Hal Cannon does not think of himself as a great humanities scholar.
Rather, he said, "I'm just a person who highlights the humanity in other people. I like to look at the stuff that illuminates their lives. I try to observe the things that make them human — the foibles, the things they glory in, the things that are tough for them. It's a never-ending interest."
But that interest has led Cannon into a wide variety of enterprises that have earned him accolades throughout the country. The latest will come Nov. 9, when Cannon will be presented the Utah Governor's Award in the Humanities.
Cannon currently serves as founding director of the Western Folklife Center (he was the director until he "demoted" himself to founding director. "I was more interested in the projects than management," he said). He and his partner, Taki Telonidis, produce programs for National Public Radio on the culture and folk life of the American West, and work on other projects.
Among other things, Cannon has published a dozen books and recordings on folk arts of the West. For 30 years, he and his folk group, the Deseret String Band, specialized in music of the 19th-century West. He has received three Wrangler Awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame and in 1998 was given the Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award.
He worked for the Utah Arts Council for 10 years; among his major projects were a traveling exhibit honoring Utah's beehive symbol and a newspaper insert on the Polynesian culture in Utah. He has performed and lectured around the country.
Cannon is perhaps best-known for his work with cowboy poetry — as founding director of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in Elko, Nev., each year, and for his popular anthology "Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering."
It has surprised him how what he thought was going to be a one-time gathering of cowboy writers and reciters has turned into a national movement. "The most exciting part,"
he said, "is that people who did not think they had a voice have claimed a voice."
Cannon was drawn to folk music and folk arts at an early age. He said that, growing up in Salt Lake City, he always thought folk music seemed "more essential, more from the heart" than anything he heard on the radio. "My cousin played me a record of some old guys fiddling, and I heard their stomping feet and was transported to another world."
His interest "wasn't a conscious decision. It wasn't decided with my brain. Folk culture comes from the heart and soul." But that interest has served him well. "If you are interested in the world, and understanding your place in the world, life is so much more compelling."
Cannon is currently teaching ranch women in Nevada how to make documentaries. "Ranchers are so much threatened in today's world," he said.
In fact, he said, there is such a lack of consciousness in this country about rural life and what it means to live in rural America, that it is "staggering. Increasingly, that is where my interest lies. Rural America is in deep trouble."
And there are so many stories. "I'm interested in helping people find their own stories and ways to tell them. The best stories are those that come from within."
Cannon knows about ranching first-hand. For a time, he and his wife, writer and artist Teresa Jordan, had a "starter-kit" ranch in Nevada. One of the most interesting things, he said, was how he found himself measured by a totally different standard. "Men were judged by how good your horses were, how much hay you had." The so-called humanities didn't mean much.
Yet, it was there that he first decided he wanted to do the NPR reports, focusing on the "humanity" of rural life.
Sometimes, he said, he looks at what is going on in the world, and it's easy for the cynicism to creep in. "I wonder if we're too late." Yet, he said, "I've seen so many good acts performed by so many good people. I'm convinced that the more we focus on what it is that makes us human, the more humane we will become."
What: Utah Governor's Award in the Humanities to Hal Cannon
Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
When: Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.
How much: Free
Phone: 801-359-9670
Related event: Reception honoring Hal Cannon
When: 6:30 p.m.
How much: $40
E-MAIL: carma@desnews.com