Skate Like a Lady (SLAG) has developed during the last twenty-plus years from a easy idea in 2000, offering workshops and occasions for women, to an inclusive neighborhood, actively extending assist to trans and gender non-conforming skaters by providing secure areas and clinics. In line with their About web page, their imaginative and prescient is social fairness, “selling confidence, management, and social justice by means of skateboarding,” in addition to racial justice and trans rights, and its mannequin has been replicated worldwide.
Skate Like a Lady started with Holly Sheehan who grew up within the North Bay area of San Francisco. She seen a extreme lack of illustration of feminine skaters within the late Eighties. When Holly relocated to Olympia, Washington, to attend Evergreen Faculty and met Fleur Larsen by means of the faculty snowboard workforce, one thing sparked between them, in keeping with a quick historical past shared on the SLAG Fb web page.
In August 2000, a six-day competition referred to as Ladyfest was organized by former members of the Riot Grrrl motion to have a good time the abilities of ladies in Olympia, and as a response to sexual assaults that occurred on the 1999 Woodstock competition. “Holly and Fleur [were] dedicated to the coordination of a skateboard workshop and session to be held at Olympia’s Yauger Skatepark.”
The competition planning minutes file some trepidation — the organizers didn’t have insurance coverage to cowl accidents — “however we’re glad it’s taking place as a result of it sounds cool.” Different occasions at Ladyfest included workshops for girls-only punk rock fundamentals (guitar, drums, bass) in addition to bike restore, printmaking, letterpress, adopted by panels about sexual assault and welfare rights organizing, plus bands, artwork exhibits, dance events, a drag present, and movie screenings. In a historic word from NYU, it was acknowledged that there have been over 2000 attendees and bands included Bratmobile, Sleater Kinney, The Gossip and Cat Energy. Though it was referred to as “Ladyfest” everybody was welcome, whatever the gender they have been assigned at beginning.
Photographs: discovered inside a historic file of previous LadyFests and there’s even a set in NYU libraries with pictures and ephemera. I additionally seen that Zanna Gibbs, seemingly the creator of the zine 50-50 Skateboarding and Gender hosted a panel on Trans points.
The response to the skateboard occasion was profound, and it was estimated that fifty contributors got here out to their follow-up occasion. On Fb, it was acknowledged that “Fleur and Holly have been inundated with requests, e-mails, and telephone calls asking when one other workshop and session would occur. The ensuing ideas, conversations, and organizing would result in the official basis of Skate Like a Lady.”
Nancy Chang, who started volunteering in 2006, teamed up with Larsen and Sheehan and helped flip the grassroots group right into a nonprofit again in 2009 as a part of her graduate diploma mission on the College of Washington.
There’s a incredible slideshow from 2006 of Chang, Larsen and Sheehan providing instruction, together with a few of these pictures:
Nancy was even featured in an article from the Seattlite in 2011 when she was the Board Chair, acknowledging her 2008 “Girls of Price” award from L’Oreal Paris as a non-profit chief. And ever since these inaugural occasions, hundreds of skate boarders have gained confidence and neighborhood due to SLAG applications.
Photographs: Nancy Chang (by Hollyanne Faber) from 2011, Kristin Ebeling & Nancy Chang from 2013, and Fleur Larsen in 2013.
Picture: This one is from my very own assortment when my bike lady gang (Majestic Unicorn Bike Membership – Marcy Monette, Erika Kinast, Rhianon Bader and myself in inexperienced) ran into Nancy Chang and pals in 2007 on the Tofino, BC skatepark.
Internet hosting skate classes unique to women was not a brand new phenomenon. Within the June 1978 challenge of the Nationwide Skateboard Overview, a characteristic referred to as the “Particular Girls’s Part” included a report on a profitable meet-up for women. Di Dootson Rose wrote, “Women’ Evening on the Runway Skatepark in Carson, Calif, has the perfect end up of ladies but. They draw about 150 women on their particular Wednesday evening applications . . . It’s this type of “hanging out” the place skaters get the pointers from others that helps them enhance.”
A photograph accompanied the article: a bunch of ladies at Runway huddling round skilled skater Deanna Calkins, who represented Hobie skateboards and was offering some instruction.
Picture: SLAG occasion in 2009
The distinction with SLAG, in comparison with these early gatherings, is that it’s not solely about studying new skate tips; there’s additionally a spotlight social justice and management. Skate Like a Lady presents mentorship, and the Skateboarding Inclusivity Program gives a novel curriculum designed to develop leaders who worth inclusion and accountability to assist make skateboarding accessible and secure for all.
Skateboarding leaders who’ve emerged from these applications embrace Kim Woozy, the director of growth for SLAG, who produced the female-focused Mahfia.TV community and advocated for the “Equal Pay for Equal Play” state invoice in California; Alex White, the present chair of SLAG, famend for her historical past as a professional skater and roles as Krux model supervisor and contest announcer; and Kristin Ebeling, government director, professional skater for Meow, Krux workforce supervisor, and previous creator of the Skate Witches zine. It’s not unusual for a SLAG workshop participant to turn out to be a mentor and skateboard teacher, which helps keep the imaginative and prescient and make sure the longevity of this system. The core places for SLAG are Seattle, Portland, and the San Francisco Bay Space, with actions in twenty different cities. These chapters host a skate session each week to go well with a variety of skills and backgrounds, together with youth camps, outreach, grownup, and trans classes.
Photographs: Wheels of Fortune 2008 prizes and gathering
Skate Like a Lady additionally organizes the extremely anticipated Wheels of Fortune contest in Seattle, which started in 2008 as a weekend competition, together with a hilarious scavenger hunt; it was highlighted within the documentary Skate Desires (2022). The Witch Hunt is one other nod to Danny Plotnick’s cult traditional movie Skate Witches (1986); skaters are inspired to take over town streets and doc their assigned duties as a workforce. Whereas the competition attracts main feminine and non-binary professionals from around the globe, Wheels of Fortune is extra about being an inclusive celebration of neighborhood centered on having enjoyable. You may come house with a weird new haircut or random tattoo after the occasion, however you’ll even have a narrative to share and a ton of latest pals.
Picture: Thrasher article on WOF #10 in 2019 by Norma Ibarra
References:
- Moore, Taylor, “Dynamic Seattleties: Skate Savvy, Nancy Chang,” Seattleite, August 20, 2011.
- Rose, Di Dootson, “Particular Girls’s Part,” Nationwide Skateboard Overview (June 1978), p. 13.
- Skate Like a Lady, “Of us Say You Need to Know The place You Come From…” Fb submit, April 2, 2020.
- Skate Like a Lady, “About,” SLAG Web site.