What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
"Harlem" by Langston Hughes
February is the month right after the presidential office shifts in the United States. February is Black History Month. February holds Valentine's Day, a day to celebrate love of all kinds.
I've never been one for Valentine's Day. It often feels like a day when people are pulled into the trap of feeling loved or unloved based on whether or not they have a date, whether or not they get flowers, or a fancy present.
I do like to show love for the people I care about, and that comes in so many different forms: sending a funny meme to brighten their day; cooking a meal for them; giving them a ride; bringing them their favorite coffee drink at work; listening to them talk about all the good and bad and boring moments of their day. There are endless ways we show the people we love that we care.
How do we show the people we don't know, that we don't love, that we care? How do we develop and support community with people who are not our friends, our family, our lovers? How do we cultivate caring and love for people outside of our immediate circle? Outside of our realm of experience and knowledge?
I ask these questions as I reflect on Black History Month, on the historical and present struggle for liberation for all. I ask these questions as I reflect on Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," and the dream of liberation and equality as one deferred and denied to large swathes of the population.
So often, we think of our community as the people we care about, the people we know, the people we are friends with. We care about the issues that directly impact that community, that directly impact those we care about. Often, we are unable to see the issues that don't directly impact us or those we love. We are unable to see the need for accessible bathrooms because we don't know anyone in a wheelchair. We are unable to understand the need for clear food labels, because we do not have food allergies. We are unable to see the need for city parks because we live with vast nature around us.
It is difficult to see and understand experiences outside of our own. This is one of the beautiful things about books, film, artforms of all types: art allows us to feel someone else's experience. Art can teach us to feel empathy. Art can make us uncomfortable with hard truths. Art can encourage and inspire creative solutions to problems that seem unfixable.
I write all of this to encourage you to think of your community as people beyond your circle. Think of your community as everyone you come into contact with—even the people you don't like. Think of your community as people you may not even meet because they live in a country on the other side of the world. Think of your community, too, as the nonhuman life that surrounds you. How can we care for the community of the entire earth, and see beyond our immediate selves?
How can we work for the dream deferred to become a dream realized, for everyone, for every life? How do we cultivate and show expansive love?
—Jean A.
Non-Profit of the Month:
Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley
Each month, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features a local nonprofit that serves the San Luis Valley. For February, you can support the Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley.
From their website: “The Food Bank Network addresses the immediacy of hunger and malnutrition in the San Luis Valley by providing nutritious food to individuals and families in need. Through a network of 15 food banks spread across 8,000 square miles, the Food Bank Network provides nutritious emergency food to help ensure no one must go to bed hungry in the SLV. More than just a box of food, the Food Bank Network seeks to offer fresh produce and healthy options so individuals and families can make their own choices while getting the most abundant and nutritious options for their budgets.”
When you shop at the NGBC this month, you'll be asked if you want to round up and donate your change. It's a simple and easy way to support local organizations that help make the Valley what it is!
If you would like to learn more about the Food Bank Network, you can visit their website.
If you would like to learn more about food insecurity, check out these titles:
Feeding Each Other: Shaping Change in Food Systems Through Relationship by Nicole Civita and Michelle Auerbach
Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger by Katie S. Martin
Translating Food Sovereignty: Cultivating Justice in an Age of Transnational Governance by Matthew C. Canfield
February Artist: Allison Cruse
Allison Cruse is a self-taught artist living in Alamosa. She works with water based mediums to paint, weave and sculpt in a slow process of creation. She paints with watercolor and ink, on canvas and paper, and also works with willow and pine to weave baskets and sculptures. She enjoys the connection to her materials, locally harvesting much of the willow she uses, and gathering pine needles from the trees of her native East Texas. She also incorporates handmade watercolors from small paint makers around the country in her paintings.
All mediums she uses are water based in some way, and inspire the flowing nature of her process. Water is used to carry the pigment in watercolor paints and liquid ink across the page and canvas. Willow grows along the water’s edge, and preparing it for weaving requires a slow soaking process. Pine needles also must be soaked and softened in water to shape them into her finished pieces.
There is much time involved in the harvest and preparation of materials, and the periods of soaking and drying that flow in between active creation. She embraces it all as a part of her creative process. Her art is slow art. From the time required for water to dry on the canvas to the lengthy month-long process of willow harvest, drying, and soaking, the slowness of her art encourages her to focus on the process and work with the materials, allowing them to move the way they want to move. Embracing slow art also encourages living with the seasons and in connection to the land, and working with our own inner seasons.
