NYC NOW - Meet New York City’s Black Cowboys Keeping History Alive

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

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From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre. Happy Juneteen, a day celebrated as the official end of slavery in America. It's also a day when some black cowboys reclaim their history. To commemorate the holiday, I wanted to talk to some folks in the city who are doing the work of preserving that history. So I went out to Jamaica Queens to meet some cowboys. everyone. I'm Cowboy Curley from Federation of Black Cowboys. I'm Cowgirl Keisha from the Federation of Black Cowboys.

We're here today to keep the legacy of the Black Cowboy and Cowgirl living with true images of the past. I met Raleigh Hall and Keisha Moore's. Better known as Cowboy Curley and Cowgirl Keisha. I met the two at Curley's Cowboy Center in Hacienda. outside, it looks like a regular two-story house in Queens with a gated-off backyard and a hand-painted sign. But when I stepped inside, I was literally transported to an old Western ranch house with cowboy memorabilia, photos, and news clippings all over the walls. We have eight bedrooms and things for our guests, for all the cowboys that come into town. And this is also the home of the Federation of Black Cowboys. New York City's Federation of Black Cowboys was incorporated in 1994 and started out leasing the Cedar Lane Stables in Queens.

At its peak in the 90s, the Federation had up to 60 members and over 100 horses. Years later, though, they lost their stable at Cedar Lane, and the horses scattered downstate, upstate, even out of state. Meanwhile, membership shrank. Today, there are maybe a dozen active members. Everybody's older now. Everybody's older. Everybody's dropped out, and especially since we lost our location. So we're keeping the mission alive.

We don't have the horses that we used to have, but with the few that we have, we're still alive and well. I asked Keisha, who's also president of the Federation, whether the next generation could take over when the time comes. Do you think they'll be able to take over the Federation when you all are? I doubt. that there's not that kind of commitment. We don't have the ability to have them from so young,

but we're going to be around for a while. But still, she says, they're really busy doing community work. With the members they do have, they give presentations about the history of black cowboys in the American West in libraries, schools, museums, all around New York City. They're even on television, and you can watch them riding in at block parties.

We had probably been more exposed in this part of our life than we were when we had 40, 50 members. So we're going to be around for a while. We're not going anywhere. We still got a good 25, 30 years left. You know, I had to ask about the horses. Okay. You got Skeeter, you got Buster, and you got bourbon that's here in New York. Sparky, Jay Diamond, A.

J, Bandit, Amy, Flash, Sundance. Cowboy Curl these horses live in stables outside of center in Queens. I met all of them, along with three more cowboys who were hard at work taking care of horses while we were there. Here's one of them. I'm Tony Cowboys, a member of the Federation of Black Cowboys. I'm originally from North Carolina, so I've been into the horse game for a long time. ever since I was five years old and I don't want no other way but be with the horses. All right, well let's go see these horses.

All right. Bandy, come in. Come in. This is Curly Pony, Bandon. Hi, Bandit. Come here, come. Come here, come say hi. Let me see hi.

He's a, if you notice he got one blue eye, one brown. He's a baby. No, he's a grown pony. Oh, he's a grown pony? He's about 17 years old. Wow. Wow. I'm so small and cute.

I met Bandit, Sparky, Flash, Tony, Sundance, and Polo. They're calling Polo. I call him Christmas because he walking around with the bill. You can tell where he had at all times. Right, Polo? And I took a ride on a beautiful horse named AJ. There you go. Like a crowd.

She thought she could do it, Carly. Curly, she told she could do it. It was incredible to see actual cowboys in a place like New York City. I love when culture meets history, and this was a really. really great mix of education and a really cool New York City experience. You can find the Federation of Black Cowboys at Curley's Cowboy Center in Hacienda in Queens. Still to come, a ticker tape parade for champions, World Cup Madness, and an old club for househeads returns to the electric music scene in a familiar place. That's ahead on our

biweekly arts and culture check-in after the break. Welcome back. It's time for another edition of the Arts and Culture Checkin, our biweekly conversation with WMYC's Arts and Culture Editor Matthew Schnipper. What's up, Matt? Hi, Jeney. How's it going? It's going good. How about you?

