QFC what’s going on what going on actually you know what real quick so we just fin a video about two minutes ago and this fine gentleman right here came he saw us and he knew he wanted to get in front of the camera but guess what we
Got I told you we got Legends in the building and guess what we got one right here as soon as I put that camera down came right in so um you want to introduce yourself to the people right here that they don’t know you how you
Doing my name is Dr L David Stewart to the community I’m known as nisam founder of Suicide Kings president of black roller skating Federation gotcha gotcha gotcha so um real quick so um since this is my first real gu this our first real excuse me we ask you the uh the best
Questions since our first guess okay sure so uh so once she unlocks us real quick I can go ahead and get this going all right no problem so it’s are a little hard so if so to me I actually kind of authentic so don’t put anything know cussing there you know what I’m
Saying but know be honest with Y so so if you question to start with is co so during Co happen like 2020 2019 um in the community there was a lot of people that couldn’t go to scaming so a lot of time they went to like the SC the the parks
Were not kitchens basements when not so you feel like since Co has getting starting to come back from that before Co so do you feel like it’s growing it’s kind of in what’s your opinion about that for say Co is a blessing and a curse um okay because of Co more people
Got into skating which is a good thing okay I think some people feel I’m not one of them but some people feel that skating has become appropriated because of covid by people that they feeling not of the culture my personal feel that is that more people skate the more the
Skating ring stay open the more opportunities come from it so it is a blessing and a curse but I mean a lot of people could not skate and you people got creative on how to skate so it was a good thing overall to me okay now do you
Feel like that’s because of social media because we’re at home all the time we know we don’t on the phone we have nothing to do you feel like social media kind of you know helped that because of that again a double-edged sword so social media allows people to see it but
The thing is without context people are experts of a culture that they don’t know about so as I tell people in the case of JB is a great example there’s a lot of people that have seen people on video like myself and others but I highly recommend you go to the city from
Where the culture comes from so you can see it real time so often what happens in my observation is people come to Chicago and they’ll see it differently from the video maybe slow or things like that so it’s good for social media because it is expanded
Skating but it can be bad if you don’t find out the proper context of the culture that you’re trying to be a part of so you tell me it’s it could be it could be a curse in a way like said earlier correct okay okay all right all
Right natala what you think what you think what do you want to answer it’s good it’s good all right um when it comes to fear what would you tell somebody who just started skating so how how would they be overcome the fear how to overcome the fear of skating
Well the hardest thing about skating is everybody when they starts they fear falling so cuz you you fear the worst and no one likes to fall it’s a psychological thing so the first thing I tell people to do is fall hit the ground the ground’s going to be there you will
Live you may get hurt but you’ll live it’s kind of metaphor for life right so you face the fear by going at it you may get hurt you may not but don’t let it stop you it even impacts great skaters CU after a while you don’t fall so you
Stop trying because you don’t want to take risks but falling and skating is a metaphor for falling in life if you fall fall fast and get up get up and learn again and try till you get it okay okay those are insightful I like that okay
Okay um let me ask another one what what what is your favorite night to skate I don’t have a favorite night I just skate when I can um for context though I’ve been skating over 35 years okay so my former favorite night was this night on Sunday night at 87 at the
Ring um I’ve been Skating here since ’89 I stopped moved came back in 03 and back then Sunday nights used to look like Independence role so it’s a Sentimental thing at this session for me is what my cool Suicide Kings really kind of cut our teeth and got known at okay that’s
Interesting I like that all right did you have okay [Applause] um what’s one thing that you would like to see back in the skating community that might have left one maybe if you have more more honestly one I would say uh just camaraderie okay everything doesn’t need to be a competition okay so you got so many people competing to teach competing
To skate competing to say their best like at the end of the day skating is a first world thing right we’re not curing covid cancer we’re not curing the economy we literally get on a wooden floor to skate counterclockwise to music enjoy it there are some people that
Don’t get to do it it’s a fun thing and competition is native in our culture but we got to get back to just having fun and just showing love in general it’s not to say it doesn’t exist but right now everything is I want to step over
