Rolling toward community
On Thursday, April 17, as glimpses of spring are just starting to appear, Garfield Park’s Gold Dome Building is filled with sounds of R&B guiding you down to the gym floor. There, you’re greeted by a room filled with skaters, young and old, some inching forward, some gliding, and some dance-skating to the music. This is the last indoor Garfield Park Skate Meetup of the winter season.
In its third winter, the monthly indoor roller skating pop-up series was started by HP Skate Meetup in partnership with the Garfield Park Advisory Council, the West Side Cultural Arts Council, and the Chicago Park District. Other organizations, like Youth Guidance, Breakthrough, and Garfield Park Community Council, have sponsored events this season.
HP (Humboldt Park) Skate Meetup started in August 2020 after founder Justine Ingram saw people skating from her window while working from home. She grew up going to the Rink on 87th, but she hadn’t skated much since she was nine or ten and wanted to pick it back up. “Getting back into skating just itself was very nostalgic.”
Ingram wanted to build a space where others could skate and find community during the pandemic lockdown, so she posted on Humboldt Park’s community Facebook group. From there, Ingram and others began regularly meeting around the neighborhood. She wanted to “create a space where people could decompress, that was open and accessible to everyone.”
Over time, Ingram and co-organizer Jessica Maldonado began doing bigger events and collaborating with creators, organizations, and skate instructors, like Lucid Laces, SkyART, and Somos Arte Chicago. In October 2022, the organizers planned a Halloween event, for which the group Freewheeling provided some free skates. The organizers expected a big turnout, so Ingram called the Chicago Park District, since Garfield Park had just unveiled their outdoor roller rink. Ingram got in touch with the park district’s then-area manager, Derrick Faulkner, who let them know that if they ever wanted an indoor space with free skate rentals, they could collaborate with the park district and use the Gold Dome.
Ingram had been dreaming of hosting indoor skates for the winter months, so she started planning with the partner organizations and just a few months later, in January 2023, launched the Garfield Park Skate Meetup. The event runs on the third Thursday of each month through the winter, at the Garfield Park gymnasium from 6–8 PM, and includes free skates, DJs curating the roller rink’s vibe, and often a group lesson.
“You’ll see people out who have been skating for years, maybe some people decades, and some people are putting on skates for the first time, so we wanted to kind of be this space that is welcome to everybody, regardless of experience,” says Ingram.
Leonicia Berry and her daughter, Billie Berry-Burns, have attended every Garfield Park Skate Meetup this winter, during which the pair learned to skate.
Tia Lorenna—who grew up around Washington Park and Bronzeville and now lives in Greater Grand Crossing—is at ease on her skates. “I’ve been skating all my life, really. Like, it’s a Chicago thing, and I’ve always gone to MLK,” she says.
Michael Suarez’s kids saw roller skaters on TV and told their parents they wanted to try. At their first Garfield Park Skate Meetup, they fell in love. Thursday, April 17, is their fifth time back. Michael and his wife are learning along with their kids.
Passion Jackson arrives, lighting up the floor as she dances to Foxx and Lil Boosie’s “Wipe Me Down” in her knee-high skates. She quickly starts teaching the dance to others before beginning lessons for the whole crowd. Passion has been skating since October 2020. “I saw a video on Instagram and was like, ‘That’s hot. I wanna do that,’” she says. “I was at a point in my life where I wanted to challenge myself to just do something different outside of my comfort zone, and I started skating. I fell in love with it, and I instantly knew it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
Passion also knew that her love was so strong that she needed to share it with others. “The way the community is, it’s like, each one, teach one. So I just always wanted to reciprocate the love that was shown to me. People always would help me, so it was natural for me to start returning that favor.”
She specializes in outdoor roller skating and is a professional dance-skater, and she started teaching kids how to skate about two years into her journey. “It kind of chose me, and I just stepped up to the plate, even though it was scary,” she says.
Passion has been a longtime collaborator with HP Skate Meetup and has taught at the Garfield Park Skate Meetup numerous times. “I feel like I was blessed with this gift, and I feel like it’s my purpose to just share that joy with everybody, so I really take pride in being able to do stuff like this. All the fancy gigs are cool, but stuff like this is priceless to me.”
After lessons, people went on to skate and dance to “Cha Cha Slide,” “Wobble,” and more.
Rachel Colias (left) has been to the Garfield Park Skate Meetup four or five times and always brings friends along. This time, she’s joined by Kim Drew, Lindy Carrow, and Joan McDonald.
DJ Teddybear, or Tim Teddybearmusiq Hall, is on the decks all night, playing high-energy songs that get everyone moving and dancing. Another regular DJ for HP Skate Meetup, DJ Cobra B (Sherell Barbee, not pictured), joined him earlier in the night.
Right: Two skaters zigzag along the Garfield Park gymnasium floor.
Top left: Anne Nicklin (left) and Ann Panopio lace up their skates for their annual April skate to celebrate Ann’s birthday.
Bottom left: Mike Kinzig hasn’t been on skates since he was a kid, but he learned about the Garfield Park Skate Meetup through his kids’ school and decided to lace up. He said it only took him a little bit of practice to get back in the groove.
The many skates of the Garfield Park Skate Meetup.
Correction 4/30/2025 12:09 PM: The article was corrected to clarify that Derrick Faulkner, now the director of program services and special events, was the area manager in October 2022, and that the Chicago Park District wasn’t able to provide skate rentals for the Halloween event that year, but offered to host future collaborations.