27 September 2007

CCE/HRI HERITAGE LECTURE SERIES: Ken Mitchell (27 September)

Ken Mitchell

“Cowboy Poetry of The Canadian West”

Date: Thursday 27 September 2007

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Darke Hall, College Avenue

Cowboy poetry is a kind of campfire story-telling that first appeared around 1870, and has become a modern cultural phenomenon in recent years, with hundreds of gatherings, rodeos and festivals in western North America devoted to its charm.  Ken Mitchell will talk about and give a demonstration of this folk art.

Ken Mitchell is a writer, playwright, actor and poet, who retired as Professor of English at the University of Regina in 2005. He grew up on a cattle ranch near Moose Jaw.  In 1999, he was awarded the Order of Canada for his promotion of Canadian literature around the world.  He has taught at universities in the US, Germany, China, Cuba and Scotland, and has published over 30 books of fiction, history, poetry and drama. His most recent publication (2007) is Rhyming Wranglers, Cowboy Poets of the Canadian West (Frontenac House, Calgary), and he is currently touring theatres and festivals with a mini-musical, No Ordinary Cowboy, a show about Saskatchewan’s legendary horseman, Bill Gomersall.

This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Continuing Education and the HRI