Bring your own chairs and BYOB

Wine available with donation. Exact address to be sent the day before event to all registrants.

BLACK RODEO

Directed by Jeff Kanew • 1972 • 87 min •  United States

With Muhammad Ali. Narrated by Woody Strode

Answering the question of “Do Black cowboys exist?” BLACK RODEO documents the first-ever performance of an all African-American starring rodeo that took place at Randall's Island, NY right near Harlem, in 1971.  Bronc riding, calf roping, brahma bull riding -  these 50 Black rodeo riders from Texas, Oklahoma, California, Illinois and Michigan, along with Connecticut, New Jersey and even New York, shine an impressive light using skills audience members didn’t know existed through Black faces.  

Featuring a can’t miss appearance by “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali riding a horse on 125th Street (Harlem’s main street) and also a bull, the film is cemented by acting legend and cowboy Woody Strode (“Once Upon a Time in the West”, “Sergeant Rutledge”), who serves as this documentary’s narrator, leading a discussion of the history of the African American cowboy, and commentary on the event and its meaning by spectators.

Extra special thanks to Jeff Kanew, Ashley Clark, The Criterion Collection, and Jessica Green for helping to make this screening happen!