Interview by Leticia Nogueira

Pics by Christopher Bernabeo and Matthew Evearitt

Recently we've been really stoked about SKATE DREAMS, the first feature documentary about the rise of women's skateboarding. The film depicts the history of female professional skateboarding and particularly portrays the journey of some of our favorite skaters, from way back in the 80s until now - like Nora Vasconcellos, Nicole Hause, Mimi Knoop and more. Featuring organizations like Skate Like a Girl and Skateistan, it’s a very interesting take on the possibilities of female skateboarding nowadays and the women who have helped pave the way and create space for equality in the sport.

Mimi Knoop, Nicole Hause and Nora Vasconcellos.

BRUJAS is a feminist skate collective from The Bronx, New York. Founded in 2014 with the aim of advocating for female skaters of colour, BRUJAS stand for universal welfare, community and art. Several members started playing music together and, along the way, they agreed to write the original soundtrack for SKATE DREAMS.

This collaboration came as no surprise to me, as this is what we do in this scene: we give each other opportunities and space to blossom. Our revolution is fueled by sisterhood. I learned that this was a perfect way to pay homage to BRUJAS’ contribution to the scene, whilst still respecting their ideas on representation. You have to keep reading, ‘cause it gets interesting. I had a short conversation with Ari, one of the founders of BRUJAS, where she told me about their collective, their experience creating the OST for the documentary, and, most importantly, their take on the revolution.

Hi Ari! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, I’m Ari, I grew up skating in the Lower East Side and I love to design – politics, melodies, rhymes, debates, theories, let’s talk! I pack light, I’m radical, I love all my peoples but I don’t get along with them all the time and I’m okay with that.

I think that the hyper-commercialization of information, including images, has regularly baited representation and escape together in a way that feels manipulative. I relate to Indigenous peoples who prefer not to be imaged. Capturing and selling everything contributes to an accumulation style that perpetuates evil, literally. In our art practice we let whatever we create hit the wind sometimes - BRUJAS is working on a really unique performance theory.

Who are BRUJAS?

The core of BRUJAS are loyal to one another, hard working towards their visions, and very explorative. All of BRUJAS are really smart, talented, and cool people, I love them all so much. People get involved with BRUJAS in different ways, as visual artists, and musicians, but the origins of our work are part of skateboarding history. Reclaiming the commons, creating a mutual aid network and naming and resisting exploitation are critical components of our work.

How did BRUJAS get to create the original soundtrack for SKATE DREAMS?

Back in 2020, I slowed down on PR and stopped offering up photos of myself. Jessica Edwards had reached out to BRUJAS around that time to feature us in SKATE DREAMS, but for the most part we were denying all press inquiries, including two major footwear campaigns. Later on in the process of making the film, Jessica reached out to me personally about the soundtrack as a DJ, not knowing I was one of the founders of BRUJAS. We talked, and the possibility of writing original music for it was really exciting to me. There’s so many historically important moments in SKATE DREAMS, from the X-Games boycott, to Wheels Of Fortune and the Olympics… I cried when I first saw footage from the film, so we worked it out. Jessica and I were just really on the same page about finding an alternative way for BRUJAS to contribute; being heard is important to us and it was a really special way to negotiate our problems with ‘representation and visibility’ while still honoring our contribution to the movement.

Your crew is going on 10 years and skateboarding has changed a lot over the last years. What kind of projects have BRUJAS devised throughout the years? Do you feel like you were part of a revolution?

BRUJAS and NYC fashion/cultural editorial were a huge part of women’s skateboarding rise onto the mood boards and trend-watch lists for agencies and journalists. This created paid commercial work for everyone, but the editorials we created based on our lives and organizing goals were unpaid. It’s not a revolution until we win battles for welfare rights from the government and redistribute wealth. Women skateboarders have the power to produce real change in our communities. This year companies are calling us to gather, throwing t-shirts with their logo on it at us and serving us cheap food that harms our body. We go home, often malnourished, to families that struggle to pay rent. BRUJAS WORLD SYNDICATE (the membership program for those that rock the brand, write and study with us from a distance, etc) is building coalition amongst affiliates in cultural production that are aware of contemporary human rights struggles. The project I’ve been working on is called WFH, which calls particular attention to the women’s division of labor and other reproductive theory. We specifically want to move the struggle for healthcare and wages for skateboarders and their working class families forward. 

What do you have to say on the importance of mutual support between under-represented minorities in the industry?

Fuck the industry! But also, thank you to everyone who has supported BRUJAS the ways that they are able to. I understand it can be confusing sometimes the way we’re always resisting post-industrial life but also trying to survive as a collective and business at the same time. It’s always a struggle but we got to source our survival outside of the industry because it’s manipulative and unsustainable. BWS (www.brujasworldsyndicate.com) is the experimental space where we try to engage some of these questions of business ethics and business modelling together. At the end of the day, our Earth and nervous systems can really only take so much, so we have to slow down and re-prioritize simple things like nutrition, housing, and healthcare in the process of re-greening.

Where do you see the minorities skate scene heading? Is there still more to fight for?

Identity politicking for commercial purposes is super fried. I pray we enter a collective battle against content and the exploitation, surveillance, and theft that occurs on the internet and towards the welfare, eco and civil rights movement we all need to survive these challenges.