By Jennifer Arturo, Iowa City (Glitch on Wheels on Tiktok)
In the last six months in Iowa City, something miraculous occurred and most people weren’t even aware of it. A tiny universe both formed and collapsed into a black hole. I was one of the lucky few who got to experience Iowa City’s first and only roller rink. And just when it was starting to shine and grow, it was gone. Glide and Go Skate City was born in the old Sycamore Mall, now called Iowa City Marketplace. This beautiful creation was the art and soul of entrepreneur Alicia Crews.
Twelve years ago, I started roller skating again in my 40s. My kids did a field trip or birthday party at the rink in North Cedar Rapids and as I watched them skate, my inner child screamed loudly that they wanted to skate again too. At the time, I was very physically and mentally sick. I was in a failing marriage. I needed something to hold on to, a reason to live. And so I started skating again and it saved my life.
That first year back was slow and scary. But I kept going, sometimes multiple times a week. My body and brain began to heal. I met one of my best friends there, a woman who at the time was in roller derby. Her derby name was Shady Barbie. I learned that Shady and I had a lot in common in terms of life history. Life had not been kind to either of us. Shady showed me that skating made us strong, resilient. Shady was the first to help me to remember who I was in a time that seemed very dark.
The more I became a skating enthusiast, the more I exposed myself to the Black skate culture online. I was mesmerized by the skating styles and cultures I was seeing coming out of Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis. Those cultures did not exist here in Iowa but I was so completely drawn to them. If you have never seen a skater skate JB style then you have missed out on a truly artistic, spiritual expression. In my old, white body, I would try to replicate simple JB moves, leaning far onto my edges, swaying my hips, cross kicking my skates front and back. I felt my brain light up as energy traveled up my spine.
Over time, the skating community at the Cedar Rapids rink became an unsafe place to be. I personally witnessed a sexual assault of a young autistic woman by an old white man. I confronted the rink owners about this man and they chose to protect him. I learned that they were staunch Trump supporters. Many of the regular male skaters there were openly and unapologetically problematic in different ways including filming young skaters without consent, intimidating skaters they didn’t like, sexual harassment as well as grooming. At one point the owners kicked out a trans youth for skating during “boys only” skate.
After many years of trying to hold onto the one thing that was saving me personally, I decided I would never return to that rink again after being screamed at by the owners for “staring at” the man who assaulted the autistic woman. And for three years I lost skating until Glide and Go appeared in the void, a small star growing out of dust. I had dreamed about opening my own roller rink many times over years. I played powerball on occasion in the hopes of winning the startup. I spent hours daydreaming about how it would look and who would be there. I wanted it to embrace all expressions of skate to include the derby community, West Coast Jam skate that I grew up with and all of the sacred Black skate culture I had been obsessed with online.
Roller Allie (Alicia Crews) made my dreams come true when she opened up Glide and Go. I remember this time last year, Shady sending me the news about it coming to Iowa City. I was so happy that I cried. I showed my now adult kids and my son said, “Mom, you manifested this.” When the birth announcement came, I was in a very toxic second part-time job and I made up my mind to quit, meet Alicia and try to get a job at her rink. I started daydreaming about organizing parties for kids, skate events for grown-ups, teaching new skaters, skating in a safe place with my best friend Shady. Those dreams were so beautiful.
When the opening in January was delayed, I got worried and I got very sad. I got sick in February, a respiratory illness I could not shake. I stayed sick until almost May when Glide and Go finally opened. I was afraid to go back, put my skates on, fall in love with the art again, but I went. My first skate there I was so nervous. Glide and Go was still being born. They were painting, creating and it was a raw space but the floor was smooth, there was music and so I tried to get my skate legs back and I did.
Over the next few weeks and months I got to know my newest friend Alicia and she got to know me. As a Black, woman business owner, she was having many challenges I learned and I wanted to help. She couldn’t hire me as an employee yet. I realized that her dream was my dream and that if it was going to work, I would have to pour my love into it as much as she had. So I volunteered time, slowly at first. In August when the University was starting up again, Alicia arranged to have freshmen bused over to skate as one of the welcoming events held annually at University of Iowa. We scrambled to get ready. Alicia had to travel out of state to get enough rental skates before the event! But by the time the event started we were ready. She had ice buckets decorated on the tables with water and pizza for the students and she was rushing around. At one point I stopped Alicia and said, “Look.”
We looked out on to the skate floor at the students skating, laughing, smiling, dancing and it was so beautiful. I told Alicia, “Look what you did, You created this.” I felt so much pride and gratitude in that moment for this woman who created an entire tiny universe in the Sycamore Mall. Alicia did what I couldn’t do. She did it for me, for Shady, for the entire community of Iowa City. She did it for the kids and the families.
And now it is gone. Glide and Go closed permanently a few weeks ago. It closed exactly a week after I had posted a 30-second TikTok about it. Just me telling people I was there skating on a Friday night and to come out. That TikTok got over 25,000 views, and 2,000 likes. Glide and Go was a very much needed third space in Iowa City.
The reasons it closed are not my story to tell. Owner Alicia Crews will one day hopefully tell the whole community why her dream was robbed from her and from you. What I can and will say is that I believe skating can save lives and that every day is a beautiful day to save lives. Humans need community. We need safe spaces to connect, to create. I have lived in Iowa City and surrounding areas 30 years now and have always known it as “diverse community.” But I have experienced this not to be completely true.
Skating still exists in Iowa City. The Robert A. Lee Recreation Center makes skating available once a week in their gym. It’s a great place for our youth to be exposed to and find a love of skating. That said, it is not accessible to everyone. Skaters who need more space, safe floor traffic, faster floor traffic and space to express skate outside of skating in small circles find it limiting. For me, skating up north will never be an option again; boycotting businesses that promote hate for minority groups is important.
At a time when there is so much hate and so little joy, when our neighbors are being kidnapped off the streets and deported, our mentally ill being murdered in the streets, our country and world so divided by hate and white supremacy, I just wanted to share that in the midst of it all, there was for a short time an alternate dimension where a white woman became friends with a Black woman who made her dreams come true. A place where community showed up to share a common love of being free on wheels. Families had birthday parties, students met their classmates, lovers went on dates there and brought each other flowers. Thank you Glide and Go and Alicia Crews for your art, your love, your passion. It is sacred.
