January 5, 2021 • 47 mins
Rollerskating is back in a big way! And even though OOD been known the joy of being on wheels, it's about time the rest of the world know what all the hype is about. So this week on You Down? OOD is talking to rollerskating phenom, Abominatrix, about the joy skating brings, the life lessons it can teach, and the history behind its roots. Plus! A listener with a conspiracy theorist for a roommate needs some advice.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to You Down, a production of Shonda Land Audio
and partnership with I Heart Radio. Skating is a really
easy way to connect to your city, to your town,
to your neighborhood, to yourself. So if it's something that
can seemingly almost be a mundane anyone can do it thing,
(00:20):
you can make those moments extremely powerful. Hi everyone, and
welcome back to you You Down. A podcast wherefore funny
honeys come together and talk about what's going down in
the culture. I'm shakin a pain, I'm Mommy a a
(00:42):
fo oh, I'm Ashley Holston and I'm Watkins. But collectively
we are known as Obama's other daughters. And you notice
made I don't know where which club I just went
to A well, speaking of the grooves that get us moving,
(01:10):
this week we're asking are you down with roller skating?
Since the pandemic, roller skating seems to have swiftly become
one of the most popular hobbies. We've seen all those
folks gliding and strolling and rolling across our Insta feeds
and TikTok screens. But today we also want to chat
a little bit about the backstory behind roller skating and
(01:33):
chat about the communities that helps bring us to this point. Today,
we're delving into the world of skating and helping us
navigate that convote with Gate Queen Francis McGhee a k
a Obama Natrix who. But first, it's a new year, guys,
as we're going into this new year of podcasting and
(01:55):
fun instead of love hating. What are some affirmations and
things that you want to call in for this new year.
I feel like mine's pretty succinct. I want the seeds
that I planted to blossom to grow. I've spent a
lot of time working, so I hope the work pays
off here here. I am all for a year of
(02:18):
harvest of justice, of a lot of fun and that
like for work that feels fun, Gigs that make my
spirits sing and that moved me closer to my purpose
and make an impact, and lots of roller skating. Those
are some things I want. Lots of love, lots of play,
(02:42):
and I affirm we abolished the police. We did it, guys,
just like that. Really, the only thing I can think
about is just like setting this bus up for future,
just because it's it's gonna mean that I am financially
(03:04):
just so much more free to do whatever it is
that I want to do. I don't have to take
a job that I don't feel passionate about. I won't
have to be in a location that I don't like. Um,
And so I want to have the strength and the
patients to finish this very tedious job where I am
(03:25):
learning a new skill every goddamn minute, um, and it
is teaching me a lot of patients. And so I
just I affirm that I have more patients, I'm gaining
more skill, and I get to use, um, all of
the hard work that I'm doing to better my life
and have financial freedom here. Yes, okay, So let me
(03:47):
talk about what I'm grateful for and I'm affirming for
this year. I am affirming peace of mind. I am
affirming patients. That's just something I want to work on
with it myself, abundance of love and you know, I'm lokey.
You want to affirm this traveling thing again and here
(04:09):
and then and work in these coins. I'm affirming that
all of the work that we're getting close to or
that I want to happen happens. So yes, and yeah,
I'm affirming peace on earth and goodwill. Tool man that
(04:31):
sounded so crunchy even as it was like very affirming.
As we start the new year, we are going to
talk about rollers kidding who But before we roller skate
off into the sunset, friends, let's take a quick break.
(04:57):
Welcome back, y'all. Let's get into our a topic this week,
roller skating so near and dear to my heart. Joining
us today is Francis McGee, a k a obamainatrix. She
is nor Cow. Oh hold on, girl, we're gonna We're
gonna give you a little nor Cow. Born and raised
(05:21):
by way of Oahu, Frances is a powerhouse roller skater
and skate instructor. She got her start doing roller derby
in Hawaii, where she ran her own skate shop and
then skated for five years with the Bay Area Derby League.
Named one of l magazines eight black roller skaters you
should already be following on Instagram, I concur. She is
(05:42):
the founder of Rising Skate, a co founder of Sister Skates,
and the newest member of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.
She goes events for black and brown skaters to come
together and empowers women to get involved in political organizing
through ruler skating. Be sure to check out her directorial
debut for a skate visual she co directed with Yaz
(06:04):
that came out on November eleven, Welcome a Bomb. Hey,
thank you so much. We're so happy to have you.
How wild really truly? How wild aside? Really quickly? I
learned how to roller skate through watching Planet roller Skate
and seeing the Moxie roller Skate girls. So I saw
(06:27):
you on YouTube long before I ever ran into that
Moxie roller Skate shop. And I remember walking in and
being like, that's one of the moss. So this really
is so wild, that's crazy. It's funny that you came
in because I saw you guys on the internet before
you came into the store, which Loki was like tripping
(06:52):
me out because I have a specific memory of my
husband being like, dude, okay, before you do anything today,
you gotta watch this group Obama's daughters there and it
was so funny. You got to watch it, and I did,
and I was like, this is hilarious. And I sent
it to my parents and they were like, this is hilarious.
We're gonna send it to our grandma who was Alzheimers.
(07:14):
So I don't know how yeah, how she like absorbed
it or not, but like it was like a chained
like show it, show it, show it, show it. And
then you guys walked in and I was like, to
be cool. Meanwhile, the same thing on the other side,
he's a professional skaters and we need to be cool.
So a mom telling us how long have you been
(07:36):
skating and what got you into it? Well, I always
wanted to roller skate. I just sucked at it, you know,
trying as a kid, and I like had the banana
peel feet situation. I couldn't stay up. I was falling constantly.
I was a mess. You guys, I couldn't do it.
I feel like you were like at the skate ring
holding the wall like one of those people and then
(07:59):
or they like um slow skaters to the center of
the circle, right, like you can spread your arms as
far out as you do is like this ball and
get yourselves in the center of the circle. Yeah. I
couldn't even imagine having to get past the wall. I
kind of wrote it off, you know, like not a thing.
And in my early twenties, my health was like in
(08:22):
a severe place. I have epilepsy. So my epilepsy was
like not doing too great it was just like a
lot of seizures on a pretty frequent basis, trying to
get my nutrition in line in a way to like
help that. It was just challenging. Work was tough, My
relationship at the time was tough, and I just wanted
(08:43):
something that was like more my time to find that
kid again, that brave child that went out onto the rink,
even though like probably should have never been there, but
was like so bold, like I want to jam skate
in the center. I don't care, I'm going to follow
a million times. Eventually it'll happen, you know. And I
really had distanced myself from that person, and when everything
(09:08):
was not going away, I wanted it to or what
I had envisioned for myself at that point in my life.
But your early twenties is a fantasy enough, and I
just was like, why don't I have all the things
that I want? Why is my health suck? And why
is this relationship not giving me what I need? That
vision of this powerful person that I wanted as a
(09:32):
kid just wasn't happening, and I just I couldn't figure
out why. I get a little tear eyed even just
thinking about that time period, and I just decided what
if I did something wild, Like, like what if I
just like, what out here in Hawaii? There's, by the way,
(09:53):
no one skates. There's no store, there wasn't a story
you could go buy a pair of skates. Ad there's
no roller rink out there, which is weird because on
Rocket Power, surfing and skating, where you know hand in hand,
everyone did both, right, but not in Hawaii famous documentary
Rocket Power. I happen to find skates at a frift
(10:19):
store way too big for me, stuff socks in their
classic style one out and like I was constantly being
reinforced that it was a ridiculous thing I was doing,
but I didn't care. I was like, forget it. I
feel ridiculous not doing this. I feel stressed out, not
living in a way that's bringing me joy. So I'm
gonna go figure this out. And I would go out
(10:41):
and mess around in a parking lot at night by myself. Yeah,
no one can see, no one could hear you cry,
just alone in the dark, and did that for a
while until I was like, okay, I can stand up,
but now what? And then I had to google some
(11:01):
stuff and there wasn't anything on the internet. At that time,
twelve years ago. I mean I've been skating for twelve years.
I started in about two eight in Hawaii. I couldn't
find anything. There were no classes, there were no rinks.
