“We bring you Fort Collins.” Volume 3, Issue 2
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if TiNY Houses are ouTlawed oNlY ouTlaws iNHabiT TiNY Houses Article by Curt Lyons Tiny House Drawings by Allie Ogg
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ith the huge surge in tiny house coverage the last few years, from articles to entire cable network shows, many people have developed a burning desire to live tiny. This lifestyle not only allows someone to live more simply and sustainably, it also provides the opportunity to live within one’s financial means, at a time when employment opportunities that pay a living wage are few and far between. Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as building a tiny house, finding a nice spot to park it, and moving in. Many people are not aware that this scenario isn’t legal in most places and doing so constitutes an act of “civil disobedience,” says Jay Shafer, founder of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, who more than anyone has put tiny houses on the map of the American consciousness. The reality is that the list of places that allow tiny house living is short, particularly if the tiny house is one on wheels. Fort Collins is not on the list. San Jose and Ojai, California; Walsenburg, Colorado; Spur, Texas; and Rockledge, Florida pretty much sum up the options. You’ll notice that Portland, Oregon, considered by many to be the epicenter of the tiny house movement, isn’t even on this list, but the city acknowledges that there are approximately 140 illegal tiny houses in the vicinity. Portland actually has a history of creative housing solutions. During the 1940s, Portland was a major ship building port, and since there was a war to win and the U.S. needed ships to do it, ship builders started arriving in droves. It didn’t take long before the influx of new labor exceeded the available housing stock and Portland had to find solutions fast. Rather than just let the market scarcity drive up the housing prices until those who couldn’t afford to stay were forced out of housing, Portland realized their strict housing regulations were exacerbating the housing shortage. So, they bent and broke their own rules in order to immediately create affordable housing options for the war effort. Today, many of those quirky housing units are still contributing to Portland’s housing stock. Necessity created a strong will, which forced people to find a way. Most of us are familiar with the essence of the adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” but sometimes it’s useful to flip it around and ask, if there is not a way, why is there a lack of will? It cannot be denied that there is a growing number of people with the will to live tiny, but in the big picture this is still a relatively small group of people, and for the restrictions to change this will needs to be embraced by the group I like to
call, “The movers, shakers and policy makers.” Often one of the first questions they are going to ask is “What’s in this for us?” When it comes to tiny houses it’s not hard to realize they might not see much of a benefit for them. In fact they may be asking themselves, “Why would I want those kinds of people living near me? People that want to live like that must be weird. Why can’t they be just like everyone else? Maybe they’re just lazy, millennials or socialists, who might not even vote, let alone pay taxes.” Essentially I am saying that you cannot live in a tiny house in Fort Collins because the city doesn’t have sufficient will for you to do so. Tiny houses are such a radical departure from the current model designed to accommodate national home builder/developers that the whole concept doesn’t compute. They are not convinced of the benefits, so like most other municipalities our city is conveniently dismissing the whole notion in hopes that it eventually goes away. Before going any further it’s probably good to define what a tiny house is or isn’t. To date, there is not a governing body that officially defines what a tiny house is, and attempts to define it are still evolving. For the purposes of this article I am going to define a tiny house as being small enough to pull behind a pickup truck, assuming it’s on wheels—much larger than 200 square feet and that gets very difficult. Tiny houses began to be built on trailers, because the codes governing the construction worked better given their size. If someone built a 400 square foot house on a foundation, sure we could also call that a tiny house. For context, the typical new American house averages 2,500 square feet. It is worth noting that this is two and a half times bigger than houses 60 years ago, even though family sizes are at a historic low with more than half of all U.S. households consisting of two people or less. Jason McLennan, founder of the U.S. Green Building Council has said that as far as sustainability goes “450 square feet per person is as big as we should go, and smaller is better.” The current housing system we have in the United States is not very old, less than three generations, and by system I mean the construction methods, financing, development practices and regulations. It evolved out of profitability rather than sustainability and exists in its current state because it works really well for the entities that it works well for: primarily banks, national builder/developers, the real estate industry, municipalities, and even the auto industry. For the most part these entities think the current system is (Continued on pg. 4)
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FORT COLLINS COURIER
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PUBLICATIONS MANAGER
Evan Brengle COVER ILLUSTRATIONS
Allie Ogg CONTRIBUTORS
Jenna Allen John Bartholow Jessica Crouch Natalie DiSanto David Ebel Rachel Fountain Danny Hesser Taylor Heussner Solana Kaercher Delia LaJeunesse Jordan Lavelle Curt Lyons Brigid McCreery Alexandre Payette Meg Schiel Blair Wittig Sam Wood PHOTOGRAPHER
Dina Fike PUBLISHER/DESIGNER
Todd Simmons BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Heather Manier Bryan Simpson Nate Turner Kathleen Willard
WE BRING YOU FORT COLLINS The Fort Collins Courier
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Fort Collins Courier Vol. 3, issue 2, october 2016
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perfectly fine and don’t see any reason to shake things up. Tiny houses are an alternative type of housing, potentially without a mortgage and as such are a bit of a shake-up by their very nature. Tragically, Americans have a short institutional memory, so it doesn’t take long for us to simply accept things as they are, without questioning how or why they got that way, or if that way is the best. Problems arise when it’s the best system for some people and the worst for others, which is pretty much what we have now, and the ones benefiting are not coincidentally the ones typically creating and operating the current system—the movers, shakers and policy makers as it were. The practice of deciding what is and isn’t an acceptable form of housing falls under volumes of national codes, city planning and zoning codes, and building department, utilities department, water and sewer, streets and transportation, and fire department regulations, along with a few others I may be overlooking. To make things worse, not all of these entities have the same big picture goals when developing their rules, but, nonetheless, every one of them has a say on what you can and can’t live in. In order to have some understanding of how it came to this, I am going to give a ridiculously condensed history of human habitation and the evolution of governing rules. After humans came out of the trees we started living in caves when we could find them, or we made pretty crude shelters given that good caves are few and far between, and they aren’t very portable if you have to wander around looking for food. Eventually people started growing things more than hunting and gleaning, so they had to stick around more and built more permanent dwellings and eventually these evolved into villages, cities, states etc. It is worth noting that even before building codes started, people had a vested interest in building homes that wouldn’t fall down. Since building a house is a lot of work, you don’t want to do it more than you have to, and if it falls down it will crush you, your family and all your stuff. More crowded communities eventually needed some building rules, most of which for good reasons since they concerned safety. Technologies would eventually become industries co-evolving with capitalism in ever need of growth. During a bleak period of urban growth, many cities became pretty awful places to live—crowded, noisy, and polluted—so people that had the means left and built new communities in an attempt to avoid the things they associated with the bad life in the city. This trend started before the automobile, but with its advent it further fueled this exodus. For those that could live in these communities, these were pretty nice places and they wanted to keep them that way, so they started creating regulations to accomplish this. Since money was a well established part of the equation by this point, housing was thought of not only in terms of shelter, but also as an investment—potentially the biggest threat to shelter to date. Once determined to be a commodity, regulations went beyond safety to protect property value and lifestyles.
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not exceed 25 percent of the total house value for the lot purchase in order to make a project work, so a $100,000 lot would mandate a minimum $400,000 house. Now add to this the fact that the city raised impact fees on smaller houses while lowering them on bigger houses and you get a system that favors bigger houses in order to offset costs with bigger, more valuable houses also producing more tax revenue. The reality is that although you could, in theory, buy a lot and build a tiny or small house on it with the minimum house size removed, you still wouldn’t be able to finance it. Imagine the bank saying, “You want our money to build what?” You could be looking at a cost with land, city entitlements, permits, water and sewer taps, street improvements, and so on, approaching $1000 per square foot for a 200 square foot house, when expensive houses are going for closer to $300 per square foot. Valuing a house on a price per square foot is an awful way to gauge value because this formula externalizes costs and always favors a bigger house. A smaller house can still be less expensive overall, but is more expensive per square foot, which implies a poor investment in the current system.
“If smaller, well-designed houses aren’t the wave of the future,they certainly are a significant ripple on that wave.” —Jay Shafer Before you completely give up hope for a future with tiny houses, there is the example of Jay Shafer, an art professor in Iowa who in the late nineties built his first tiny house on a trailer after finding out that zoning and building codes would not allow him to build it otherwise. Once his “travel trailer” was complete he found out that he could “camp” in it in his backyard, so he bought a small fixer upper with a large lot and proceeded to rent the front house and “camp” for the next five years. This type of rule bending to create housing is referred to as tactical urbanism. In essence what he did was make his tiny house into an accessory dwelling of the principal house, and the neighborhood didn’t go to hell, and the Earth stayed on its axis. Accessory dwellings are a secondary place to live on the same property as a principal house, traditionally existing in backyards, over garages, or on alleys, before being virtually zoned out of existence nationally. These are by their nature, smaller living spaces, often having a maximum size as opposed to minimum and historically providing affordable living options within neighborhoods, allowing a diversity of incomes while also providing a variety of flexible living scenarios closer to existing family, services, and opportunities.
