The New Black West

Starred review from February 14, 2022
Photographer Hasbun celebrates in her evocative debut the “self-reliance, strength, and determination the cowboy” with stirring images of one historic rodeo’s Black riders. Much in the same spirit as late historian William Loren Katz’s The Black West, Hasbun commemorates the historically overlooked yet rich legacy of Black American cowboys with photos she took of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, “the nation’s only touring African American rodeo.” Readers are treated to rodeo pageantry at its finest: in one image, riders “glam up” to parade their horses at the BPIR in 2019, while a horse named Hercules dons a Louis Vuitton saddle. As Hasbun writes, “Not only are the riders inventing a new aesthetic, but they are exploring what it means to be a cowboy in contemporary America.” Equally gripping is the emotion and pride on display, as in one image of a mother-daughter team beaming with joy while spectating from the sidelines, and another of a boy from an at-risk youth mentoring program showing off his roping skills. Reflecting on riding through a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, Brianna Noble holds that “nobody can ignore a Black woman on a horse.” Echoing that powerful sentiment, this work never ceases to demand one’s attention.