There are actually laws against skating in public in Hawaii,
and like you could get a ticket. Why, yeah, where
do you skate if there's no rink? I was in
(11:23):
a parking lot, like horrible parking lots. You couldn't skate
on the street. The streets are the worst streets in
the United States, pretty accurate. They don't let you skate. Like,
what's the reason behind the law? Is it like footloose
where you just can't dance exactly? It's kind of like footloose.
I like to imagine that in the nineties. And none
(11:44):
of this is accurate or proven, but this is my
imagination of why this is happening. So like in the nineties,
there were a lot of tourists coming in, and maybe
there was a lot of cocaine, and there were too
many bathing suits, too many thongs out men and women.
Everybody's butts were out, everybody was skating, everybody who was
(12:06):
falling down getting road rash on their butts. I just
couldn't handle it anymore that all these tours were coming in,
falling down, scraping their asses, asking for money. And they
were like, that's it, these cocaine tourists. What is out
We're gonna just like stop it now. No roller blades,
no roller skates. It's easy. That makes a lot of
(12:27):
sense to me. I don't know about you guys, but
I mean scraping the booty out here, try to skate.
I'm out. I'm done. Whenever I see someone skating in
a bikini or any baby THISSI and I'm like, girl,
you are so confident in bravering, like just wearing a bikini,
but in skating in one girl, because if youll it's
full body. I mean, that's how I feel about people
(12:50):
who drive motorcycles and just be like shirt list or something.
I'm like, oh you real, boe, you you trust yourself
more than I trust myself. If anything well, and then
the fun anything too. Like Hawaii, you can ride a
motorcycle without a helmet, but if you wear sunglasses it's okay.
(13:19):
So like you know, you hear those rules and you're like,
I'm gonna break these. Yeah, did you get your name? Obama? Maatrix.
So like when I first started, a derby was the
thing that was happening was coming up. It was like
the underground thing. Can you describe derby? Roller derby is
this alternative sport on roller skates that is played like
(13:41):
five on five and it's offense and defense at the
same time. So it happens on a flat track. So
if you think Nascar, like, the originating of roller derby
was more like Nascar, where everyone lines up and it's
teams and whoever like remains out the longest is like
the victor. And then over time it adapted to this
like offense defense thing where there's like four blockers from
(14:02):
each team all lined up right and then two jammers
that are lined up behind them, and they have to
fight through kind of like rugby style, through the pack,
and the first one to break out is awarded this
thing called lee jammers, so you can end it at
any time, but ultimately these jams gone for two minute intervals,
and however many points is determined by how many hits
(14:25):
you passed with the opposite team, So obviously there's a
lot of hitting and knocking people out of bounds, working
together to keep that jammer back, Oh crazy export on wheels.
I'm like trying to imagine. So you have to pick
your own name. That took a while too long of
a period of time where I wore to name tags
to practice, like what name do you guys think have?
(14:50):
And this was a good lesson for me to learn
and putting too much value in the opinion of other
people because they all told me this name that I'm
deep down and I didn't really like. And then the
other name was Obama Matrix and people will be like,
that name does not suit you. You should go with
this other one. So you and I was like, I'm
(15:11):
gonna go buy Obama Matrix and you know that was
picking it, but nerd level it's from a comic book.
Love it. I love the idea of like sometimes I
will have two choices and I don't know which one
I want, and I'll ask somebody else for their opinion
(15:33):
just so that a choice can be made, and then
I'll know, oh, no, that's not the one choice I wanted.
You pick the wrong one. But it does help you
to decide, Oh that's not really what I wanted. It's
a litmus test almost, So can you speak a little
bit about the roots and evolution of roller skating in
your family. Word on the street is that you got
(15:55):
some deep skating ties. Yeah. So, like I started doing
roller derby totally unaware of the history and my family
with roller skating, Like, I just had no idea. So
it first came out with my uncle Stephen, you know,
revealing to me that he was a bouncer for roller
(16:16):
derby in Kansas, and he was like, it was pretty sweet.
It was a good time, free beer fights, ladies, it
was the time. And so like this resurgence roller derby
that I was doing, he would refer to as cute.
That's cute, that's some that's nice, all right, that's guy's
doing it. But back in my day, you know where
(16:38):
the punches like who's the heavy, Like it harkens back
to this wrestling era. Roller derby and wrestling were the
same circuit back in the day. But anyways, he was
a bouncer for that and kind of educated me on, like, girl,
you don't even know what the history of this is.
So that was cool. And then I also found out
(16:59):
from my great uncle Bob he married his competitive dance partner,
which I had no idea they had that history of
being competitive skate dancers together. And he was living on
Kauai and he saw me skating and like, you know,
a small little scrimmage and he lost his mind. Like
(17:22):
he was on the top leacher. We're in Kauai, a
bunch of local people just drinking beer, watching women just
smash each other, and he's on the top row being like,
that's my baby. You know. They like busted this spin
move to get out of something, and he was like,
that's John Nettet movement. I was like, what are you
(17:48):
talking about. He's like, girl, you don't know. Our family
are gifted in movement, like we are champions. They were
involved in this pretty intense circuit back in as this
skating together and my grandmother had another partner and she
was doing that too. I thought it was being unique.
(18:09):
I thought it was being like a rebel. And they
were like, that's nice, look at you coming into it.
Wait till you unleash those movements that are truly rooted
within you, you know. And they just patiently waited for
me to come to skate dancing, and that was also
really sweet of them to not push but like wait
(18:30):
for it. I can't imagine you speaking about your grandmother
being a part of the community to your uncle's Like,
we know that it's a microcosm of the world, like
skating that world. And there's so many great documentaries like
United Skates which we all watched on HBO, which credits
America's roller rinks as an incubator for East Coast hip
(18:53):
hop and West Coast wrap. I thought that was so
cool and important to know it was huge, It was
so important, and that's what sucks that all these places
are getting shut down and people are getting pushed out.
Um So, like, in what ways have you seen that
black people are being disenfranchised in the sport of skating
(19:14):
as a whole? Oh gosh. A lot of the examples
that we saw United Skates with taking kind of control
over certain nights of the week and what people are wearing,
and in terms of apparel, but also in terms of
like the equipment skates, and not only that, but the
(19:36):
movement and style of the skating, whether they're by themselves
or with more people in terms like partners, triples, trains,
all of that. They start to regulate that. And by
day I mean roller rinks. Not every roller rink is
(19:56):
like this, but to be honest. In my area where
I'm from, in northern California, about three out of the
four rinks all do these there. And I've seen it.
I've witnessed it. I've seen like this white kid, this
teenage boy, doing flips on his skates in front of
(20:18):
people and like kind of throwing people off. Like if
you were roller skating and someone did a flip in
front of you and like miss their landing a bit
and like fell in front of you, that's a little jar.
But yeah, it's kind of a safety thing. But while
I'm at that rink, I have earbuds in and I
was asked, I was physically like grabbed and asked to leave,
(20:43):
like they were guiding me trying to like bounce me
from the rink. We're wearing headphones. What. Meanwhile, this kid
is like flipping and flopping all over the floor, and
I'm like, hey, but what about that kid who's like
clearly causing a safety thing. Like this is a safety thing.
And I've done nothing to, you know, upset anything except
(21:05):
for the DJ being offended that I don't want to
listen to Abba for this third time. That's one way
that it happens. Another thing that I heard that I
actually experienced again, like talking about that nor Cow where
I'm from and the rinks that are there. I've always
been teaching. I've always been trying to create spaces for
(21:28):
folks to come learn and skate in an alternative way,
well like for the at home ABM taught me so
many skills, like I'm over here starting to turn and
ship and feel more confident on my wheel's confidence. You know.
I want to share confidence and share what I've learned,
(21:50):
and there's a lot of like tricks and things that
people can benefit from and having a space to do that.
But I've been turned away from rinks specific lee because
they're afraid of who would show up to the classes
that I'm doing. And the discrimination was not only about race.
(22:10):
And the code word between all of these rinks that
I had gone to is called particular demographic, is what
they refer to it as. And when I would press
and ask more because I'm light skinned and people like,
we'll say stuff to me because they're like, she's wife whatever,
and they would disclose that it was specifically black people
(22:32):
and specifically poor people. So it's not just relegating people
to specific soul nights. Black Nights a k a. Adult Nights.