I feel good, you know? Partyed all week. You know? We're NBA finals champions? Yes. You're riding high? Whole city. Whole city is holding that trophy.

It feels good. Yes. It's a lot of hands on me. A lot of fingerprints. A lot of fingerprints. Yeah. It's been almost a week since that big game, Matt. Where did you catch it? That's kind of crazy. You know where I got it? In the Catskills. That's right. You were on vacation. I was away. I didn't plan this. It was a little funny to be away from the city watching, you know, people just devour my neighborhood and being kind of in silence.

There were some people that had a little bit of fireworks, like three people. Listen, fireworks are still happening in my neighborhood. Yeah. No. There was not a whole. whole lot up in Leeds, New York, unfortunately. Yeah. But it was fun to see it. It was fun to just be with a friend watching the game. Yeah.

The Tick or Tick or Tate Parade was Thursday. Did you go? No, I was at work, unfortunately. I caught it through my lovely colleagues and where I catch everything on Instagram. Ticket Tate Parade was lit. It was a good time. Mary Mum Dani had more fun than the players, I think. That guy was always having fun.

So, Jena, do you think that most people who are at the, this in 2026 know what ticker tape is? Not really. I don't even know. Oh, so ticker tape, it used to be the little tape that would come out of a machine that would give you the stock market updates and it would be in these little tiny strips. It was kind of like the first version of getting up to date stats on your phone, except it was literally printed out in your house. And there would be reams and reams and reams of them because people are getting stock market

updates all the time. And so that was what they used for confetti. They use ticker tape. Oh, that's interesting. That sounds so ancient. It is. So we've not retained that practice, but we've kept the name. Yeah.

Which I don't think anybody knows what it is. No. Very cool. Thank you for... Letting us know. That's pretty cool, in fact. They are using confetti, little pieces of paper is what is being used. No updates on the stock market.

No updates on the stock market. You've got to go on your phone for that. Well, Nick's fans are still on that high from the finals and the parade. And soccer fans are now swarming New York and New Jersey. The World Cup is happening. A exciting game against France and Senegal this week. That was a really good one. It was really cool.

I was watching in my office. And I was seeing some of my colleagues watching one of them. Shout out to Ramsey on our team here. Came over my desk and I heard everybody go, oh, they scored. And he was like, he looked in his face just melted. He's like, I've been watching for 90 minutes waiting for something. And then he was like, oh, they scored again. He's like, I'll be right back.

I was like, sorry you came over to do work with me. France scored back to back, and it was a crazy latter half of the game, but it was a good one. So now that we've had a couple of New York City, New Jersey games under our belt, right? The big thing that people were worried about was traffic. Yes. How's that looking? Well, the people who were the most pissed were the regular old New Jersey commuters. You know.

They'd be pissed regardless. Well, that's one of the things that I think is interesting. Sorry. The Jersey Transit, they were trying to tell them forever. Like, it's going to be messed up. It's going to be messed up. Sure enough, people showed up being like, hey, why can't I get home now regularly? And they were like, we told you.

You're not going to reach everybody. So people have been upset, I would say, basically, is what the deal is. What's been the messaging for folks? They've been beating everybody over the head with this. Like, I don't live in New Jersey, and I know it's been a mess. You can't take a car. there, you only can take an Uber. Like, if you take an Uber, it's a, you know,

a mile from the stadium. It's just like a total disaster. People got there. Listen, we have only gotten, what, two games? Yes. Under our belts, the next World Cup match happens Monday night between Norway and Senegal. I mean, it's coming. The whole World Cup

final is actually going to be played at MetLife. So, I am curious to see how overrun the city gets. You know, aside from the actual games happening at MetLife, life, there are also a lot of soccer events happening across the five boroughs, many of them put on by the city. Yes.