You to get the next opportunity and it shouldn’t be that way right okay that’s good because I was going to ask something about the competition thing too um you feel like there’s more competition or you know what’s so funny that was a question that she had and I thought you read her mind
So so I want to ask this person to you she so she had this question I thought was a good question probably the best question so so U me I used to be a former teacher back two years ago when I so as an educator I feel like you have a
Lot of you know game has a lot effects on the youth but not so backpacking yeah see see you see that so okay when you see backpacking in family sessions we we seen it on Friday night sessions here okay so what’s your response okay like you do something like
What’s in your what’s going on in your head we see a grown person kids with not whatever backpack in front of underage kids what do you feel about that well I don’t believe in polic and how people skate but I also would like to assume people have common sense I think
Backpacking is beautiful I think it’s a a very intimate form of skating it is um but I think we got to be aware of what we do in front of kids I myself am an educator I’m a college professor so I share similar awareness I think a lot of
Times people think well we can do whatever and it won’t have no impact my thing is if it’s a group of kids I wouldn’t want anyone to be overly sexual in front of them that’s me personally I mean the music will do enough right so my thing is if you’re
Backpacking that’s fine long as it’s not overly sexually suggestive because my my point within be what if that was your son your daughter your nephew your niece a young kid and skating is very influential right right because people are on the internet and they’re watching what we’re doing so when people watch
Certain cities of certain things they nons skaters think that’s all we do so again it contributes to the narrative so I would ask people just be mindful of what you do have fun do you but again if you had a family session you know you should be aware of that but that’s also
Incumbent on two other entities One The DJ should be aware of the music that he or she is playing number two the videographer should be very aware of what they’re capturing because videographers control the narrative that which we see yeah so if you’re constantly recording hypersexualized content and showing it to nons Skaters
Sex sales with at a cost so it’s kind of complex of all the players involved and uh it’s crazy that you said it because I age 100% I mean I feel like as a skater I I’ve been SK for a little minute now but being behind the camera you see it
From a different perspective and because of that you’re able to you say create the narrative I have the power to make you look way better than what you look in real time because what happens is I get to edit I get to cut I can speed up
Slow down so I can make you look way better than that and because of that I had control of that too so the influence I have is it’s astronomical so because of that these kids see that too and they know what’s on social Med like live page what
Not I’ve seen it on live pages to me like you said sex sale but I have morals I Le some nephews I have kids that come to a my P is small but it’s powerful too this kids come to me almost almost every day on my page hey Robert you get a
Video this and that so they’re watching so imagine seeing GR doing that all the time it’s like man I might see them on that next Friday session doing the same I’m like whoa I don’t do that and I play bills I I got a crib so what you doing
That for so that’s all I got to say you want to say something about that too you got something to say about that well I mean that’s how I feel about it um so um so these are little question got uh for you um let say you answer the
One about the competition um they didn’t want to on the competition more kind of wi about it sure so I think competition is a good thing it it makes people better but like everything in moderation so what happens is people get so competitive of I want to be the best
Skater and again it’s because of social media because of the Social Capital that that comes with so people battle so they can be seen that’s cool but don’t forget your why and then what happens is when people become overly competitive they forget to have fun so it’s like I want
To beat you or I see your video got liked so because you’re a popular skater I want to battle you that means nothing right at the end of the day we’re all skaters it doesn’t matter if you’re skating one year 35 right so I’ve been blessed to see the evolution of skating
So I try to tell people it’s okay for iron to sharpen iron but just know when to and when not to and it’s okay to learn like I’ve been skating from years and I watch I learn from everybody so I think again it’s kind of checking your
Ego at the door and it’s like wow she’s dope he’s dope that’s okay like I don’t feel like I got to go against everybody but again like right now it’s because of social media and other factors in the community there’s a over competitiveness that needs to calm down and then right