They've been renamed since Jim Cruff over and over and
over and over again. Two isolate and keep a particular
(22:53):
demographic at a low manageable number during a time of
the week that is oftentimes for what was seeing at
one point in time. It's like a slow knighte wom right. Yeah,
I feel like I'm a little privileged in the fact
that I'm from Baltimore, so the demographic is majority black,
so it would be not beneficial at all for the
(23:16):
skate rings to push us out. So like me growing
up and going to Putty Hill as a kid, I
saw a lot of people who look like me, but
it was also a blend. And it's just because of
the city I'm in. But like hearing this, I'm thinking
of in California, it's not always those numbers, and that
sucks because it was always just a fun, good time
that should be enjoyed by all of us. I feel
(23:39):
similarly to skating as I feel like to improv, like
two things that have brought me so much joy that
I feel like when I tell black folks that I do,
they're like, what's improv roller skate? But black people should
have access to these things. Yeah, and speaking of access,
we know that you're involved in several skate spaces in
(24:02):
Los Angeles, from Rising Skate to Sister Skaters. Can you
talk a little bit about what it's like creating safe
space for black women skaters in l A, why that's
important to you, and what prompted you to create them.
So creating safe spaces for black people in general, not
just you know, women, but I identify with that film energy,
(24:27):
so I welcome it's so much. I get really excited
because we tend to feel sometimes vulnerable or isolated or
so many things like that. I just experienced when I
first started skating, all of those feelings of like feeling embarrassed,
feeling ashamed, feeling vulnerable, scared, but really wanting to explore
(24:50):
something but not be alone. I just wanted people not
to feel alone. And I created them probably because I
was feeling alone and feeling like I'm needed something And
maybe if I throughout a beacon of light like other
people would kind of gravitate towards it. If you build it,
(25:10):
they will come. Yeah, the old dreams totally Rising Skate
came out of complete frustration, like just full blown, needing
to channel like anger, needing to channel movement, needing to
like find peace with within such a lack of control.
(25:35):
And so the point of that was simply just to
move through the streets together and try to observe where
our community was currently standing. Rising Skate started at the
beginning of COVID, so it was just a way to
get out and move and witness what was happening in
your city during what I felt was the safest time
(25:58):
of day to do that, which was in the morning,
because as the day would go on, you would notice
things like National Guard forming, police barricading and trying to
control the flow of traffic and stuff like that. But
if you were up early before these movements were starting
to exercise and mobilize, you could get the lay of
(26:21):
the land a little bit better, but also check into
your shop keep and remind them like you're still here
and you're happy that they're here, and to like, you know,
stay with it. And then Sister Skate was about creating
an opportunity for coalition and action and trying to bring
(26:42):
some harmony to a dysfunctional time, and that I think
was naturally developed out of that frustration and anger and
needing to just be out and see it. It's like, Okay,
what else can we do? How do we give back?
There's a lot I think that and come from just
being out and physically experiencing your city. And in what
(27:06):
ways have you used roller skating in service of Black
liberation and the skate actions you created with BLM long Beach.
Could you speak on that. Skating is a really easy
way to connect to your city, to your town, to
your neighborhood, to yourself. So if it's something that can
seemingly almost be a mundane anyone can do it thing.
(27:31):
You can make those moments extremely powerful because it's part
of somebody's natural, part of their day. So if you
can make just getting on your skates something that could
be just as simple as going around your neighborhood, and
you invoke the idea of community and power into that,
it becomes a vessel to really do something different. And
(27:56):
I think one of the biggest examples of that was
Juneteenth in downtown l A, where we got together on
our skates or anyone who is willing to roll in
whatever way. People identified that all wheels welcome. Yeah, people
were jogging it and running it and biking it and
skating it in all kinds of ways, but something about that, like,
(28:21):
come be a part of this move with me through here,
but first listen to why it is that we're here
and why we should care so much about this. And
I just challenge you to go out and invoke some
real change, like as much energy as you brought to
coming here and putting on your skates, which can be
(28:41):
a huge challenge for people, and it sounds kind of
wild if you don't skate, and you might not necessarily
understand what that feels like. But then I dare you
to go try to skate, and you're gonna feel it
for like lasing up your skates, like what am I doing?
Why am I doing this? What is this for? That
whole talk in your head can have an aim in
(29:04):
a direction beyond your skating, because the feeling that you
get when you skate follows you for the rest of
the day. It becase endorphins, all of that stuffed fires
and remains with you. It has healthy benefits. And so
if you're taking that energy and manifesting an attitude towards action,
(29:26):
what can you do with that? You know? And I
experimented with this really long time ago, twelve years ago,
when I was learning how to skate, I went out
and during that particular time, it was the Civil Unions
Bill in Honolulu, Hawaii was like up for a vote,
(29:48):
and I remember being like, I don't have appropriate shoes
to march in, but I do have these skates, and
I have been learning how to stop. But I feel
pretty good about stopping right now, which is important. Yeah,
And I was like, what else can I do now
that I've learned how to stop. I could do anything.
(30:08):
So I thought, I'll go down to the state capital
and join all these people who are picketing and marching
and have something to say about this and want to
feel represented. So I went down there on my skates
and it was like rejuvenating to the people that were there.
They were like excited that I was on skates and
(30:28):
made then feel good. I felt good. I gotta do
more laps around the capital. I skated into the capital.
I skated into representatives offices. I was like skating in
places where you're really not supposed to. It is really
one of my favorites, just like, yeah, I'm not supposed
to skating in this building. I want to skate them all.
So bad, I'm sorry to put you off, and just
(30:50):
surfaces in my head. It was like I need to
do that. But that was the beginning of realizing like, oh,
this is possible. I was the only one doing it.
And then when we're in this position where we are
right now, just historically looking at everything, like reflecting on
my grandmother and my uncle, my great uncle, all of
(31:12):
these people in my family who have passed on, but
also relatives that I'm building relationships now with cousins and
their children and continually discovering that we're all still have
this skating as a part of what we do to cope,
what we do to create, what we do to give
back and fill our own cut back up. It has
(31:35):
a ripple effect and people who skate out in the street,
if you keep your eyes up and you look out
and you make eye contact with people, it's a whole
other world. People receive you in a different way, and
in a lot of ways. It's usually always on an
unexpected connection that people have, and that levels a lot
(31:57):
of bullshit out because a lot of ships to the side,
and when you're skating out in the street, you you
take away those restrictive hangovers of Jim Crow is what
I'm going to call some of these rules. We move
those things aside and they're no longer have power within
that space, and another thing has room to grow, and
(32:19):
I just want to see that through. I want to
see where that goes. I want to know what else
is possible. And again, the seed was planted twelve years ago,
so it's still butting at this point. I think it's
starting to see the light. And it's so cool to
see you in that light. A bomb. I just remember,
(32:41):
like ash she said, meeting you at the shop, but
then seeing you flourish out in the world in the
way that you're just like really intentional about using this
sport as like a means of pushing back and just
like sort of sneaking in the message about black liberation.
Like it's so so cool. It's a cool space, man.
I feel like street skating is one of my favorite forms.
(33:04):
You know. The rink is cool, it's nice and smooth,
but it can be crowded. You already mentioned the music
can sometimes be trash. Can you talk about some of
the difference between rink street and I know some people
go to the actual skate parks. There's a ton of
skating out there. Yeah, you can park skate, which has
become really popular within the last i'd say ten years
or so. It's a beautiful place to be, but that's
(33:27):
also its own thing. And street skating can be a
multitude of things. It can be a complete combination of
what you learn in the rink how that translates out
to whatever surface you happen to be on outside. But
street skating and actually less moving through the street is
a hybrid blend of so many different things because there's
(33:50):
just a ton of variables when you're skating out. But
for me, I like to blend kind of like an
aggressive street skating style sile where I'm using slide blocks
and finding ledges or jumping up onto curbs and exploring
the space more. But I can also cruise for hours
and hours and hours that feels really beautiful and serene
(34:12):
and calm and soothing, meditative, but also like just dancing
up the street kind of creating. Like this modern street
skating style is like my favorite. I highly recommend going
to a Bon's YouTube and just like falling into the
mesmerizing skate visuals that she's got. She's trying to describe
(34:35):
it for you guys, but go check it out. Yeah.
