SWARTHMORE, PA — The American West will look and sound different at Swarthmore College this fall as Black cowboys, artists, filmmakers, historians and musicians take center stage in a free public series exploring a part of Western history often left outside the familiar narrative.
“Black Western Culture Through Music, Film, and Art” combines a visual-art exhibition, a documentary world premiere, a panel of leading voices on Black Western history, and a live performance accompanying a landmark 1939 Black Western. Each event is free and open to the public.
The series arrives during the nation’s 250th anniversary year and amid renewed cultural interest in Black cowboys. Its focus is both historical and contemporary, examining how the realities and mythology of the American West continue to influence how Americans understand their country.
Behind the series is Ron Tarver, Swarthmore College associate professor and chair of art, a photographer who has documented Black cowboys for more than 30 years. His work is collected in the award-winning book “The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America.”
“We all built this country,” Tarver said, “and to remind people that we were in this culture and have been for a long time is important.”
Art Connects the Historical and Contemporary West
The series begins in Swarthmore’s List Gallery with “The Black West in Color,” an exhibition running through Oct. 11.
Works by Praise Fuller, Rick Gerrity, Keith Jackson, Charles H. Lee, Ivan McClellan, Vinetta Miller and Nate Young appear alongside reproductions of historical photographs and a selection of Tarver’s prints. Together, the works are intended to create a conversation between the historical record and contemporary interpretations of Black Western life and culture.
A reception will be held Sept. 23. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
A Black Cowboy Documentary Makes Its World Premiere
The series moves to the screen Oct. 2 with the world premiere of Charles Perry’s documentary “The Black Cowboy.”
Perry will join a panel discussion following the screening with historian and author Art T. Burton; El-dog Ferrell, founder of Philadelphia’s Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club; historian, author and Vassar College film professor Mia Mask; and photojournalist Ivan McClellan, producer of Eight Seconds Rodeo. Tarver will moderate the conversation.
The following evening, Grammy Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Dom Flemons will bring another dimension to the series by performing a live soundtrack to “The Bronze Buckaroo.”
The 1939 movie was the first Western film to feature an all-Black cast. Flemons will follow the screening with a performance of his album “Black Cowboys,” combining film, music and Black Western history in a single program.
Swarthmore students will have additional opportunities connected with the series, including a music workshop with Flemons, a visit to the historic Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club and attendance at Philadelphia’s second annual 8 Seconds Rodeo.
Event Details
- What: Black Western Culture Through Music, Film, and Art
- When: “The Black West in Color” exhibition through Oct. 11, with reception Sept. 23 and gallery hours Tuesday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; “The Black Cowboy” screening and panel Oct. 2 at 5:30 p.m.; “The American Songster & The Bronze Buckaroo” performance Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
- Where: Lang Performing Arts Center, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081. The exhibition is in List Gallery; the film and musical programs are in Pearson-Hall Theatre.
- Cost/Tickets: Free and open to the public.
- More Info: https://www.swarthmore.edu/cooper-series/black-western-culture-through-music-film-and-art
The college series also connects with Tarver’s “The Long Ride Home, Black Cowboys in America” at The Print Center in Philadelphia, which runs Sept. 11 through Nov. 14. Tarver will appear there in conversation with Art Burton and Jordan Bullock on Oct. 1 at 6 p.m.
Supported by Swarthmore’s William J. Cooper Foundation, the campus programs use different art forms to approach the same larger story: Black Americans were not on the margins of Western history but participants in building the culture and communities that became part of the American West.
For visitors, that history will unfold not through a single lecture but through photographs and contemporary art, a new documentary, conversations with historians and cultural figures, and music performed alongside a nearly 90-year-old film — offering several ways to encounter a Western story that has been there all along.
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