Now we’ve had great things like the Super Bowl where we had skaters Fact one of the skaters is here tonight who is a native of Chicago and beautiful out there right now and the thing is we I don’t compete with fellow skaters and my thing is what you’re good at I may not
Be and it’s a win for the culture a true win for the culture cuz a lot of people say I’m doing x with a culture I’m competing with a culture and it’s really for themselves and that’s okay but again be honest with yourself and if you’re competing compete for you compete to be
Better my thing is compete with the person in the mirror not with who got most likes or this that and the third cuz today’s Legend is tomorrow’s retire right and I mean no one’s problem is tomorrow so learn and have fun that’s my philosophy okay it’s kind of going off
You say I like you said I’m going ask you this too so with competition and they say it does help it make us better push us to a different level you you feel like certain areas like let’s how go to a Houston Atlanta I don’t know South Carolina somewhere maybe La you feel
Like more people are more competitive in different areas like you know down south or west east coast because I feel like to me personally I feel like this is just my opinion there’s a lot of uh politics and Egos and go a competition too this good competition like okay I
Want I want to compete with you make you better there also negative too like okay I want to compete no matter what you know I’m want to want to te your butt up you know like you know not help you out just just you know trying to pun you so
What do you feel about that per se I think every Lo every location has its own culture so you have its own version of that being born and raised in Chicago I’ve lived some places I’ve traveled and skated other places this conversation is repetitive everywhere so it’s this
Context that said Chicago has its own grit to it cuz everybody in Chicago kind of has a a chip on their shoulder JB culture has its own grit for its own reasons but I tell people when you go to other places you’re a guest in their
House you know as a JB skater if I go to the DMV area where snap is if I go to Atlanta where they do what they do you know my thing is I observe and watch their culture because they don’t do what we do and it’s same thing when you come
Here you’re guest in our house right and part of that is welcoming people that hey you know just cuz you esape with different wheels and do a different style at the end of the day we’re all United by the fact that we’re on eight wheels in a wooden floor so I try to
Keep that perspective and I think when you go other places go be a fan a lot of JB skaters at first are very uncomfortable when they skate somewhere else because it’s like they don’t skate to our music they don’t do what we do well the thing is they look at you the
Same way right uh so just take it in and like I said I’ve been there first time I traveled out of Chicago I was like what what are y’all doing but the more I traveled I was like wow that’s dope don’t knock it cuz you people laugh at
It then I be like then you try to do it people say the same about JB it’s like oh it’s just footwork and then they try it and they go oh it’s more to it yeah so again this is what we call a culture it’s different components of the culture
It’s like hip-hop right you got West Coast rap you got New York you got South you got Midwest it’s all the same it’s just different the way it’s exposed that’s all last question I like like this so we talk about JB and snap and all these other
Cultures whatnot so what do you feel like the one style is skating has a biggest influence JB you know in Atlanta or here and there like what do you feel like has a biggest influence there’s no one style that has influence everything goes in Cycles right so if you travel to National
Parties like up top as they call it or skating the house New Jersey and New York may be popular for a while then it may be JB for a while like right now to the point with regards to um other styles everything evolves so like especially popularity is very dangerous
Because what’s popular on one social media may not be popular or another and you got to just kind of travel around so no one style is dominant it’s roller skating right it’s so if you never lived in Chicago JB may be foreign to you you never traveled and seeing what they do
In Cali and how they roll in Stacy’s that’s foreign to you so no one style is ever dominant it’s just a matter of what you’re exposed to I’m speing but now you know um I feel like he he said everything I want to say I mean he’s beening my mind right now I
Don’t know what to say um this has been an honor uh T what you think how you feeling so we have more content coming this is one of main Legends what not he always show you a snipping of what’s going to come when not we def bring him
Back uh we have better equipment Poss head what not cuz there’s a lot of noise going on you have noise cancellation but guess what it’s just it’s a journey what not so we’re glad to have you guys we had a very special guest we appreciate you and U like I said like comment
Subscribe guys anything you want to say thank you for uh interviewing with us really appreciate it no problem thank you for having me of course of course um make sure you like comment share subscribe um and subcribe button we’ll see you another night L we out
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