On Saturday, April 11, many PHS students attended the second annual Francophone Festival held on Hinds Plaza at Princeton Public Library. The event, organized by Princeton-based francophone organization Princeton Accueil, was a celebration of the diversity of the Frenchspeaking world and an opportunity for PHS students to learn about the French language and culture hands-on.
“There’s a big emphasis on getting outside of the classroom and focusing on living in [a] cultural context because of the amount of francophone events and francophones in the Princeton community,” said French student and Francophone Festival volunteer Reya Nair ’26. “I think the French curriculum allows you to go beyond that classroom experience and really get into how you practice French as a lived experience.”
This month, in addition to the festival, PHS also invited director and animator Mailys Vallade to PHS French VI classes to share more about francophone culture portrayed through her film “Amélie et la Métaphysique des Tubes” (“Amélie or the Character of Rain”). Vallade, who attended a screening of her film at the Princeton French Film Festival, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in January.
“I think it’s cool to have these really established French [artists] come in and you get to ask them questions about their lives and careers in French as well,” said Joanna Hou ’26. “You get to be able to practice your own language skills while also learning about their lifestyle.”
The Francophone Festival sought to represent francophonie, the French-speaking world, in all of its forms. As francophonie encompasses several countries, ranging from East Africa to Canada and Belgium, oftentimes farreaching branches of the French-speaking world are not represented. The Francophone Festival was a product of multiple francophone cultures coming together.
“My foundation is from Haiti. In Haiti, they … speak French … and I really am very happy here to represent Haiti, because most of the people don’t think about them as a francophone country,” said President of Princeton Accueil and co-organizer of the festival, Nadège Frotté.
In attendance at the festival were 15 francophone authors from French-speaking regions of the world: France, Canada, Congo, Réunion Island, Tunisia, and Belgium. The authors included Christine Le Deurot, Jo Fischer, and Philip Kayne, whose works ranged from children’s books to historical novels.
The event also had far-reaching impacts in PHS’s own French program. French teacher Gyselle North plans to take inspiration from the contemporary writing style of Mabanckou.
“Alain Mabanckou just wrote a book, ‘Ramsès de Paris’ … which I’m showing to my class … [It] doesn’t use any punctuation or capital letters,” said North. “He has a very special style of writing, [which] gives me [the] idea to propose that style to my students … to revise my own rubric.”
In addition to expanding the curriculum, North said it can be difficult to keep the French curriculum up to date, as they can offer limited representation of francophone culture’s breadth. In fact, the French IV curriculum only has one Black voice, lacking contemporary authors of diverse backgrounds. This is why the teachers encourage students to learn from the modern world and not only in class.
“It helps a lot to be involved in the French-speaking community outside of school, to realize it’s not just a class,” said French teacher Malachi Wood. “We encourage students to find French-speaking friends ... but to see that in Princeton, it’s important to interact with that community as well.”