In our last series, While You Were Sleeping, we invited you to think about this historic election year and the relationship between your sense of community and sense of civic responsibility. For this series, Wild Wilde West, we invite you to turn this idea on its head and think about those moments when you work to keep your private persona sacred, while our culture makes ever greater demands on our privacy.
Think also about how the city of Denver and the American West does or doesn't provide the space for you to protect your private face. Social outlaws and criminal outlaws have always found a mythic place in the tales and truths of the West. We celebrate this Thinkology with several special events listed below and our Stories That Could Be True discussion about Oscar Wilde’s long letter of apology, De Profundis, written from prison. Though he suffered under English law, his story underscores the differences between civilized society and its sometimes cruel legalities and uncivilized territories where the tenet of "live and let live"
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American Girls Playing Cowboys
Saturday, April 26, 2 - 4 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center
Focusing primarily on Calamity Jane and Willa Cather, Geoffrey Bateman's talk will focus on the gendered cultural imaginary of the American West and how our cultural fantasies about this region afford women a degree of independence or allow them to defy conventional gender roles. Starting with an examination of the most recent manifestation of Calamity Jane in HBO's Deadwood, this talk will discuss how cross-dressing grants women a degree of authority in a world comprised mostly of and dominated by men, as well as opening up the possibility of same-sex desire. (We will also detour briefly into the history of prostitution in the West, for there is compelling historical research that shows how some women gained a degree of economic independence as madams in this region.) And as the life and fiction of Willa Cather shows, identifying with the opposite gender and the Western landscape offered one woman writer a way to gain a literary foothold in the early twentieth century. Using these strategies, Cather expressed her own gendered critique of American culture and situated queer desire at the heart of her literary work.
Geoffrey Bateman teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Denver, where he specializes in courses on service-learning, civic rhetoric, and the public good. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in English at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His dissertation, "The Queer Frontier: Re-Imagining Desire in the American West, 1870-1930," examines sexuality in a number of literary and historical texts by writers like Bret Harte, Horatio Alger, Jr., María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Willa Cather. He is the co-editor of Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Debating the Gay Ban in the Military (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and author of numerous book reviews for the Rocky Mountain News.
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Scoundrels & Scallywags
Monday, April 28, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center
Join Colorado history professor, Tom "Dr. Colorado"
Noel for this showing of the Rocky Mountain PBS documentary Scoundrels and Scallywags. The Rocky Mountains have always been a haven for those looking for riches, some by hard work, others by trickery. Con artist Soapy Smith became a legend in his own time. Other confidence men like Orth Stein, Solid Muldoon, James Monroe Pattee and Brick Pomeroy hoodwinked hundreds, even thousands. This documentary features reenactments, artifacts and historical photographs. |
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The Second Mrs. Tabor: Floozy or Folk Heroine? - Registration Required
Saturday, May 10, 2:30 - 4 p.m.
Colorado Historical Society, 1300 Broadway, Denver
When voluptuous Elizabeth McCourt Doe set her cap for Colorado's already married silver king, Horace Tabor, she was called many things besides "Baby" – floozy, painted hussy, home wrecker and gold digger. But her steadfast devotion to Horace after his fortune collapsed surprised the Denver gossips. Today, some see her subsequent dedication to his memory and to reviving the Matchless Mine as the stuff of true but tragic romance. Decide for yourself when Baby Doe Tabor returns from the grave to tell her side of Colorado history's most famous soap opera. Even those well acquainted with the Tabor triangle tale may come away with a new perspective. Seating is limited; registration is required. Please register online or call 720-865-1206. For more info about the Colorado Historical Society go to coloradohistory.org. |
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The Buffalo Bill Nobody Knows
Sunday, May 11, 3 - 4 p.m.
Central Library, Level 5 Gates Conference Room
Author and history professor Robert E. Bonner explores one of Colorado's most favored citizens, celebrated showman of the Old West, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Bonner will discuss how (and why) Cody took on the role of western land developer and town promoter. Drawing from his recently published book, William F. Cody's Wyoming Empire: The Buffalo Bill Nobody Knows, Bonner demonstrates that the skills Cody acquired from decades in show business failed to prepare him for the demanding arena of business and finance. Bonner presents a much needed look at an overly mythologized character. There was more to William F. Cody than the Wild West show–and we cannot construct a full picture of the man without understanding his entrepreneurial activities in Wyoming. |