And Matt, your desk published a story explaining why Mayor Mumdani is the perfect mayor to host the World Cup. What are some of the reasons? He's a soccer nerd. He's also, you know, again, like his keyword for everything is affordability, affordability, affordability. He was able to team with FIFA to offer $50 tickets. There are watch parties in every borough.

that the city is sponsoring, but mostly it's just because this guy is a big soccer fan. Shout out to Jamie McClellan, a writer who kind of went and found a friend of his from high school who was talking about Mom Donnie's writing on his Facebook wall about like how excited he was for the games. And Jamie actually found his stats. So he had his senior year of high school. He was playing soccer. He had eight goals and two assists, which is a pretty decent record. Yeah.

You know, and he had the Momdani Cup, the Affordability Cup. He's a huge Arsenal fan. He's just pretty obsessed with soccer. It's not like he planned the World Cup to show up in his backyard, but he certainly has taken advantage of it as the overlap of the Venn diagram of things that he wants to do to make cheaper for everyone and soccer, basically. I know everyone has heard about these New York City exclusive World Cup jerseys. That was actually the mayor's idea, too. He was so stoked to make these jerseys.

Because, again, if you want to pay $375 for a FIFA New York City jersey, you can do that. And Mom Dani made these sort of, I don't want to call them bootleg World Cup jerseys. But they definitely are, you know, they're not officially affiliated with the World Cup. But they are soccer jerseys in three different color ways, which say New York City. One may argue that the New York City World Cup jerseys look better than the FIFA jerseys. One may is one named Jinnah? Yes. Yes. One is also named meth. They looked great. Yeah. They're really cool. There was an insane line. It was just like at the Supreme store basically, except it was at City Store, you know, at one center street where you usually go to buy a big Apple keychain. People were lined up like crazy to get these jerseys. The first person started at one in the morning.

I got to tell you. I was also out there. What time did you get there? I got there late. So I think I pulled up. It was maybe 747. I was in the back. How far? Yeah. I was way in the back, Matt, and I was not victorious. I did not get a jersey. That's still an hour ahead of when it opened. And you didn't get a jersey? I didn't get a jersey, no.

And I was out there for three hours. I thought I was going to be victorious. I saw our very own WNYC's Liz Kim out there talking to folks working on her story. Oh, my God. She was like, let me talk to these dummies that are online waiting for the. Oh, Junae, hey, how's it going? No shoutouts to it is, apparently. I think the jerseys are great.

Yeah, so stylish. I'm sorry you did not get one. I mean, I was all for the storyline behind it, right? So I want to remind folks, these jerseys were designed, printed, cut and sewn by a Brooklyn business. Mazzie Sports is it? Yeah, Mazzie Sports. They made all of these by hand, you know, I think, I thought that was just great. So, I mean, it takes a lot to make 1,500 of these on probably a semi-short timeline.

They were limited edition kind of by design, I guess. And now do you know how much money they're going for on eBay? I heard a thousand bucks. I'm even sicker now. It's so crazy. You know, and you can see people are like, here's my receipt with their eBay photo. So you can see somebody bought one and is selling one. But good news for myself and for other listeners who weren't able to cop one of these jerseys.

The mayor announced this week that they are going to release a second drop. So hopefully, fingers crossed. What time are you going to line up for that? It just depends on the date of the drop. But as I mentioned, our colleague Liz Kim wrote a story about this and all the folks out there. What stood out to you about that piece? You know, it's nice to see people lining up for something that is not just corporate, and it's nice to see that they were so cheap. It's cool to see people being hyped up for something that is somewhat more organic.

