Cowboy Poetry The Reunion

9781586853495

158685349X

FOREWORD Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion In 1985, when a group of folklorists and cowboy poets got together in Elko, Nevada for the first-ever "cowboy poetry gathering" they thought it would be a one-time event. Western Folklife Center Founding Director Hal Cannon had worked with state folklorists from western states and cowboy poets like Waddie Mitchell to identify active reciters and ranch poets throughout the West and bring them together in Elko. There were about forty poets, and the audience, mostly ranch families, numbered less than a thousand. Everyone, from participants to the media, loved the event, and the rest, as they say, is history. It was decided to have the event again the next year, and the next and now, amazingly, we find ourselves celebrating the 20th anniversary of what the United States Senate proclaimed "The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering" in 2000. During those twenty years the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering has grown into one of the West's premier cultural events. The Gathering sparked a grass roots renaissance in western oral literature and music, inspiring some 300 similar cowboy poetry and music events throughout the West in the past two decades.