Have you guys watched Sesame Street back in the day,
classic eighties Sesame Street and there was like a tap
dancer he used to come on, Savion Glover. Yes, yes,
my true inspiration right there. You know, I can see
(34:55):
the connection as soon as you said that. Yeah, that
is my happy place that I go to, like within
myself and just like dancing down the street. You know,
I don't have big bird or anything like that, but
making any space that you're within its own magical ecosystem
is like my my goal. And if you're just traveling
(35:19):
in one little bubble of one just going up the
strand or along the beach, like more power to you
or through your neighborhood, awesome. But to fully emote on
your skates, that's my absolute goal. Um avum. What advice
do you have for new skaters just getting into the sport.
I was in the roller rinkin elementary school, but I
(35:40):
haven't tapped back into it as an adult. So any inspo? Yeah,
So new and returning skaters, I would say breathing is
like number one. We tend to hold our breath right
like when you put on skates The first since ation
you're going to have when you're new is very natural,
(36:03):
and it's like a fight or flight moment where you
put them on. Yeah, the first time, you know, you
could have this urge to kind of want to walk
or run away from the situation that you're in. But
because you have wheels on, you have to uh kind
of softened into it and ground down through those four
to eight points on the ground, you know, through your feet.
(36:26):
So I think that breathing and absorbing back down into
the ground is something that you'll have to expect and
just come to terms with that. That's a beautiful place
to be, even if you're just standing in your skates
for three minutes in a time in place that is fine.
Accept it, Let it be. I love that. Thank you.
(36:49):
And maybe we're some safety gear because you're gonna fin now.
No songs, maybe no, Maybe some of us need hard nudges. Literally,
the reason why we went into a Bomb's shop in
the first place was because, as she had warned me,
don't go to the skate park without a helmet, Jasmine,
(37:09):
and I was like, whatever, Ashley, I can do this.
And I was like going all around and I hit
my head and got a concussion. Did you get a concussion?
Was that confirmed? The doctor said it was. Maybe it was.
He said it might be a slight concussion. He said
maybe possibly slight, very slightly scan of that brain. The
(37:36):
point is I was like, I need a helmet, as
she was right and uh a bomb you came into
our lives. But the helmet game for for black girls, though,
it's so rough trying to put it on top of
your fro. There's some tricks and tips and I was like,
let me help you. Here's here's the one for if
(37:59):
you have braids. I was like, oh my god, customers,
Oh my goodness, last queue. What's your favorite skate movie
or song to skate too? What I got tonight? I mean,
(38:22):
that's a good one. There's no way around that. Your
shoulders go with that, your hips start going, and then
you're off. You're skating. There's no stopping it there. But
for me personally, I tend to skate to music that
almost feels like the diary of my soul and a
(38:42):
lot of like when people are skating with me or
what you see on the internet is usually not the
songs that I'm actually skating too, because I am not
a rich girl. I can't be paying all these artists
from the area. Yeah, universe, But there's a lot of
(39:06):
music out there that I just like connect to so
deeply that it's hard to even pick one. I hate
to that's okay, say that. I wish I could pick
one thing. A song thirty three though, the one that
we directed to is a song that is one of
those songs that was one of those inside songs that
(39:29):
I skate two moved to and then we did it
out loud and that was so magic, ry and beautiful. Yeah, Kira,
you would be so proud of me. One of my
favorite skate songs is a female rapper one because I'm
(39:49):
a bit from the South, or make You Move your Shoulders?
Those are my two. Does anybody else have like skate
songs that were like there too? We're trying to get
mommy to get some skates. Yes, but mommy, what would
(40:09):
your skate song be? Oh, that's a great question. There's
a lot of pressure. There's a lot of pressure. Um.
I think one of them would definitely be Electric Lady
by Jenellma. That the first classic one. I think that's
the theme song of my life. And September Fired feel
(40:35):
like Avalanche Champagne King, I get into that Russian Those
are my girls, Sylvester, you make me feel is so bomb,
so you make with you yo a bomb. Thank you
so much for joining this conversation on roller skating and
(40:55):
talking to us about the history of it and forward
movements for it. For our listeners at home, where can
they find out more about you? You can follow me
on Instagram. Obama Matrix is the handle A b O
M I N t r i x Bomber Matrix and
I'm also on YouTube by that same name. Yeah, everyone
(41:20):
go check out all of her skate stuff, sign up
for all of her classes, and yeah, make sure to
check out the skate visual that we co directed to
No Names song thirty three. This has been surreal and
beautiful and awesome. You guys are a talented group of
people that I admire very much. So right back at
(41:42):
your sister, we love you. It's time for us to
give some advice, but first we're going to take a
quick break. Welcome back, Welcome back. It's time for us
(42:07):
to give a lucky listener some advice. Mommy, and what
do you have for us today? Today's letter reads, Dear O. D.
My roommates still thinks that COVID is a hoax, oh man,
and I need y'all help. I'm making him realize it's not,
and that him saying it not only makes him look
stupid but makes me feel unsafe. The whole damn world
(42:30):
is suffering. People have died, and he's all like the
government is trying to scare us. Should I move out
or just my my business or try to bring him
to the light. It's hard in these streets. Please advise,
COVID is no hoax. Oh man. That is a tough one.
I don't think it's that tough. You just gotta distance
(42:52):
yourself from this. But your kitchen, your kitchen, you're sharing space.
You gotta go toilet because they probably and if they
get it, then you're gonna get it. So I've been
on your forks. Yeah I saw it. Um, Yeah, COVID
(43:16):
is no hoax. You're right. COVID is no hoax. And
if somebody's messing around with their life and they want
to pull you into it, you need to remove yourself
in the situation. I believe because he's basically holding your
hand as he's about to jump off the bridge. Right,
let go of his hand. I don't let him drag
you down. That sounds toxic. Yeah, I mean, and I
(43:38):
know it's hard to find a new roommate in the
middle of COVID, but there are a lot of people
trying to sublet right now. There are there's probably someone
who's looking for a really clean person. So maybe if
you put that in your description and you're like super strict,
like bleach every day, you'll find a map. Yeah, you
don't want to get COVID on a humbug because your
(43:59):
roommate didn't leaving it. That would be ale because you
were trying to be too polite and yeah, girl, ahead
go ahead and tell him this is not working out
and get yourself to somewhere safe. And also this might
be an opportunity for you to live alone. I mean,
a lot of people are moving out. Is a lot
of vicious happening unfortunately, so that is a reality. I mean,
(44:26):
but I'm just saying, like you could probably find a
studio for much cheaper than what it used to be,
because yeah, I hear what you're saying. I feel like
we're kind of saying the same thing. I mean, this
was an easy advice letter, girl, Yeah, don't play with
your life, your literal life. This is literally life or death.
Find somewhere new to live and quick and don't let
(44:48):
them get mad and start coughing on your forks and
you don't pay. I've heard stories, Okay, hopefully I know
petty label hopefully not. Petty label believes in COVID. I think, well,
(45:13):
COVID is no hoax. Um, hope that helps. We think
it should because that's the only answer, honestly unanimous. Go ahead,
skate away from that that situation. Oh oh my gosh,
you guys today was so fun. Thank you to Obama
(45:35):
Atrix for coming out for Yeah, Ashley and Kira being skaters,
sharing your experiences. Maybe one day I'll join on the
light side. Um, we'll see though, But ahead and commit
right now, commit to what I commit to, committing to,
(45:57):
commit to commit, committing to commit to lawyers. Not like
a politician. I almost was a politician anyway, you guys, Um,
we appreciate you all tuning in. Please remember to share
and review this podcast. It helps us figure out what
you want to hear and what you love and all that.
