I Went to My First National Skate Event, Soul Skate Detroit!

This weekend, I got to experience my first national rhythm skate event, Soul Skate Detroit, one of the most popular skate events in the world. Soul Skate has been held over Memorial Day weekend for 17 years!

Getting to skate in one of the historic centers of Black skating in America was high on my bucket list. And I’ve never been to Detroit before, so was excited to explore a new city.

I got to go with my closest skate friend Deep, who is a great travel companion. There were some other Bay Area folks there including Emani, Alitta, and Amy / Tsunami. We also ran into Santa Cruz skaters Sonja and Tracy and Seattle peeps Patrick and Chandler. So we had pretty good West Coast representation.

Soul Skate brings together incredible skaters from as far away as Australia, the UK, France and Canada. London alone had about 35 skaters there! At the rinks I got to skate with the most amazing skaters, including Frankie J, Shim, Smooth Goddess, Miraculous Spins, Batman, and my new faves T-Stacks and Oosoit / Noel. The level of skating in the cyphers was unbelievable.

The music was on point too. There were several incredible DJs playing hip-hop, R&B, and a surprising amount of house, which made me very very happy. And of course local music legend Moodyman had to make an appearance, who is featured on the logo of the event itself.

One of the things I was most excited to witness in person was a “Roll Call,” where the MC invites different scenes to take to the rink and show their unique styles. I got to see scenes from the UK, Canada, Ohio , Chicago/ JB, Atlanta and Detroit represent. Plus they had a fast backwards and a trios and trains spotlight.

It was cool seeing so many forms of skate expression in the rinks, from middle work to line dances to partner skating to figure 8s. Everywhere you looked, someone was doing something different and cool.

The main skate parties started at midnight and went to 5am. I’nm proud to say I closed out nearly all of the parties. That’s was a big goal of mine when I started my PT in February, to be able to skate for multiple nights. I was a wreck by Monday, but I did it!

I also accomplished my goal of skating in a cypher at Soul Skate. I got to execute two of my new favorite moves , the hydro-blade and the Spider.

Deep also jumped in to the cypher, which made me so proud.

One could easily go to Soul Skate and spend the whole time doing activities with skate folks. But I wanted to experience at least a little of the local culture and sights. I’m happy to report that Detroit was a cool city to visit!

The coolest thing we saw was the Motown Museum, which is located in the two small houses where Berry Gordy first started the company, back when it was hard for Black business owners to purchase or rent office buildings. We had an incredible one hour guided tour of the facility, rich with history of how some of the most iconic American music was produced. Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross and the Surpremes, the Marvelettes, and so many other incredible artists got their start at Motown.

We happened to be staying in Dearborn, which is an area home to one of the largest Muslim populations in America. We enjoyed a delicious middle eastern dinner at Al Ameer, sampled fine desserts from Shantila Bakery, and had amazing Yemeni coffee and pastries from Qahwah cafe. Victory Liquor and Soulfood is also here, a convenience store and steam table soul food joint that was no joke.

Also on the food front, I think I’ve found my favorite pizza — Detroit style! Deep and I had a couple of delicious small pies at a hipster-y little spot called Sci Pies. The veggie deluxe was great, but the vegan pulled pork one was INCREDIBLE. The fake pork was made from jack fruit and definitely fooled me. Fortunately there are several Detroit style pizza joints in SF for me to try out.

Detroit has a number of architectural treasures as well. The Fisher Building is an incredible art deco masterpiece. There was a really cute vintage store and Detroit goods shop there as well.

Overall I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to take this trip, as I get close to my four year anniversary as a quad skater. I’ve learned a ton in four years, but I feel like I’ve only just gotten a glimpse of a universe full of color, artistry, music and community.