on se souvient de toi
Author David Vermette
Photo courtesy of David Vermette
We are pleased to be joined by Author David Vermette for this episode. David’s 2018 Book, ‘A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans’ fills a significant need in telling the ethnic, labor and immigrant story of the more than 1 million Franco-Americans who immigrated to the US in the 19th and 20th centuries and their more than 10 million US descendants, 2 million in New England alone.
This is a truly special episode for M the Media Project founder and AWHY host Scott M. Graves, himself of French-Canadian extraction.
Read Scott M. Graves homage to the french-canadian women of his family.
David explained the immigration story of the Franco-Americans, who began to flood into New England mill-towns at the behest of mill owners after the US Civil War.
Our conversation tied the challenges and the resiliency inherent in the Franco-American story to the greater story of labor in the United States and how many of the tenants of an earlier time have had consequences on the patterns of development in the Unites States up to the present era.
David will be speaking May 6, 2021 at the University of Maine Orono.
Particularly poignant was our discussion of what our own witness to the ‘Great American Experiment in Suburbia’ meant to us personally, the change in language and customs, the gains in education and yet the dislocation of leaving little Canada for parts unknown.
Whether Franco-American yourself or not, you owe yourself the time to read David’s book for its universally North American story of resiliency, pride, industrial history… the story of us all.
‘On se souvient de toi’
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Welcome to the home of SMG’s ‘Are We Here Yet?’ Podcast. We seek to produce vibrant storytelling from the entrepreneurs, creative-class warriors and dynamic citizens that collectively tell the story of modern-day America.
Add to that special tidbits like our Essays, The JazzRoom, Special Features and more. We hope you find enlightenment and entertainment in each episode we present.
About our Hosts:
Scott M. Graves is the founder of SMGraves Creative Enterprises. Most recently he was executive director of the Wachusett Business Incubator where the SMG team experimented with various programming to overcome the meaningless ‘ribbon cutting’ experiences so synonymous with much of our nation’s well-intentioned economic development. He is known for a steadfast resolve for intellectual rigor and business strategy. Nothing makes Scott feel more fulfilled than to help other develop their own unique creativity which leads to fulfillment in work and life. His team is currently partnering with The Worcshop, the east coasts largest industrial makerspace to develop the Worc-It Business Lab for incubating new business.
An entrepreneur in his own right, Scott previously operated the former Smash Music. Along with ImageIdentity’s David Lubelczyk their team developed Leadership Candidates Program for immersive support of new enterprise and Business Triage, a direct response to the issues now exacerbated for small businesses since the spread of Covid-19.
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