During e Sweet Grass Ceremony and Honor Ceremony at e Ancient Mi Kmaw burial site, he was given his new Mi kmaw name Etlintoq Muin-Singing Bear. Bernie will perform pro bono for a party given by Ray and Brenda Trahan for e Giant Omelette attendees. Minodora Cliveti, long-time friend and attorney from Romania, has offered to help us develop a collaboration between a school in Louisiana and a school in Bacau, Romania, a town which is part of la francophonie. If anyone is interested in helping to develop is association, please contact Minodora at minodora_cliveti@yahoo.com. In People magazine (September 28, 2009, page 182), Louisiana Chef John Besh s GreatIdeas receipe for a dinner under $10 was red beans and rice. His latest cookbook My New Orleans: The Cookbook was released on October 6. Thanks to e good will of e Lafayette Johnston Street location of Albertson s of Acadiana, ere will be a great Halloween party at Era High School is year. Recently, at my request, Albertson s agreed to donate dozens of boxes of Halloween decorations and oer items to e museum which intended to use e merchandise for one of its fundraisers. At is point, e Era Four of July Association, spear-headed by Leslie Mencacci of Era, generously stepped in and offered to buy all of e boxes from e museum, providing a bonanza for e museum. The association en donated e merchandise to e Era High School Project Graduation Committee which will have a great Halloween party for e children of e Era community. Amanda Domingue, Chairperson of Project Graduation, anks e Era 4 of July Association and invited all children to e Halloween Bash at Era High School Stadium, Saturday, October 31st from 6 pm to 10 pm. Linda Domingue wrote a nice Guest Column for e Advertiser (October 6, 2009) concerning her participation in e Congrès Mondial Acadien: 2009 Congrès Instilled Pride 3

4 In Our Heritage. New books at we recommend include Wings of Paradise: Birds of Louisiana Wetlands (LSU Press) by Lafayette native Charlie Hohorst, Jr., wi contributions of recipes by Marcelle Bienvenue of St. Martinville, Why The Crawfish Lives In The Mud by Jeanette Downing and Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrrell Bourque s Call and Response. Louisiana legend Ernest J. Gaines premiered his book This Louisiana Thing That Drives Me: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines by Reggie Scott Young, Marcia Gaudet and Wiley Cash which was published by e University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. The UL Press also premiered Lorraine Gendron: Louisiana Folk Artist wi an interview wi e artist by Nancy Wilson and a foreword by Betty-Carol Sellen. Steven K. Landry wrote a nice special article to The Advocate ( Era artist records CD at home, October 5, 2009, Section B) featuring Era s Michael Juan Nunez and his new CD Punks Like You. The Acadian Centre Acadien, Abbeville Cultural and Historical Alliance and e Cajun Culture Association jointly announced e availability of e Russell Gaspard French Immersion Scholarship to be awarded to Vermilion Parish high school students for e 2010 summer French immersion study program in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Coca-Cola Acadiana Cup is back in Louisiana! The 11 annual international golf event which matches players from Francophone areas in Nor America and Europe recently concluded and e combined Acadiana - Canadian squad referred to as Team Acadie won by a score. Team captains were Robert Porrier of e Canadian team and Lafayette s Buddy Guillory. On October 17, Tickfaw State Park hosted its annual Cajun Day wi a jambalaya cook-off. On September 17, several Lafayette comedians competed at Poor Boy s Riverside Inn near Broussard during an amateur comedy competition: The Last Couillon Standing. The amateurs were competing for one of ree spots held for non-professionals in e upcoming Cajun Comic Relief XVIII show to be held in February at e Heymann Center. The Louisiana Cultural Economy Summit will focus on e development of e state s cultural industry is set for October at e Royal Sonesta Hotel, 800 Iberville Street, 4

