Hip-Hop Cowboy Rides Into Denver with Jedidiah Blackstone Premiere

When artist Jeff Campbell stumbled across the name Clara Brown while researching a potential project focused on Central City, he didn’t realize he was about to embark on a journey that would transform his artistic vision. Brown, the first Black woman in the Colorado Territory, became the spark for Jedidiah Blackstone: Origin Story of an Alter Ego & the Untold Tales from the Darkside of the West, opening Thursday, September 25, at Denver’s Clayton Early Learning Center.

“I had heard her story before, but it wasn’t until I tuned in and looked at the details that I became so fascinated by her,” Campbell says. “So then I took a trip up to Central City. I was really overwhelmed by this extraordinary little town, this piece of history and Clara Brown’s story in and of itself.”

That discovery soon became the seed for a much bigger project. What began with Brown’s story expanded into an exploration of other overlooked figures of the Black American West. Campbell wanted his new work to capture both his personal journey of uncovering this history and the larger responsibility of bringing those forgotten voices to light.

“The story evolved from there and is a combination of things,” Campbell explains. “That’s why it has this long, Western-sounding title — Jedidiah Blackstone: Origin Story of an Alter Ego & the Untold Tales From the Darkside of the West. It is about my discovery, my trip up there and what motivated me. At the same time, it is also about these pillars of Black history that are really unrecognized at the level that they should be due to their significant impact in the Gold Rush and Silver Rush era.”

The result is a show that blurs boundaries between genres and is set in a mythic space where history and imagination collide. Campbell steps into the persona of Jedidiah Blackstone, a modern-day artist transformed into a cowboy poet who resurrects buried legacies through music, dance and story.

“This is the beginning of my series on the Black American West, because it doesn’t stop in Central City,” Campbell says. “There is Lincoln Hills, which is also in Gilpin County. There is Dearfield, which is in the Greeley area, northern Colorado. There is the Dry, which is in Pueblo in southern Colorado; even Cherry Creek has significant Black history. And then, of course, we have Five Points. I plan on having Jedediah Blackstone be the Colorado Black history storyteller.”

His performance is backed by the collective Country by Nature: DJ Musa on turntables, vocalists Erica Brown and Merrian Johnson and dancers DeAndre Carroll and Lino Dupa, all under the direction of Shayla Riggle. With original songs like “The Day the Devil Went Down to Denver” and “Darkside of the West,” the seventy-minute production tells the story of a modern-day artist determined to resurrect the legacy of Black pioneers.

“There weren’t many Black cowboy storytellers, but there’s plenty of Black cowboy history, so this was my tongue-in-cheek version of that,” Campbell says. “They’re rappers, essentially, because they’re talking about shootouts in saloons and stuff, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna be the Black version of the cowboy storyteller.’ I wanted to say it in a satirical way while also bringing real history to the stage.”

That blend of humor and defiance echoes throughout the production, which Campbell frames as both a reclamation project and an artistic response to contemporary politics. “In a time when Black history is under attack from the highest levels of government, we’re raising our voices through art,” he says. “This season is our response. We are countering the war on Black history, loud, clear, and unapologetically on stage.”

Creating a platform for that response has not been simple. Campbell founded Emancipation Theater Company in 2017 to disrupt dominant narratives and reclaim Black stories, but building a sustainable season has been a challenge. With Denver’s traditional theater spaces booked solid, he was forced to look elsewhere for a home. That search led him to Clayton Early Learning, an education nonprofit with a large multipurpose hall.

“Denver Arts and Venues recommended that I meet the folks at Clayton Early Learning, so I did,” Campbell says. “It’s just a big empty room, so I had to get my own sound and lighting equipment, so this is going to be a pretty scrappy production. I’m still figuring out all of those technical logistics right now, but we’re going to do it like that, and if it doesn’t work out, hey, now I’m mobile. I’ve got all the equipment I need to take the show on the road.”

That mobility aligns with his long-term vision for Jedidiah Blackstone. Campbell sees Jedidiah not only as a stage character but also as a multimedia figure capable of transitioning between theater, schools, museums, music and television.

The team intends to record and release the music featured in the production, as well as film the show and possibly create a documentary about the show’s history. Campbell is also collaborating with Emmy Award–winning actor Keith David on a television pilot, with David set to portray Jeremiah Lee, another unsung figure of the Black American West.

“I just want Jedediah Blackstone, traveling poet and storyteller, to live in multiple mediums,” Campbell says. “This show can come to schools; it can come to museums and give talks. Jedediah can show up and be who he is in any context.”

The premiere of Jedidiah Blackstone arrives at a cultural moment when stories of Black cowboys are finally gaining wider attention through shows like Lawmen: Bass Reeves and the cultural ripple effects of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. Campbell is quick to note that his work isn’t chasing trends but growing from years of research and deep-rooted commitment to Colorado’s overlooked history.

For Emancipation Theater Company, the production also signals a shift toward building a more consistent presence in Denver’s theater ecosystem, with plans to remount past works and license new ones. But right now, the focus is firmly on Jedidiah Blackstone, a hip-hop cowboy who champions the voices the West tried to forget.

“I believe the front line of the civil rights movement in the third decade of the 21st century is narrative: the war on information,” Campbell says. “Monuments and statues and literature are how we drive national narrative. It’s how we define who we are, so telling these stories — if they’re shut out of classrooms, if they are erased from museums — then it is imperative for artists to take up the mantle with songs, with scripts, with novels and books. It is time for artists to really find their place in who they are, what they represent and how we see society.”

Jedidiah Blackstone: Origin Story of an Alter Ego & the Untold Tales from the Darkside of the West runs Thursday, September 25, through Sunday, October 5, at the Clayton Early Learning Center, 3801 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Tickets are $30. Learn more at emancipationtheater.com.