June at the Narrow Gauge

Jean Alger
May 31
10 min read

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—

The size of it made us all laugh.

I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—

They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,

As ordinary things often do

Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.

This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.

I did all the jobs on my list

And enjoyed them and had some time over.

I love you. I’m glad I exist.

— Wendy Cope

On Memorial Day Weekend, Delilah and I went up to Crested Butte to the Mountain Words Festival while Louisa, Diana, and Marianna managed things back in Alamosa (thank you all so much for covering our shifts so we could have this experience!)

This was my second time attending Mountain Words, organized by the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, and the fantastic Townie Books, another wonderful independent bookstore. If you’re ever up in CB be sure to stop in and grab a coffee at Rumors, the adjoining coffee shop, and sit to enjoy your book haul.

After I shared my excitement last year, Delilah decided to join me, and, along with Spadefoot Story Slam founder, Al Stone, we reveled in the joy of collaboration, support, and all-around word nerdery. On every panel, and in every interaction, the prevailing mood at Mountain Words is one of support and excitement. There was no sense of competition there, no sense of hiding one’s secrets or guarding resources. This was a place filled with people who sing each other’s praises no matter what room they are in, and who see opportunities for everyone in the abundance of community.

Mountain Words is also a place where I felt safe to exist, safe to move, safe to learn and grow and share and connect, and as such, I came away (as did Delilah and Al) bubbling with excitement and creativity both for the store and for our own lives. (we also came away with a lot more books on our to-be-read piles).

I’ve been thinking about that inspiring environment up in Crested Butte, and what makes it possible. Collaboration and support and community don’t just happen; they are a result of hard work, consistently showing up, and putting trust in others. We don’t get community by competing with each other, by looking at others and seeing them as a threat because they are different or made choices we wouldn’t make. We get community by looking at each other and deciding that there is enough space for us all.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not writing a “we all just need to be nice and get along” message here, because the reality is much more complicated and difficult than that. As we move into Pride month, we’ll see a plethora of rainbows everywhere, and messages about “love is love.” And while love is love is a sweet message, the reality also is that queer lives are in danger and have never really stopped being in danger.

Pride is a celebration of queerness, but it began as a riot when Marsha P. Johnson, a trans black woman, threw a brick through a window in the Stonewall Riots. This riot started in response to violence against queer people. The root of this danger stems from people being afraid of what they don’t understand, and deciding that, because they don’t understand it, they can’t let it exist. People don’t understand queerness, so they try, through a variety of ways, to make it unsafe and even illegal to be queer. Other people, whether they understand queerness or not, have decided to protect their fellow humans and have made moves of solidarity with the queer community. They have looked at their queer siblings and decided that there is space for them to exist, that there is space for safety and joy and equality in this society for everyone.

We create community, safety, and space to breathe, to create, to exist, by looking at each other, every day, and saying, “I see you. You deserve to have joy.” And then we do our best, with our daily actions, to protect good things and joy and share them with each other. I see you, and you deserve to have joy. - Jean A.

Non-Profit of the Month: Boys and Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley

Each month, we feature a local nonprofit that serves the San Luis Valley. This month, you can support Boys and Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley when you round up your purchase to the nearest dollar.

The mission of the Boys and Girls Clubs: "To ensure that all children and youth, especially those who need us most, are offered opportunities to realize their full potential as responsible, caring, and productive citizens of a richly diverse world."

The BGC has locations in Alamosa, Antonito, Blanca, Fort Garland, San Luis, and Saguache with programs designed to help children learn and grow in art, creativity, sciences, and leadership in a safe environment.

You can find out more about activities at the Boys and Girls Clubs on their Facebook page, or at their website: https://www.bgcslv.org/

Check out the books they recommended, and when you shop at the Narrow Gauge for June, you can round up and donate your change to support their important programs.

The Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

June Artist: Macey Sigaty

The Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative is happy to announce Macey Sigaty as our June Artist of the Month. You can see her work all throughout the June, and she will have an artist’s reception on June 6th from 5pm - 8pm during First Fridays.

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 the month of June. You can find her on Instagram at @thesigatree @whatonearthink @inyourfootprints

June Events at the Narrow Gauge

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 tracking, and the recommend lists here.

First Fridays are back!

This month, SLVGO is taking us on adventures throughout town. We'll be open until 8pm, and we'll have a community board as part of the SLVGO bingo game! We'll also have a display table of outdoors books at 10% off. Come see us!

Spadefoot Story Slam: June 21st, 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 Winning. Do you remember a time when you won against the odds? When you celebrated a small win just for yourself? Was it scoring the winning shot in the big game, or learning how to make the perfect slice of toast? What does winning mean to you? Have you experienced a shift in your perspective on what it means to lose or win? Is a loss a win in the long run? 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 June 21st at 6pm!

Indie Press Book Club: Current 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 May and June is Feminist Press, and our book is The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy. We'll discuss this book at 6pm on Wednesday, July 2nd!

Indie Press Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of the month, every other month. Check our website for dates! We announce the upcoming book at each book club meeting, and explore fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all from independent presses. About the Book: In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in a powerful story of trans witchcraft. Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy. When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. This read sounds thrilling, and we’re excited to explore it together!

About the Press:

The Feminist Press has a mission to publish books that ignite movements and social transformation. Celebrating our legacy, they lift up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future. Their vision is to create a world where everyone recognizes themselves in a book.

Founded in 1970, they began as a crucial publishing component of second wave feminism, reprinting feminist classics by writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and providing much-needed texts for the developing field of women’s studies. They publish feminist literature from around the world, by best-selling authors such as Shahrnush Parsipur, Ruth Kluger, and Ama Ata Aidoo; and North American writers of diverse race and class experience, such as Paule Marshall and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. They have become the vanguard for books on contemporary feminist issues of equality and gender identity, with authors as various as Anita Hill, Justin Vivian Bond, and Ann Jones.Feminist Press publishes twelve to fifteen books a year and specializes in an array of genres including cutting-edge literary fiction, activist nonfiction, literature in translation, hybrid memoirs, and more.

They are seeking political and cultural activist nonfiction that furthers our understanding of intersectional feminism. They gravitate toward voice- and vision-driven stories as well as genre-defying texts. Other topics of interest include feminist dystopia, environmental justice, and immigration stories. See more of their publications at their website.

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!

Call for Artists

We're consistently amazed by the talented artists that live in the San Luis Valley! We received many submissions, and have most of our calendar year filled! We still need artists for October, November, and December, so please submit, or pass along the call to the artists you know!

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 2024, please wait to apply again until we put out a call for 2026.

If you would like to be a featured, 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.