Initially, in order to protect their lifestyles and housing investments, rules were made that simply said no riffraff allowed; laws, not that long ago, were less than what we consider politically correct today. Some covenants in Fort Collins literally said that only Caucasians could inhabit the principal dwelling. Eventually, pressure to be less blatantly discriminatory evolved. People who didn’t have to, still didn’t want to live near the rabble, since that might jeopardize an entire way of life, so restrictions became more subtle and sophisticated through zoning. Keep in mind that the reason tiny houses are not a legal living option is not because you can’t realistically live in one, but because zoning and building codes say they are not acceptable for human habitation.
“When housing choices are limited, the wealthy always win.” —Sara Maxana, Seattle for Everyone So, the challenge became how to subtly keep undesirable people away without being sued for discrimination, and the solution was financial. Money is the last legal form of discrimination, and if you believe that everyone has equal access to it, you would likely see this as fair and not discriminatory. Elite country clubs and first class airline tickets are expensive for a reason. Likewise, if you don’t want certain people living in your neighborhood because they might be too different from you, you set up financial barriers that don’t look like that is what you are doing, using terms such as “In order to protect the neighborhood character, we have created these standards.” These types of restrictions are known as exclusionary zoning, minimum lot sizes, minimum house sizes, and maximum densities. This type of zoning has a direct impact on what constitutes an acceptable place to live, how much it will cost, and ultimately who will end up being able to live there. Current building economic math does not bode well for tiny houses. This may help explain one Fort Collins councilman’s recent comment that “As far as I’m concerned condominiums are tiny houses.” Up until last year, Fort Collins still had a minimum house size requirement of 800 square feet. Although you’d be hard pressed to get people to admit this, these minimum sizes were to protect property values by redistricting who could live where thereby “preserving neighborhood character.” Having the minimum size removed from the city’s land use code didn’t exactly threaten the city with a wave of smaller houses and less affluent people, since there were still maximum densities and minimum fees to keep this in check. Two factors drive land price: location and its size. It is not uncommon for a buildable lot in town to cost between $100,000 and $200,000. As a general rule, builders do
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Given that the will creates the way, as a community we have to admit that we need all kinds of housing solutions for a sustainable future. Despite the constraints of our current housing paradigm, perhaps the best chance for the acceptance of alternative houses is to start thinking in terms of how we make room for them, as opposed to how we keep them away. There are models out there, and maybe Fort Collins could improve on them and become a model for the next town. We need to seriously own that our housing restrictions have helped create a housing shortage that is leaving many people out of our community. This means we also have to start confronting the NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) that put property values ahead of community values. We need to allow for housing solutions that embrace a diversity of people that contribute to our city despite the size of their house or income. Many people that desire a simple, small house do so for their love of their neighborhood, community, and planet; they can’t be that bad. Maybe we should look for ways to welcome them.
“America’s backyards are already full of Tuffsheds and outbuildings; we just need to let them house people instead of stuff.” —Eli Spevak, progressive Oregon developer Suggested reading:
Home Work by Lloyd Kahn Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck In-laws, Outlaws and Granny Flats by Michael Litchfield The Small House Book by Jay Shafer Little House on a Small Planet by Shay Salomon Pocket Neighborhoods by Ross Chapin
Curt Lyons has a B.A. in History, is a local builder, and serves on the Fort Collins Affordable Housing Board. He has participated on panels regarding small scale affordability and is a vocal advocate for both ADUs, tiny, and smaller houses. The author built a tiny house in 2015, but doesn’t live in it, since that would be pre-legal.
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Terminology Infill: when a city with growing population builds on areas within the
existing city limits to add density as opposed to continuing to sprawl.This growth can vertical or horizontal when density is allowed to increase. Often sites that were previously considered too complicated to build on become more attractive as land prices increase and undeveloped sites are harder to find. Infill is a greener way to provide housing since infrastructure and services already exist, and these sites are less reliant on driving for everything.
Sprawl: when land that is getting developed is on the edges of town
or beyond the town limits, often on former agricultural lands.These areas are a blank slate and are prime for suburb developments that restrict anything but large single-family houses. Sprawl is often encouraged with cheap gasoline, and financing that is only available for new construction as opposed to renovations.
IRC:
International Residential Building Code is the regulatory book that defines how a residence must be built in the United States and Canada. It is as international as American football and adds new requirements every few years, often referred to as “Code creep,” which makes houses constantly more expensive to construct.These regulations are influenced by industry manufacturers.
Exclusionary zoning: When a municipality, county, or home owner’s association set rules that limit the amount and type of housing stock and how people can live in it. Minimum house and lot sizes as well as limits on the number of people per residence are example of these restrictions, all of which inflate the cost of housing by creating scarcity. Inclusionary zoning:
came out of the mountain towns where employees could not afford to live anywhere near where they worked, so towns mandated that developers have to build a minimum percentage of new projects as affordable or pay money to cities in lieu. This was discussed for the mall in Fort Collins, but never took hold.
ADU: An Accessory Dwelling Unit is a secondary living quarters on a residential property that is subordinate to the primary dwelling with names like granny flats, in-law units, and carriage houses. Before they were zoned out of existence in many areas of the country, these smaller units provided affordable housing in many neighborhoods. RV: A Recreational Vehicle is considered suitable for camping but not for living in year-round. You could legally live in an RV in Fort Collins for 14 days, which is the legal camping limit. Having a tiny house considered an RV does not make it legal to live in. HOA:
A Home Owners Association is a legal entity that adds restrictions above and beyond municipalities. For a monthly fee, you not only get your roads plowed of snow, you also get to be told you can’t hang your laundry out or have a vegetable garden.
Tiny house:
Originally a tiny house on wheels, THOW, these houses are built on trailers to avoid the restrictions of the IRC building codes, which would not allow such a tiny structure with such small windows and doors. Once you start getting over 200 square feet it’s not very tiny.
Affordable housing: a legal term used by cities and non-
governmental agencies to refer to housing for people that make less than 80% of the area median income as defined by the federal government’s housing and urban development, HUD. This type of housing is usually only able to be built with heavy federal subsidies, such as community development block grants (CDBG).
Affordable market rate: housing that is not government subsidized, but when available provides more affordable living options based on its smaller size or less desirable location, such as over a commercial establishment. This type of housing can be financially impossible to build in an environment that favors large-scale development over incremental small-scale development and where city fees and land costs are very expensive.
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literature aspects of my human experience, and the ways that you read my descriptions will reveal something about your own experiences of living in this world.
Photo used courtesy of Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Having lived in different parts of the country and different environments, what landscapes or parts of nature have influenced you the most and why?
Camille Dungy on
Ecopoetry By Rachel Fountain
N
ature poetry, in its traditional sense, often evokes images of pastoral landscapes and brings to mind echoes of sing-song verses that praise nature’s beauty. While there is certainly a time and place for this type of poetry, author Camille Dungy’s ecopoetry reminds us that it is not the only way to write about the natural world. Fort Collins Courier: How does ecopoetry differ from traditional nature poetry and why is it important? Camile Dungy: Ecopoetry is engaged in the ecological implications of what we write. Some of what we might call nature poetry has always done this, but the rise of our understanding of ecopoetry has coincided with the rise of our contemporary environmentalist movements. Ecopoets are concerned with the intersections between and within: culture, history, economic forces, climate conditions, built environments, and human as well as non-human life. I could easily make that list longer because there are so many possible lines of inquiry for ecopoetry. Ecopoetry is not about admiring “nature” as if it were an object upon which we can settle our gaze, it is not about extracting comfort or permission or assurance from the nonhuman world. Ecopoetry places the human body and consciousness in relationship to the other bodies and experiences (animate and inanimate) with which we are constantly in communion.
