National Cowboy Poetry Gathering | |
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Date(s) | 1985 |
Location(s) | Nevada |
Country | United States |
Founder | Sarah Sweetwater and her friends started the Folklife Festival in the Elko park in the 1970s. She wanted to keep cowboy culture alive by recording cowboy poets and when the event began to grow, she hired Hal Cannon to help with the business and marketing. |
The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering (formerly: Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering), [1] is an annual gathering celebrating cowboy poetry produced by the Western Folklife Center, that takes place in Elko, Nevada, United States.
William Wilson secured funding for the event from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1985. [2] Organized by a team of folklorists and local cowboy poets including Hal Cannon and Waddie Mitchell, the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering started in 1985 as a place where Western ranchers and cowboys could gather to share poems about their lives working cattle. From the beginning, it was clear these men and women had found their tribe, an artistic community that few knew existed. Three decades later, the tribe is now a nation of Western poets, musicians, artisans and storytellers, sharing their creativity across the country, telling their stories of hard work, heartbreak and hilarity, and what it means to make your way in the rangeland West. The Elko Gathering was renamed the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering thanks to an act of Congress in 1980. Known simply as Elko to many, the Gathering embraces its role as a pilgrimage destination for thousands of ranch folk and others who love the West and come to learn and experience art that grows from a connection to the rhythms of earth and sky. The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is six days of poetry, music, dancing, workshops, exhibits, conversations, food and fellowship, rooted in tradition but focused on today's rural West [3] The inaugural year featured 40 poets, and an audience of less than 1,000. [4] [5] At the 25th anniversary gathering in 2009, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the keynote speaker. [6] Other well known speakers who have given the keynote address include Temple Grandin, Stuart Udall and Barry Corbin. The invited artist participants list is long, and has included Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, Joel Nelson, Wallace McRae, Riders in the Sky, Georgie Sicking, Dalton Wilcox, Ian Tyson, and Baxter Black. [7]
The Elko Gathering led the way: among many other Gatherings across the nation, the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, held in 1987 at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, followed the original event in Elko. Alvin G. Davis, who attended the exposition in Alpine as a cowboy poet, launched a comparable group in Lubbock with the formation in 1989 of the American Cowboy Culture Association, which co-sponsors an annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration held annually on the Thursday through Sunday after Labor Day. [8]
Elko is the largest city in and county seat of Elko County, Nevada, United States. With a 2020 population of 20,564, Elko is currently growing at a rate of 0.31% annually and its population has increased by 11.86% since the 2010 Census, which recorded a population of 18,297. Elko serves as the economic hub of the Ruby Valley, a region with a population of over 55,000. Elko is 21 miles (34 km) from Lamoille Canyon and the Ruby Mountains, dubbed the Swiss Alps of Nevada, providing year round access to recreation including hiking, skiing, hunting, and more than 20 alpine lakes. The city straddles the Humboldt River. Spring Creek, Nevada, serves as a bedroom community 6 miles (9.7 km) from the city with a population of 13,805.
Cowboy poetry is a form of poetry that grew from a tradition of cowboys telling stories.
Jiggs is an unincorporated community in Elko County, Nevada, United States, in the Mound Valley at the south end of State Route 228. It contains a very small school.
Russell "Red" Steagall is an American actor, musician, poet, and stage performer, who focuses on American Western and country music genres.
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Wallace D. "Wally" McRae is an American rancher, cowboy, cowboy poet and philosopher. He runs the 30,000-acre (120 km2) Rocker Six Cattle Co. ranch on Rosebud Creek, south of Rosebud, Montana.
R. W. Hampton is an American western music singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. Hampton has achieved both critical and commercial success, winning multiple awards from the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists and four separate Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Joel Nelson is a cowboy poet.
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Bruce Douglas "Waddie" Mitchell is an American cowboy poet. He sometimes performs his poems with a guitarist playing in the background. Mitchell has made eight CDs including That No Quit Attitude, Lone Drifting Rider and his most recent, Sweat Equity.He and cowboy singer and friend Don Edwards released The Bard and the Balladeer Live From Cowtown. Mitchell has written four books, Waddie's Whole Load, A Cowboy's Night Before Christmas, Lone Driftin' Rider and a 2015 compilation One Hundred Poems. He was chosen to write a poem describing the West for the 2002 Winter Olympics' Olympic Arts Festival. He is a co-founder of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Paul Zarzyski is a cowboy poet and educator. He is a former bareback bronc rider.
The Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, is an organization that honors individuals who have preserved and perpetuated the heritage of the American cowboy, through rodeo, music, poetry, campfire and chuckwagon cooking, and western and ranch clothing and gear.
Huntington is a ghost town in Elko County, Nevada, United States.
Buck Ramsey, born Kenneth Melvin Ramsey, was an American cowboy poet and singer. He earned a national reputation for preserving cowboy lore and traditions.
William Albert "Bert" Wilson was a scholar of Mormon folklore. The "father of Mormon folklore" helped found and organize folklore archives at both Utah State University (USU) and Brigham Young University (BYU). He directed the folklore archive at USU from 1978 to 1985, and chaired the English department at BYU from 1985 to 1991. He and his students collected jokes, legends, stories, songs, and other information to add to the Mormon folklore archives.
Andy Wilkinson is an American singer-songwriter who writes cowboy poetry. He was the keynote speaker at the 33rd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
The Western Folklife Center is a nonprofit cultural center in Elko, Nevada that hosts exhibits, theater, music, and poetry events that celebrate the history and landscape of the American West. Every year the center hosts the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Olivia Romo is an American poet, spoken word artist, and water rights activist from Taos, New Mexico. Her work centers on the cultural significance of water within Northern New Mexico's agricultural communities, particularly focusing on the acequia irrigation system. Romo's upbringing in a family that valued land, culture, and history deeply influenced her creative journey. With a dual degree in English and Chicana and Chicano Studies from the University of New Mexico, she is well-equipped to blend her artistic expression with social advocacy.