Cowboy poetry festival in Elko, Nevada – January 26-31, 2015

January 21, 2015

Poster for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, January 26-31, 2015

Poster for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, January 26-31, 2015

Probably won’t be a red carpet, but frankly, I’d rather the bottom-feeder TV entertainment news programs would interview cowboys coming in from the dusty trail to recite their saddle-born poetry than interview women in ugly gowns at some Hollywood awards show.

I’d watch to hear the cowboys recite in verse.  Cowboy poetry is probably one of the best-attended entertainment events in heaven, I figure.

Some year I’m going to make it to this festival.  Alas, not this year.

You?

Press release from Western Folklife Center:

 

31st National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Begins January 26

(ELKO, NV)— The 31st National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is January 26-31, in Elko, Nevada. The Elko Gathering is the nation’s oldest and largest annual celebration of the cultural traditions of the ranching and rural West. Every year, thousands travel to this high desert town in the heart of winter, to listen, learn and share. Through poetry, music and stories, ranch people express the beauty, humor, creativity and challenges of a life deeply connected to the earth and its bounty.

At the 31st Gathering, more than 55 poets, musicians and musical groups from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Mexico will perform on seven stages at four different venues. The line-up includes poets Baxter Black, Jerry Brooks, John Dofflemyer, Linda M. Hasselstrom, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Wally McRae, Waddie Mitchell and Paul Zarzyski. Musicians and bands include Gretchen Peters, Tom Russell, Ian Tyson, The Western Flyers, Wylie & The Wild West, Eli Barsi, Cowboy Celtic, Don Edwards, Corb Lund & The Hurtin’ Albertans, Gary McMahan and many more! The Gathering also features hands-on workshops in traditional western arts, exhibitions, western dances, films, discussions, open-mic sessions and more. Tickets to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering can be purchased at http://www.westernfolklife.org, or by calling 888-880-5885.

The 31st National Cowboy Poetry Gathering will also celebrate a little-known corner of Mexico—Baja California Sur—and its rich ranchero culture. The Gathering will welcome Baja’s vaqueros, who will share with their American cowboy counterparts the traditional acoustic music, ranch cuisine, local art and craftwork, traditional lore and humor of their Californio roots. For nearly 300 years, ranching families have carved out an existence in the rugged, arid environment of the sierra of the lower California (Baja) peninsula. These ranching families are the direct descendents of Spanish missionary soldiers, and continue to maintain their horseback traditions, using riding equipment patterned after the horse gear of their Spanish ancestors. They are a living link between Spain and the American buckaroo.

The 31st National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is produced by the Western Folklife Center and supported by NV Energy, Newmont Mining Corporation, Barrick Gold of North America, Nevada Humanities, Nevada Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Elko Convention and Visitors Authority, the City of Elko and many more foundations, businesses and individuals.

The Western Folklife Center is dedicated to exploring, presenting and preserving the diverse and dynamic cultural heritage of the American West.

31st National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Poets and Musicians

  • Eli Barsi, Moosomin, Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Mike Beck, Monterey, CA
  • Baxter Black, Benson, AZ
  • Dave Bourne, Agoura Hills, CA
  • Jerry Brooks, Sevier, UT
  • Cowboy Celtic, Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada
  • John Dofflemyer, Lemon Cove, CA
  • Elizabeth Ebert, Lemmon, SD
  • Don Edwards, Hico, TX
  • Thatch Elmer, Bear River, WY
  • Dick Gibford, New Cuyuma, CA
  • DW Groethe, Bainville, MT
  • Kenny Hall, Tropic, UT
  • Linda M. Hasselstrom, Hermosa, SD
  • Chuck Hawthorne, Manor, TX
  • Andy Hedges, Lubbock, TX
  • Carol Heuchan, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
  • Brenn Hill, Hooper, UT
  • Yvonne Hollenbeck, Clearfield, SD
  • Ross Knox, Midpines, CA
  • Corb Lund & The Hurtin’ Albertans, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  • Deanna Dickinson McCall, Timberon, NM
  • Gary McMahan, Bellvue, CO
  • Wally McRae, Forsyth, MT
  • Doc Mehl, Westminster, CO
  • Augie Meyers, San Antonio, TX
  • Chuck Milner, Reydon, OK
  • Waddie Mitchell, Twin Bridges, NV
  • Andy Nelson, Pinedale, WY
  • Joel Nelson, Alpine, TX
  • Rodney Nelson, Almont, ND
  • Wayne Nelson, American Falls, ID
  • Kay Kelley Nowell, Alpine, TX
  • Glenn Ohrlin, Mountain View, AR
  • Sharon Salisbury O’Toole, Savery, WY
  • Ed Peekeekoot, Crofton, British Columbia, Canada
  • Gretchen Peters & Barry Walsh, Nashville, TN
  • Shadd Piehl, Mandan, ND
  • Vess Quinlan, San Acacio, CO
  • Henry Real Bird, Garryowen, MT
  • Brigid Reedy, Boulder, MT
  • Pat Richardson, Merced, CA
  • Randy Rieman, Dillon, MT
  • Kent Rollins, Hollis, OK
  • Tom Russell, Canutillo, TX
  • Sandy Seaton Sallee, Emigrant, MT
  • Georgie Sicking, Kaycee, WY
  • Sourdough Slim & Robert Armstrong, Paradise, CA
  • Gail Steiger, Prescott, AZ
  • Caitlyn Taussig, Kremmling, CO
  • Charis Thorsell, Burbank, OH
  • Ian Tyson, Longview, Alberta, Canada
  • The Western Flyers, Burleson, TX
  • Wylie & The Wild West, Conrad, MT
  • Paul Zarzyski, Great Falls, MT
Western Folklife Center • 501 Railroad Street • Elko, Nevada • 89801 • 775.738.7508
dminter@westernfolklife.org
www.westernfolklife.org

San Antonio is probably the biggest city represented on that list of performers; most of the others in Texas and Utah (the ones I know best) are small towns, tiny towns.  No tuxedoes or Dior gowns there, I’ll bet.