One simple answer is that I respond to certain landscapes differently than I respond to others. When I moved to Virginia, in the pocket of the Blue Ridge, it took me a long time to understand how to think of those apparently small mountains with the same type of awe and reverence I immediately feel in the Rockies and the Sierras. The Blue Ridge, once taller than the Himalayas, are tiny by comparison to the mountains of the West, and my attitude towards them, biased because of my familiarity with a different sort of grandeur, shaded the way I acted and wrote in that landscape. I’m conscious of the way such bias plays in my movements through the world, and this consciousness means that I am aware of the many ways I am shaped by my responses to the different landscapes of a different place. I’ve lived in Colorado for nearly three years now. If you’d asked me this same question right after I moved to Fort Collins I would have likely mentioned something about missing the ocean. I’m interested in the fact that I’ve been back in Colorado long enough that my idea of what you must mean when you say “landscape” meant that I first thought about mountains, not how fundamentally important the Pacific Ocean has been to my way of understanding my place in the world. Why is it important to consider urban landscapes as well as natural ones, and how do they change the meaning of “nature” in poetry? I can’t think of anything more natural than microbial life. All the vibrant life forms on our Blue Planet were made possible by the tiny organisms we don’t tend to think about when we think about “nature.” Mold is natural. Cockroaches are natural. The boxed around and concreted over and carved into and clipped back trees in so many cities, though they may not be indigenous to the places where we find them, are part of the environments of the places where we find them. They are, themselves, natural entities. It is dangerous, incredibly dangerous, to believe that nature only happens in set aside refuges, that nature is only some pristine and distant aspect of our world. If most of us live in urban or suburban settings, most human beings that is, then to think that nature is something you have to drive to, to hike into, to travel away from home to access means that we are not able to see the ways we are interacting with the only living world we have. To think that nature is something OVER THERE, rather than something all around us all the time reduces the imperative to take care of the world in which we are living.
Language Silence is one part of speech, the war cry of wind down a mountain pass another. A stranger’s voice echoing through lonely valleys, a lover’s voice rising so close it’s your own tongue: these are keys to cipher, the way the high hawk’s key unlocks the throat of the sky and the coyote’s yip knocks it shut, the way the aspens’ bells conform to the breeze while the rapid’s drum defines resistance. Sage speaks with one voice, pinyon with another. Rock, wind her hand, water her brush, spells and then scatters her demands. some notes tear and pebble our paths. Some notes gather: the bank we map our lives around. From Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy. © 2006 by Camille T. Dungy. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press.
In what ways do descriptions of plants, animals, and landscapes reveal truths about human nature? In what ways do they not? Mine is not intended to be a rhetorical question. I can’t see any way in which the ways that I view the world around me, or the ways that the various cultures of which I am a part do not shed light on who I am as a human being and how I reflect the cultures or communities to which I belong. Some of these cultures and communities include but are not limited to: human, American, Western, African American, pan-African, mother, daughter, wife, professor, home owner, native flower gardener, bee-sting sensitive, dahlia lover, climate change activist, poet. The ways that I describe plants, animals, and landscapes will reveal something about each of these
Camille T. Dungy is the author of Smith Blue, Suck on the Marrow, and What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison. She edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, and co-edited the From the Fishouse poetry anthology. Her honors include an American Book Award, two Northern California Book Awards, a California Book Award silver medal, and a fellowship from the NEA. Dungy is currently a Professor in the English Department at Colorado State University. A new collection of Dungy’s poems, Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP), and her first collection of personal essays, Guidebook to Relative Strangers (W. W. Norton), are both forthcoming in 2017.
Celebrate books and writing on all things brewing at this FREE literary festival!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 A free, one-day public literary festival that includes author visits, book signings, writers’ workshops, speaker presentations, readings, panel discussions, and classes. This year’s theme, “Brewin’ Up Books,” gives a nod to the community’s expansive craft brewing culture by highlighting writers, authors, and topics around beer, coffee, tea, and more.
Take a Class or Workshop! The Art of Tea Brewing The Art of Kombucha Brewing Characters in Conflict Coffee Brewing Demo Creating Dazzling Worlds Love the Outdoors? Write it! Undraw the Line: writing through erasure, effacement and insubordination
Hear Panels & Readings! The Books that Made Me The Muses: Beverages That Inspire Writing How to Brew Beer: Everything You Need to Know The Ethics of Brewing Fermented Truth Hand-Crafted Poetry The Stouts Poet Laureates of the Choice City
See Special Guests & Authors! Governor John Hickenlooper New Belgium Brew Master Peter Bouckaert Poet Katrina Roberts Beer Expert Horst Dornbusch Local Colorado Authors
... and many others!
#FoCoBookFest
#FoCoBooks
The FoCo Book Fest is produced by Poudre River Public Library District in partnership with CSU Morgan Library.
Schedules and registration information are available at
www.FoCoBookFest.org
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Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren Review by Solana Kaercher
The Abundance, by Annie Dillard Review by David Ebel
The Mindful Writer, by Dinty W. Moore Review by Jordan Lavelle
A relatable chronicle for anyone who has ever pursued what he or she loves regardless of intimidating hurdles, Lab Girl is not only inspirational, but also educational. Hope Jahren lets us in on the many years of adversity she has overcome, beginning with her escape from her small hometown eclipsed by a meat processing plant and hushed Scandinavian temperaments, to her fight against sexism in the scientific community. The latter is a problem she has made strides to eliminate beyond raising awareness through this book. Though her journey is not easy, it is full of charm. She props the reader up with musings on life and accessible explanations of the natural world. One can surely discern her lucid teaching style and audacious personality that have brought her three Fulbrights and a spot on Time’s “100 Most Influential People.”
The Abundance, a career-spanning collection of essays by Annie Dillard, is a thing of beauty. To call her a nature writer is like calling Chopin a pianist; she is that, and so much more. The Annie Dillard you meet in these essays is a poet, a philosopher, a scientist, a humorist, astronomer and priestess and teacher all rolled into one.
“How wonderful that we have this maddening, beautiful, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, mysterious, transformative ability to create worlds out of words,” writes Dinty W. Moore, concluding The Mindful Writer, a pocketsized work of words strung simply together to be well worth one’s sweet time savoring reading.
Her subjects are wide-ranging: she travels from the Gobi Desert to Disneyland, from Ecuadorean jungles to Arctic waste. Her focus expands and contracts at will. In “Paganism,” she zooms in on the husk of a dead moth burning in candlefire. “For the Time Being” widens to take in the swirling of sand across geologic expanses of time. So much philosophy is open to charges of empty navel-gazing, but Dillard never has this problem: her reflections find their source in the natural world, as when she muses about the nature of cruelty after seeing a dying deer in a South American village. Hers is a phenomenology sourced in actual phenomena, like a Heidegger who actually went outside.
Moore explores The Writer’s Mind, The Writer’s Desk, The Writer’s Vision, and The Writer’s Life in brief, yet brilliant sections, citing quotes from authors familiar and obscure, adding his personal interpretations, in order to emphasize the cyclical nature of the writing process— from initial ideas to blueprint plans to focused action to revision and repetition.
Lab Girl bridges the spacious gap between scientific academia and emotionally provocative literature. She wants readers to understand what scientists have to say when they aren’t constricted by the controlled jargon of peer-reviewed journals. As she proclaims, “no writer in the world agonizes over words the way a scientist does.” Though here she is referring to the requisite ability to condense, she herself might be unique in that she was raised on Sandburg and Chaucer. Jahren’s field of study is paleobotany, in which she picks apart dated organic matter and pieces together the mystery of what happened. She has found and followed her path, which is eloquently confirmed as she observes that, “being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life.”
Different readers will respond to different essays; there’s something here for everyone. My personal favorite, “Being Chased,” breathlessly chronicles seven-year-old Annie dashing headlong through the streets of Pittsburgh, pursued by the driver of a car she hit with a snowball. But, like our wide world, the depth and breadth of Annie Dillard’s writing cannot be encompassed by summary, only experience. Read it and see. An Abundance indeed.
And while the central cuisine of the book is essentially Buddhist, let such religious flavor be no tastebud barrier to those of you who may choose instead to chew it all thoroughly for yourself, to digest and assimilate the nutrients of its beneficial contents: “It is the very texture of language, the primal clay of verbs, nouns, sentences, the tactile sensation of combining those words, into a poem or story, that in the end will bring a writer most satisfaction.” Words paint and point to the freedom that exists through one’s direct experience of reality: here and now. “The very act of giving yourself permission to write, to speak, to share the truth no matter whether the truth you understand is the truth others want to acknowledge, is brave, powerful, and important.” To fellow writers who receive these words, I recommend you read this book. And let’s write on—mindfully.
