Western Folklife Center
Revisiting Elko 20-some years ago, I remember half-a-dozen books on a folding table in the middle of the Convention Center during the poetry gathering while Jeremiah Watt and a few other gearmakers hawked bits, macates and bosals between sessions. It was a tentative beginning to what has become home to the rebirth of a contemporary Western culture, magical times for many of us isolated on scattered ranches to find that we were not forgotten or alone.
For horse and cattle families, Elko became the place to connect with stories, poetry and song, a place to share experiences. And not surprisingly, the foundation of traditional poetry and classic cowboy songs has spawned a wide variety of contemporary art and expression that now fills two bookstores during the Gathering and offers unique exhibits at the Wiegand Gallery and the Northeastern Nevada Museum, as well as stage plays at the Great Basin College. As if suppressed for a generation, this evolution has rekindled interest beyond the cowboy West to connect with other livestock cultures, drawing people to Elko from the world over.
Ours is a hands-on culture that celebrates experience, vast landscapes and communities within which an ethic of dependability and accountability leaves no one anonymous, a cooperative culture that can overlook foibles and eccentricities as long as a contribution to the whole can be maintained – a place for character, and characters, to flourish.
Considering the times, I can think of no other place that engenders the art and ethic of this lifestyle, no other place that celebrates the creative expression from such common roots. I’ve been wracking my brain for projects to benefit the Western Folklife Center, but most of my ideas will cost as much as they’ll generate. Now is the time for even the smallest donation, the WFC needs our help.