For the first time ever, Black Western athletes took center stage at the Portland Expo Center on Saturday, as the Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo brought an evening full of buckin’ broncos, rip-roaring barrel racing and junior roping lessons to more than 2,500 rodeo enthusiasts.
The sold-out competition featured more than 40 athletes from across the United States competing for more than $60,000 and celebrated the often-overlooked cultural heritage of Black cowboys and cowgirls.
Founder and Portland-based photographer Ivan McClellan said he wanted to bring the rodeo culture that he’s grown to love over the years to the city he calls home. The event was an extension of McClellan’s Eight Seconds project, which launched in 2015 to showcase Black rodeo culture in America and stories from cowboys of color. The project’s name comes from the amount of time a bull rider must stay on in order for a ride to be scored by rodeo judges.
McClellan said he considered having the event in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, but thought it’d have a bigger impact in Portland.
“The opportunity to bring together the community and do something here and bring this culture that I love into this space, was irresistible,” McClellan said. “I really thought it’s gonna be more special here than it would be anywhere else.”
The community came out in droves to support McClellan and his vision; tickets sold out five days before the rodeo.
Before the horses and bulls donned their rigging, and before the athletes wrapped their gloved fingers around the ropes, attendees meandered through a vendor market featuring several of Portland’s Black-owned businesses.
Tory Campbell and his wife Roxana own Felton and Mary’s Artisan Foods, named for Tory’s grandparents who used to own the now-closed eatery Campbell’s Barbecue off Southeast 87th Avenue and Powell Boulevard. Tory’s grandparents sold the business in the early 2000s, but the family retained the rights to all of the family recipes and started selling the barbecue sauces and dry rub at local vendor markets and grocery stores such as New Seasons.
Tory said he’s followed McClellan’s Eight Seconds project for years, so he and his wife jumped at the opportunity to support the first Black rodeo in Portland.
“It’s rejuvenating being here, seeing a lot of my people,” Tory said. “Obviously, being in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t have a large concentration of Black folks, so these kinds of moments are even more important. It reminds us that we’re out here, it increases our visibility and it creates a really strong bond of memories.”
Attendees also tried their hand at roping plastic steers with lessons from local Black cowboys and a handful of athletes who competed later that night.
Warren Edney handled most of the roping lessons. With a polite smile, Edney walked attendees of all ages and abilities through the mechanics, encouraging them to mirror his movements as he slowly danced the rope above his head before launching it at a plastic calf.
Team roper Warren Edney, of Vancouver, Washington, helps a young attendee learn how to rope at the Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo at the Portland Expo Center on Saturday, June 17th, 2023. Jaden Coleman
Edney, 35, moved to the Vancouver area a few years ago, so the rodeo was the perfect opportunity to meet other cowboys of color. He grew up in Virginia, where he started roping and riding at 8 years old.
Edney said he reached out to McClellan to see where he could help out and one thing led to another. He said he loves to introduce kids to the Western lifestyle, so the roping lessons were a natural fit.
“This is crazy, to be honest with you; it’s just a dream come true,” Edney said. “I’m just trying to soak in the community and the experience, and try to bring something to the community that people don’t really know about.”
Eight-year-old Tyee Patton said the rope lessons were “great,” as he grinned from ear to ear after successfully roping the calf several times. His mom, Nikki Patton, said this was the first rodeo event they’ve ever attended, but probably not the last. Tyee said he hopes to ride a “baby horse or bull” at the next one.
“Personally for me, it’s really exciting for him to be in an environment that he can identify with a little bit better,” Nikki said. “I’m really proud of Portland and Ivan for wanting to put this show on and really get out here and represent this part of history and culture. It’s really important to me that he (Tyee) sees these kinds of things, all of the different opportunities that he gets to have.”
Bull rider Kamal Miller, from Carson, California, said introducing the craft to the next generation of riders and ropers is one of the reasons he was drawn to the Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo. And like many other vendors, athletes and attendees said, supporting McClellan was the other big draw.
“I believe in Ivan all the way,” Miller said. “He’s giving us this platform to inspire and opportunity to showcase our talent. This is what we love to do.”
Miller describes himself as an urban cowboy and said he’s been rodeoing so long he’s lost track of when he started. He knows for sure that he’s been a cowboy since he was 6 years old.
“I grew up riding horses in the backyard, always wanting to ride horses, and once I conquered that I was like, ‘What’s next?’” Miller said. “I wanted something bigger, better, something that gave me that adrenaline rush. That journey brought me here.”
Miller said his rodeo path was inspired by the many Black Western athletes that came before him, like fellow LA-area bull rider Charles Sampson, the first Black rodeo athlete to win a world championship in professional rodeo in 1982. He acknowledges that his successes are possible because of athletes like Sampson who came before him, and he hopes to inspire the next generation of athletes.
“Not a lot of cowboys come out of the city,” Miller said. “It’s guys like that. We work better as a team to inspire the world.”
McClellan said he plans to grow the Eight Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo in the coming years, both in Portland and in other cities across the country. Before that, he’s looking forward to some much needed rest in the coming week.
“I’m just going where I’m needed and doing what needs to be done,” McClellan said Saturday. “And then tomorrow, I’m probably gonna cry like a baby. Just from the relief and the joy and being able to have accomplished this. It’s going to be amazing.”
— Nick Gibson; ngibson@oregonian.com; 971-393-8259; @newsynicholas
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