Old Bossy roamed the meadow fair. Old Roan stomped the saddle bare and in the sty the cowboy glared while Grandpa sat his rockin chair and laughter split the frosty air.
Okay, Okay I’m not a great poet and you now know it. However, April is National Library Week and National Poetry Month and low and behold, it also celebrates Cowboy Poetry week. Cowboy Poetry Week is celebrated each April in the U.S. and Canada. Cowboy poetry is a form of poetry which grew out of tall tales and folk songs delivered around a campfire after a long day’s work. It is still being recited today and includes the western lifestyle, many humorous anecdotes, and the tales of ranch work and those who live it.
Wedsworth Library is proud to introduce local folklorist and cowboy poet, Lance DuBois, a fifth generation Montanan. Lance DuBois, is a knife-maker, western sculptor, painter, cowboy poet, and fifth generation Montanan and all around good guy! He was born in Great Falls, Montana, and he attended college at MSU, where he received a BA in Fine Arts. Lance currently resides on the Sun River, in the Great Falls area. Previous to the Cascade area, Lance lived in the Dearborn area on the old Gary Cooper Ranch and in Bozeman where he worked as a welder and metal chasier in the bronze foundry business. Lance’s poetry is focused “around his experiences growing up in Montana, its cowboy lifestyle and depicts the legends, humor and romance of the west.”
Wedsworth Library will be observing National Library Week April 23-29, 2023. This year’s theme is “There’s More to the Story.” Libraries are full of stories in a variety of formats from picture books to large print, audiobooks to eBooks, and more. But there’s so much more to the story. National Library Week reminds all Americans that libraries are always transforming to help you and your family discover a new and exciting world at the library, which can make a better life for you and the community.
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. In the mid-1950s, research showed that Americans were spending less on books and more on radios, televisions and musical instruments. Concerned that Americans were reading less, the ALA and the American Book Publishers formed a nonprofit citizen’s organization called the National Book Committee. The committee’s goals ranged from “encouraging people to read in their increasing leisure time” to “improving incomes and health” and “developing strong and happy family life.” National Library Week is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use.
Lance DuBois will help Wedsworth Library celebrate National Library Week with a meet and greet on Tuesday, April 25th at 6:00 p.m. in the library’s meeting room. The fabulous Women’s Club will be providing all those delicious treats we enjoy at our Author Meet & Greets. Come and meet a delightful talented conversationalist and listen to all the wonderful cowboy tales Lance has to offer.