The Black
Rodeo Boom
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Was Just the Spark
Episode Description
Hold on to your hats! From Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter to rising rodeo stars, Black cowboy culture is having a major moment—and we’re saddling up for a closer look. Along the way, we’ll stop to line dance to Kendrick Lamar at L.A.’s star-studded Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, clown around at the lively Arizona Black Rodeo, and chill out at the Compton Cowboys’ ranch.
Our guest, photographer Ivan McClellan, has spent nearly a decade documenting Black Western heritage and heart-pounding rodeo action. In this episode, he shares how a single rodeo changed his life, what spurred him to launch his own Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo in Portland, Oregon, and why there’s no better place to celebrate community, resilience, and unbridled joy than in the arena.
Rodeos and ranches you’ll ride into in this episode:
- Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo, Portland, Oregon
- Roy Leblanc Okmulgee Invitational Rodeo, Okmulgee, Oklahoma
- Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, cities including Denver, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California
- Arizona Black Rodeo, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Stagecoach Country Music Festival, Indio, California
- Compton Cowboys ranch, Compton, California
- Wickenburg, Arizona, the country’s team roping capital
Guest
Ivan McClellan is a photojournalist and designer whose work disrupts the American cowboy archetype and challenges myths about racial identity. A pivotal visit to the Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo in 2015 inspired him to begin photographing Black rodeos and ranches, culminating in his acclaimed 2024 photobook, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture. Through his lens, he has helped bring long-overdue recognition to a community that’s been part of the West since the beginning. His photographs have been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, ESPN, and the Guardian, and exhibited at the Portland Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and other art institutions.
In 2023, Ivan launched Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo in Portland, Oregon, the region’s first Black rodeo, where he continues to celebrate Black Western grit with serious style. When he’s not planning his next rodeo, he can be found hanging out with his wife and two kids, discussing the finer points of a perfect cowboy hat, and making Western culture more inclusive—one frame at a time.
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