Celebrating Black Cowboy Culture

Our guest today is a best-selling author of more than a dozen novels and essay collections. Acclaimed writer Sarah Bird is an NPR Moth storyteller, a winner of the Meryl Streep screenwriting competition, a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, a finalist for the Dublin International Literary Award, and the hologram greeter for the Austin Central Library near the University of Texas campus. Her latest book, Juneteenth Rodeo, is a homage to the Black cowboy because 1/4 of all early Texas ranch hands and bronco busters were enslaved or direct descendants of enslaved Americans. Host Melvin E. Edwards is, himself, a direct descendant of several of those cowboys, and because of that, he is one of the rare Black members of the Sons of the Republic of Texas. Today's episode is part literacy and part acknowledgment of a forgotten past. Saddle up and join Melvin E. Edwards and his fascinating conversation with award-winning author Sarah Bird.

If you would like to support this podcast, please click on the PayPal link to make a donation today. Any amount is the perfect amount!

Thanks!