Organizers of the 33^rd Annual Vallejo Juneteenth Festival and Parade announce they are relocating the event to the Barbara Kondylis Waterfront Green on Mare Island Way at Capitol Street.

The Juneteenth celebration takes place Saturday, June 17 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Formerly the site of the celebration was across the street at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park behind the JFK Library.

“City officials tell us the space that we’ve used for the past few years is currently occupied by a few campers and recreational vehicles which includes an adjacent parking lot,” said Gwendolyn White, president of the African American Family Reunion Committee which organizes the Juneteenth Celebration.

“We are all committed to providing a clean, safe environment for visitors to enjoy the celebration, and the Waterfront Green is a familiar location to people so we’re looking forward to a great time,” she said.

Organizers have extended the application deadline for vendors and exhibitors to May 15 because many of the participants typically need more time to get everything together to meet requirements to be part of the event.

The Juneteenth event includes a parade, and entries of all kinds will be accepted until June 2. The application is on the website to download at www.vallejojuneteenth.com.

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In addition to a variety of exhibitors and merchants, activities for kids, and a wide selection of food prepared by local vendors, the celebration includes an entertainment lineup featuring a range of music styles including funk, R&B, gospel, Latin rock, jazz, and Salsa.

Aspiring singers, dancers, musicians, orators, and other types of performers are invited to audition and must send an online link to a video of the selection they would perform if chosen for the entertainment lineup to aafrc@vallejojuneteenth.com by May 15 and include their contact information. Performances should be no longer than 10 minutes and must be appropriate for all audiences.

By Robert Eliason
San Jose Spotlight

There are few things as joyful as a pinata, and Dulceria Mi Carnaval in San Jose can design them to resemble anything that makes you happy.

In a small room adjacent to their shop on East Santa Clara Street, Jose Velasquez and his wife, Cynthia, are surrounded by shelves filled with cardboard templates where the couple has been handcrafting about 15 to 20 pinatas a week since they bought the business in 1991.

“My sister-in-law started it in 1986,” Cynthia told San Jose Spotlight. “Jose had just gotten out of the army when she decided to sell it, and he decided, ‘Well, I’ll try it out.’ We started making custom pinatas because people were always asking for something we did not have in stock. It was a natural part of what we were doing.”

Jose said people send him photos of what they want. He figures out how to create it.

“I love making them and get really excited when it’s really hard to figure out, like this one,” he told San Jose Spotlight, referring to a four-foot-tall pinata of a margarita glass, rescaling it based on a customer’s tiny cell phone photo.

Looking at the shop’s calendar offers a glimpse at the couple’s creative range: a four-foot-tall cow, an alebrije from the film “Coco,” a 30-inch long crayon, Lightning McQueen, a bee hive, a strawberry, a campfire and a troll head are among the completed or pending tasks for the month.

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The couple also makes more substantial pinatas designed for display rather than destruction, including for customers such as the San Jose Earthquakes and the San Francisco Art Institute.

After Jose adds the final details to the framework, the pinata goes to Cynthia for dressing and decorating. Rather than looking like something made to be broken, it’s remarkably solid. Cynthia said customers don’t want them to break easily–they want the pinata to last.

“I’ve had kids scream because they are so happy and excited with the pinata they choose,” she said. “And the parent will come back sometimes and buy another one because their child does not want to break it, so they can have one to hang up in their room or the garage.”

Customer Adam Lopez is only slightly taller than the John Cena-wrestling-themed, star-shaped pinata he chose for his sixth birthday.

“We come here because of the huge variety of themes for all age groups,” said Eduardo Lopez, Adam’s father. “For me, pinatas are a way to celebrate kids and bring the family together.”

Indeed, Cynthia’s favorite pinata to make is a simple design: the number one.

“Customers are so excited to celebrate their child’s first birthday,” she said. “We do them in many different styles. It’s fun to do their first pinata and then watch them come back every year for their next birthday.”

Growing up in Tijuana, Jose remembers having only one pinata as a child: a scarecrow his mother made for his sixth birthday. He said she was overwhelmed by all the kids who showed up from all over the neighborhood–kids he didn’t even know.

“Everyone was very poor, and kids came from all of the houses around us just to line up to try to break it,” Jose said. “It was a big thing.”

Jose said when he makes pinatas, he thinks about the children who are going to having that same kind of experience he had.

“That makes me feel good,” he said. “And I’m happy their parents are getting them a really nice pinata, not some little thing from a supermarket.”