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Wolverine Farm Publishing Co. & Bookstore | www.wolverinefarm.org | 144 N. College Ave, Fort Collins CO | (970) 472-4284
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The Soul of an Octopus, by Sy Montgomery Review by Brigid McCreary
Square Wave, by Mark de Silva Review by Alexandre Payette
Work and Days, by Tess Taylor Review by Sam Wood
Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus is, indeed, a surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness. This book is Montgomery’s account of her time spent at the New England aquarium, getting to know its octopuses and those who care for them. Combining science and emotion, she pairs captivating information with her own ideas and musings on the octopus, and shows the lives of the several octopuses whom she observes and develops relationships with. What begins as observations on a single octopus quickly grows into an account of Montgomery’s love and obsession for the octopus, and the enthusiasm of this book is contagious.
Two Dollar Radio, a boutique publisher out of Columbus, Ohio, has established itself as the home for engaging, challenging, and unique works of literature. Though readers may be unfamiliar with the outfit, its consistency in selecting high quality books—and pairing them with beautiful designs—has gotten the attention of many heavyweights in the world of literary review. The New York Times, the National Book Foundation, National Public Radio, and, in particular, the Los Angeles Times have all taken notice of this independent publisher, and readers of the Fort Collins Courier would be well-served do the same.
To return to the earth is a thorny task. Born from a year’s experience in rural new England, Tess Taylor’s poems in Work and Days begin to unpack stillness only to realize the paradox within. While she adopts the farmer’s lifestyle, drones bomb foreign countries. Even the land she farms was once home to the Mohicans before they were forcibly “removed to Wisconsin: white edict / impassive as a glacier.” As Taylor learns her new craft, she knows that the history of American agriculture is also a history of violence.
Montgomery proves that the fascination of the octopus extends far beyond its anatomical peculiarities, revealing the intellect and personality of this unique creature. She portrays everything from tender moments watching a mother octopus care for her eggs, to humorous images of playful octopus sprays, to the impacts they have on the lives of their keepers. We are consistently reminded not only of the octopus’s otherworldliness, but also of their intimate roles in the lives of the aquarium’s community, which we also come to know in this book.
It is fitting that Mark de Silva’s debut novel Square Wave was put out by a publisher with this dedication to finding new and exciting voices. As is the case with many postmodern works, it is difficult—if not a disservice to the novel—to concisely summarize the plot of Square Wave. De Silva shifts wildly across vastly different topics (the colonization of Sri Lanka, an ever-approaching near-dystopian future, microtonal music, weather modification) and, with his heavy lean toward academic dissection of ideas, he pracitcally challenges the reader to keep up.
The Soul of an Octopus provides a look into the lives of individual octopi and their personalities, along with the relationships their keepers have with them. It gives new life to how we see our natural world and those we share it with, and challenges what it really means to know and appreciate another species. This book will certainly appeal to lovers of nature and science, but also to anybody looking to feel some wonder at the world we live in.
Ideas come quickly and densly which may dissaude some readers, but those attracted to such a style are rewarded by de Silva’s impressively engaging prose. De Silva displays an ability to make his readers pause, think deeply, and want to continue through the novel. That is an accomplishment for any author, and that he did so in his debut effort is all the more incredible. Square Wave, and the rest of the Two Dollar Radio catalogue, can be found at twodollarradio.com.
During World War II, forty percent of the United States’ produce was grown in small community gardens. For two years backyards and ballparks, thick with peppers and greens, created a strong tangible connection to what we eat. This relationship was inherently tied to the war effort. When the war ended, so did the victory gardens. In the years that followed, many smaller farms disappeared in favor of monoculture crops. This is where we find the poet, relearning the lost language of the garden. Following ten years in the city, Taylor is welcomed to the country life by, “wild unfrozen prattle. / Rain on the roof—a foreign liquid tongue.” But, just pages later, the poems begin to, “walk repeating names you’ve gathered / just to feel the pleasure on your tongue.” By the end of the collection, much of the anxiety of modern global relations has retreated, subsumed by a gained connection with the physical earth. “This world is a made thing,” asserts the final poem, no less aware of ever-hotter summers, but enamored—if only for a moment—with the immediate present.
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LITERATURE
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Dealing with Writer’s Block:
Eight Fort Collins Writers Share Their Insights By Rachel Fountain
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fter asking eight local authors about writer’s block, it has proven to be a mysterious phenomenon which manifests itself in many different ways. The theories on writer’s block and how to overcome it vary greatly. However, the common insight is that the writing process is sometimes arduous. For those difficult moments, local authors offer their advice.
Story Block: Maybe your character’s motivation is not strong enough, for example, or you have not built enough conflict into the plot, etc.
Dan Beachy-Quick
Passion Block: Have you lost passion for the story, but are soldiering on because you think you must?
When I can’t write, for whatever reason—just no words where there’s usually words—I try not to think about it as “writer’s block.” There’s something dangerous, too much of our overly diagnosed age, in positing difficulty as symptomatic, as something to get over, or to cure. Instead, I try to accept the silence, the blankness of it, as necessary. So much of our creative lives seems to happen outside the scope of our intent, an occult or underground work, and such fallow periods may be more necessary for what words will come than we care to imagine. So, instead of finding ways to overcome or correct, I find ways to accept and be patient. Part of that effort is usually memorizing poems. I write down a poem I love, and walk around with it, memorizing it—not to be able to recite it at whim or will (I tend to also forget them), but to keep language coming into me, a sowing of some kind, or making fecund again the silent field.
Skills Block: You may be trying to write beyond your current writing skills and need to further study your craft.
Structure Block: Does the entire structure of the book need to change? Boredom Block: Have you grown tired of writing in the same genre or working on the same series, etc.?
“I write down a poem I love, and walk around with it, memorizing it—not to be able to recite it at whim or will (I tend to also forget them), but to keep language coming into me, a sowing of some kind, or making fecund again the silent field.” —Dan Beachy-Quick
(Dan Beachy-Quick is the author, most recently of gentlessness and Shields & Shards & Stitches & Songs.)
Matthew Cooperman Writer’s block can be devastating—how profound the blank page seems!—and yet if one writes consistently (and I don’t mean every day, but just as a matter of course) then I find there is always something to work on. Part of that, for me, is accepting the long view of my own practice. Books take years for me, and so having projects that burble along in their own sweet way is a method for maintaining activity and momentum. It’s time, for me, which is the dragon. That’s probably another subject, but one thing I do when I’m feeling dry, or am between more obsessional projects is to give myself assignments. Specifically, I am interested in procedural writing—the manner in which limits, repetitions, erasures might “operate” on a source text. A famous example is George Perec’s novel “La Disparition,” which, written in French without the letter E, is about the disappearance of the letter E. Imagine!! The limit creates ingenuity. A more modest attempt might be an erasure or blacking out of a page of a good source text (Henry James novels, Donald Trump speeches), or a “cut-up,” where you combine two interesting source texts. The key is in the selection of interesting source texts. Something like that will usually prod my language into action, not to mention sharpen the activity of reading. And reading is perhaps the most important task of all. As Oscar Wilde said, “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” (Matthew Cooperman is the author of, most recently, Spool as well as the text + image collaboration Imago for the Fallen World, with Marius Lehene, Still: of the Earth as the Ark which Does Not Move, DaZE and A Sacrificial Zinc.)
Teresa Funke Writer’s block is a speed bump on most writer’s paths, not a roadblock. It’s something we all face at times. But not all blocks are the same. I’ve personally identified seven types, and you need to determine how you are blocked before you can figure out how to move forward.
Psychological Block: For example, maybe you based this story on your actual experience, and now you can’t separate enough from what really happened to let the story grow. Ideas Block: Have your ideas dried up? If so, you may need to take a break from writing to rejuvenate or try journaling, etc.
For historical fiction writers, like myself, blocks can also arise when we get overwhelmed by the research or can’t find enough information to build on. Historical fiction writers need to know when to stop researching and start writing. My simple tip for that is, if the research is repeating itself, it’s time to start writing. (Teresa Funke is the author of Remember Wake, Dancing in Combat Boots: and Other Stories of American women in WWII, Doing My Part , The No-No Boys, V for Victory, and Wave Me Goodbye.)
