over 300 kids that I work with over the years.

Uh take them out to the farm.

Uh show them how to do this.

Uh show them see something else different than the street.

Nobody really know what I've been doing.

I've been doing this for pretty near 40 years, you know, and I'm going to continue on doing it till I'm not able anymore, you know.

We got some young guys like Calvin and Top Size and uh I can't count them on five toes and five fingers.

I was branded as a a Buffalo Soldier.

That there's footage from a documentary about Wisconsin's black cowboys.

Yes, Wisconsin had black cowboys and we're joined by Natalie Durr and Kevin Nichols who have worked on this project and now are here to talk about it.

Thank you both so much for joining us here on Black Duvo.

Thank you for having us.

First off, talk about this interest in uh black cowboys.

How did this come about and thus how did this documentary come about?

Yeah, great question.

Um, I come from a long line of rural farmers and my grandpa raised horses um raised and bred horses.

So, I was introduced to the Black Cowboys through Creative Mornings.

They um came on and their story and talked about how they needed help with a website and kind of promoting who they were.

And I had never known that there was a black cowboy and Buffalo Soldier Association in Milwaukee.

And from the website came the documentary came a book.

There was just a lot of collaboration and learning Mr.

Steel and Kevin's story.

I was like, this is something that's very special and unique to Milwaukee and how do we how do we further document that legacy?

So, how do you uh so talk about the documentary?

What is it about?

What will people see in it if they decide to watch it?

And what do you hope people get from it?

Yeah.

So, in the documentary, you'll see some shots of Milwaukee, maybe some familiar places that you've seen before.

You'll see Mr.

steel.

You'll see Kevin Nichols.

Um you'll see a little bit of history about the Black Cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers.

Um and then you'll see kind of where the Buffalo Soldiers want to go from here.

Um and kind of the hopes for the organization going forward.

So talk about the uh Buffalo Soldiers in Milwaukee.

Uh just the unique aspect of Wisconsin Black Cowboys or you know the folks here in Wisconsin.

What makes uh these folks unique as opposed to some of the Cowboys or black cowboys we may have seen down south or heard about in you know history books?

Um what makes them unique?

Um I think they're more of a family.

Um they're a little bit more family orientated.

Um close-knit so they're real knitted together.

Um it's not a lot of big like down south like it's a whole bunch of Cowboys here.

It's not that many.

um willing to hopefully we can get some.

Um but they're just nice family family people.

That's all I can say about Well, no, for sure.

Well, well, uh you know, we brought this uh book in here.

What is the Black Cowboy Association?

Um and just in looking at this, I uh you know, saw a message in there.

You talked about wanting to uh bring some of that closer to the city.

just uh talk about your work in doing that and you know what that would mean to you just to bring some of those horses, some of that like lifestyle into the city where folks can access it.

Um so I I do work I work um with a lot of organizations as far as like um bringing the horse for kids to ride um just giving them something to do.

I used to have cows and sheep so I used to do that whole thing.

Um, but as far as like I wanted to be more, it it it one day I did an event and it played an impact on a young man that was struggling with some stuff and it just seemed like if I would be closer or facility will be closer to the inner city, it would give out like a big impact to help somebody.

Um I think um therapeutic is uh this is just real interesting to just see how it works out with the people just the bond and stuff.

Um a horse is a good bonding tool if you never ever mess with it.

It's it can calm you down your nerves.

So that's what I was just hoping to just bring something closer to the inner city so they won't have to travel so far.

um you can get there closer, you know, just something where you can just get to.

Nat, talk about the challenges or maybe some of the successes, just some unique stories that uh you may have learned or uh seen or experienced in putting this documentary together.

Yeah, great question.

Um there's a lot of things you don't know about making a film until you do it for the first time and you're like, "Wow, that's really interesting."

I really wanted this to be a collaboration between different artists and people in the community.

So, we have a lot of local people featured.

Um, one of them is Evan Christian.

He owns a bar in Milwaukee and he's also a musician.

Never done voiceover before, but he did the music and the voiceover um for the the documentary.

Did an incredible job for his first time.

Um, we got Calvin Kazibu.

He did the videography and photography.

He's never worked on a project like this before, so it was really a first for a lot of people um that were involved.

And just like a fun, it's not a lot of pressure.

We're telling an awesome story about a local cowboy and how do we make it fun and interesting um and informative, too.

So, it really is just an amazing collective of Milwaukee artists and and a community piece that I wanted it to be.

When can people see this film?

So, uh it premieres at the Oriental Theater March 29th at 3 p.m.

That's a Sunday.

And you can actually go to our website mkbsa.org or to reserve your ticket.

It's completely free.

Um and there will be a panel after the film is finished because it's about 15 minutes um with Mr.

Steel and Kevin and maybe some of the other Cowboys.

All right.

So Kevin, one last question for you.

What is the one thing you want people to know about being a Buffalo Soldier?

The one thing I want everybody to know about being a Buffalo Soldier is just the history in it.

being the first black army um slaves that fought in the Civil War, just impacting that what impact it made just the history in it to share with everybody.

Yeah.

Anything you would add to that, Natalie, or anything?

Preserving that legacy.

You know, the Buffalo Soldiers really paved the way for um so much of what we call our American landscape.

And so, I think um as you watch that, just just think about that.

think about their impact, but also think about how, you know, that's preserved today through the Black Cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers Association of Milwaukee.

All right.

Well, appreciate you both, Kevin, Natt.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

Appreciate it.

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