So thank you, yes and come hang with us on
(46:20):
the socials at Obama's of the Datas on Instagram, Oh
the Improv on Twitter and on Facebook at Obama's of
the Daughters. You might even catch us skating together. And
if you need some advice or you know someone who does,
send your letters to us at O D podcast at
gmail dot com. We'll see you guys next week. Hi
(46:46):
You Down is a production of Shawnda land Audio and
partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shawnda
land Audio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to You Down, a production of Shonda Land Audio
and partnership with I Heart Radio. Skating is a really
easy way to connect to your city, to your town,
to your neighborhood, to yourself. So if it's something that
can seemingly almost be a mundane anyone can do it thing,
(00:20):
you can make those moments extremely powerful. Hi everyone, and
welcome back to you You Down. A podcast wherefore funny
honeys come together and talk about what's going down in
the culture. I'm shakin a pain, I'm Mommy a a
(00:42):
fo oh, I'm Ashley Holston and I'm Watkins. But collectively
we are known as Obama's other daughters. And you notice
made I don't know where which club I just went
to A well, speaking of the grooves that get us moving,
(01:10):
this week we're asking are you down with roller skating?
Since the pandemic, roller skating seems to have swiftly become
one of the most popular hobbies. We've seen all those
folks gliding and strolling and rolling across our Insta feeds
and TikTok screens. But today we also want to chat
a little bit about the backstory behind roller skating and
(01:33):
chat about the communities that helps bring us to this point. Today,
we're delving into the world of skating and helping us
navigate that convote with Gate Queen Francis McGhee a k
a Obama Natrix who. But first, it's a new year, guys,
as we're going into this new year of podcasting and
(01:55):
fun instead of love hating. What are some affirmations and
things that you want to call in for this new year.
I feel like mine's pretty succinct. I want the seeds
that I planted to blossom to grow. I've spent a
lot of time working, so I hope the work pays
off here here. I am all for a year of
(02:18):
harvest of justice, of a lot of fun and that
like for work that feels fun, Gigs that make my
spirits sing and that moved me closer to my purpose
and make an impact, and lots of roller skating. Those
are some things I want. Lots of love, lots of play,
(02:42):
and I affirm we abolished the police. We did it, guys,
just like that. Really, the only thing I can think
about is just like setting this bus up for future,
just because it's it's gonna mean that I am financially
(03:04):
just so much more free to do whatever it is
that I want to do. I don't have to take
a job that I don't feel passionate about. I won't
have to be in a location that I don't like. Um,
And so I want to have the strength and the
patients to finish this very tedious job where I am
(03:25):
learning a new skill every goddamn minute, um, and it
is teaching me a lot of patients. And so I
just I affirm that I have more patients, I'm gaining
more skill, and I get to use, um, all of
the hard work that I'm doing to better my life
and have financial freedom here. Yes, okay, So let me
(03:47):
talk about what I'm grateful for and I'm affirming for
this year. I am affirming peace of mind. I am
affirming patients. That's just something I want to work on
with it myself, abundance of love and you know, I'm lokey.
You want to affirm this traveling thing again and here
(04:09):
and then and work in these coins. I'm affirming that
all of the work that we're getting close to or
that I want to happen happens. So yes, and yeah,
I'm affirming peace on earth and goodwill. Tool man that
(04:31):
sounded so crunchy even as it was like very affirming.
As we start the new year, we are going to
talk about rollers kidding who But before we roller skate
off into the sunset, friends, let's take a quick break.
(04:57):
Welcome back, y'all. Let's get into our a topic this week,
roller skating so near and dear to my heart. Joining
us today is Francis McGee, a k a obamainatrix. She
is nor Cow. Oh hold on, girl, we're gonna We're
gonna give you a little nor Cow. Born and raised
(05:21):
by way of Oahu, Frances is a powerhouse roller skater
and skate instructor. She got her start doing roller derby
in Hawaii, where she ran her own skate shop and
then skated for five years with the Bay Area Derby League.
Named one of l magazines eight black roller skaters you
should already be following on Instagram, I concur. She is
(05:42):
the founder of Rising Skate, a co founder of Sister Skates,
and the newest member of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.
She goes events for black and brown skaters to come
together and empowers women to get involved in political organizing
through ruler skating. Be sure to check out her directorial
debut for a skate visual she co directed with Yaz
(06:04):
that came out on November eleven, Welcome a Bomb. Hey,
thank you so much. We're so happy to have you.
How wild really truly? How wild aside? Really quickly? I
learned how to roller skate through watching Planet roller Skate
and seeing the Moxie roller Skate girls. So I saw
(06:27):
you on YouTube long before I ever ran into that
Moxie roller Skate shop. And I remember walking in and
being like, that's one of the moss. So this really
is so wild, that's crazy. It's funny that you came
in because I saw you guys on the internet before
you came into the store, which Loki was like tripping
(06:52):
me out because I have a specific memory of my
husband being like, dude, okay, before you do anything today,
you gotta watch this group Obama's daughters there and it
was so funny. You got to watch it, and I did,
and I was like, this is hilarious. And I sent
it to my parents and they were like, this is hilarious.
We're gonna send it to our grandma who was Alzheimers.
(07:14):
So I don't know how yeah, how she like absorbed
it or not, but like it was like a chained
like show it, show it, show it, show it. And
then you guys walked in and I was like, to
be cool. Meanwhile, the same thing on the other side,
he's a professional skaters and we need to be cool.
So a mom telling us how long have you been
(07:36):
skating and what got you into it? Well, I always
wanted to roller skate. I just sucked at it, you know,
trying as a kid, and I like had the banana
peel feet situation. I couldn't stay up. I was falling constantly.
I was a mess. You guys, I couldn't do it.
I feel like you were like at the skate ring
holding the wall like one of those people and then
(07:59):
or they like um slow skaters to the center of
the circle, right, like you can spread your arms as
far out as you do is like this ball and
get yourselves in the center of the circle. Yeah. I
couldn't even imagine having to get past the wall. I
kind of wrote it off, you know, like not a thing.
And in my early twenties, my health was like in
(08:22):
a severe place. I have epilepsy. So my epilepsy was
like not doing too great it was just like a
lot of seizures on a pretty frequent basis, trying to
get my nutrition in line in a way to like
help that. It was just challenging. Work was tough, My
relationship at the time was tough, and I just wanted
(08:43):
something that was like more my time to find that
kid again, that brave child that went out onto the rink,
even though like probably should have never been there, but
was like so bold, like I want to jam skate
in the center. I don't care, I'm going to follow
a million times. Eventually it'll happen, you know. And I
really had distanced myself from that person, and when everything
(09:08):
was not going away, I wanted it to or what
I had envisioned for myself at that point in my life.
But your early twenties is a fantasy enough, and I
just was like, why don't I have all the things
that I want? Why is my health suck? And why
is this relationship not giving me what I need? That
vision of this powerful person that I wanted as a
(09:32):
kid just wasn't happening, and I just I couldn't figure
out why. I get a little tear eyed even just
thinking about that time period, and I just decided what
if I did something wild, Like, like what if I
just like, what out here in Hawaii? There's, by the way,
(09:53):
no one skates. There's no store, there wasn't a story
you could go buy a pair of skates. Ad there's
no roller rink out there, which is weird because on
Rocket Power, surfing and skating, where you know hand in hand,
everyone did both, right, but not in Hawaii famous documentary
Rocket Power. I happen to find skates at a frift
(10:19):
store way too big for me, stuff socks in their
classic style one out and like I was constantly being
reinforced that it was a ridiculous thing I was doing,
but I didn't care. I was like, forget it. I
feel ridiculous not doing this. I feel stressed out, not
living in a way that's bringing me joy. So I'm
gonna go figure this out. And I would go out
(10:41):
and mess around in a parking lot at night by myself. Yeah,
no one can see, no one could hear you cry,
just alone in the dark, and did that for a
while until I was like, okay, I can stand up,
but now what? And then I had to google some
(11:01):
stuff and there wasn't anything on the internet. At that time,
twelve years ago. I mean I've been skating for twelve years.
I started in about two eight in Hawaii. I couldn't
find anything. There were no classes, there were no rinks.
