Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108all linen all season all made in maine l i n e n SO ST 5 South Street Portland, ME 774.234.7678 southstreetlinen.com o c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 8 9 o c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 8 9 L’Esprit de l’Escalier Crossing the Divide By Rhea Côté Robbins W hile researching Franco- American women authors, I’ve discovered a significant talent who worked tirelessly on behalf of the deaf community. Born in 1881, Corinne Roche- leau Rouleau lost her hearing at age nine in Massachusetts. She was sent to a convent school in Montreal to learn how to live and communicate in her newly silent world. In her astonishing writing, Corinne dared to crash past her impaired hearing to effect change in the world of the deaf and beyond. In Crossing the Divide–Represen- tations of Deafness in Biography, Rachel M. Hartig singles out Corinne’s important bi- ographical studies surrounding the French heroines who immigrated to New France. “The deaf French biographer attempted to cross the cultural divide between deaf and hearing worlds through [her] work.” Corinne’s startling literary contribu- tions include Those in The Dark Silence and Hors de sa Prison, which she penned to ad- vocate for and to bring awareness to the is- sues surrounding the lives of deaf Franco- Americans. Corinne went on to celebrate the pioneering efforts of the first female settlers in New France in her one-act play Françaises d’Amérique, Frenchwomen of North America. Her writing breaches the double divide of deafness and the French/ English language barrier faced by the first women living in North America. Thanks to her courage, we hear her even now. n RheaCôtéRobbins theauthorof‘downthePlains,’andan editorofHeliotrope-FrenchHeritageWomenCreate