♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago.

♪♪ I'm actually a present sent to you by your ancestors.

I do not come to you as a reality.

I come to you as the myth, because that's what black people are.

Myths.

♪♪ -Makes me feel free.

I feel like I can put my boss hat, husband hat, my dad hat to the side, and I could just be free in the moment.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Here in Louisville, we skate.

-Hey, what's going on, everybody?

This is Rick Thompson here in Louisville, Kentucky.

We want y'all to come on and stop by Robben's Roost Roller Rink for your roller skating pleasure.

Come on, y'all, and join me.

♪♪ -My name is Laneisha Beasley, and I am the president of the Louisville Rail Ridaz Skate Club here in Louisville, Kentucky.

I'm all about community service and community work and really just trying to build unity within the skate community.

The Rail Ridaz, we were established -- August 2004 actually is our anniversary month.

-[ Chuckles ] -Rail Ridaz.

-[ Laughs ] -Rail Ridaz!

[ Laughs ] -Alright.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm coming up on the... -Here I go!

-...the party group.

This is the Louisville Rail Ridaz having their annual picnic that they've started.

I think everybody's having a good time.

Alright.

There she is.

Where she at?

There she is.

We would all just get on the road.

We would travel, do some things here in the city together, and then we were like, let's make it official.

-My favorite skate style is what Louisville is known for, and it's the trio.

Like, trio is so big here in Louisville.

I think it's like what really put us on the map.

When we did the trios out of town, I mean, people went crazy watching us go in and out and passing each other, barely hitting each other, you know, running into each other.

It was like, phenomenal.

Everybody loved it.

-Everybody can't catch that beat.

You know, originality.

Everybody can't catch that bounce.

I love Ohio's stride and I love Chicago's J.B., and, you know, I love Baltimore's snap, and I love Cali's slide with the stations.

I love everybody's style.

But when it comes to Louisville, now, a lot of people can't do our style.

-Skating is one thing that's always been that constant.

I get a joy out of seeing people get happy and hyped about skating.

I can look in the skating rink and see people that have looked up to me the way I looked up to other people.

When I leave here, I'm gonna be able to look in here and see my DNA.

-Like I've seen skate legends out here.

That's fine, but there's proof that you did that.

I want to be so amazing at what we do... -Set the bar high.

-...that 50 years down the line, that people can't even believe that that happened.

"Really?

They really did that?

He -- He did a back flip off of his shoulders?"

It really happened.

-Yeah.

I wanted us to be -- I wanted us to be mythical.

[ Echoing ] Myth.

Myth.

Myth.

-The one thing you say about a myth is that there's some truth in there, no matter how bizarre they may seem.

And the one that I had always heard that seemed like just a child's wish was the one about black slaves who came to the United States.

And under certain circumstances, they would fly back to Africa.

-[ Chuckles ] -So that's -- you know, that's an escape thing.

You know, it's a little psychological trick.

And everybody, everybody said one of two things.

"No, I never saw any, but I heard about it."

-Yes.

-Or they said they had seen it.

-Working the rail, 502 Crew.

Sweezy, come on over here.

Talk to me a little bit.

You guys head out.

I mean, how long you guys been skating together?

-Say, almost a year now.

-And you personally, how long you been skating?

-Probably about 17 years.

-17 years?

I mean, so you never get away from it, huh?

You always in here.

-My vision on skating was, I'm trying to be the best of the best.

I didn't go on that street.

That's -- That's when I was riding down the street, and I seen Jordan one day walking.

I said, hey, don't you be skating at Robben's Roost or whatever?

I was like, do you want to go with me now?

I'm ready to go up there.

Ever since then, I been picking Jordan up and go skating.

-On and off the skate floor, like it was a point in time where they was young, they wasn't working, and I was the one really, you know what I'm saying, with the money and stuff.

They used to come over my house, pick out outfits.

We used to all, you know, dress alike and everything like that.

It was more so I just wanted to skate with my brothers.

-Hey!

-Oh, yeah.

502 Crew!

-The 502 Crew, when they came in, man, I used to just go through the middle and do things that I knew that I really couldn't do, just because I knew they were gonna see me, and they were gonna try it and take off with it.

-[ Speaking indistinctly ] -Going skating, um, that's my happy place for sure.

That's where I can step in there anytime, let all my problems go.

Being in high school, going to different parties all the time, ripping and running, staying out all night, I wasn't wrapped up in a whole lot of street stuff.

But as far as, like, drugs, uh, substance abuse and all that type of stuff, being with these guys saved me.