There are actually laws against skating in public in Hawaii,
and like you could get a ticket. Why, yeah, where
do you skate if there's no rink? I was in
(11:23):
a parking lot, like horrible parking lots. You couldn't skate
on the street. The streets are the worst streets in
the United States, pretty accurate. They don't let you skate. Like,
what's the reason behind the law? Is it like footloose
where you just can't dance exactly? It's kind of like footloose.
I like to imagine that in the nineties. And none
(11:44):
of this is accurate or proven, but this is my
imagination of why this is happening. So like in the nineties,
there were a lot of tourists coming in, and maybe
there was a lot of cocaine, and there were too
many bathing suits, too many thongs out men and women.
Everybody's butts were out, everybody was skating, everybody who was
(12:06):
falling down getting road rash on their butts. I just
couldn't handle it anymore that all these tours were coming in,
falling down, scraping their asses, asking for money. And they
were like, that's it, these cocaine tourists. What is out
We're gonna just like stop it now. No roller blades,
no roller skates. It's easy. That makes a lot of
(12:27):
sense to me. I don't know about you guys, but
I mean scraping the booty out here, try to skate.
I'm out. I'm done. Whenever I see someone skating in
a bikini or any baby THISSI and I'm like, girl,
you are so confident in bravering, like just wearing a bikini,
but in skating in one girl, because if youll it's
full body. I mean, that's how I feel about people
(12:50):
who drive motorcycles and just be like shirt list or something.
I'm like, oh you real, boe, you you trust yourself
more than I trust myself. If anything well, and then
the fun anything too. Like Hawaii, you can ride a
motorcycle without a helmet, but if you wear sunglasses it's okay.
(13:19):
So like you know, you hear those rules and you're like,
I'm gonna break these. Yeah, did you get your name? Obama? Maatrix.
So like when I first started, a derby was the
thing that was happening was coming up. It was like
the underground thing. Can you describe derby? Roller derby is
this alternative sport on roller skates that is played like
(13:41):
five on five and it's offense and defense at the
same time. So it happens on a flat track. So
if you think Nascar, like, the originating of roller derby
was more like Nascar, where everyone lines up and it's
teams and whoever like remains out the longest is like
the victor. And then over time it adapted to this
like offense defense thing where there's like four blockers from
(14:02):
each team all lined up right and then two jammers
that are lined up behind them, and they have to
fight through kind of like rugby style, through the pack,
and the first one to break out is awarded this
thing called lee jammers, so you can end it at
any time, but ultimately these jams gone for two minute intervals,
and however many points is determined by how many hits
(14:25):
you passed with the opposite team, So obviously there's a
lot of hitting and knocking people out of bounds, working
together to keep that jammer back, Oh crazy export on wheels.
I'm like trying to imagine. So you have to pick
your own name. That took a while too long of
a period of time where I wore to name tags
to practice, like what name do you guys think have?
(14:50):
And this was a good lesson for me to learn
and putting too much value in the opinion of other
people because they all told me this name that I'm
deep down and I didn't really like. And then the
other name was Obama Matrix and people will be like,
that name does not suit you. You should go with
this other one. So you and I was like, I'm
(15:11):
gonna go buy Obama Matrix and you know that was
picking it, but nerd level it's from a comic book.
Love it. I love the idea of like sometimes I
will have two choices and I don't know which one
I want, and I'll ask somebody else for their opinion
(15:33):
just so that a choice can be made, and then
I'll know, oh, no, that's not the one choice I wanted.
You pick the wrong one. But it does help you
to decide, Oh that's not really what I wanted. It's
a litmus test almost, So can you speak a little
bit about the roots and evolution of roller skating in
your family. Word on the street is that you got
(15:55):
some deep skating ties. Yeah. So, like I started doing
roller derby totally unaware of the history and my family
with roller skating, Like, I just had no idea. So
it first came out with my uncle Stephen, you know,
revealing to me that he was a bouncer for roller
(16:16):
derby in Kansas, and he was like, it was pretty sweet.
It was a good time, free beer fights, ladies, it
was the time. And so like this resurgence roller derby
that I was doing, he would refer to as cute.
That's cute, that's some that's nice, all right, that's guy's
doing it. But back in my day, you know where
(16:38):
the punches like who's the heavy, Like it harkens back
to this wrestling era. Roller derby and wrestling were the
same circuit back in the day. But anyways, he was
a bouncer for that and kind of educated me on, like, girl,
you don't even know what the history of this is.
So that was cool. And then I also found out
(16:59):
from my great uncle Bob he married his competitive dance partner,
which I had no idea they had that history of
being competitive skate dancers together. And he was living on
Kauai and he saw me skating and like, you know,
a small little scrimmage and he lost his mind. Like
(17:22):
he was on the top leacher. We're in Kauai, a
bunch of local people just drinking beer, watching women just
smash each other, and he's on the top row being like,
that's my baby. You know. They like busted this spin
move to get out of something, and he was like,
that's John Nettet movement. I was like, what are you
(17:48):
talking about. He's like, girl, you don't know. Our family
are gifted in movement, like we are champions. They were
involved in this pretty intense circuit back in as this
skating together and my grandmother had another partner and she
was doing that too. I thought it was being unique.
(18:09):
I thought it was being like a rebel. And they
were like, that's nice, look at you coming into it.
Wait till you unleash those movements that are truly rooted
within you, you know. And they just patiently waited for
me to come to skate dancing, and that was also
really sweet of them to not push but like wait
(18:30):
for it. I can't imagine you speaking about your grandmother
being a part of the community to your uncle's Like,
we know that it's a microcosm of the world, like
skating that world. And there's so many great documentaries like
United Skates which we all watched on HBO, which credits
America's roller rinks as an incubator for East Coast hip
(18:53):
hop and West Coast wrap. I thought that was so
cool and important to know it was huge, It was
so important, and that's what sucks that all these places
are getting shut down and people are getting pushed out.
Um So, like, in what ways have you seen that
black people are being disenfranchised in the sport of skating
(19:14):
as a whole? Oh gosh. A lot of the examples
that we saw United Skates with taking kind of control
over certain nights of the week and what people are wearing,
and in terms of apparel, but also in terms of
like the equipment skates, and not only that, but the
(19:36):
movement and style of the skating, whether they're by themselves
or with more people in terms like partners, triples, trains,
all of that. They start to regulate that. And by
day I mean roller rinks. Not every roller rink is
(19:56):
like this, but to be honest. In my area where
I'm from, in northern California, about three out of the
four rinks all do these there. And I've seen it.
I've witnessed it. I've seen like this white kid, this
teenage boy, doing flips on his skates in front of
(20:18):
people and like kind of throwing people off. Like if
you were roller skating and someone did a flip in
front of you and like miss their landing a bit
and like fell in front of you, that's a little jar.
But yeah, it's kind of a safety thing. But while
I'm at that rink, I have earbuds in and I
was asked, I was physically like grabbed and asked to leave,
(20:43):
like they were guiding me trying to like bounce me
from the rink. We're wearing headphones. What. Meanwhile, this kid
is like flipping and flopping all over the floor, and
I'm like, hey, but what about that kid who's like
clearly causing a safety thing. Like this is a safety thing.
And I've done nothing to, you know, upset anything except
(21:05):
for the DJ being offended that I don't want to
listen to Abba for this third time. That's one way
that it happens. Another thing that I heard that I
actually experienced again, like talking about that nor Cow where
I'm from and the rinks that are there. I've always
been teaching. I've always been trying to create spaces for
(21:28):
folks to come learn and skate in an alternative way,
well like for the at home ABM taught me so
many skills, like I'm over here starting to turn and
ship and feel more confident on my wheel's confidence. You know.
I want to share confidence and share what I've learned,
(21:50):
and there's a lot of like tricks and things that
people can benefit from and having a space to do that.
But I've been turned away from rinks specific lee because
they're afraid of who would show up to the classes
that I'm doing. And the discrimination was not only about race.
(22:10):
And the code word between all of these rinks that
I had gone to is called particular demographic, is what
they refer to it as. And when I would press
and ask more because I'm light skinned and people like,
we'll say stuff to me because they're like, she's wife whatever,
and they would disclose that it was specifically black people
(22:32):
and specifically poor people. So it's not just relegating people
to specific soul nights. Black Nights a k a. Adult Nights.