Yeah. And I want to say, even though I wasn't victorious out there, I talked to a lot of cool folks. One chick, sorry, forgot her name, but she actually listens to the podcast. Yes. And I don't think she got a jersey either. She'd get a jersey either. Oh, bummer. But it was just so cool to see that want for community and folks eager to rep who they're with. I thought it was really cool. Yeah, I think that's also people are kind of coming off high from the Knicks as well where everything was so organic where they're just out in the street feeling like, you know, you want to rep for New York City. It's the right time to put that out. Different sport, but kind of same vibe. All right. Let's move away from sports for a moment. It seems that sports has been taken over.

Certainly on my desk, yes. This past month or so. But this next one is for all the househeads and folks who love to hit the dance floor. That's you met. That's true. Your desk recently put out a story on the comeback of a nightclub called Pasha. And it's moved to a really familiar club. Can you talk about that? I would imagine a lot of our listeners are familiar with the Brooklyn Marra. Brooklyn Mirage is this enormous can indoor outdoor space in East Williamsburg was a huge venue. Thousands of people could fit in there. And it kind of got notorious because there were a number of somewhat mysterious deaths of patrons leaving the club.

And combined with that, the Brooklyn Mirage also went bankrupt when they were trying to do a crazy remodeling. The city came in and gave them tons of violations. and they were just extended beyond their abilities, you know, I think it had an extremely high interest rate. There was just no way they were going to be able to keep this club going. So they shut down the venue, the place was raised, and now it is reopening or has reopened, actually, as Pasha, which is a club that was actually once in Hell's Kitchen in a smaller space,

and it's been thriving as a big space in Ibiza. So it's part of now a chain. and it's going to have, again, an enormous capacity, indoor, outdoor space in East Williamsburg. And there are some people in the neighborhood are excited about this, you know, bringing in business and, you know, quote unquote revitalizing what is a really industrial neighborhood. And some people are like, please go away. I just don't want to hear Sven Weythe or whatever playing, you know, brutally loud decimals like every Saturday night with. people puking on the sidewalk. But for folks who are like, get this place out of here, right?

I can see them maybe being concerned that this spot is going to be a Brooklyn Mirage 2.0. Do you think that's part of it? Yeah. I mean, I think it's literally in the same place. It's not, I don't think it is a ridiculous thought to kind of go, okay, it's going to be the same thing. And look, Pasha is saying, they're making an effort to say we've learned from the mistakes of Brooklyn Mirage. we are going to bring you a club that does everything they did except better, everything that

did except safer, everything but they did except quieter. They made an effort to say how they have actually dampened the sound for neighbors. You know, and it remains to be seen if that's the case, you know, give them a couple of months to kind of get up and running and, you know, see how the neighborhood looks and see what neighbors think and, you know, kind of see what the deal is. Yeah, but it is open now, right? It is open now. You can go on your own.

They have some expensive nights and some cheap nights. I would say the thing that's coming up as Masters at Work are playing is a classic New York City House duo. If you were going to check out anything there, I would go see them and see how that kind of translates to this space. Do you think you're going to check it out? You know, it's funny. I'm not always a big crowd person that was unavoidable, obviously, with the Knicks. But it's hard for me to be like, yes, I definitely am going to go into the maw in that same way. I'm assuming I'm also just probably 25 years, 20 years older, 20 years older than their demographic necessarily. So I would say if that is appealing to you and you like being around a whole lot of people and you want to hear loud music, this is going to be a good thing for you personally.

I am curious to see how the neighborhood responds. Same. I think people were really spooked by those deaths, I think, which is very, very fair. It was very spooky. Some people thought there was a serial killer. I don't know. and some of them remain unsolved. I don't think that they were the fault of Brooklyn Mirage,

nor do I think, you know, Pasha will kind of continue that. But, you know, anytime that you have a lot of people going out late at night, you know, wandering around, looking for their Uber, you know, maybe being intoxicated, anytime you have that, you know, there's a potential for danger. I don't mean to take somebody to task or too scolding, I suppose. But I don't think people are overreacting to be worried. I mean, hopefully nothing happens and everybody has a great time

