July at the Narrow Gauge
- Jean Alger
- Jun 27
- 10 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
“It’s not about self-care—it’s about collective care. Collective care means shifting our organizations to be ones where people feel fine if they get sick, cry, have needs, start late because the bus broke down, move slower, ones where there’s food at meetings, people work from home—and these aren’t things we apologize for. It is the way we do the work, which centers disabled-femme-of-color ways of being in the world, where many of us have often worked from our sickbeds, our kid beds, or our too-crazy-to-go-out-today beds. Where we actually care for each other and don’t leave each other behind. Which is what we started with, right?”
― Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
The above words from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha are, for me, central to the ways we all need to care for each other. I read the book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice a few years ago, and it made me weep because of the deep beauty and compassion the author presents. At the core of the concept of disability justice is that every body and mind deserves care, and that care is collective, not individual.
The idea of collective care is at the heart of my personal philosophy of compassion and community. We need each other, and our current culture of hyper-individualism and wellness that focuses extensively on self-care misses the reality that we are human, and that humans are social animals. Collective care reminds us that we need each other, and that we are responsible to and for each other. Collective care reminds us to think of others, and ourselves, to ask for what we need, and to help each other when we are able, to say, without shame, when we are not able.
Piepzna-Samarasinha’s words are particularly relevant as we move into July, as it is Disability Pride month. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, and the first Disability Pride celebration was a parade in Boston that same year. Since then, Disability Pride celebrations have spread throughout the country as disabled people and advocates continue to work for their rights, from requiring wheelchair accessibility in buildings, to learning accommodations in public schools and colleges, to having needed medical and mental health care covered by insurance, to allowing for disabled people to get married and still keep their benefits (and so many more issues).
Disability includes physical, intellectual, and psychological states of being. Some view disability through a medical model, which means disabilities are something to be fixed, cured, or ignored. Others view disability through a social model, which instead looks at the ways societies can work to remove barriers and create inclusion and care.
I repeatedly ask myself, “how can we care for each other?” and ask us all to look for ways to answer that question.Thank you for reading, and for being part of our community.
- Jean A.
Non-Profit of the Month: San Luis Valley Museum
Each month, we feature a local nonprofit that serves the San Luis Valley. This month, you can support the San Luis Valley Museum.
The mission of the SLV Museum is “to enrich human lives and to educate San Luis Valley citizens to respect and value our cultural diversity and our local heritage of the SLV including international wildlife and the arts.”
The Museum has educational displays featuring artifacts, photographs, antiques and collectibles portraying early ranch and farm life. It features exhibits of Native American artifacts, Hispanic settlers, the Japanese-American community, Adams State University, military regalia and early railroading. They host various annual events and exhibits such as the All-Valley Art Show that features the artwork from the Valley's Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools.
Museum displays show what an early mercantile or general store was like, along with a model US Post Office of years past, adjacent to a typical country grade school classroom designed around a valley town called Wayside, Colorado on the Maddox Ranch.
You can learn more at their website, and you’ll be able to find their photography collection in an online database!
On July 3rd from 2pm - 4pm, their featured artist, Danielle Trodick, will have an artist reception and Bill Heersink will be there for a book signing.
When you shop at the Narrow Gauge this month, you’ll have the opportunity to
donate your change to support the SLV Museum.
Check out these books they recommend below:
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian enslavement in America by Andres Resendez.
The Geology, Ecology, and Human History of the San Luis Valley. Edited by Jared Beeton, Charles Nicholas Saenz and Benjamin James Waddell.
Southern Colorado ~ O.T. Davis Collection (images of America) by Mike Butler and the Monte Vista Historical Society.
New Mexico and the Civil War by Walter Earl Pittman.
July Artist(s): Macey Sigaty and Joni Franks
We will have two artists for the month of July! Macey Sigaty’s work will remain up until July 17th, and then Joni Franks’ work will be on display beginning on July 18th.
