Like many places, Chicago’s skate scene is dominated by straight, white cis men, oftentimes leaving women, people of color, gender-nonconforming and queer individuals feeling unwelcome or intimidated in skateparks. OnWord, a collective on a mission to empower “non-traditional skaters,” seeks to change that. For their most recent project, the group built their own pop-up park, called OnSite, where all people can feel safe and welcome. …
This summer, writer Jazmine Hughes and photographer Lanna Apisukh—the former a skateboarding rookie; the latter a tenured skater—visited parks in NYC to meet “The New Skaters.” These skaters—essentially not the white, straight, cis men who have dominated the sport professionally, personally and publicly—are building “new versions of skate communities, bringing together women, trans and nonbinary skaters, as well as skaters of color.” For newcomers and …
Artist and skater Jeffrey Cheung is defining a new era for skateboarding, pushing the culture to be more colorful and diverse. As a co-founder of Unity Press & Skateboarding, Cheung is creating a zone to represent and support queer skaters—and he has been thriving at this mission. Unity is Oakland-based but Cheung and co-founder Gabriel Ramirez have brought their vibe to West Hollywood’s New Image Art, presenting Pave—a …
