PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A new documentary about the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is being screened in Philadelphia, highlighting the organization’s work with young people in North Philadelphia while preserving the tradition of Urban Black Cowboys.
The documentary focuses on the riding club’s mission of providing a safe space for youth through horsemanship and community in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of North Philadelphia.
The nonprofit organization was founded in 2004 by Ellis “El-Dog” Ferrell.
Now 87, Ferrell continues to visit the stables every day while his son, Darrin Ferrell, oversees the club’s day-to-day programming and teaches life skills through horsemanship.
“I’m, still learning, still trying to teach them stuff. And I’m just trying to learn from him,” Darrin says.
Ferrell’s great-grandson, his namesake, is also involved in the club.
“We take anybody who wants to join,” the younger Ellis Ferrell says. He also appears in the documentary and says, “Being on TV, that’s pretty okay.. that’s pretty good.”
The documentary includes accounts of the challenges facing many of the young people who come to the club.
In the trailer, a club member says: “80% of the kids we get are on their last chances. Sometimes the horse becomes your last chance.”
“I really believe the culture transforms these kids into different people. I really believe that,’ says Darrin.
Yaasir Elyamani, who participates in the program, describes the impact it has had on him.
“When I first came, I was quiet. I didn’t really speak much, but,” Elyamani says.
He later adds that “it’s brought my confidence up a lot.”
The film will be screened at fundraisers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday, September 26, and at Tired Hands Mt. Airy Biergarten on October 3 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be pony rides, raffles, and food trucks at the event at Tired Hands.
“It’s just so wonderful how people have come together from around the city to help make this possible. It has been beautiful to watch all of this unfold,” says Fletcher Street CEO Nasreen Naidoo.
The Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is also raising money to move into a new barn and stables in Fairmount Park after the vacant lot used by Black horsemen and horsewomen for generations was redeveloped.
Click here if you’d like to support its efforts.
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