Cruse is inspired by patterns and rhythms in nature, color itself, and the human experience, particularly emotion and the expression joy and connection. She is inspired by the landscapes that are close to her heart, and the materials themselves. Some of her art is inspired by utility, such as her basketmaking, but ultimately life is the inspiration of her work, and she tries to live life creatively through all of her passions. She also enjoys gardening, playing music and cooking creatively, and the way each of these passions helps the others to grow as she flows through the seasons.
February is Black History Month and we have a display table as you enter the store to highlight some of our favorite books by Black American authors. You can see our selection on our IndieCommerce website, here: Black History Books.
Here at the Narrow Gauge, we have a commitment to promoting inclusion, community, and literacy. We feature books from historically and currently marginalized populations to bring attention to their contribution to literature and culture. We also feature books about the history of oppression for marginalized communities, in hopes of offering opportunities for learning and understanding as we navigate frightening times. We hope you'll find something on the table and in the shelves that inspires your curiosity to learn and check out writing you may not be familiar with.
February 13th at 6pm is our yearly Owner Meeting.
This meeting is for owners of the cooperative, and they get together each year to discuss how the store is doing, and to vote on new board members.
If you are interested in becoming an owner, we are always happy to welcome new investors. You are able to invest in Common Stock at $100 or Preferred Stock at $500.
Common Stock cost and benefits:
Store Credit for 2% of your annual purchases.
Vote at annual member meeting.
$5 off annual membership.
Preferred Stock cost and benefits:
Store credit for 2% of your annual purchases
Dividend when store has profits
$5 off annual membership
Be sure to check out the Spadefoot Story Slam Community!
February 15th, 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 for the February's story slam on the 15th at 6pm with the theme of DESTINY. Prepare a story about something you feel was meant to be. Was it written in the stars? Foretold in a prophecy? A lucky break or a chance meeting leading to greatness? Or, missed connections meaning it just wasn't in the cards for you. What is your destiny? Tell us about a time you tried to avoid the inevitable, a moment of kismet, or a time everything seemed to be all mapped out.
As always, we encourage creative interpretation of the theme! Stories should be true as remembered by you, and spoken from the heart, instead of read from the page. We look forward to seeing you!
Indie Press Book Club
Throughout the year, the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative features different independent presses as part of our Indie Press Book Club. Our featured press for January and February is Torrey House Press, and our featured book is Playing with (Wild)fire by Laura Pritchett. We’ll discuss this book on March 5th at 6pm! You can get this book in store for 10% off up until our book club meeting! As a special treat, Laura Pritchett will be joining us via Zoom for part of our discussion!
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:
When a wildfire bears down on a mountain community, residents are forced to gather for safety—resulting in a tangle of love and lust that pulls people from their isolation, friendships that form across political divides, and a new hope for rethinking the ways humans inhabit the burning planet. Playing with (Wild)fire is a literary landscape that is an experiment in form: an astrology report; a grant application-turned-love-story; a phone call from Mother Earth; an obituary for a wildfire; a burned mountain’s conversation with a lone woman and an injured bear.
Every story captures how fire affects the human psyche and life, and how destruction can lead to renewal.
About the Press: Founded in 2010 and a nonprofit since 2015, Torrey House Press is the only nonprofit publishing house in the Intermountain West. With more than 70 titles to date, THP seeks to inform, expand, and reshape the dialogue on environmental justice and stewardship for the natural world by elevating diverse perspectives through the literary arts.
Torrey House Press publishes books at the intersection of the literary arts and environmental advocacy. THP authors explore the diversity of human experiences and relationships with place. THP books create conversations about issues that concern the American West, landscape, literature, and the future of our ever-changing planet, inspiring action toward a more just world.
THP believes that lively, contemporary literature is at the cutting edge of social change. They seek to inform, expand, and reshape the dialogue on environmental justice and stewardship for the natural world by elevating literary excellence from diverse voices.
Membership Update
We are thrilled to have the support of one of our owners, Angela Haynie, in helping us track our memberships. If you are a current member, you may hear from Angela via phone or email as she contacts members who are approaching their expiration date on their membership.
As a reminder, the membership is $25 a year, and you receive a $10 credit for every $200 you spend (5% back). If you're a frequent shopper, that can add up quickly! If you're not sure if you're a current member, you can always ask next time you're shopping and we'll check on your status for you.
We appreciate the support of our regular shoppers and members!
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 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.
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