Once a pinata is finished, customers can take them as-is–or they can fill them at the shop from the wide variety of candies imported from Mexico. Dulceria Mi Carnaval also stocks balloons, noisemakers, toys and other party goods. But whether for use or display, the pinatas contain the love and good wishes of the couple who makes them.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Well, I worked on that for so long, and they’re just going to hit it and break it,'” Cynthia said. “But we know the excitement it brings them, a memory that will last a lifetime. We have the photos we take of our work. So, you know, I think we’re okay with it.”

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

By Ali Tadayon
EdSource

Students with special needs at West Contra Costa Unified were full of smiles and laughter Saturday as they danced and partied at a prom event specifically tailored for them.

Saturday’s event, the first of its kind at West Contra Costa Unified, was planned for students with extensive support needs such as autism and moderate to severe intellectual abilities for whom the traditional prom — with loud music and extensive light displays — might be overstimulating.

Dozens of students and their families attended the event, which featured a sensory room, soft lights and support staff in order to comfort students experiencing sensory overload, which people with disabilities that cause hypersensitivity are prone to.

For Sonja Neely-Johnson, the district’s special education local plan area director, the prom was a milestone event. Apart from being one of the event’s organizers, she’s also the mother of a 21-year-old with special needs. When she saw him walk into the event Saturday, she said she was flooded with memories of doctors saying he would never be able to walk at all and other grim prognoses.

“Just being able to see my son walk into a dance, yeah, he has to have his little device with him because he needs that; it just warms my heart. I’ve actually been emotional all day,” Neely-Johnson said.

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Students dressed up in tuxedos and prom dresses, danced, played games like limbo and posed for pictures in the high school cafeteria, which was selected because the building is smaller and slightly darker than a gym, in order to not overstimulate the students, said Guthrie Fleischman, director of secondary special education programs at West Contra Costa Unified.

According to the advocacy group Autism Speaks, many people on the autism spectrum experience hypersensitivity to bright lights or certain light wavelengths, such as LED or fluorescent lights. The dance floor also featured fewer lights than that of a typical prom. Still, the music was loud enough to fill the room, and the DJ played popular hit songs.

Student Bianca Rios said her favorite part of the prom was being with all of her friends. Another student, Corinn Phillips, said she enjoyed dancing, especially to her favorite songs by Katy Perry.

One of the rooms in the cafeteria building was designated as a “sensory room” and staffed with an occupational therapist for students who felt overwhelmed. The room had beanbag chairs and soft lighting to comfort students, as well as sensory toys that students could spin, squish and stretch, to engage and regulate sensory needs.

The district’s special education department also made personal communication boards with pictures of phrases such as “It’s too loud,” “I like the decorations” and “I need a break” that nonverbal students could use to communicate.

In addition to the occupational therapists at the event, the prom also had about a 1:1 ratio of paraprofessionals to students, he said.

“It’s a different level of support that would be difficult to present in a traditional prom setting,” Fleischman said.

The idea for the prom came because families of students with special needs at West Contra Costa Unified organized a prom of their own last year, held at a charter school within the district. Though the event was small, the families who attended told the district’s special education department they had a great time, and department officials decided to throw an official West Contra Costa Unified one, inviting students in the transition program serving students aged 18 to 22.

Neely-Johnson said the goal is to eventually make traditional proms inclusive enough that all students and their families are comfortable attending — a prospect that worries some parents who fear their children with special needs would feel ostracized.

“I think until we get to a point as a society, we’re going to have both (proms for special needs students and traditional proms),” Neely-Johnson said.

Dozens of families attended Saturday’s event. Denise Miles, whose son Devin Phillips is 22 and in his last year of the transition program, said many of the families have known each other for years as their children grew up in classes together. Miles said she felt differently when Devin went to his high school’s traditional prom a few years earlier.

“When he went to the prom, I didn’t know a lot of those parents in general ed because we don’t really mix and mingle like that,” she said. “I hope (the district) continues to have something special for our kids.”

The biggest difference between this prom and a traditional one, Miles said, was that everyone was accepting of each other, and though her son is oftentimes “hollering and spinning,” people weren’t looking at him.

“They could just be themselves, whatever that is, and no one’s looking at them crazy and judging,” Miles said. “As a SPED (special education) parent, it’s a really good feeling to see because you always want your child to be accepted, and we have that here.”

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.