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For the past year or two, I have had the strongest urge to lean into gardening, western culture, and the idea of having land with animals and endless opportunities. Slowly but surely, my family has gained knowledge that made this urge make so much sense.

First, it started with us finding out about family-owned land just outside of Austin, Texas. Very soon after that, my mom and aunt started clearing the land and making legitimate plans to develop and build a family compound for us, with mixed-use spaces for the community to enjoy and learn from as well.

Next came the discovery of Jordan Peele’s documentary High Horse: The Black Cowboy. We binge-watched the episodes and finished within a few hours. This documentary unloads a lot of Black American history surrounding the cowboy and western culture. One of the main themes is the erasure of the Black Cowboy, and the exclusion some of us feel when trying to enter western spaces dominated by mostly white people.

Both of these things awakened something within me, the need to uncover my family’s legacy and keep that going. Fortunately, my mother has done DNA testing and stays current with her Ancestry.com account, and we were shocked and happy as hell to find out we had ranchers and farmers in our lineage, which allowed this land to stay in our family. Not only that, we were able to find out that one of our ancestors quite literally helped build this small town outside of Austin. This is literally in my blood. No amount of gatekeeping will be able to keep us away from this destiny.

High Horse also brought up the fact that a lot of Black Americans were not taught about our history with farming and ranching. Most people still try to cover up the fact that the original cowboys were Natives, Mexicans, and Black Americans. I mean, cowboy was a slur until it became cool enough to co-opt. I highly encourage anyone who cares to listen to watch High Horse on Peacock and see if it doesn’t change your perspective on a lot of things.

As for me, I’m going all in. I have applied to Agriculture Science degree programs because that’s how serious I am about this. This is the era of reclamation. We are taking our land back, and most importantly, we are taking our culture back.

Our goal in this next season of life is to get our land developed and create a community space where others can come learn about their history, learn to steward land, and become self-sustainable. With the increasing news of certain pesticides and chemicals in our grocery store food being linked to diseases later in life, it’s time for us all to learn how to organically produce our own food. Raise chickens, ride horses, and reconnect with everything our ancestors did that we have been largely disconnected from.

Lately, I’ve even been clearing out my social media feed and finding all of the Black western creators and farmers that I can because I want to make that my reality. I have already gotten so much support and offers for resources for this endeavor within the Austin community, and for that, I am so grateful.

I have talked a bit about my dreams for this land online and saw people get inspired by that, whether they said it to me directly or not. I saw that and the direct correlation. I saw a few people immediately make some of the same plans, and I love that for them. That’s another thing that’s keeping my fire going.

I also want to state that this is not about competition. It’s not about demonizing those who have tried to keep us out of this culture. It is about standing strong in our effort to reclaim something. I think this country has a problem with rewriting history, so this year we are about to let everyone know what’s what. That’s why I have also revamped my other Instagram account, HowdyKeay, to document and share some of the historical facts that we have uncovered. This page is still a work in progress, but soon we will be in full swing.

All of this is to also say, if you feel called to do something, please do it. Don’t worry about who is doing what outside of your bubble because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what you have built for yourself and the ones that will come after you.

I want to make sure I pass something down to my kids and that they have a strong sense of identity. So strong that no one will be able to tell them that it’s not for them or that it is something only white people do. That’s been the stereotype for a lot of things, and that ends now.

Happy Black History Month, then, now, and forever.