‘The Black Land’ at Contemporary elevates Black cowboy tradition

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OKLAHOMA CITY – There are few figures, photographs, or areas of iconography extra instantly “American” than the nice ol’ nation cowboy, the Stetson-and-denim-covered image of Americana wrangling a steer, racing a horse, or simply working the land.

And but, for too lengthy there’s been one thing notably lacking from that iconography, a component that’s been as a lot part of all of it from the start as the garments, the cows, and the nation itself:

The Black group and the African-American legacy of the Black cowboy.

With Black-led nation music lastly receiving respect and mainstream play by means of artists like Saboozey and The War & Treaty, organizations like The Black Opry, and most notbly, Beyonce’s mammoth “Cowboy Carter,” and with trend and modeling campaigns co-opting the Black cowboy aesthetic, America is lastly starting to catch on.

But younger Oklahoman photographer Jakian Parks has already been documenting the world of Black equestrianism and African-American rodeo tradition by means of his lens for years, and Oklahoma Contemporary’s “The Black Land” – Parks’ first-ever solo exhibition of pictures works – provides viewers a glimpse into the group’s sprit and multi-generational energy in Oklahoma.

“I discovered that I really wanted to document the Black experience in Oklahoma, and that led me to rodeo,” Parks informed a media gathering forward of the exhibition’s public opening on November 6^th alongside shut collaborator and head curator of “The Black Land,” Chloe Flowers. “It was like a whole lifestyle that had been hidden.”

Parks’ family has truly had ties to the world of Black rodeo by means of his aunt, and after her passing 2019, he discovered himself drawn towards the tradition and group of the game and the life-style round it as soon as once more.

“The Black Land” represents a doc of his time spent assembly, connecting, and rising with the figures and households of Black equestrian tradition in Oklahoma, faraway from the mass media trend and pop cultural aesthetics of the previous yr.

“It was important to highlight and to create a platform for Black equestrianism, which is very strong in Oklahoma City,” Flowers informed the media occasion, “And so we just had to really start interviewing people, going to their houses, sitting in their living rooms. And he really wanted to speak to people who were in their 70s and in their 80s so that he could get firsthand stories about the past and how our Black cowboy history began.”

That reverence for the deep, wealthy historical past of the Black group in rodeo and cowboy tradition – a historical past that stretches again to the earliest origins of American equestrian sports activities – will get way more than only a nod in Parks’ pictures.

His framing, his strategy, and even his determination to {photograph} these rugged, deeply human moments by means of the grit and custom of actual movie all really feel evocative of the basic western pictures of the late-1800s or the Dust Bowl, inserting his pictures naturally into that historical past the place Black illustration was so lengthy ignored.

That feeling of reclamation and of proudly declaring the Black group’s place on this historical past comes by means of in almost each {photograph} within the exhibition, however maybe by no means extra so than in “Star Spangled Ebony,” that includes Bob Johnson of OKC’s Eastside Round-Up Club holding Old Glory aloft, adorned in American flag apparel.

The similar dignity and power is projected within the black-and-white “Grandma’s House,” a shirtless cowboy in white hat and chaps sitting expressionless in a characteristically “western” home in a scene that would simply as simply be 200 years-old.

But whereas that air of reverence and historical past is ever-present, “The Black Land” presents simply as a lot straightforward consolation and on a regular basis life.

A pair of lush, outside pictures showcases a few slice-of-life moments on the fashionable vary, projecting calm and the rooted bonds of friendship, and the placing “Adoration” incorporates a younger boy demonstrating whole consolation and connection in an embrace with a totally grown horse, the animal’s overwhelming energy inflicting no concern.

But maybe no different piece within the present captures the true cultural depth of historical past and pure ease of the Black rodeo group greater than the large, wall-printed “8 Seconds,” a deceptively easy shot of a boy working towards bull-riding in pajama pants and socks, no apprehensive concern or worldly exclusion to be discovered.

It’s the sort of photograph, like so many in “The Black Land,” that locations these on a regular basis Oklahomans and the agricultural realities and rodeo-riding rituals of their day by day lives – captured right here in exact and time-honored approach – so firmly and appropriately among the many too-long exclusionary pages of historical past.

“It’s definitely ‘Old West,’” Parks informed OKC Free Press following the media presentation. “I love history, and I try to twirl this logic of history and to make these look like historical photos with that old vintage look. Even though a lot of these were taken in 2025, I’m also trying to tell history through all of this.”

Jakian Parks’ “The Black Land: Rituals and Rejoicing” is on show on the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center now by means of June 1^st, 2026.

For extra data, go to oklahomacontemporary.org.

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