The Denver Public Library recommends these library resources to enhance your theater experience of Cowboys and East Indians from DCPA, showing this winter from January to March 2026.
Adapted from Nina McConigley’s award-winning collection of short stories, Cowboys and East Indians follows the Sen family as they grapple with expectations and cultural collisions moving from India to Wyoming.
Lakshmi “Lucky” Sen’s dad calls her a prairie dog — hesitant and scared on the side of the road. Now on a mission to fulfill her mom’s final wish, Lucky has to figure out saris, how to stop burning the spices, and the many other things she didn’t pay attention to while she was busy trying to fit in. But on the eve of her sister’s wedding, a family secret resurfaces, and Lucky realizes there might be a lot more about her mom and being a “good Indian daughter” that she doesn’t know.
A rare exploration of rural immigrant experiences in the American West, Cowboys and East Indians examines the question of how one understands their identity when they don’t see a reflection of it in their community.
What to Read
Our reading recommendation: Similar to Cowboys and East Indians, readers are introduced to a collection of stories centered on the families of immigrants, like the overbearing mother that gives up her artistic aspirations to come to America and her only outlet is karaoke, or families having to dumpster dive for food and scam Atlantic City casino buses to make a buck. Focusing on a community of immigrants in the 1990s who have traded their endangered lives as artists in China and Taiwan for New York City, Zhang shows the many ways that family and history can weigh us down and also lift us up.
About the book: A debut collection of stories that plunge readers into the tender and chaotic hearts of adolescent girls growing up in New York City, from celebrated poet and National Magazine Award nominee Jenny Zhang. These seven vibrant stories illuminate the complex and messy inner lives of girls struggling to define themselves. Fueled by Zhang's singular voice and sly humor, this collection introduces Zhang as a bright and devastating force in literary fiction.
What to Watch
Our watching recommendation: Since a central theme of Cowboys and East Indians is cultural identity and trying to find one's home, the first media that came to mind was the 2019 film The Farewell directed by Lulu Wang. Like the play, characters in the film are struggling with their cultural identity and traditions as they deal with the mortality of a loved one. Watch the Golden Globe-nominated film by itself or enjoy other films featuring Asian actors in one of our binge boxes.
About the movie: Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there's a lot to celebrate.
What to Listen
Only available to stream on Freegal Music+
Our listening recommendation: In an interview, Cowboys and East Indians playwright Nina McConigley says she was inspired partly by the lack of South Asian stories in the American West. No-No Boy is the music and multimedia project of Dr. Julian Saporiti, who tells buried stories of the Asian diaspora through song. His album 1975 blends the historical sources collected for his dissertation, his Vietnamese heritage, and a lifelong love of music across genres.
About the album: On 1975, named after the year Saigon fell, indie songwriter Julian Saporiti investigates his own family heritage as well as life in WWII Japanese internment camps, immigrant detention centers and refugee camps in 2020, and other stories of immigration that illustrate the complexities of becoming American. His songs are the epitome of folk storytelling in the modern era, as he interweaves histories with field recordings from the sites of collective trauma and fragments of Asian American musical tradition, from jazz to rock to choral music. With his plaintive, direct voice, he takes listeners on a deeply human journey through the Asian American experience in the US.
What to Download/Stream
Our download recommendation: This acclaimed documentary echoes many of the themes of Cowboys and East Indians. A couple weds secretly in Australia without the obligations and cultural expectations of their traditional Indian families. They strive to maintain their independence while learning to appreciate and even enjoy aspects of the old ways as they try to make everyone happy. All Denver residents can stream this free on Kanopy with your Denver Public Library card.
About the movie: Strong willed, educated, and forthright Indian-Australian Ramona was 27 when she fell head-over-heels in love with Anurag, the eldest son of one of Rajasthan's wealthiest merchant families. When she decided to marry him secretly, neither of their families were impressed, and Anu and Ramona were soon to find they had walked headlong into an epic clash of cultures. WEDDING SARI SHOWDOWN is a lighthearted story with a serious issue at its heart. While the documentary follows Ramona and Anu as they struggle to maintain their relationship and their independence against the ever-increasing pressure of family obligations and cultural expectations, it also questions the very essence of what it means to belong to two cultures and just how far one is prepared to compromise.