Wouldn’t it be great if the entire event were streamed, and broadcast, and available on DVD?

Not this year. Western Folklife Center explained on Facebook:

Unfortunately, we will not have a live broadcast of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering this year. Funding we were hoping to receive did not come through. However, we will be documenting the Gathering in other ways this year, by filming in the G Three Bar Theater and throughout the event. Stay tuned to our website, Facebook page and YouTube channel to see videos of this year’s Gathering as well as all the great videos of past events. We will also be posting lots of great photographs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

You know, if Entertainment Tonight doesn’t have a full crew there in Elko, the world will be much the poorer for it.

More:

One of my all-time favorite poems, “Reincarnation,” performed by its author, Wallace McRae.

National Heritage Fellow Wallace McRae performs his classic poem “Reincarnation” with friend and fellow Montana poet Paul Zarzyski at the 25th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. (15,083)

Leave a Comment » | Art, History, Poetry, Travel | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Ravitch cites Yohuru Williams: Why education privatization is not what Dr. King wanted

January 21, 2015

I can’t improve on this with explanation, really, so I’ll just quote completely the post from Diane Ravitch at her blog.  Ravitch wrote:

Yohuru Williams, professor of history at Fairfield University, has written a brilliant and powerful piece about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the current effort to privatize large sectors of public education, especially in urban districts.

He scoffs at the idea that turning public schools over to private management is “the civil rights issue of our time,” as so many “reformers” say. He cites a number of statements by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that claim the mantle of civil rights for policies that actually exacerbate segregation.

He cites Dr. King at length to show that he would  not have supported the use of standardized testing as a means of “reform.”

Dr. Williams writes:

Dr. Yohuru R. Williams, Professor of History, Fairfield University

Dr. Yohuru R. Williams, Professor of History, Fairfield University

“We must remember,” King warned, “that intelligence is not enough . . . Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” He asserted, “The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”

King saw the goal of education as more than performance on high-stakes tests or the acquisition of job skills or career competencies. He saw it as the cornerstone of free thought and the use of knowledge in the public interest. For King, the lofty goal of education was not just to make a living but also to make the world a better place by using that production of knowledge for good. “To save man from the morass of propaganda,” King opined, “is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” The notion that privatization can foster equality is fiction.

Dr. King understood the dangers of privatization, writes Dr. Williams:

King saw how school privatization was used to maintain segregation in Georgia. He witnessed the insidious efforts of Eugene Talmadge’s son, Herman, a distinguished lawyer, who succeeded his father in the governor’s office. Herman Talmadge created what became known as the “private-school plan.” In 1953, before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Talmadge proposed an amendment to the Georgia Constitution to empower the general assembly to privatize the state’s public education system. “We can maintain separate schools regardless of the US Supreme Court,” Talmadge advised his colleagues, “by reverting to a private system, subsidizing the child rather than the political subdivision.” The plan was simple. If the Supreme Court decided, as it eventually did in Brown, to mandate desegregation, the state would close the schools and issue vouchers to allowing students to enroll in segregated private schools.

What we are seeing in the name of “reform” today is the same plan with slight modifications: brand schools as low-performing factories of failure, encourage privatization, and leave the vast majority of students in underfunded, highly stigmatized public schools.

This effort will create an America that looks more like the 1967 Kerner Commission’s forecast, two societies separate and unequal, than Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community.

Dr. Williams says that the corporate education reform movement is the opposite of what Dr. King sought:

For King, the Beloved Community was a global vision of human cooperation and understanding where all peoples could share in the abundant resources of the planet. He believed that universal standards of human decency could be used to challenge the existence of poverty, famine, and economic displacement in all of its forms. A celebration of achievement and an appreciation of fraternity would blot out racism, discrimination, and distinctions of any kind that sought to divide rather than elevate people—no matter what race, religion, or test score. The Beloved Community promoted international cooperation over competition. The goal of education should be not to measure our progress against the world but to harness our combined intelligence to triumph over the great social, scientific, humanistic, and environmental issues of our time.

While it seeks to claim the mantle of the movement and Dr. King’s legacy, corporate education reform is rooted in fear, fired by competition and driven by division. It seeks to undermine community rather than build it and, for this reason, it is the ultimate betrayal of the goals and values of the movement.

Real triumph over educational inequalities can only come from a deeper investment in our schools and communities and a true commitment to tackling poverty, segregation, and issues affecting students with special needs and bilingual education. The Beloved Community is to be found not in the segregated citadels of private schools but in a well-funded system of public education, free and open to all—affirming our commitment to democracy and justice and our commitment to the dignity and worth of our greatest resource, our youth.

When President Obama talks about “the long haul,” part of that involves increasing the investment in our public schools.  Are we up for that?

Be sure to check Dr. Ravitch’s blog for comments — she gets more readership than I.  But feel free to comment here!

Dr. Diane Ravitch. Photo by Ed Darrell

Dr. Diane Ravitch. Photo by Ed Darrell

More:

Leave a Comment » | Charter schools, Education, Education blogs, Martin Luther King | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

%d bloggers like this: