Conference and fashion show spotlight the culture, fashion, imagery and music of the American West made by Black, Indigenous, Latine, immigrant and LGBTQ artists

Picture the icons of the American West: endless vistas, vast sky, layers of mesas stacked to the horizon, a cowboy on his horse, the whistling wind, Beyoncé.

Yes, Beyoncé. The March 2024 release of her album “Cowboy Carter” was more than just a musical pivot in a storied career. It marked a significant cultural moment that swung a spotlight on the voices, images and ideas of the American West that often have existed on the margins—the Black, Indigenous, Latine, immigrant and LGBTQ artists and creators who have long contributed to the culture, fashion, imagery and music of the American West.

These contributions will be explored during “Cowboy Carter: Reimagining the American West,” a day-long conference Thursday, Nov. 12, that was created by Robb Hernández, CU Art Museum Scholar in Residence and professor of English and director of Fashion Studies at Fordham University, with support from Hope Saska, CU Art Museum director.

“’Cowboy Carter’ offered alternative perspectives and transformed the scope of how we define and how we look at country music, cowboy archetypes and western wear,” Hernández says.

For example, in the seminar “Sounding Cowboy Carter: Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, Country Music and the Unfinished Business of Black Imaginative Freedom,” Francesca Royster, a professor of English at DePaul University and author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions,” will draw parallels between “Cowboy Carter” and other performers of color.

The aim is “really thinking about the struggles and racial gatekeeping that happened around the sound of country music,” Hernández explains.

 

Alice and Winter, 1950. Otero County, Colorado. History Colorado, Accession #: 2022.27.3.

In addition to the music and imagery of the American West, some of which is part of the CU Art Museum collection, the event also will feature its fashion, including a seminar with Jonathan Michael Square, assistant professor in Black Visual Culture at The New School, Parsons School of Design, who will focus on Beyoncé, Black freedom and equestrianism.

This will be followed by a panel discussion on “Designing the West” including Emily Boksenbaum with Underhill Leather Studio; Caroline Hafele with GEM Hats; designer and weaver Josh Tafoya; and Steve Weil, CEO of Rockmount Ranch Wear.

The event will culminate with a fashion show, co-sponsored by High Country Western Wear in Arvada, at 5 p.m. at the CU Art Museum, featuring designs by Boksenbaum, Hafele, Tafoya and Weil that will be modeled by CU Boulder students including Emma Morgan and Taylor Willingham, members of Ralphie’s Handlers.

“I couldn’t think of better place to host this conversation,” Hernández says. “I grew up in Colorado, grew up around my fair share of Garth Brooks and cowboy boots and cowboy hats at DIA; it’s been part of my Colorado cultural heritage.

“Colorado has a really important story to tell about western wear and history. The Stetson hat, though Stetson set up shop in Philadelphia, it was invented in Colorado. The pearl-snap shirt was invented by the Weil family—‘Papa’ Jack Weil founded Rockmount Ranch Wear in Denver.”

He adds that what Beyoncé did with “Cowboy Carter” was create “alternative cultural perspectives and give us the space to rethink the origins of what the American West is.”

“Cowboy Carter: Reimagining the American West” is supported by the CU Art Museum, the College of Arts and Sciences Division of Arts and Humanities, the Center for the American West, the Center for Humanities and the Arts, the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, the Department of English and Queer and Trans Studies.

Two pieces from Josh Tafoya's SS 2026 collection "Genizaro." Tafoya is one of the featured designers in the fashion show that is part of “Cowboy Carter: Reimagining the American West.” 

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