They've been renamed since Jim Cruff over and over and
over and over again. Two isolate and keep a particular
(22:53):
demographic at a low manageable number during a time of
the week that is oftentimes for what was seeing at
one point in time. It's like a slow knighte wom right. Yeah,
I feel like I'm a little privileged in the fact
that I'm from Baltimore, so the demographic is majority black,
so it would be not beneficial at all for the
(23:16):
skate rings to push us out. So like me growing
up and going to Putty Hill as a kid, I
saw a lot of people who look like me, but
it was also a blend. And it's just because of
the city I'm in. But like hearing this, I'm thinking
of in California, it's not always those numbers, and that
sucks because it was always just a fun, good time
that should be enjoyed by all of us. I feel
(23:39):
similarly to skating as I feel like to improv, like
two things that have brought me so much joy that
I feel like when I tell black folks that I do,
they're like, what's improv roller skate? But black people should
have access to these things. Yeah, and speaking of access,
we know that you're involved in several skate spaces in
(24:02):
Los Angeles, from Rising Skate to Sister Skaters. Can you
talk a little bit about what it's like creating safe
space for black women skaters in l A, why that's
important to you, and what prompted you to create them.
So creating safe spaces for black people in general, not
just you know, women, but I identify with that film energy,
(24:27):
so I welcome it's so much. I get really excited
because we tend to feel sometimes vulnerable or isolated or
so many things like that. I just experienced when I
first started skating, all of those feelings of like feeling embarrassed,
feeling ashamed, feeling vulnerable, scared, but really wanting to explore
(24:50):
something but not be alone. I just wanted people not
to feel alone. And I created them probably because I
was feeling alone and feeling like I'm needed something And
maybe if I throughout a beacon of light like other
people would kind of gravitate towards it. If you build it,
(25:10):
they will come. Yeah, the old dreams totally Rising Skate
came out of complete frustration, like just full blown, needing
to channel like anger, needing to channel movement, needing to
like find peace with within such a lack of control.
(25:35):
And so the point of that was simply just to
move through the streets together and try to observe where
our community was currently standing. Rising Skate started at the
beginning of COVID, so it was just a way to
get out and move and witness what was happening in
your city during what I felt was the safest time
(25:58):
of day to do that, which was in the morning,
because as the day would go on, you would notice
things like National Guard forming, police barricading and trying to
control the flow of traffic and stuff like that. But
if you were up early before these movements were starting
to exercise and mobilize, you could get the lay of
(26:21):
the land a little bit better, but also check into
your shop keep and remind them like you're still here
and you're happy that they're here, and to like, you know,
stay with it. And then Sister Skate was about creating
an opportunity for coalition and action and trying to bring
(26:42):
some harmony to a dysfunctional time, and that I think
was naturally developed out of that frustration and anger and
needing to just be out and see it. It's like, Okay,
what else can we do? How do we give back?
There's a lot I think that and come from just
being out and physically experiencing your city. And in what
(27:06):
ways have you used roller skating in service of Black
liberation and the skate actions you created with BLM long Beach.
Could you speak on that. Skating is a really easy
way to connect to your city, to your town, to
your neighborhood, to yourself. So if it's something that can
seemingly almost be a mundane anyone can do it thing.
(27:31):
You can make those moments extremely powerful because it's part
of somebody's natural, part of their day. So if you
can make just getting on your skates something that could
be just as simple as going around your neighborhood, and
you invoke the idea of community and power into that,
it becomes a vessel to really do something different. And
(27:56):
I think one of the biggest examples of that was
Juneteenth in downtown l A, where we got together on
our skates or anyone who is willing to roll in
whatever way. People identified that all wheels welcome. Yeah, people
were jogging it and running it and biking it and
skating it in all kinds of ways, but something about that, like,
(28:21):
come be a part of this move with me through here,
but first listen to why it is that we're here
and why we should care so much about this. And
I just challenge you to go out and invoke some
real change, like as much energy as you brought to
coming here and putting on your skates, which can be
(28:41):
a huge challenge for people, and it sounds kind of
wild if you don't skate, and you might not necessarily
understand what that feels like. But then I dare you
to go try to skate, and you're gonna feel it
for like lasing up your skates, like what am I doing?
Why am I doing this? What is this for? That
whole talk in your head can have an aim in
(29:04):
a direction beyond your skating, because the feeling that you
get when you skate follows you for the rest of
the day. It becase endorphins, all of that stuffed fires
and remains with you. It has healthy benefits. And so
if you're taking that energy and manifesting an attitude towards action,
(29:26):
what can you do with that? You know? And I
experimented with this really long time ago, twelve years ago,
when I was learning how to skate, I went out
and during that particular time, it was the Civil Unions
Bill in Honolulu, Hawaii was like up for a vote,
(29:48):
and I remember being like, I don't have appropriate shoes
to march in, but I do have these skates, and
I have been learning how to stop. But I feel
pretty good about stopping right now, which is important. Yeah,
And I was like, what else can I do now
that I've learned how to stop. I could do anything.
(30:08):
So I thought, I'll go down to the state capital
and join all these people who are picketing and marching
and have something to say about this and want to
feel represented. So I went down there on my skates
and it was like rejuvenating to the people that were there.
They were like excited that I was on skates and
(30:28):
made then feel good. I felt good. I gotta do
more laps around the capital. I skated into the capital.
I skated into representatives offices. I was like skating in
places where you're really not supposed to. It is really
one of my favorites, just like, yeah, I'm not supposed
to skating in this building. I want to skate them all.
So bad, I'm sorry to put you off, and just
(30:50):
surfaces in my head. It was like I need to
do that. But that was the beginning of realizing like, oh,
this is possible. I was the only one doing it.
And then when we're in this position where we are
right now, just historically looking at everything, like reflecting on
my grandmother and my uncle, my great uncle, all of
(31:12):
these people in my family who have passed on, but
also relatives that I'm building relationships now with cousins and
their children and continually discovering that we're all still have
this skating as a part of what we do to cope,
what we do to create, what we do to give
back and fill our own cut back up. It has
(31:35):
a ripple effect and people who skate out in the street,
if you keep your eyes up and you look out
and you make eye contact with people, it's a whole
other world. People receive you in a different way, and
in a lot of ways. It's usually always on an
unexpected connection that people have, and that levels a lot
(31:57):
of bullshit out because a lot of ships to the side,
and when you're skating out in the street, you you
take away those restrictive hangovers of Jim Crow is what
I'm going to call some of these rules. We move
those things aside and they're no longer have power within
that space, and another thing has room to grow, and
(32:19):
I just want to see that through. I want to
see where that goes. I want to know what else
is possible. And again, the seed was planted twelve years ago,
so it's still butting at this point. I think it's
starting to see the light. And it's so cool to
see you in that light. A bomb. I just remember,
(32:41):
like ash she said, meeting you at the shop, but
then seeing you flourish out in the world in the
way that you're just like really intentional about using this
sport as like a means of pushing back and just
like sort of sneaking in the message about black liberation.
Like it's so so cool. It's a cool space, man.
I feel like street skating is one of my favorite forms.
(33:04):
You know. The rink is cool, it's nice and smooth,
but it can be crowded. You already mentioned the music
can sometimes be trash. Can you talk about some of
the difference between rink street and I know some people
go to the actual skate parks. There's a ton of
skating out there. Yeah, you can park skate, which has
become really popular within the last i'd say ten years
or so. It's a beautiful place to be, but that's
(33:27):
also its own thing. And street skating can be a
multitude of things. It can be a complete combination of
what you learn in the rink how that translates out
to whatever surface you happen to be on outside. But
street skating and actually less moving through the street is
a hybrid blend of so many different things because there's
(33:50):
just a ton of variables when you're skating out. But
for me, I like to blend kind of like an
aggressive street skating style sile where I'm using slide blocks
and finding ledges or jumping up onto curbs and exploring
the space more. But I can also cruise for hours
and hours and hours that feels really beautiful and serene
(34:12):
and calm and soothing, meditative, but also like just dancing
up the street kind of creating. Like this modern street
skating style is like my favorite. I highly recommend going
to a Bon's YouTube and just like falling into the
mesmerizing skate visuals that she's got. She's trying to describe
(34:35):
it for you guys, but go check it out. Yeah.
