We are coming: A collaborative project gives voice to the past and draws researchers closer in the present

The Ampersand

Sep 25 2023 • 32 mins

What happens when you not only collaborate on a project, but you also meet your creative work and research bestie?

The result, in the case of today's guests, is We Are Coming, a project by Yumi Janairo Roth and Emmanuel David about Filipino pasts and futures. In 1899, Buffalo Bill's Wild West hired three Filipinos to join the Congress of Rough Riders of the World. Although the Filipino Rough Riders were largely forgotten to history, Roth and David are working with historic theaters in towns and cities where the Wild West show traveled to install the trio’s names —Ysidora Alcantara, Felix Alcantara, and Geronimo Ynosincio – on vintage marquees.

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Learn more about the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art's show, Cowboy, which features We are coming.

Bucking the myth of the American cowboy.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver Questions the Cowboy.

Learn more about the installation in Cody, WY.

Learn more about Yumi Janairo Roth's work and the project We are coming.

More about Emmanuel David's work.

Music by Nelson Walker.

Episodes recorded at Interplay Recording in Boulder, CO.

Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.