Jason Hardung Charles Bukowski, in a poem, said, “writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” So here I am, writing. Look, that’s how easy it was to start. I used someone else’s words. Now I need another sentence. And after that one, another one, and another one after that. The one thing that helps most to get me out of my own void of nothingness, a.k.a. “writer’s block,” is reading. I like to go back to one of my favorite books, one where the writer is on fire and really getting down in her craft. I read to be inspired. If I’m writing prose and I’m stuck, I like to read poetry. It seems to kick start a different part of the brain. If I’m trying to write a poem, I’ll read prose. If that doesn’t work, turn on some music, get lost in it. If a piece is just stumping you and it’s impossible to move forward, put it away for a couple of weeks, don’t look at it. When you come back to it your eyes will be fresh, almost as if you are reading somebody else’s work. You might want to throw it all away and start over. That’s fine. Do it. They are your words after all. The most important piece of advice I can give on writer’s block is that writing isn’t about waiting for the muse. Like anything else, it’s about putting in the work, about sitting at your desk the same time every day and writing, whether the words you want are coming or not. It takes one sentence, like I said above. Just keep going, it doesn’t have to make sense. That’s what revision is for, to go back and polish it up. But on your first draft pretend like nobody will ever read it, like nobody will judge you. Don’t listen to those voices in your head. The ones of old English or creative writing teachers, your parents, husband, wife, your schizophrenia telling you what you can and cannot do. They aren’t there. Like Barbara Kingsolver said, “I learned to produce whether I wanted
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to or not. It would be easy to say, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.” Look, I just wrote a bunch of sentences, a whole article on writer’s block. (Jason Hardung’s work has appeared in 3AM, Monkey Bicycle, Evergreen Review, Metazen, Entropy, Thought Catalog, Word Riot, Thrasher Magazine, Heavy Feather Review and The New York Quarterly. He is the author of The Broken and the Damned and The Names of Lost Things.)
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It doesn’t matter what kind of writing you’re doing—from poetry to fiction, from sermons to stand-up comedy, from ad copy to political punditry—the most important thing you can do when you feel stymied is lower your standards and keep writing. Once you have a draft of questionable caliber, you can go back and fix it. If you can’t figure out how to fix it, do what William Stafford used to do—I think he says it in his book Writing the Australian Crawl—lower your standards and move to the next poem. Writing can be hard, really hard, but writer’s block does not exist. Or you can give up, but that’s not writer’s block. That’s giving up.
ChloE Leisure
(Jack Martin’s poems have appeared in Matter, Ploughshares, Tupelo Quarterly, Diagram, Georgia Review, and other magazines.)
I hate my verses, every line, every word. —Robinson Jeffers, “Love the Wild Swan”
Bill Tremblay
When I’m feeling far away from inspiration, or repulsed by ideas, I’ve found that it’s not always about getting out of my head, but more about jumping over the potholes of distraction, and getting to a different part of my head, a place that’s wide-open and amenable to the new. A few reliable methods of transportation are as follows: 1. Nature Walks. Walking alone in nature (with or without a dog) for a minimum of 20-30 minutes, on a familiar path so as not to be too overwhelmed, allows my mind to wander, process, resolve, and, about 10-15 minutes in, to observe and make connections. I used to record notes by hand, but lately I enjoy using the Notes function on my phone; I push the microphone and speak, never losing the momentum of thought or motion. 2. Automatic Writing. I set a timer and tell myself what I tell my students: “Pencil to the page. Don’t stop. Don’t censor.” This exercise nearly always ushers me to something wholly surprising, something I would have never found on my own. (Check out Julia Cameron’s thoughts on “Morning Pages” in The Artist’s Way, or attend one of Wolverine Farm’s “1k1hr” events.)
The whole issue of the writing process is mysterious. In writing my latest book Walks Along the Ditch I got 36 poems in 36 weeks. Poems seemed to be flying through me like 737s through summer clouds. But my sense is similar to that old thing about inspiration and perspiration. Writing is like athletics in one way: you have to stay in shape. If you take a vacation from writing, you feel it’s hard to get back in the groove where you like what’s on the page (or screen.) That means writing every day in one form or another.
“Or you can give up, but that’s not writer’s block. That’s giving up.” —JAck Martin
3. Art Museums. Walking through a museum or gallery, by myself or with a friend, bathes my senses in brand-new waters. There’s so much space for interpretation and reflection, and usually some conveniently placed chairs and benches for sitting and writing. 4. Literary Readings. I find it is nearly impossible not to jot down notes here and there during inspiring readings. 5. Reading. Essays, field guides, the etymology of particular words, or random poetry. Poetry magazine is a favorite; page-to-page, I don’t know what I’m going to land upon. I often read and take notes until I feel that familiar spark. (Chloé Leisure’s poetry has appeared in publications including Matter, PANK, Paterson Literary Review, A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park, and Permafrost. She is the author of the chapbook The End of the World Again.)
Jack Martin Writing can be hard. The simplest way to cure writer’s block is to write. Writer’s block is not the inability to write—that’s illiteracy, or maybe physical paralysis. Writer’s block is loss of the joy of writing. The way to get the joy of writing back is to write. Turn off your internal editor and write. If you don’t feel you can turn off your internal editor, write anyway. Lower your standards and write. Write your way through the disappointment, the ickiness, the boredom, the terror; write your way through whatever your internal editor is making you feel about your writing. Eventually, you’ll write something you like. You’ll hit the groove. If, suddenly, you write the best thing you’ve ever written, so good that you feel you’ll never be able to write again, lower your standards and write. If you don’t believe in writer’s block, you can’t have it. If you do believe in writer’s block, there are lots of tricks to make yourself write. Here are three: 1. Read and reread a lot of whatever kind of writing you’re trying to write. When you find a good piece, emulate it (or write the opposite of it) (or write a response to it) (or just write). For example, I recently rediscovered Philip Levine’s poem “The Angel Butcher.” That poem amazes me. If you haven’t read it, you should. I find it to be a feat of the narrative imagination. I’ve been studying it and trying to figure out what makes it work by imitating elements of it in my own writing. 2. Pick someone, alive or dead, real or imagined, and address your poems, stories, or essays to that person or thing. “Dear Swamp Monster, Knitting is a valuable skill. Yes, admittedly, yarn is a problem if it gets caught in your gills. . .” 3. One of the useful things I learned 35 years ago in a composition class at a university near here was a writing exercise that I call “the ‘what I’m trying to say is this’ exercise.” One of my professors told us if you don’t know how to say or write something, just keep saying, “What I’m trying to say is this. . . .” Then, write down what you’re trying to say. Repeat the process of saying and writing it down until you’ve finally written what you’re trying to say. These three exercises ought to be enough to break any supposed writer’s block. However, there are lots of other useful tricks and exercises. Ask around, shoot me an email, make up your own.
It’s sometimes hard to know what it is that wants or needs to be written. For those times a writer’s block is your deep mind telling you, “No, not this.”
I know one thing: bearing down harder, trying to force the issue, is counter-productive. I made a good choice when I started practicing t’ai chi ch’uan. The idea is to open yourself to allow the chi to flow through your body so that maybe you can use part of it. Blockages occur at points of the body where there’s tension, anxiety. You can’t open a creative path by making yourself more tense with worry. You let go. You cultivate patience and a consciousness based on balance. Only you know the precise terms, the specific details, of the way things balance inside you. (Bill Tremblay is the author of several books or poetry including Crying in the Cheap Seats, Duhamel, Shooting Script: Door of Fire, Magician’s Hat and Walks Along the Ditch. He is also the author of the novel The June Rise.)
Kathleen Willard Block means a closed system and I refuse to shut the door and suffocate in the negative space known as writer’s block. I embrace writer’s rituals which open me up to the creative process. I have several writing projects going at once so I can toggle back and forth between projects and therefore, have no time for writer’s block. I move my computer to coffee shops or park benches or next to the Poudre River and install myself there for an expanse of time and find writing flows. I use alternate, retro-writing materials and ditch my computer all together. I take my cues from artists and use various sized unlined journals, large artist’s sketchbooks, pens, watercolors, fine felt tip pens, fountain pens, and colored pencils. Lately, I have found super sized blank artist sketchbooks are yielding incredible poetry results. (Kathleen Willard’s poems have appeared in Bombay Gin, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Flint Hills Review, Matter, Colere, A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park, and Landscape and Place. She is the author of the book Cirque & Sky.) ________________________________________ Still feeling stuck? Consider checking out one of these local writing groups: 1k1hr Writing Sprints: Informal group focusing on building writing stamina and speed. www.syldeleon.com/writing-events/ Writer’s Workspace: Informal group supporting writers working in Fort Collins, primarily by encouraging writers to submit their own work more often, but also offering general help and networking. Email for more info: todd@wolverinefarm.org. NoCo Writers Group: Meetup group for critiques, reviews and community. www.meetup.com/nocowriters Northern Colorado Writers: Support group offering meetings, classes and networking events. www.northerncoloradowriters.com The Motivated Writer: Meetup group for discussion, brainstorming and feedback. www.meetup.com/The-Motivated-Writer-Rocky-Mountains-Support-Group Night Writers of the Purple Page: Meetup group for screenwriters offering critiques, workshops and marketing strategies. www.meetup.com/Night-Writers-of-the-Purple-Page
WOLVERINE FARM LETTERPRESS & PUBLICK HOUSE WORK STUDY WRITE PRINT DRAW listen SOCIALIZE DRINK read make Mon - THu: 9am - 9pm / Fri & Sat: 9am - 10pm / Sun: 1pm - 7pm A letterpress print shop and community event space in Fort Collins’ River District, Wolverine Farm Letterpress & Publick House is available to rent for events, literary workshops and readings, films, music and other cultural offerings. We have local coffee, wine, beer, snacks, and local goods available for purchase. All proceeds go to Wolverine Farm Publishing, a local 501(c)3 literary/arts nonprofit.