Have you guys watched Sesame Street back in the day,
classic eighties Sesame Street and there was like a tap
dancer he used to come on, Savion Glover. Yes, yes,
my true inspiration right there. You know, I can see
(34:55):
the connection as soon as you said that. Yeah, that
is my happy place that I go to, like within
myself and just like dancing down the street. You know,
I don't have big bird or anything like that, but
making any space that you're within its own magical ecosystem
is like my my goal. And if you're just traveling
(35:19):
in one little bubble of one just going up the
strand or along the beach, like more power to you
or through your neighborhood, awesome. But to fully emote on
your skates, that's my absolute goal. Um avum. What advice
do you have for new skaters just getting into the sport.
I was in the roller rinkin elementary school, but I
(35:40):
haven't tapped back into it as an adult. So any inspo? Yeah,
So new and returning skaters, I would say breathing is
like number one. We tend to hold our breath right
like when you put on skates The first since ation
you're going to have when you're new is very natural,
(36:03):
and it's like a fight or flight moment where you
put them on. Yeah, the first time, you know, you
could have this urge to kind of want to walk
or run away from the situation that you're in. But
because you have wheels on, you have to uh kind
of softened into it and ground down through those four
to eight points on the ground, you know, through your feet.
(36:26):
So I think that breathing and absorbing back down into
the ground is something that you'll have to expect and
just come to terms with that. That's a beautiful place
to be, even if you're just standing in your skates
for three minutes in a time in place that is fine.
Accept it, Let it be. I love that. Thank you.
(36:49):
And maybe we're some safety gear because you're gonna fin now.
No songs, maybe no, Maybe some of us need hard nudges. Literally,
the reason why we went into a Bomb's shop in
the first place was because, as she had warned me,
don't go to the skate park without a helmet, Jasmine,
(37:09):
and I was like, whatever, Ashley, I can do this.
And I was like going all around and I hit
my head and got a concussion. Did you get a concussion?
Was that confirmed? The doctor said it was. Maybe it was.
He said it might be a slight concussion. He said
maybe possibly slight, very slightly scan of that brain. The
(37:36):
point is I was like, I need a helmet, as
she was right and uh a bomb you came into
our lives. But the helmet game for for black girls, though,
it's so rough trying to put it on top of
your fro. There's some tricks and tips and I was like,
let me help you. Here's here's the one for if
(37:59):
you have braids. I was like, oh my god, customers,
Oh my goodness, last queue. What's your favorite skate movie
or song to skate too? What I got tonight? I mean,
(38:22):
that's a good one. There's no way around that. Your
shoulders go with that, your hips start going, and then
you're off. You're skating. There's no stopping it there. But
for me personally, I tend to skate to music that
almost feels like the diary of my soul and a
(38:42):
lot of like when people are skating with me or
what you see on the internet is usually not the
songs that I'm actually skating too, because I am not
a rich girl. I can't be paying all these artists
from the area. Yeah, universe, But there's a lot of
(39:06):
music out there that I just like connect to so
deeply that it's hard to even pick one. I hate
to that's okay, say that. I wish I could pick
one thing. A song thirty three though, the one that
we directed to is a song that is one of
those songs that was one of those inside songs that
(39:29):
I skate two moved to and then we did it
out loud and that was so magic, ry and beautiful. Yeah, Kira,
you would be so proud of me. One of my
favorite skate songs is a female rapper one because I'm
(39:49):
a bit from the South, or make You Move your Shoulders?
Those are my two. Does anybody else have like skate
songs that were like there too? We're trying to get
mommy to get some skates. Yes, but mommy, what would
(40:09):
your skate song be? Oh, that's a great question. There's
a lot of pressure. There's a lot of pressure. Um.
I think one of them would definitely be Electric Lady
by Jenellma. That the first classic one. I think that's
the theme song of my life. And September Fired feel
(40:35):
like Avalanche Champagne King, I get into that Russian Those
are my girls, Sylvester, you make me feel is so bomb,
so you make with you yo a bomb. Thank you
so much for joining this conversation on roller skating and
(40:55):
talking to us about the history of it and forward
movements for it. For our listeners at home, where can
they find out more about you? You can follow me
on Instagram. Obama Matrix is the handle A b O
M I N t r i x Bomber Matrix and
I'm also on YouTube by that same name. Yeah, everyone
(41:20):
go check out all of her skate stuff, sign up
for all of her classes, and yeah, make sure to
check out the skate visual that we co directed to
No Names song thirty three. This has been surreal and
beautiful and awesome. You guys are a talented group of
people that I admire very much. So right back at
(41:42):
your sister, we love you. It's time for us to
give some advice, but first we're going to take a
quick break. Welcome back, Welcome back. It's time for us
(42:07):
to give a lucky listener some advice. Mommy, and what
do you have for us today? Today's letter reads, Dear O. D.
My roommates still thinks that COVID is a hoax, oh man,
and I need y'all help. I'm making him realize it's not,
and that him saying it not only makes him look
stupid but makes me feel unsafe. The whole damn world
(42:30):
is suffering. People have died, and he's all like the
government is trying to scare us. Should I move out
or just my my business or try to bring him
to the light. It's hard in these streets. Please advise,
COVID is no hoax. Oh man. That is a tough one.
I don't think it's that tough. You just gotta distance
(42:52):
yourself from this. But your kitchen, your kitchen, you're sharing space.
You gotta go toilet because they probably and if they
get it, then you're gonna get it. So I've been
on your forks. Yeah I saw it. Um, Yeah, COVID
(43:16):
is no hoax. You're right. COVID is no hoax. And
if somebody's messing around with their life and they want
to pull you into it, you need to remove yourself
in the situation. I believe because he's basically holding your
hand as he's about to jump off the bridge. Right,
let go of his hand. I don't let him drag
you down. That sounds toxic. Yeah, I mean, and I
(43:38):
know it's hard to find a new roommate in the
middle of COVID, but there are a lot of people
trying to sublet right now. There are there's probably someone
who's looking for a really clean person. So maybe if
you put that in your description and you're like super strict,
like bleach every day, you'll find a map. Yeah, you
don't want to get COVID on a humbug because your
(43:59):
roommate didn't leaving it. That would be ale because you
were trying to be too polite and yeah, girl, ahead
go ahead and tell him this is not working out
and get yourself to somewhere safe. And also this might
be an opportunity for you to live alone. I mean,
a lot of people are moving out. Is a lot
of vicious happening unfortunately, so that is a reality. I mean,
(44:26):
but I'm just saying, like you could probably find a
studio for much cheaper than what it used to be,
because yeah, I hear what you're saying. I feel like
we're kind of saying the same thing. I mean, this
was an easy advice letter, girl, Yeah, don't play with
your life, your literal life. This is literally life or death.
Find somewhere new to live and quick and don't let
(44:48):
them get mad and start coughing on your forks and
you don't pay. I've heard stories, Okay, hopefully I know
petty label hopefully not. Petty label believes in COVID. I think, well,
(45:13):
COVID is no hoax. Um, hope that helps. We think
it should because that's the only answer, honestly unanimous. Go ahead,
skate away from that that situation. Oh oh my gosh,
you guys today was so fun. Thank you to Obama
(45:35):
Atrix for coming out for Yeah, Ashley and Kira being skaters,
sharing your experiences. Maybe one day I'll join on the
light side. Um, we'll see though, But ahead and commit
right now, commit to what I commit to, committing to,
(45:57):
commit to commit, committing to commit to lawyers. Not like
a politician. I almost was a politician anyway, you guys, Um,
we appreciate you all tuning in. Please remember to share
and review this podcast. It helps us figure out what
you want to hear and what you love and all that.
So thank you, yes and come hang with us on
(46:20):
the socials at Obama's of the Datas on Instagram, Oh
the Improv on Twitter and on Facebook at Obama's of
the Daughters. You might even catch us skating together. And
if you need some advice or you know someone who does,
send your letters to us at O D podcast at
gmail dot com. We'll see you guys next week. Hi
(46:46):
You Down is a production of Shawnda land Audio and
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