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.”

Photo: Gyselle North


PHS French class students listen to French filmmaker Mailys Vallade share her creative process in animating the 
film “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.”

Gyselle North's Work