Please visit www.wolverinefarm.org for more information or call 970-682-2590 with any questions.
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MAKE
Make
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fort collins courier
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fall 2016
MAKE
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Meet Turtle Mountain: Local Makers of Kombucha, Kimchi, and Sauerkraut By Natalie diSanto
H
ey, you there. You who have heard the word “probiotic” and have no idea why it’s beneficial to you. You who have heard of the “fermented food craze” but can’t find it’s roots. You who have yet to understand how “probiotic,” “fermented,” and “your health” all tie into one single axiom. Here is your first lesson in probiotics, fermentation, and the benefits of Kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, and other ferments. The word “probiotic” literally translates into “beneficial for life.” We, as a species, evolved alongside thousands of microorganisms too teeny-tiny for our eyes to see. Yes, we are human, but only 20 percent of our body’s cells are human cells. The other 80 percent are guests. These “guests,” or beneficial bacteria, are what regulate our human cells. Did you know that your digestive tract is equivalent to the perimeter of a tennis court? That’s a lot of space for a lot of bacteria. Talk about an active host! Probiotics are beneficial bacteria. They take up real estate in our digestive tract. This way, when bad bacteria, such as infections, sickness, and other maladies enter our bodies, the probiotics shove them out. If you fill your gut full of the “good guys” then the bad guys will have to find another neighborhood to invade. How are probiotics created? Through fermentation. Yes, fermentation also creates other delicious beverages such as our dearly beloved craft beers here in Fort Collins, but the craft of fermentation branches well beyond the reaches of alcohol. Certain types of fermentation create these amazing defense mechanisms known as probiotics. Different strains of yeast, bacteria, and different bases of which to ferment allow for the variation of results during this age-old craft. Kombucha begins as tea. Traditionally it is made with a black tea, sugar is added for the yeasts to eat, and the inoculant is introduced, thus creating fermentation. A Kombucha inoculant is known as a “S.C.O.B.Y.” SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Yeast and Bacteria. This interwoven mat of two essential nutrients lives on the top of the Kombucha ferment and stretches across the entire fermenting container. It may sound a little strange, but this has been happening for thousands of years!
The ending result, Kombucha, tastes like a refreshing cousin of apple cider vinegar. It has effects similar to those of such vinegars in that it contains not only probiotics, but also beneficial acids which detoxify your body. Kombucha is also full of Vitamin B, which has been proven to reduce stress. If you like sour beers chances are you will like Kombucha. Sour beers are often soured with bacteria that is also found in Kombucha. Next time you try a sour beer ask your server if lactobacillus was used in the aging process, which is a key ingredient in kombucha! Other fermented products, such as live sauerkraut and kimchi, contain probiotics as well. These are cultured with wild yeasts found in the air which feed on the sugars in the cabbage. Salt added for the preserving of the produce creates a nutrient-rich brine for our happy guests to live in. Just think—all that juice at the bottom of your last jar of sauerkraut is full of probiotics! Make sure that your sauerkraut or kimchi says “LIVE culture” or “RAW ferment” on the label or else it may be someone taking the easy way out with vinegar and heat. Where can you get delicious live, raw fermented Kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut here in Fort Collins? Turtle Mountain makes delicious ferments of all of these! Turtle Mountain is owned and operated by a single woman here in Fort Collins. They are a small-batch operation relying on their unique and delicious hand-crafted Kombucha to supply their rapidly growing customer base. The owner/operator prides herself on using as many farm-fresh ingredients as possible. Because of this locally-minded attitude Turtle Mountain has a plethora of flavors of Kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut which rotate with the seasons and keep your taste buds craving more! Turtle Mountain hand-chops each head of cabbage and every single vegetable that creates their kimchi and kraut. This gives their fermented veggies a rustic, crunchy texture that you can’t find anywhere else! You can find Turtle Mountain’s local LIVE probiotics and RAW ferments at their stand at your local Farmers’ Markets. They also have bottled Kombucha available at many coffee shops, grocery stores, and bars here in Fort Collins. Check out their website for more information: www.turtlemountaintea.com, or find them on Facebook!
Kombucha was referred to as the Elixer of Life in Ancient China, where it was first discovered and drank. Many scientists believe Kombucha is a derivative of the Chaga mushroom, which is a tree fungus that is also steeped to make tea. However, Kombucha is neither a mushroom nor a fungus, but a result of fermentation.
MAKERS WANTED!
Calli ng all Make rs
Are you a maker or do you know someone who is? The Fort Collins Courier is looking for makers to profile in upcoming issues. Everything from bicycles to broomsticks, furniture to fiber arts. For more information please contact Evan at evan@wolverinefarm.org.
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winter 2016
Community The Voices on the Walls . . . And the Transformers . . . the Pianos By Solana Kaercher
O
ur city is alive with color—and not just the Horsetooth reds, the Poudre blues, and the ever-changing elms. Slip into most any alley or behind most any large building and you are sure to be delighted by unexpected art. Multiple organizations and artists have leant their talents to a thriving mural scene in Fort Collins. Read on to meet a few of the people behind the brushes.
Transformer Cabinet Murals The City and Utilities department hatched a magnificent plan to employ local artists to adorn the ubiquitous metal boxes. What began as an idea for graffiti abatement is now thriving in its tenth year.
Fort Collins Mural Project A group of local artists is working with private building owners and the greater arts
community with the mission of beautifying forgotten public spaces. They are raising funds and accepting proposals for murals.
Pianos About Town Each season, ten to fifteen artists are chosen by a committee and then given two weeks to paint a donated piano. All painting is done in Old Town, and then the pianos are moved around town spontaneously. The project is a collaborative effort between the City of Fort Collins, the Bohemian Foundation, and the Downtown Development Authority. For more information, consult the following websites: http://www.fcmuralproject.org/ http://www.fcgov.com/artspublic/
Artist with “Lost my Marbles,” Mason & Mulberry
Artist with “Hard to Leave,” Tenney Alley
Kirsten Savage
Chris Bates
Formally trained in fine arts, Kirsten paints landscapes, portraiture, and scenes in the style of realism. But once off the canvas, she brings more color and playfulness into her work. She started in commercial art and has evolved into her dream career, where she wakes up every morning, drinks coffee, and gets to paint all day in her studio.
Bates is not new to the FoCo mural scene; he has painted on transformer cabinets, pianos, schools, in alleys, and inside many private establishments. You might also recognize his distinctive pen and ink pieces, in which he embeds historical details at a miniature scale. He runs mural workshops at elementary schools, teaching kids about the process from brainstorming to brushstrokes. He says the biggest lesson they learn is how to share ownership of art and embrace a communal message.
Spirit animal: Raven Hunter or Gatherer: Gatherer Time travel: The future Favorite Place in Fort Collins: Avogadro’s A tip for maturing artists: “Stay away from social media! Even though it is fun and inspiring, it is dangerous for someone trying to develop their own style. You have to lock yourself away from all that and create, from your heart. You might recognize something you like, but that doesn’t mean you will be able to just paint it. You have to practice! Don’t put your work out there too fast. As Picasso said, ‘do it 100 times and then you might be ready to share it with the world.’” Story behind the marbles: “I was standing here (at the transformers) and I thought of how many people I had seen—including myself—losing their marbles waiting for the train to pass. We’ve all been there. It’s not as bad now, but you never want to be stuck on the wrong side. So I painted a scene of marbles and jacks coming out of a glass jar and bouncing away. I want my art to bring joy into the world.”
