Juneteenth Rodeo

Novelist Bird (Last Dance in the Starlight) digs into the history of Black rodeo in this kinetic collection of photos she took in 1970s Texas. Capturing the “final days of a time when the sport was still rooted in the business of actual ranching,” Bird documents the “multisensory experience” of rodeos during Juneteenth celebrations in shots of pit masters smoking food, children playing, and patrons relaxing in honky-tonks. There are also photos of cowboys and cowgirls—a man posing with a lasso rope in hand; a striking action shot of a rider and his horse kicking up dust. Writing that these gatherings offered “a modicum of peace and solace in the midst of often difficult lives,” Bird recovers the legacy of the Black Americans who shaped the West, from enslaved people who “learned the art of herding on horseback from Mexican vaqueros and charros” to the Black westerners who helped to power the cattle industry (about one-quarter of all the hands on the cattle drives of the 19th century were Black, Bird points out). It’s a jubilant celebration of a fascinating corner of American history. (June)