Essays tell tales

This column appeared in the Tri-Valley Herald on February 19, 2008.

One of my favorite moments teaching college English is discovering the stories of students when I read their essays. I never know what tale of woe or triumph or joy I might encounter.

Imagine turning, as I did recently, to an essay in a stack and reading this: “In 1975, the communists from North Vietnam overran the south not long after the American soldiers left. My family faced a dark future.”

The student describes her many years in and out of prison for repeated attempts to escape her country. Until I read her words, I had no idea that the quiet Asian woman in the third row of my class had endured such hardships, the threat of malaria and other diseases, or that she’d escaped by bicycle through Cambodia to Thailand.

Of course, not all essays are so dramatic. Many well-written papers describe interesting vacations or experiences falling in love or the trauma of divorce or people who made a difference in the students’ lives.

Sometimes the essays are funny, such as one that got me smiling by a young man who writes, “I’ve been breaking stuff since I can remember. Somehow, I broke all four windows in my friend’s Honda Civic by leaning on them the wrong way. He also has a beanbag couch I put a huge gash in because my keys were sticking out of my pocket. That room turn into a winter wonderland.”

Later in the essay, this writer asserts that he comes from a long line of men who were known for breaking things: “The crack in the Liberty Bell was an accident by my great-great-great grandfather.” And the leaning tower of Pisa, he claims, got that way due to “a stick of beef jerky, a goldfish, and a hot Italian chick” that one of his ancestral grandfathers was wooing. “But that’s a whole other story,” he writes.

Some essays move in unexpected directions, such as one that introduces a morning in a hospital never to be forgotten on September 11, 2001. But as the essay unfolds, the memorable moment, we discover, is not the loss of life and the destruction of the twin towers. Rather, writes the author, “I’ll always remember it as the day my life began. Some people call it a moment of clarity, others call it an epiphany. I don’t know exactly what to call it, but when I held my baby girl, I was a new man. I had a purpose. I was a father now.”

Other memorable essays involve heartbreaking or suspenseful moments, such as when one writer describes helplessly witnessing the drowning of his friend as the brute force of a river pulls him under, or another suspenseful essay that begins, “I remember the doctor telling us she could die in her sleep. I remember not really understanding what it meant that she needed surgery.” This author tells about her younger sister’s successful journeys through heart and scoliosis surgery, her visits in and out of the hospital for various conditions. “She only complained when it really hurt,” she writes. “Her attitude toward life is strong-willed.”

As a teacher, I enjoy engaging students in the process of writing. Often an artistic and therapeutic tool, writing is a healthy activity on many levels. It requires a mental focus, and prompts us to think through elements of our lives we may not have explored in much depth.

When I read the essays, I share in the lives and hopes and dreams of my students. In one essay, an 18-year-old woman shares her love of dancing, a love she’s had her whole life.

“Dancing has taught me to be determined,” she writes. “I may not become a famous dancer, but I know it will help me in whatever I decide to do. At heart, I will always be the little girl pulling on her soft pink tights and leotard in awe of the art that is dance.”














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Jazz Happens

This column appeared in the Tri-Valley Herald on February 5, 2008.

When Jim Campana first raised his conductor’s baton in 1959 at Amador Valley High in Pleasanton, the school had just 20 students enrolled in music. By the time he retired two decades years later, 300 students were signed up for band and the popular music courses.

“Friday night football and basketball games came alive thanks to the band,” said Eileen Morley Hofstadt, who was a student at Amador in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “In those days, Jim Campana was always there in his quiet way, inspiring young talent.”

Impressed with Campana’s success and reputation with students and music, the city of Pleasanton asked him to help establish a Pleasanton jazz festival.

“The city recreation department had been interested in having me put together a festival that would include bands from a variety of schools,” said Campana, who is now 81 and lives in Sonora with his wife Rosemary. “But I was so busy I kept putting them off.”

Finally, in 1975, at the Pleasanton Hotel, in what Campana calls a “moment of weakness,” he agreed. The first festival included 30 bands and was held that year at the Alameda County fairgrounds.

"We had a good first festival,” Campana said, “though it rained that day. Fortunately we were able to use the exhibition building and move the instruments and equipment inside.”

Over the years, more and more people gathered to hear the talented students perform. After Campana’s retirement in 1979, the Pleasanton jazz festival was appropriately renamed after the man who made it all possible.

Now in its 33rd year, the Campana Jazz Festival will take place at Amador Valley High School this Saturday, February 9, featuring more than 700 middle and high school students in 45 jazz ensembles from 24 schools around California. Schools from as far away as Folsom and Roseville will compete in the event.

Performances run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a ceremony where over $7,000 in sponsorships to various jazz camps will be awarded. Wristbands for the festival may be purchased throughout the day for $6 at the Amador Theater lobby. A festival program will be included containing the complete day’s schedule.

Thanks to the vision of co-chairs Carl and Marilyn Palowitch, the festival this year is now part of a larger “Campana Jazz Weekend,” with jazz happening all around Pleasanton.

“In planning for our 2008 festival,” Carl Palowitch said, “we contacted the Pleasanton Downtown Association, the library, and the city of Pleasanton, and together we coordinated our respective jazz events to create a weekend where the public can encounter jazz all around the city.”

Kicking off the weekend this Thursday evening is the Pleasanton Downtown Association’s popular wine stroll, titled Truffles, Tidbits and Wine Tasting.

“Imagine pairing the taste of a chardonnay or cabernet to the sounds of seven jazz ensembles at venues up and down Main Street,” said Christine Salidivar, Executive Director of the association. "We’re excited to bring jazz and wine to our downtown.” Because the wine stroll events almost always sell out, contact the downtown association right away for tickets at 925-484-2199.

Following Thursday’s wine stroll, Pleasanton’s Civic Arts Presents will host on Friday saxophonist and composer Ravi Coltrane at the Amador Theater, who will also give a jazz clinic for Foothill and Amador jazz students that afternoon. Coltrane, the son of jazz legends John and Alice Coltrane, is described as a young jazz pioneer. Tickets may be purchased at the door at 8 p.m. or online at www.civicartstickets.com.

On Sunday following Saturday’s Campana Jazz Festival, the Pleasanton Library will host the Silver Moon Band at 1:30 p.m., followed by the Lee Waterman Latin Band “Jazz Caliente” at 3:30 p.m. These performances are free and open to the public.

Carl Palowitch said that for the first time vocal jazz will be a part of the festival on Saturday. He also noted that many people don’t realize the festival is more than a venue for students to perform.

“This is an educational festival,” he said, “where students come to observe and learn, to attend workshops, and to get instruction from the judges and other music educators.”

The festival each year is a collaboration of many community members, including the Amador Friends of Music, instructors Jon Grantham and Mark Aubel, the Amador Music Department, parent and student volunteers, regional music educators, music camps, local businesses, and others.

This kind of collaboration and love of music is what first brought Campana to town to teach more than 45 years ago. It’s what will bring him back this weekend to attend the festival he created.

“Pleasanton has always been a town that appreciates music,” he said. “I loved my years teaching, and I’m looking forward to coming back to see friends and hear the students perform.”

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