“Larger than Life” – Mason & Horsetooth
Spirit animal: Mountain Lion Hunter or Gatherer: Gatherer Time travel: The time of Impressionism (late 1800’s) Favorite Place in Fort Collins: Horsetooth Reservoir (on a SUP) Biggest influence: Hip-hop & surrealism. “Not just Salvador Dali and the painters, but the philosophy. They created art to bring out the subconscious, to be spontaneous and free your mind of restraints—and I appreciate dark humor to talk about sensitive subjects and political things.” Dream project: “I used to do a lot of political and social activism, and the state of the world is something that has pestered me for the past few years. With my pen and ink drawings especially, I really feel like I’m a vehicle to tell other peoples’ message. I love telling stories. I love researching history, so sometimes I’m telling a story and sometimes I’m painting pretty pictures. Now I want to combine the two and do an entire wall like my pen and ink drawings.”
“25 Years of Cheers” – Pen & ink for Odell Brewing
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Artist with “Cat Sorcerer,” The Artery Patio
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Artist painting “Rollingland,” behind the Fort Collins Food Co-op
Lindee Zimmer
Werner Schreiber
Lindee has a mission to nudge artists to take their work to a professional level by fostering business skills like marketing, self-promotion, and valuation. As director of the recently founded Fort Collins Mural Project (separate from the Artery), she especially wants to facilitate public art and make space more enjoyable. In her personal work, she strives to incorporate magic and whimsy.
Werner enjoys painting on many surfaces not limited to the urban landscape; he explores on canvas, with mud painting, and in cartoons for The Independent. His unique style is a blend of expressionist, painterly, and pop art that yields everything from fantastical, charged landscapes to fanciful scenes. He is currently experimenting with multi-artist murals, such as “Music-spiel” (adjacent to Oak Street Plaza) in which he is featuring Dan Schler and Mike Safran.
Spirit animal: Moth Hunter or Gatherer: Both Time travel: India; pre-colonization Favorite Place in Fort Collins: Seaman Reservoir; the rope swing How she gets ‘the flow’: “I start by organizing my space, by making sure I have everything I need and making sure I’ve set enough time aside to get into that space—starting small and reacquainting myself with whatever material I’m working with.” On murals: “They are my favorite form of art. They are approachable and they cover space that would normally be forgotten, or just kind of cruddy. And I think anything can be beautiful with a little bit of attention. And especially in an alley, that tends to be where the biggest walls are, and on the backs of things. People forget about the backs of things.”
Spirit animal: Raven Hunter or gatherer: Both Time travel: Stay right here Favorite place in Fort Collins: Old Town On inspiration: “You are in different moods when you paint. If you were to hire me to do a mural and said ‘Werner do whatever you want’ that is my favorite, because then I am free. It [my work] changes. Over time you learn things you never really thought of. It’s kind of like you’re on the computer and you’re in a window and a new one opens up and there’s a little pass way. Just like how you deal with shadows and colors and lights. Look at [Thomas] Benton, Grant Wood, I love these guys. And visionary art; it is really inspiring” Art is everywhere: “I love this crane (visible from the alley). The design, the engineering, that is art. These bricks, this building: art. Art is everywhere. The bicycle, this stone, your haircut. People don’t realize it, everything is art.”
A passerby walks between Werner and Mike Safran’s work on “Music-spiel” – adjacent to Oak Street Plaza
“Flying into the Sunset” – Trimble Court
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AGRICULTURE
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SAVA Center:
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Providing Support to Victims of Sexual Assault By Taylor Huessner
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n the Fall of 2015, SAVA (Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center in Fort Collins) began a campaign called “It’s On Us” to raise awareness about the ways that sexual assault goes beyond the victim and perpetrator, and is an issue for which we as a society must take responsibility. With twenty one reported rape cases in Fort Collins in 2015; with one in four women, and one in seven men in Colorado experiencing sexual assualt at some point in their life; with the knowledge that less than ten percent of sexual assaults are actually reported, it is clear that both our city and our state are in need of further education surrounding sexual violence. On behalf of The Courier, Taylor Huessner sat down with Volunteer and Direct Service Coordinator Katie Abeyta at SAVA, who helped coordinate the “It’s On Us” campaign, to discuss SAVA’s services, peer mentoring programs, and how to create an open conversation between youth and adults about consent. Fort Collins Courier: How many people use SAVA, and what are some of the services provided? Katie Abeyta: Last year, we served over 700 people in the Larimer and Weld offices and reached over 5,000 youth with our programs. One of my favorite things we do at SAVA is all the prevention work—it’s very proactive to figure out the root of where problems come from.
Sart (Sexual Assualt Resource Team) Peers Program is a peer-to-peer mentoring program coordinated by Sarah James who trains high school students so they can give 90-minute presentations about sexual harassment and assault. I had the opportunity to go this last year, and it’s fun seeing the kids teach one another because they are very participatory. We have a mentor in the room in case there is a question the kids can’t answer or if someone is triggered by the information presented. With all the media that is being consumed about sexual assault, what advice would you give to parents for talking about consent with their children? We need open and honest conversations about “no means no,” and “only a yes means yes.” It’s such a big topic, but the main message is you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, and there are resources out there for parents. I know Fort Collins Police Services offers a free class on media and children to the public. We talk about media and how it influences kids; we talk about sexting versus texting, and what that looks like. A big part of it is parents opening a line of communication and making it clear they are a safe person to talk to about these things. We want to teach kids they have ownership over their bodies and they don’t have to consent to anything— someone trying to coerce them into something isn’t healthy behavior. Do you think our culture and attitude towards sexual assault has gotten better or worse?
We offer advocacy services, and individual and group therapy for what we call primary and secondary assault: secondary meaning friends, family members, partners, spouses— anyone who is close to someone who has experienced assault because we know that can have a huge affect on someone’s life. With the hotline, it’s there for whatever that person needs—if it’s 2:00 a.m. and they are thinking about something in their past or feeling triggered, that’s a valid reason to call.
That’s a hard question because it depends on who you talk to. We still see there is so much misunderstanding about sexual assault and whose responsibility it is—people are very quick to blame the victim. They like to believe if they weren’t doing x, y, or z this wouldn’t happen, and that’s just not true. There’s a lot of ignorance that came to light recently, especially with the Stanford case. People don’t understand that perpetrators can be anybody, regardless of their accomplishments.
What’s your specific role?
This is my opinion, but I think as a society, we want to blame a victim because if they follow certain steps—if she hadn’t been drinking, flirting, wearing something—it wouldn’t have happened, and that is a false sense of security we give ourselves. And, if we follow the steps, it won’t happen to us. It’s easier for people to conceptualize that than to rationalize there is someone out there who would cause the pain, or someone who would do that to another person.
Half of my job is working with the volunteers through SAVA, training and recruiting. We have prevention programming that works with youth, such as the SuperWorld Empowerment Running Program. We utilize our team and volunteer mentors to facilitate these groups where they’ll play games and activities, and incorporate conversations about healthy boundaries, relationships, and safe and unsafe touch. Then, at the end of the summer, everyone runs a 5k together. The other half is working with survivors. Rather, that is accompanying them to the hospital, to the police station, to court, assisting with paperwork and filling out protection orders. It’s important to know we accompany the survivor through it all so they don’t have to go by themselves. Can you talk to me a little bit about your other youth programs? Speak UP! is where our prevention team goes into middle schools here in Fort Collins and host weekly groups talking about healthy relationships, body image, bullying, and consent; they talk a lot about gender and gender expression as well.
When Abeyta states that there is a false sense of security created by blaming the victim, it reinforces the notion that sexual assault is generated in part through lack of awareness. It really is “On Us” to cultivate a culture that isn’t scared to address intimate and volatile issues. For more resources, visit www.savacenter. org/services, and if you’re interested in the media safety class, visit www.fcgov.com/police to learn more. Statistical and other information can be found at the following links: http://www.fcgov.com/police/crime-stats.php http://savacenter.org/its-on-us-fort-collins/ http://movingtoendsexualassault.org/information/sexual-assault-statistics/
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FOOD & DRINK
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fall 2016
Food & Drink
Photo used courtesy of Dina Fike
Striking a Balance in the Food Industry: A Service Industry Reflection By Delia LaJeunesse
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hen people walk into a restaurant, most expect a certain experience. They go out to eat to fulfill some need, be it feeding their family, holding space for a conversation, relaxing with drinks after work. What is missed by most patrons is the potential to make the server-customer interaction an egalitarian, intimate exchange. If done without conscious intent, each participant in the foodservice industry, from owner to guest, imposes upon the server a value system which alienates them from their individual humanity, and reduces a person to a working body. Serving food can be rewarding, but all too often the patron, knowingly or not, demands of the server’s body much more than a meal; it is expected to provide this sought-after experience. It is that vague and transient expectation, varying vastly by person, table, and night, that frequently strips a server of her autonomy and makes this job so tumultuous.
to examine the microcosms we exist in. Consider what presumptions and agendas you are extracting from your private life and inserting into the public sphere. Think before you speak, or act, or let your eyes linger too long. Perhaps with intention, and a small understanding of the multitudes within one life, one body, we can open ourselves to the people before us, and allow women and all servers to show up authentically in a space— not merely as functions, but as human beings.
