The Town of Washington, Arkansas, in partnership with the College of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana Foundation and Historic Washington Point out Park, will host the Inaugural James Black’s Bowie Heritage Competition on April 23, 2022.
The festival will celebrate James Black, the bladesmith who cast the initially Bowie Knife for Jim Bowie in Washington, and boost a selection of Arkansas heritage crafts and trades.
The competition will be held at numerous venues during the Metropolis of Washington, together with the James Black College of Bladesmithing and Historic Trades, the W.P.A. Gymnasium, Washington Pavilion, and the halfway region close to the 1874 Hempstead County Courthouse.
Unique visitors at the pageant will consist of Background Channel’s “Forged in Fire” judge and edged weapons battle specialist Doug Marcaida and “Forged in Fire” Decide and Mastersmith James Neilson. Marcaida and Neilson will judge a Bowie Knife slicing competitors, facilitate a workshop, and carry out demonstrations. 3 previous “Forged in Fire” champions will take part in the festival – Ricardo Vilar of Nashville, Shawn Ellis of Mountain Perspective, and Allen Newberry of Lowell.
Quite a few other reputable bladesmiths will also be on hand, showcasing their knives and telling the stories driving just about every blade. Re-enactors will narrate the story of Jim Bowie’s travels and the value of the Bowie Knife. Other folks artisans will lead to the competition by exhibiting and providing heritage crafts.
Exhibits and workshops, interval tunes, a knife show, and a knife chopping levels of competition arranged by “National Living Treasure” and Mastersmith Jerry Fisk and previous “Forged in Fire” champion Ricardo Vilar, equally of Nashville, Arkansas, will also be attributes of the pageant. Resident Mastersmith at the Historic Arkansas Museum, Lin Rhea, will also exhibit and show his bladesmith capabilities at the pageant.
In addition to displaying their handmade crafts, knife makers and craft sellers will educate techniques and focus on the academic worth of their trades. Several Arkansas “Living Treasures” will go to with their art and be identified for their contributions to Arkansas conventional people arts or crafts. These “Living Treasures” progress and protect their crafts and heritage tools by group outreach and educating some others. J. R. Cook, an Arkansas “Living Treasure” from Nashville, will convey to how bladesmithing grew to become a section of his life.
A person of Arkansas’s best stories is of James Black, who forged the Bowie Knife for Jim Bowie all-around 1830. Black’s variation of the Bowie Knife was a extensive, large, and sharp blade that was powerful but adaptable, topped with a coffin-shaped cope with of black walnut embellished with silver studs. Jim Bowie was delighted with the knife, which grew to become his preventing weapon applied at the Alamo and in skirmishes along the way. Guests can study how to forge a blade at the James Black School of Bladesmithing and Historic Trades, where by the legend of the Bowie Knife lives on.
Company will also working experience heritage/people art, crafts, music, and dance in the one of a kind atmosphere of a traditionally preserved local community. Readers will have the opportunity to find out from the past and enrich their appreciation for lots of genres of Arkansas heritage. There will be a committed kids’ corner wherever kids can study about heritage crafts and get dwelling a absolutely free picket replica Bowie knife. A range of food suppliers will also be element of the festival.
Companions in the festival with the Metropolis of Washington, the UAHT Foundation, and Historic Washington Point out Park involve the Washington Fireplace Auxiliary, Arkansas Division of Heritage, and Washington Tourism.
Programs are offered for heritage artwork crafters and bladesmiths from Mona Even now at 870-648-5084 or Dolly Henley at 870-703-4826. Stay tuned for more info.
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