and it's quiet and seamless and it brings in a lot of business to the neighborhood Godspeed. Well, let's do something that I've done years ago and that's leave the club scene. Can we talk about

a few block parties coming up? That's funny. You know, it is Juneteenth weekend. A lot is happening. Do you have any plans? Yeah. I mean, the other thing I want to note

it's Father's Day as well. So, yeah, I have some plans They're more Father's Day, really. But there's a lot to do for Juneteenth this weekend. You might not be too late to head over to the Celebrate Brooklyn Juneteenth Party. And it goes on until 8 on Friday night. Head over there. It's Prospect Park.

Are you heading there? Hell yeah. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, I like Infinity. I think Infinity Song is cool. Their group, you know, that I think are on Rock Nation. I think it's at them.

But I think their moment is coming. Maybe right now, if you're actually listening. Yeah, this may be your last opportunity to see this group for free, for sure. So they're playing at Celebrate Brooklyn, and they've been on Tiny Desk as well. And in the Caldwells are playing. It's kind of gospel meets disco. And they'll have DJ sets in between. It's at the Lena Horn Band Shell in Prospect Park.

And on Saturday? Oh, yeah. We outside. That's exactly what the event is called, actually. We outside is it returns to downtown Brooklyn. They're going to have an all-day Juneteen celebration. It's rooted in Blackjoy, expression, and togetherness. It's a vibrant public celebration.

Music, movement, storytelling, artistry, everything kind of in a big mix. All the things. That's free and open to all ages. We love free. And the mermaid parade is on Saturday. We have reported on the mermaid parade, and they have had money troubles. So they say, it's an interesting story. They reached out.

They said, we're in danger unless we get X amount of money. And then they said, oh, well, actually, we're engaging unless we get X plus five, plus 10. Mermaid parade is fun. I think go to that, have a good time. What could be more pure than the mermaid parade? On Father's Day, I do want to note, I will probably be at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. There was a big festival last weekend in Sparta, New Jersey. I think I mentioned it called Dripping, which was sold out.

And that's for people who love camping and staying up late, which is not me. But some of the artists who performed at this festival are playing at Pioneer Works on Sunday night. So I'm excited to see a guy named, oh gosh, a Bendikiske. I believe. He's Norwegian, so I hope I have not but butchered his name, but a saxophone player. He's amazing. And Pavel Miliakov, who sometimes also performs as Buttechno. Okay, interesting name. One of my favorite artist names ever. So I'm excited to go see Buttecno, aka Pavel. Two T's, B-U-T-T-T-E-T-T-O-T-T-T-O-T-T-T. It could be a triple T. I just heard butts. I heard butts and then your brain shut off.

I'm a child. Anyway, I mean, you're talking about a full-on adult child, baby. person. But I'm going to that, I think, because I was like, what's going to feel good on Father's Day? Obviously hanging out with my daughter, but also Buttecno. Yeah, yeah, sounds like a good time. Definitely a lot to do across New York City this weekend. Happy Father's Day to you. Thank you. That's WMYC's Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schnipper. Thanks again. Thanks again. Hopefully my dad is not listening for a little bit of light shade. We'll see. Happy Juneteenth, everyone, and happy Father's Day to everyone who's celebrating. Happy Nix.

Happy Nix. Thanks so much for listening to NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre. See you next time. Happy Father's Day, Dad, even though he doesn't listen to the podcast. Oh, no. Yeah, whatever. Let's text him and tell him to listen this week because...

I can't get it on my phone. Oh, God. I don't know. Yeah. Anyway. You can get it on your phone, in fact. We can figure it out for you. Maybe it's a father's day from father to father.

I can talk to him about how to make get the app. Oh, big. A little big side there. My dad could probably teach it to him. My dad is an iPad pro. Oh. Maybe I should get my dad an iPad. If you ever want to see him again, I would say don't.

Okay, I won't do that. All right.