Macey Sigaty
Macey Sigaty is a Colorado-born interdisciplinary artist. She uses many different mediums with an aim to appreciate the ordinary manner of miracles, to see beauty in the banal, acknowledge absurdity, and dabble in whimsy. Her work is often focused on small moments otherwise easily missed, or a collage of symbols.
Nature often finds its way into her work. She has a long history with photography but is also much an enthusiast of pen and ink illustration, screenprinting, relief printmaking, collage, gel print, and scan art as well. She enjoys the way the creative process weaves disparate elements together and believes the more tools one has access to the easier it becomes to express creative elements. You can often find her as the lead instructor at The Church Project in Monte Vista, CO, where she is using her hands to make real things and encouraging others to do the same.
The Narrow Gauge is delighted to have her work in store for a couple more weeks! You can find her on Instagram at @thesigatree @whatonearthink @inyourfootprints and see some examples of her work in June’s newsletter, here.
Joni Franks
Joni Franks is an international award-winning author, artist and poet. She has been named the 2024 Will Rogers Medallion Award Illustrator of the Year. Her books have earned bestseller status and have won over fifty art and literary honors, including the prestigious Moms Choice Award, the International Readers Favorite Award, the American Fiction Award, and the CIPA EVVY Award. Known for her compelling narratives that challenge societal norms, Joni pens books about resilience, inspiration, overcoming adversity, equality, and conservation. Spending time on her San Luis Valley ranch with her Welsh corgis Sagebrush, Gyzmo and Willow, offers her the inspiration to create impactful books and artwork.
Look for more about Joni in our August newsletter!
July Events at the Narrow Gauge
Summer Reading Express
From June 1st through August 31st, we invite you to embrace the joy of reading! Our reading tracker provides a list of genres for you to read. You'll choose a book you want to read for each genre, and in case you aren't sure where to start, we'll have a list of suggestions for you!
When it comes to reading, we encourage you to read what you love, in the way that you love. Audiobooks count, and you can check out Libro.fm if you're looking for an audiobook supplier, or you can ask the librarians at the Alamosa Public Library about using Libby for FREE audiobooks!
As avid readers, we also understand the joy of finding a new genre, or experiencing a new type of book, so we encourage you to venture into new territory! Try out a new author, a new genre, read a graphic novel, go for a book that seems intimidatingly long, or give novellas a try if you're accustomed to epic chonkers. All we really care about is that you read and enjoy it!
Visit our website for more details, to find a reading tracker, and the recommend lists here.
Have you checked off any of the categories? Jean has read The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy for a book by an LGBTQ author (this also happens to be our Indie Press Book Club book for July 2!), and Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Leigh Allen for Romance (it’s a weird kind of romance but she’s counting it anyway). She’s in progress with Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor for a book by an author of color, and has a whole stack of memoirs on her to be read pile so that’s probably the category she’ll get next.
What books are you reading? Let us know!
Spadefoot Story Slam: July 19th, 6pm
Each month, we host the Spadefoot Story Slam community, sharing stories based on a theme, selected at the previous month’s Slam. While inspired by the Moth Story Hour, our monthly meetings are not a contest, but instead are a way to come together and practice sharing, and deep listening.
Join us this month for stories about Milestones. Tell us about a time you reached a turning point, a time you crossed the finish line, or a time when getting older was all it was cracked up to be. Think about progress and stages of development: crawling, graduation, the path to fully adulting. Maybe you met a goal at your job, or improved at a skill. Did you earn a black belt? Earn a merit badge? Reach a literal milestone on a hike or cross the finish line at a marathon? Use your imagination and feel free to interpret the theme creatively!
Stories should be true as remembered by you, and spoken from the heart, instead of read from the page. We don’t have an official time limit, but encourage stories that take 10 minutes or less, especially if we have a large group. We look forward to seeing you on July 19th at 6pm!
Indie Press Book Club: Next Feature
Throughout the year, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features different independent presses as part of our Indie Press Book Club. Our featured press for July and August is Milkweed Editions, and our book is The Science of Last Things by Ellen Wayland-Smith. We'll discuss this book at 6pm on Wednesday, September 3rd!