-Yeah, for sure, for sure.

-Yeah.

-These are my guys.

Outside of skating, they were my guys.

And it was them that ended up turning around and teaching me why I didn't need to be out there in the first place, because if I can't trust the people that I'm hanging with on the daily out here, then who exactly do you trust?

♪♪ -A lot of us have worked out our lives through skating.

We've got quite a few that are still here and living with us.

We've got June.

June's been a skate guard for like 47, 48 years.

-We got some pros out here.

502 Crew dancing kind of a Louisville style right there.

And then, we have the Rail Ridaz out here, too, and more of a trio style.

Now, explain to me the trio style.

-Oh, trio style is like three or more people get in there, and they do different turns all together and skate as one unit.

That's trio style.

-So, June, how old are you?

-62.

-62.

You've been skating for how long?

-About 55 years.

-I mean, and this guy can -- can spin and do all sorts of things, too.

-Well, I've been skating all my life.

I taught a lot of people how to skate.

Like I said, I'm old school, been around for a while.

And only park we had was 17th Street Park, and we had Chickasaw Park.

And as a kid, I could sit down and we have our little picnic on a holiday or whatever, and look across the field, and we see these kids on the roller coasters and everything.

"Mommy, can we go over there?"

"No, you can't go over there."

♪♪ -My name is Charlene Hampton Holloway.

This is the site of the once white owned Fountain Ferry amusement park, where they had a skating rink, but it was closed to people of color.

The distance between Chickasaw Park and Shawnee Park was really less than a mile.

-Segregation at its best.

I think the city took over, and they did not clean it up or anything.

When you go skating at the skating ring, you came out, your whole head was white, and, you know, because of all the dust and dirt and stuff like that would fly up as you would skate.

And at one time, that's all we had was Fountain Ferry.

And at the time, after all them closed up, right there was Broadway, and Broadway was just right on time.

And that's what made it so popular.

-The Louisville Rollers, Broadway Roller Rink, Louisville, Kentucky, performing here today before 30,000 spectators.

But that doesn't bother this much at all.

They know what they're doing.

They just know what they're doing, and that's the name of the game.

-They sure do.

♪♪ -February 17, 1976.

Daddy had just started going into different businesses and stuff, and I started having dreams about a skating rink.

And when I told Mama, she said, "How many times you've had that dream?"

I said, "About three or four times."

She said, "Well, start writing stuff down."

And I guess I planted that little bug in his ear.

And my mother planted some more bugs in his ear.

And little did we know that that seed grew to be such a big tree in Kentucky, in Louisville, that to this day, if you mention Broadway Roller Rink -- I mean, I still didn't realize that it was such a big staple.

It was so many people.

It was so -- You remember how many people?

It was so many that we couldn't get them all in the building.

People called me when they were gonna knock the skating rink down.

People drove over to where they were knocking it down and got bricks from the skating rink.

All the community came and got a brick, because it meant so much to them.

That to me means a lot.

It was like people were family.

They called my mama Mama Burns.

Okay?

'Cause the skating rink was our house.

The skating rink is where we loved on people.

♪♪ -Early spring 1961, I had joined the protest, even at 14, for them to open Fountain Ferry Park for people of all skin color.

-I remember, um, when the Broadway Roller Rink opened in February '76, that it was the second year of court-ordered school busing.

Okay?

And I was in that first class that was bussed.

I will never, ever, ever, ever forget the first day.

The parents that stood at the entrance of the school with signs saying, "and we don't want y'all out here," with sticks and bricks.

How afraid Mama must have been to put her kid on a bus and to go to a school at a place where people don't want them and trust that they're gonna be safe.

The kids that were on the same bus were the kids that were going to the roller skating rink.

The parents got them in the skating rink, so we would make sure that they were okay, because they trusted us.

It was a safe place.

♪♪ -Soon as I put my skates on, I just feel like a whole 'nother person.

I'm in a whole 'nother world, you know.

Sometimes I'll take people skating with me, and I forget all about they with me.

They be like, "Girl, you was supposed to help me skate."

I was like, "Girl, I was in my zone."

♪♪ -The deejay sets the mood of the -- of the whole night, the whole skating rink.

You know, music for black people is their sanctuary.

-Every song carries a different frequency.

You know, you leave everything on the floor on that song.

And you just go.

-♪ Here we go, now shake ♪ ♪ Shake, shake ♪ -♪ I represent Da Ville ♪ -♪ Represent, where you from?

♪ -How you doing, Dee?

Glad to be here.

