Center for Literary Arts: Celebrating 30 Years of Connections
This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Center for Literary Arts—thirty impressive years bringing accomplished and emerging writers to San José State. Since its inception in 1986, the CLA has hosted acclaimed authors, including winners of the National Book Award, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize. The center’s mission is to create opportunities for South Bay writers to share discussions with highly accomplished figures in the literary community by hosting talks, readings, and panels. CLA celebrated the big anniversary with a blowout gala featuring author, playwright, and director Luis Valdez.
Luis Valdez served as the perfect guest of honor to help the CLA celebrate 30 years. Valdez attended San José State in the early 1960s, initially majoring in mathematics. However, his love for playwriting won out and, after changing his major, he graduated with a degree in English in 1964. From there, he took inspiration from his roots. Having grown up in a small farming community, he knew the injustices that farm laborers experience; they inspired him to form El Teatro Campesino in 1965. He went on to write Zoot Suit in 1977, which remains the longest running, locally produced show at the Los Angeles Theater to date. In 1987, Valdez wrote and directed the critically praised film, La Bamba, about the life and tragic death of 1960s rocker Ritchie Valens. More recently, Valdez has co-written the play Corridos the Remix with his son, Kinan, who will direct the show at the Hammer Theatre Center on November 8th and it will run until the 12th. Tickets are available here.
According to CLA Director and Associate Professor of English Cathleen Miller, the Center for Literary Arts aims to “create moments of connection” that inspire audiences to engage more fully with the arts. Admission to CLA events is free for students, encouraging a platform for young writers to come together as a community. These opportunities give students a chance to make professional connections with well known and emerging writers.
Professor Miller remembers her own “moment of connection” at a CLA event featuring Andre Dubus III, author of the #1 New York Times Best Seller, House of Sand and Fog. “He was just like many of us,” she says. “Between his job as a teacher, raising his kids, and working on renovating an old house, Andre had no time to write—which is always our excuse for why we’re not writing. And so he had this old truck and would drive it to his teaching job every day. And on the way, he would stop in the cemetery because it was one of the only places he could go and where it was quiet and he would write for 20 minutes. It was in that truck he wrote his novel,” she continues. “I said to him, ‘I better just shut up. I have no excuses.’”
Though the 30th anniversary event was a spectacular evening, the celebration doesn’t stop here. The CLA will continue to host more public events throughout the season. In spring 2017, renowned authors Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy) and Susan Orlean (The Floral Ghost, The Orchid Thief) will each come, talk, and read from their works. Additionally, center events will include readings and discussions with this year’s Steinbeck Fellows, poet Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo and journalist Gary Singh.
The CLA is made possible through community and university support. Director Miller urges students, faculty, and the greater community to take advantage of the great events the program has to offer.
You can check out upcoming events and reserve tickets at: http://www.litart.org/
To see show times and reserve tickets for Valdez’s Corridos the Remix, go to http://www.sjsu.edu/hammertheatre/
By Kevin Eung and Casandra Michel