About the Book: The Science of Last Things by Ellen Wayland-Smith. In this luminous collection of essays, Ellen Wayland-Smith probes the raw edges of human existence, those periods of life in which our bodies remind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve.
From the Old Testament to Maggie Nelson, these explorations are grounded in a rich network of associations. In an essay on the postpartum body, Wayland-Smith interweaves her experience as a mother with accounts of phantom limbs and Greek mythology to meditate on moments when pieces of our being exist outside our bodies. In order to comprehend diagnoses of depression and breast cancer, she delves into LA hippie culture’s love affair with crystals and Emily Dickinson’s geological poetry. Her experience with chemotherapy leads to reflection on Western medicine and its intolerance of death and the healing capacity of nature. And throughout, she challenges the false separation between the human and the “primeval, animal mode of being.”
At once intimate and expansive, The Science of Last Things peels back layers of human thought and behavior, breaking down our modern conceptions of individuality and reframing us as participants in a world of astounding elegance and mystery.
About the Press: Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They believe that literature has the potential to change the way we see the world, and that bringing new voices to essential conversations is the clearest path to ensuring a vibrant, diverse, and empowered future. Their mission is to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.
On their website, they state, “We publish literature that transcends boundaries and fosters transformation. We identify and nurture outstanding literary voices, connect readers with our publications through innovative engagement, and cultivate a vibrant supportive community around their organization.
Milkweed is a site of nurture and metamorphosis for monarch butterflies, and Milkweed Editions seeks to honor their namesake by serving that same purpose in the literary ecosystem. They seek out debut and experimental writers and invest significant time in the editorial process. As a nonprofit, they are not focused on making money, though they do focus on helping their authors succeed.
Since their founding in 1980, they’ve published over 350 books of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and now have over four million copies in circulation.
Call for Artists
As you most likely know, we feature a local artist every month to have their art on display and for sale in the store. We love finding out about all the wonderful talent we have in the Valley, and delight in featuring their art throughout the year. Our 2025 year is already booked, but we are looking for artists for the 2026 year.
Our most common features are painting and photography, though we have also had fiber arts, glass art, and ceramics.
Featured artists have a show for one month. We'll promote your art on our social media accounts, feature you in our monthly newsletter, send a press-release to the newspaper, and schedule an artist reception if you want to have one.
We try to feature new artists each year; if you were featured in 2025, please wait to apply again until we put out a call for 2027.
If you would like to be a featured artist, please fill out the application by clicking here. You'll be asked to upload photo samples of your work, to provide a bio and artist statement, and to provide months when you are not available. If you have questions about any part of the application, please email us at narrowgauge.coop@gmail.com.
Many Ways to Shop the NGBC
Shop In Store
You can shop with us in store and browse the shelves. Find the book you're looking for, or find a book you didn't know you were looking for! Our booksellers are happy to help you find the title, make recommendations, or order a book if we don't have it in stock.
Shop Online
We have an indie commerce website, through IndieLite, that allows customers to place orders online. Just go to narrowgaugebooks.com and click on the "Shop Online" button. Then, click "order a book" and you'll be redirected to our indie commerce site. You can search for the book you want, and then place your order from wherever you are! There are options to have your book shipped to you, or to pick up your book in store! You can even have your book shipped to someone else, if you're looking to skip the hassle of shipping the book yourself.
Call Us!
You can call us at 719-589-3464 to see if we have a book on the shelf. We'll be happy to put it aside for you! We can hold books for up to one week, so you can be sure that title is ready and waiting next time to stop in!
Preorders
You can preorder your next greatly anticipated book! Preorders help us know what our customers are excited about, and help us more effectively judge how many copies we should order. Often, we get new releases ahead of their publishing date, so when publishing Tuesday rolls around, we'll have your shiny new book ready and waiting for you to dive into the pages!
Be sure to check out this week's Shelf Awareness newsletter. Don't miss releases by your favorite authors, what's going on with your preferred genre, or find an obscure gem. NGBC can order any title referenced, and we can ship it direct to your house.
Happy Book Hunting!
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