How the Heck Do You Ride a Horse in NYC?
“Kesha Morse is the first female president of New York City’s Federation of Black Cowboys, which offers rodeos, school visits, and horsemanship training programs for New York City youth. Based in Queens, the groups aims to revive traditions of African-American cowboys in the Old West — and you even might spot them on an eight-hour trek from one end of Brooklyn to the other. Hoping to raise awareness about its mission, the FBC teamed up with the denim brand Wrangler to produce a short film about the organization’s history. The Cut asked Morse about leading the FBC for the past decade, and what it means to be a cowboy in bustling New York City. Watch the”
Eat, Play, Love!
'The Year That Changed My Life' By Beyonce
Essence Magazine-July 2011
Way down in the south of New York City, the members of the Black Cowboys Federation are trying to rekindle an erased memory: the major role played by Black Cowboys in the construction of America throughout the 19th century.
For Hollywood, the American frontier has always been iconically white. And yet African-Americans made up a third of all cowboys. Members of the New York Black Cowboys Federation are rehabilitating this history – they have even chosen to adopt their ancestors’ lifestyle. But their West is made of cobblestone, concrete and mirages.
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“It was a breezy Saturday afternoon in March when I first visited the Federation of Black Cowboys in Queens. I met Kesha Morse, president of the FBC, to talk about the looming loss of the Cedar Lane Stables, which the group has managed for almost twenty years. Cars rushed past on Linden Boulevard and a faint scent of horse manure hung in the air. A slice of pizza in one hand and a pink lemonade in the other, Morse was wearing a fringed leather jacket that brushed her knees and a brown baseball cap with a silver horse medallion above the bill. Long, thick braids swung down her back, grazing her thighs.”