{"id":45084,"date":"2021-08-21T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-library-sheds-light-on-community-with-video-series\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:23:01","slug":"mancos-library-sheds-light-on-community-with-video-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-library-sheds-light-on-community-with-video-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos library sheds light on community with video series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=564d0323-dd29-573f-82fa-714e7e421653&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"1270\" height=\"625\" alt=\"Midge Kirk interviews business owners, artists, authors and locals embarking on adventures.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Midge Kirk interviews business owners, artists, authors and locals embarking on adventures.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Screenshot from YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Midge Kirk remembers how the Mancos Public Library was when she first started: stacks of books everywhere, and a closet that four people called an office.<\/p>\n<p>One day, a child about 5-years-old climbed over the counter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been striving to stay that way \u2013 the center of the community, ever since \u2014 she said.<\/p>\n<p>The latest in the library\u2019s community endeavors is a YouTube series featuring interviews with locals, which Kirk hosts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a lot of really interesting people here,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n<p>The interviews are split into four categories: Business in the Backyard, Life is an Adventure, authors and artists.<\/p>\n<p>The latest in the series featured Brent McWhirter, co-owner of the Columbine Bar and Grill.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W8iLV0UEJGg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The library has always hosted adult programs, but it had to find a way to adapt at the onset of the pandemic, Kirk said.<\/p>\n<p>As it has been for many others, Zoom was the solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think one of our goals during this whole insane COVID time has been to keep community connected,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been stressful for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coming up is an interview with an expert in neuromuscular reprogramming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to know what that is, you&#8217;ll have to tune in because it&#8217;s powerful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The library will also be pursuing an oral storytelling series, a dream since 1999, Kirk said.<\/p>\n<p>A resident for 22 years now, she wants people to feel as moved by the stories that come out of Mancos Valley as she is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always wanted to come out West,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to do it on a Harley. But I didn&#8217;t have a Harley \u2014 I had a Toyota and two dogs. We just took our time, came across the country, and I drove down River Canyon and tears came down my face. It&#8217;s like I could feel the ancestors. It was just something so powerful about it. And I&#8217;ve never left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An East Coast author almost took on the project of capturing the area\u2019s stories, but it wasn\u2019t meant to be \u2014 for her.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk and the library team didn\u2019t want to give up on the idea, though, and library director Lee Hallberg gave them the green light.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of us here at the library have said, \u2018Wow, that person is such a source of information for this area, let&#8217;s get that story\u2019 and then we don&#8217;t, and they pass,\u201d she said. \u201cI can think of four or five that we said that about, and rest their souls, they&#8217;re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The library is hoping to begin with stories of Mancos women who fashioned a quilt hanging in the library, each square representing an aspect of the town.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=45f7163d-0e41-502a-b42e-bb3075909665&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" alt=\"A quilt depicting different aspects of Mancos hangs in the Dolores Public Library.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A quilt depicting different aspects of Mancos hangs in the Dolores Public Library.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She hopes that one day the stories could even develop into a take-home composition in the form of a book or DVD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re going to begin it and exactly how it will unfold \u2014 it will take on a life of its own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirk interviews business owners, artists, authors and locals embarking on adventures.Screenshot from YouTube Midge Kirk remembers how the Mancos Public Library was when she first started: stacks of books everywhere, and a closet that four people called an office. One day, a child about 5-years-old climbed over the counter. \u201cThis is the heart,\u201d he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,638,167,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-library-and-museum","tag-local-news-lead","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86343,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45084\/revisions\/86343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45084"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}