June 10, 2011

McCook Community College
10:00 AM Wild West Bus Tour - The Texas and Western Trail with R.P. Smith, Jack Maddux, Jim Applegate, Gary and Margaret Kraisinger, and the Diamond W Wranglers ($19 includes lunch)
4:30 PM Western Dance Lessons at the Fox Theatre with Don Harpst and Robyn Marks ($29 includes lesson and Chuckwagon Jamboree)

*Space is limited, and pre-registration is required for both workshops.
Call 308-345-8122 or visit register.CenterForEnterprise.com to register today!

McCook Public Library
1:30 PM Librarian & Youth Workshop with Awele Makeba

Historic Fox Theatre
4:30 PM Western Dance Lessons with Robyn Marks and Don Harpst (See registration instructions above)

Keystone Business Center
6:30 PM Chuck Wagon Jamboree with Diamond W Wranglers, Awele Makeba, R.P. Smith ($30 includes meal, concert and dance) Cash Bar open at 6:00 PM
*Tickets must be purchased in advance from McCook Chamber of Commerce, Sehnert’s Bakery, or Hershberger Music

Bieroc Café
10:00 PM Ghost Stories with Awele Makeba, R.P. Smith, and local tellers. Emcee Duane Tappe.

June 11, 2011

High Plains Museum
9:00 AM Tales & Trails Community Stories led by Gary and Margaret Kraisinger
10:00 AM Storytelling with Awele Makeba
11:00 AM Cowboy Tune Time with Diamond W Wranglers

Methodist Church
10:30 AM Spiritual Stories with R.P.Smith (Sponsored by McCook Ministerial Association)

Bieroc Café
12:30 PM Community Stories & Open Mic with Walt Sehnert and Mary Ellen Goodenberger
1:30 PMMusic, poetry, and stories with McCook's Trail Blazers

Norris House
1:30 PM Tea with Senator George Norris

Norris Park
1:30 PM Kids Fest (ADK and Southwest Nebraska Reading Council)
2:30 PM Awele Makeba
3:00 PM Band Stand Show with local music talent & open mic stories

Historic Fox Theatre
7:30 PM “Happy Tales to You” with Emcee Cal Siegfried, Diamond W Wranglers, Awele Makeba, R.P. Smith
(Tickets $10; $5 students. May be purchased in advance from McCook Chamber of Commerce, Sehnert’s Bakery, Hershberger Music or at the door if available)

Awele Makeba

Awele (ah WAY lay) has mesmerized audiences around the world including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria; the Suriname rainforest; and Tsinchu Teacher's College in Taiwan. She is an award winning and internationally known storyteller, recording artist and educator. She paints pictures with words, breathes life into characters, teaches, and inspires through the power of story--personal tales, history, folklore and children's literature. Makeba who has made it her life's work to tell history through the words of its oft-forgotten witnesses, wrote two one-woman shows, Rage Is Not A 1-Day Thing! and I'm Not Getting Up Until Jim Crow Gets Off, in which Makeba tells the story of the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott through the eyes of four women, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, Rosa Parks and JoAnn Robinson. Her award winning CDs include: Tell That Tale Again, Trailblazers: African Americans in the California Gold Rush,This Land Is Your Land (Music for Little People)and The Undiscovered Explorer: Imagining York (OPB). Film credits include Supervisor Ella Hill Hutch in the Oscar award winning film, MILK directed by Gus Van Sant starring Sean Penn. Ms. Makeba's most recent stage appearences include the Omaha Storytelling Camp and the Vienna, Austria Storytelling Festival 2010.

R.P. Smith

R.P. Smith is the fourth generation to raise cattle on the Pine Crest Ranch in Custer County NE. Pine Crest Ranch marked its centennial in 2006, R.P. Says that it still isn’t a real big place, he just comes from a long line of stubborn and persistent people. The commentary and poetry that R.P. shares are a by-product of the beef industry, and have been processed by reciting for ruminates, relatives, and ranchers. R.P.'s material is inspired by his family and what's going on at the ranch, giving his work an authenticity and down-to-earth quality that strikes a familiar chord with his audiences, regardless of their occupation. He has found that humor and a firm faith that God is in control are mighty important tools to have when life takes an unexpected turn.

Diamond W Wranglers

One of the finest Western Music groups in the country makes their home in Kansas. The Diamond W Wranglers (formerly the Prairie Rose Wranglers) have taken their brand across the globe. The music they perform is a combination of traditional Western music that pays homage to Western greats like the Sons of the Pioneers and their own Western originals. The Wranglers love western movie themes, and turning modern country songs into haunting cowboy ballads. They can sing Cowboy songs in Chinese, and even claim "doo wop" is a part of our Western heritage!

The Kraisingers

Wild West historians and authors of the book The Western, The Greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1886, the Kraisingers relish in tales and true accounts about cowboys, cattle, saloons, and watering holes on the trail north as related by cowboys and homesteaders.

The next BCSF will be

June 10-11, 2011

Get your tickets today!

Past Festivals

BCSF 2009
BCSF 2010