Those who follow Humanitou on Instagram and/or Facebook know I was in Vietnam recently. It was the first international vacation my wife, Becca, and I have taken, and without our kids, in 10 years. Things have changed for us about the experience of travel but not the reasons for it. Read more…
Nineteen chickens gather around Steve Oliveri in anticipation. He pours dry food onto the ground from a white, five-gallon bucket. The work of the moment is done. Steve, 29, is a caretaker of Flying Pig Farm in Manitou Springs, along with Elsa Kendall, Barak Ben-Amots and Alex Hare. Together, they Read more…
Returning readers of Humanitou will recognize some currents that run through the conversations. The line I use to describe the site’s purpose is: “Stories of Humanness + Creativity.” In the heart of that tagline is passion, the warm-blooded energy that compels any one of us — all of us — Read more…
Spiraling down the iron stairs Kyle Frerichs installed in the center of his house, we enter a tightly organized workshop. It goes far beyond the common — peg boards holding the hand tools and a workbench with a vise mounted at the corner — to another height of possibilities. There Read more…
Layla Redding starts water to boil on the stove while we sit in her living room, awash with natural light. Art from her friends hangs on each wall. A bookcase next to the door includes books of yoga and nutrition, and a Cyndi Lauper memoir. While we talk, we sip Read more…
Dustin Booth leans back in a chair in the Manitou Art Center, something he rarely gets to do while juggling many hats as manager of the MAC. He uses the word “fortunate” often as he tells his story. He laughs and smiles. He’s easygoing. An artist with a varied background, Read more…
Peggy Dlugos takes me to a back corner of her home, to a just-right cozy and tidy work space. A pair of full-sized windows on both walls let in light, awareness of nature, and views of Garden of the Gods. “This is where I am most of the time, during Read more…
Rhonda Van Pelt has a one-of-a-kind role in Manitou Springs. As Managing Editor of the Pikes Peak Bulletin since April 2015, she’s immersed in all things news and conversation-worthy in this mountain town, population 5,000+. Having grown up in Pueblo, Rhonda moved to the Pikes Peak region in 1993. “I Read more…
Melanie Audet turns off the rock polisher her young daughters, who now are at school, like to use. “My kids love to collect rocks. They take after their mother, I guess. I don’t know. I always collected a rock from wherever I went, too.” The noise settles to silence in Read more…
I love my Humanitou work. Every conversation is an opportunity to connect with an individual creator/contributor and our community, and with something deeper. I learn. I ask questions that are of self-interest along the way, ones I think others will appreciate and apply in their lives. This is a creative, Read more…
Deborah Thornton’s imagination runs wild. The possibilities. A creative leader in Manitou Springs for 35 years, she grew up in the South. Then, she headed West. There were times she felt the tug to return to the land she loved nearly a thousand miles east. But it couldn’t overpower the Read more…
In a single-car garage on Manitou Avenue, Christine Costa carves out her career break. An architect by trade, she and her husband, Dominic Costa, a welder, moved to Manitou Springs from the Detroit area this past summer. Two motorcycles rest side by side in the garage. At the back wall Read more…
When I asked Rockey, several months ago, about a sharing a series of his insights on life, art and Manitou Springs, he liked the idea. He is a man of messages, with love at the center, and giving. “I don’t mind sharing,” Rockey said. “In fact, that’s one of my Read more…
Sophie Cowman sits quietly behind a table in her quiet shop along quiet Lovers Lane. On the days Sophie opens a window while she works, she can hear Fountain Creek in its perpetual run beneath her seat, beneath the shop’s bricks and floor boards. Sophie has been carving wood in Read more…
Kat Tudor often is described as the visionary behind SunWellness (SunWater Spa, SunMountain Center, Smokebrush Foundation). But the vision runs so much longer and deeper than these relatively new SunWellness expressions of her vision in Manitou Springs. Having moved to the Colorado Springs area in 1973 to attend Colorado College, Read more…
I’ve always said I can’t draw. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sets that limit on him/herself. And I’ve always wanted to draw. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, to feel confident identifying myself as an artist. But, like many, I’ve been fed definitions of what being Read more…
Rockey sits at his weathered wood table in his print shop. Big storefront windows on Cañon Avenue in downtown Manitou Springs give him the light and views he enjoys. Rockey, 85, is an artist, a retired art teacher, and a man treasured by countless who live in or pass through Manitou Springs. Read more…
Rockey is a retired art teacher, an artist, a man beloved in Manitou Springs. At 85, he often is found in his print shop and apartment — adjoined and both full of art — on Cañon Avenue downtown. He watches passersby and welcomes those with the curiosity to open his door. Read more…
It’s Saturday. John Posusta sits on his porch with Cooper, a 6-ish-year-old Shih-Tzu/Bichon Frise. They watch the coming-and-going of Manitou in summer. Tourists march up Ruxton Avenue. With a raised seat on his front porch, John watches them stream. On road and sidewalk. Up and down. If the passersby look Read more…
Update: Create Cafe closed in May 2018, nine months after this conversation. Yet the history, heart and craft of chef Lyn Harwell continues. So, this story lives on. An Ohio farm boy by way of New Orleans. A chef with hands in the soil that breathes life into the kitchen, Read more…