PLAYWRIGHT CHERYL FOGGO ON JOHN WARE, CANADA’S MOST FAMOUS COWBOY, AN AFRICAN-CANADIAN LEGEND WHOSE EXISTENCE CHALLENGES THE BACK-PATTING CANADIAN MYTH OF BENEFICENCE (MF GALAXY 111)
HOW LEARNING JOHN WARE WAS AFRICAN CHANGED HER LIFE, HOW FOGGO’S EXPERIENCE AS RESEARCHER, JOURNALIST + HISTORIAN AFFECTS HER CHARACTER CONSTRUCTION, AND WHY POETS MAKE THE BEST PLAYWRIGHTS LISTEN/DOWNLOAD John Ware is the greatest Canadian legend you probably have never heard of. He was a 19th Century West African born into the American continent-wide rape-gulag that apologists call the Old South. He went on to become one of thousands of African-American cowboys, and he eventually moved to what is now Alberta to become a master bronco-buster, successful rancher, a founder of modern rodeo culture, and a man of near mythic proportions with the strength of Paul Bunyan and the power of a horse whisperer. Ware earned the admiration of many of his fellow settlers on First Nations territory, although many Euro-Canadians called him, and please excuse the language, “Nigger John,” and after he died, used the N-word to describe Alberta landmarks associated with John Ware, n...