5 New Orleans. For more information: Morgan Builliard, a 15-year old sophomore at Westgate High School in New Iberia, was e 2009 Louisiana High School Essay Contest winner wi her poem Mais Sha, I m Cajun! written last year while she was still a freshman in e gifted-english class. The program is sponsored by Norwestern State University. The essay was read before e assembly members of e Louisiana Folklife Center, e Folklife Society of Louisiana and e NSU Writing Project. Sadly, after centuries of living in souern Louisiana swamps and marshes, a group of United Houma Nation people announced its intent on moving from its ancestral island home. The migration inland symbolizes one of e most obvious defeats in sou Louisiana s losing battle wi wetlands loss and hurricanes (The Advertiser, Indian Group To Abandon rd Ancestral Home, September 23 ). On September 25, e Friends of French Studies at LSU and members of L Assemblée Française had eir annual Fête Champêtre at e French House on e campus of LSU. For more information: kwats18@tigers.lsu.edu or (504) The Board of Directors of e CFMA again had a successful Le Cajun Award. The event for next year will be moving to Cade, Louisiana at e Cade Community Center. For more information: (337) Sadly, Herb LeBlanc,of les Tymeaux de la Baie and a major musical influence among Nova Scotia s Acadians, died on October 11. Be Patterson, a native of Lafayette, has been nominated for a Grammy Award. She performed at Bisbano s in Lafayette on October 17. Dr. Rita Rae Fontenot is looking for people to be on e Rotarian team at will be going to France for a mon at e expense of Rotary District They need to be non-rotarians and under 40 years old. For more information, contact Dr. Fontenot at drritarae@yahoo.com On Monday, November 9 at 1:30 p.m., e Acadian Museum will be hosting a tour of visitors in connection wi Abbeville s Giant Omelette Festival Everyone is invited to come and meet e visitors from various French-speaking countries and hear D. L. Menard perform. 5

6 On Saturday, October 24 at 7:00 p.m., Ann Savoy & Her Sleepless Knights will perform at e Grand Opera House of e Sou. On October 23, 2009 e Acadian Memorial Foundation will host Dr. Malcolm Comeaux as a special guest speaker. His presentation was centered on e topic of Acadian culture diffusion and change. On October Kaplan will celebrate its 29 Cajun October Fete wi music, food and games. Headlining e event was e popular Zydeco band Geno Delafose and French Rockin Boogie. For more information: (337) Le Bonnes Nouvelles, a monly newspaper about Vermilion Parish, had in its October issue a very interesting article by Kimble Sagrera e Legend and e Hall of Famer wherein he chronicles a visit by him and Naan Granger, well-known businessman from Era, who went to Arlington Race Track in Chicago to e Racing Hall of Fame which includes Vermilion Parish natives Randy Romero of Era and Kent Desormeaux of Maurice. Eunice, a cultural center in sou Louisiana, has a wonderful Cajun Music Hall of Fame and museum. The museum was begun by Curtis Joubert, e Mayor Eunice in 1995 who later became e Executive Director of FrancoFête 99, e tricentennial celebration of e founding of Louisiana. During e weekend of October 9-10, Lafayette hosted e annual Festivals Acadien et Creole The event is a mixture of several festivals celebrating different aspects of e area s rich cultural traditions. One of e jewels of is year s celebration was a trio of performances by an important trio of veteran musicians - Doug Kershaw, Jo-El Sonnier and Jimmy C. Newman, a Living Legend of e museum. The festival was dedicated to em. Festival International de Louisiane chose M. Craig Whoojoo McCullen and Bonnie Camos as e 2010 Festival International de Louisiane Official Poster Artists. The Acadiana Wine & Food Festival will be held on October On October 24, e Acadiana Center for e Arts and e Friends of e Humanities will sponsor e release of a new book written by Darrell Bourque and Jack B. Bedell Call and Response: Conversation in Verse. Lafayette City-Parish councilman Don Bertrand represented Lafayette in Paris at a 6

7 conference of e International Association of Francophone Mayors. Bertrand, along wi Mayor President Joey Durel, attended last year s World Francophone Summit in Quebec City where e City-Parish Government of Lafayette was made a member of is organization. Bertrand said It s to network and have cultural exchanges and hopefully business exchanges. Wi e support of Clerks of Court Louis Perrett and Diane Meaux Broussard and hte UL archives, I will be writing a book Vermilion Parish wi Arcadia Press, wi all profits going to e museum. I want to include photographs which have never been published before so if you have any, please contact me at (337) or em to me at perrin@plddo.com. 7

Perrin has been honored with the following awards:

Perrin has been honored with the following awards: Biography Warren A. Perrin was born of March 11, 1947 in the hamlet of Henry, located in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. The son of Henry Lolly and Ella Mae Broussard Perrin, he graduated from Henry High