Unique challenges are posed to the workers in the restaurant industry regardless of gender, but these challenges are particularly exacerbated when the server occupies a female-identified body. The female body is already consumed by society in a myriad of ways and here it is consumed with the weighty attachment of value—one’s livelihood. A server is expected to bend to the wills and whims of a guest—to be witty or engaging, to prove their intelligence or play the silent server, readily available. Female servers are expected to tread thin lines between modest and appetizing, efficient yet flirtatious, coy but authoritative. You cannot be too rigid or too comfortable. In an industry demanding such flexible adaptability, you are quietly asked to give your body over to the job. You are not permitted to sit down, to rest your body as you need to. You do not get fresh air. You fight through the need to go to the bathroom. You ignore thirst and you definitely don’t give in to hunger. You do not take time to recover from a particularly nasty interaction. You have a very limited right to tell a guest they are being inappropriate, that you’d rather not be touched, that, no, you don’t want their number. You are suddenly inserted into a stranger’s world where resisting the desires—or being disagreeable to the opinions—of strangers can mean an instantaneous cut to your income. Servers are expected to have a steel exterior, allowing nothing to faze them. For any server who has had a history of disordered eating—and most women I know have, at some point, had a strained relationship with food—this line of work becomes dangerous. When a person laughs and says the caloric intake of a margarita will suffice as their meal, the server is expected to smile, laugh along, agree. It would be bizarre if they didn’t. The customer is always right, as they say. We all hear these things, but people with disordered eating in their history hear it a little differently. It’s a reminder of what you “should” be doing. It serves to remind one to pay attention to every calorie consumed; it serves to normalize the image of the woman as the dainty, light eater. It’s all restriction and shrinking. This drips into your mind, until you are saturated with ideas and methods to slip into nothingness. You are constantly subjected to other’s opinions of you, whether you’re smiling enough, or bright and cheerful enough. You are told often that you are beautiful, you feel eyes tracing your body as you walk away—this will come from guests, it will come from the kitchen staff, it will come from managers, and it will come from the owners. The expectation to fulfill these imposed roles is not new to women. We are trained this way from the beginning. As it stands, we are reducing servers to a limited, forced and homogenous expression of self. To be a conscious consumer should extend beyond ideas of organic, low impact, fair trade, and local, and should move to encompass the laborers of food, from growers to harvesters, to grocers, to servers. Going out to eat can be a great time
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NATURE
fall 2016
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nature
Photo used courtesy of John Bartholow
Save the Poudre: An Update By Sam Wood
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ast year the second draft of the Northern Integrated Supply Project’s environmental impact statement (EIS) was released. Save the Poudre found the statement, which addressed the proposed Glade Reservoir, lacking. Ever since, they’ve been planning for the release of the next EIS. Among other objections, Save the Poudre claims that the 2015 statement omitted a crucial piece: the water quality analysis. Without it, Save the Poudre stresses that the EIS cannot account for the entire impact of the reservoir on the Poudre River. “[Northern Water has] announced that the next stage will be a final draft of the EIS,” said Gina Janett, Save the Poudre’s Fundraising and Events Coordinator. “Typically, that draft will not have comments.” However, due to their concerns, Save the Poudre will be given the unique opportunity to address the water quality analysis when the draft is released in 2017. In response to Save the Poudre’s reaction, Northern Water recently adapted their plan. Their new proposal still sees the same amount of water removed from the Poudre each spring, but a smaller portion will then be reintroduced back into the river throughout the year. That water will run from Ted’s Place to Mulberry Street, where it will be removed again by pipeline. Save the Poudre is not satisfied with the changes. “It will have a slight positive impact,
but it won’t help the part of the river from Mulberry to Harmony,” said Janett. “The biggest problem with this proposal is that they want to take up to 70 percent of the annual flow, [and] they will take it during the height of spring runoff. Our snowmelt is critical to the ecological health of the river. That’s what is going to kill the river. It isn’t surplus water, it’s essential water.” “While we are waiting [for the final EIS], we are raising funds for our legal defense and for the hiring of technical help,” said Janett. “When it comes out, we may only have 30 to 45 days to view it. We are going to need some consultants on board from day one.” With the help of their new team, Save the Poudre hopes to best address their concerns that the reservoir will degrade the river by reducing high spring flows. The flows help to keep the flood channel open, restore fish habitat throughout Fort Collins, and eventually sink into the ground water table, nurturing the city’s trees during dry months. Save the Poudre will be the beneficiary of an event scheduled for November 17th at the Articulate. Local boutiques will showcase men’s and women’s clothing in a fashion show. There will also be food trucks. More information will be posted on Save the Poudre’s Facebook page as the event approaches. In the meantime, those looking to get involved with Save the Poudre should check out their Facebook page. More information about how you can help and updates about the proposed reservoir are available there, and on their website, www.savethepoudre.org.
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HISTORY
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fall 2016
History
Becoming Mountain Campus By Sam Wood
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n June 16th, 2015, fifty miles west of Fort Collins under the Mummy Range, Kiowa elder John Emloolah conducted a renaming ceremony. Two months earlier, Pingree Park Campus, a part of Colorado State University, had been renamed Mountain Campus in an effort to create a space that welcomed all members of the community. By his own confession, the campus’ original namesake, George W. Pingree, was one of the most vicious participants in the Sand Creek Massacre, and the new name promised to create a more welcoming environment for everyone. The name change came in response to concerns from students and community members that the name was not as inclusive as possible. “It was one of those things where the timing felt like it was right,” said Tonie Miyamoto, Director of Communications and Sustainability for CSU’s Housing and Dining Services. The year 2015 marked Mountain Campus’ hundredth season. That same year, Warner Natural College welcomed a new dean. Those developments, in confluence with community feedback, created the perfect atmosphere for change. The national movement responds to widespread awareness that imperialism, which is often marked by violence against native peoples, should no longer be memorialized in public place names. Ty Smith, Director of the Native American Cultural Center at CSU, pointed to President Obama’s executive decision to revert Mt. McKinley to its original name, Denali, as one such example. Despite recent precedent, CSU’s process was not altogether straightforward. “It’s not like we change our name every four years so we’ve always followed the same procedures,” said Pat Rastall, Director of Mountain Campus; “it was kind of breaking new ground.” However, Rastall thinks that all the work was completely worth the result. “You could say, ‘east of the main campus, the main campus, the foothills campus, and the moun-
tain campus.’ So, it has a nice ring to it.” The new name has created a clear connection with the main campus and allowed Mountain Campus to establish its own identity not overshadowed by George Pingree. Although students have overwhelmingly supported the name change, it created some hesitation among alumni who had visited the campus when it was still called Pingree Park. Most of their hesitation stemmed from strong personal connections to the place and not to the name itself. Much of this discomfort has been alleviated by assuring alumni that the name change doesn’t detract from their wonderful past experiences. “The university has been involved [in the valley] for the past hundred years […] That is a lot of history,” said Miyamoto. “Something we were able to share with alumni [who were] sad to see the name change, is that it doesn’t impact the history of the valley itself.” The new name gives more people the opportunity to experience Mountain Campus without the constant reminder of George Pingree’s violent acts. Ty Smith and the NACC have taken groups of Native American high school students to the valley for summer STEM programs since 2012. Before the name change, Smith said that Pingree’s involvement in the Sand Creek Massacre was never deliberately discussed with the students. “Honestly,” he said, “it was troubling to me that we were up there with that name associated with the campus and that we were bringing our native youth up there.” It’s impossible to avoid Pingree’s name entirely when interacting with the valley. On Forest Service maps, the valley is still named Pingree Park. However, from Ty Smith’s perspective, the name change was a positive step. “It is refreshing to know that we can take our youth up there and that it is a learning environment. We can take them to experience the Mountain Campus and really learn.” Pictured above: John Emloolah stands before a crowd during last year’s renaming ceremony. Photos courtesy of Colorado State University.
T H E
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OUTDOORS
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