Photo by Richard Carlson Cowboy poet Ken Cook at sunset in South Dakota.
announce the winners of the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearers Award.
This annual award celebrates Midwestern folk artists and cultural practitioners who keep traditions alive through craft, poetry, dance, visual arts, and more. This year, more than 365 culture bearers shared their work and stories with us.
Today, we recognize nine extraordinary practitioners who are preserving traditions and passing them on to the next generation.
John Medwedeff (Murphysboro, Illinois)
Calvin Small (Gary, Indiana)
Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena (Grinnell, Iowa)
Jozefa Rogocki (Lansing, Michigan)
Judith Kjenstad (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Roxanne C. Henry Laducer (Rolette, North Dakota)
Ryan K. Johnson (Columbus, Ohio)
Ken Cook (Martin, South Dakota)
Gabriela Jiménez Marván (Viroqua, Wisconsin)
Ken Cook (South Dakota)
“My work is primarily meter-and-rhyme cowboy poetry, memorized and presented to the listener. Four decades as a ranch hand, plus several seasons as an actor with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, are the cornerstones of my artistic history. Though my father’s death brought me back to South Dakota and put ranch work center stage, by the ‘90s I was writing poetry about ranch life and starting to perform again. By 2010, I was named the Academy of Western Artists Poet of the Year.
Cowboy poetry is a relevant art form that has tremendous value and appeal. I have worked with high school teachers seeking alternative lesson plans and provided cowboy entertainment at functions across the West.
I have recorded three spoken-word CDs of original poetry and co-authored Passing It On: Poetry by Great Plains Cowboys, which also includes a CD. I was a founding member at CowboyPoetry.com, a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. My poetry and recitations of classic poetry are included in compilation CDs available worldwide and my website. My work has also been included in the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering’s 30th anniversary anthology.
The poetry and music of the working cowboy has a past, a present, and a future. It frustrates editors, angers English teachers, and delights hundreds of thousands across America. It is real, heartfelt, and humorous. My work pays tribute to past as well as future generations.”