Whenever i’m on my skates i would say nothing else matters the lights are usually dim the music is bumping i see familiar faces you are constantly out of balance but trying to regain balance all while in motion and so whenever on my skates i’m just like i feel free It’s supposed to be twice a week but it’s usually more like six times a week if i’m not at the rink i’m just skating around the house honestly if i could sleep in my skates i probably would i am the founder of orbit collective a safe space for black and brown
Queer gender non-conforming skaters the idea for orbit collective started as seeking community and seeking i guess my tribe I identify as a queer non-binary femme i know that there’s plenty of black and poc skaters there’s a rich culture especially in new york but specifically for queer skaters that’s the crowd that i love to be around In new york city proper the only rink that we have is crazy legs and it’s not even a rink it’s a gym there were a ton at one point i’m always heartbroken that i wasn’t alive to experience them so way before my time we had transitioned from the disco era to
Hip-hop they took the disco records and then started scratching them up and making beats and then rhyming over them and then hip-hop was born in the bronx a lot of those artists i know got their start in rinks roller skating that’s more than fun it’s art back before all of that roller skating
Was actually very segregated there was a lot of restrictions there were only designated nights for black and poc people to skate and that was it there was a lot of protesting and speaking of your rights in terms of having permission to even skate given what my ancestors had to deal with
Just to have the opportunity to skate i think it’s amazing to carry on their legacy and i will say that skating especially with a lot of like older generations has connected me to music that i wasn’t around to hear in a different way When you have these labels of like queer and non-binary or anything like that by default you have to have an armor up because the world isn’t as open or sensitive to these identities there are things that you have to deal with things like sexual harassment unfortunately
Skating in and of itself is a very individual sport but there’s also partner skating and like group skating and so sometimes certain touches or whatnot can be very inappropriate or feel uncomfortable but we always practice open consent this is a place to come where we can just gather and
The main feedback that i get from people is like just thank you and then also the other key word is i feel safe thanks for watching our youtube channel follow today’s top stories and breaking news by downloading the nbc news app you
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