Flint City Derby Girls roller derby team refuses to be broken by water crisis
This is a very nice article about our local roller derby team. I have a very close connection to this team - they are a great group of human beings. And tough as nails:
One by one the women trickle in, rolling their gear bags behind them, flopping down on the stage of a church's rec center turned gymnasium. Each goes through her own personal ritual--socks, skates, pads, helmet, assembling their armor and preparing for practice.
Coach Cotton arrives with a long piece of corded rope, which helps create a regulation sized flat track outline of blue masking tape. It is time for the team to turn nothing into something.
The women in gear preparing for battle are the women of the Flint City Derby Girls. They are mothers, wives, sisters, caregivers and friends. The group is an enduring symbol of the heartbreak their city can experience. The government seems slow in offering the retribution the city deserves, in the wake of the water crisis, so they seek resolution on the track.
The Flint City Derby Girls' uniforms are a public declaration that Flint will not die, that they aren't going anywhere. The team is revolutionary, simply by existing in a landscape that doesn't expect them to survive.
more at:
http://espn.go.com/espnw/culture/feature/article/15499201/flint-city-roller-derby-team-refuses-broken-their-water-crisis