-Hey.

Alright.

-We got Earl from El Paso, Texas.

-I remember Dee.

-When I first started, we looked up to black women in the skate culture.

The older generation teaching us how to do steps, the rules and regulations, like, the secret policy of skating.

Miss Dee, my relationship to her was just... just joy.

-Okay.

Dee, Miss Devious, in the house from Louisville.

Thank you so very much.

Uh, where's -- where's the rest of your crew at?

-They're inside.

They inside.

They're dancing.

-I mean, everything about her was beautiful.

She was most definitely golden.

When you walked in the rink and you saw her, it was like yes.

Every time she went to a skate party, she would videotape and bring it back, because she wanted to share the history.

-[ Chuckling ] Yeah.

Shoot.

You gonna show me, I'm gonna look.

-She's taught us a lot of skate etiquette, a lot of moves that we still do to this day.

She was just a beautiful person.

♪♪ ♪♪ -When she passed, they tried to keep it alive, keep her -- keep her going.

-Still doing them.

-Because longevity is passing the baton.

-'Cause it's not a matter of my liberation, for example.

It is also a matter of yours.

-The skating rink is a culture in itself.

The tenderness of skating is leaving, just like the tenderness of this world is -- seems like it's leaving.

♪♪ ♪♪ -The city has a lot of unpleasant sides to it.

-Right now in Louisville, every day we're waking up to a death.

You know, gun violence is taking over the streets.

Gangs are taking over the streets.

I think skating is important and most definitely is saving lives, especially for the young men in our community.

-We actually had a 502 Crew junior team, and two of them passed away of gun violence.

They -- I think one of them was 15, little Tim, and one of them was 16, man, Cam.

When we got with them, they was 11 and 12.

Like we used to be, like just a big brother of them, though.

-The man who has no imagination stands on the earth.

He has no wings.

He cannot fly.

-Imagination is a magic carpet upon which we may soar to distant lands and climb, and even go beyond the moon, to any planet in space.

We came from nowhere here.

Why can't we go... -...somewhere there?

-...somewhere there?

♪♪ ♪♪ -It was just so magical to go in.

I got to see it from my dream to it happening.

-Skating in Louisville is, it's -- it's just -- it's everything.

It showed me everything that I needed to know for years to come.

It was -- It was -- It was life.

-I think a lot of people are running to it now because it is contributing to their mental health, wellness.

-It's like church to us.

There's been plenty of times where we went to the skating rink.

Things on your brain, you got things going on.

"You know, life is -- is -- is stepping on you, but you'll mess around and walk out of there and be done figure things out.

-Ain't no -- Ain't no other feeling.

Just go into the rink and just let go of the stress.

Let go of everything.

Just go in there and just be yourself, free minded.

-It's funny.

I feel like men that do skate are more in touch with like their emotions, their feminine side, their true self.

Because out, you know, in regular society, men have to put on this front and fake and be masculine and, you know -- -Tough, strong.

-Yeah, for sure.

And in skating, man, you let that guard down because you can't be hard out there spinning.

-No.

-You know, you gotta have some -- -I've tried.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-It's tough.

It's tough, man.

It's hard being a thug rotating in circles.

♪♪ -Skating has taught me about love.

It's taught me patience.

Him and I, we've been skating together, ooh, long time, so there's things that I know about him on the wood, and he knows about me on the wood, and... It's one of my favorite places to be with him.

♪♪ -I could be vulnerable with all three of these guys.

-For sure.

-You know, they've been at my lowest.

They've been at my highest.

You know, and it's -- it translates into our skating.

-For sure.

-We definitely leave our trust in our brothers' hands when we out here doing what we do, from flips to slides to throwing somebody across the floor.

You have to have trust.

You have to be vulnerable.

You have to be willing to give yourself to your brothers.

-It's taught me that just like we can work on things in the skating rink, the work that I put into it, you know, I've learned over the years that I've got to do that with other things in life.

It's taught me that if I don't, you know, fix the outside before I come in that rink, uh, if I don't give it the same effort that I give skating, then I won't be skating.

-It's a special place.

-Yeah.

-It really is.

-I want my arm with the hot iron scar.

-It's just amazing, you know.

-I want my leg with the flea bite.

-Black people are amazing when they get together, and they skate.

-My callus feet... -My callus feet... -...and my quick language back in my mouth.

-...and my quick language back in my mouth.

-My fried plantain.

-My fried plantain.

-I want my things!

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Dealing with conflicts ♪ ♪ Centered on topics of liberation ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