By Katarina Hybenova
There are more roller derby girls living in Bushwick than anywhere else…
In order to find out what brings them between the warehouses, I followed the team of the Brooklyn Bombshells to a game.
Brooklyn Bombshells were playing semi-finals against the team of Queens of Pain. Both teams are part of the city female roller derby league Gotham Girls. Other teams of the league are Manhattan Mayhem and Bronx Gridlock. Gotham Girls have also an inter-league competition between the teams of the Wall Street Traitors and the Gotham Girls All-Stars.
Very unsurprisingly, I started to root for Brooklyn Bombshells right away! And I was right, Bombshells are a bunch of cool girls, they wear navy blue, and their mascot is a sailor. Although, I have to say that Queen of Pain are kinda cool too. Their color is black, and they dress up like domes. Their mascot is a slave… Lovely, right?
Shortly before the game, Hela Skelter who lives in Bushwick told me that she has been skating for couple of years now, and the sport has virtually taken over her life, but she loves it to death. Hela said that the team practices about 5 times a week in a big hall in Bushwick, which explains why almost every roller derby girl lives in Bushwick.
Another Bushwick skater Score of Babylon has awesome tattoos and it not afraid of this contact sport.
The game took place at Hunter College in the City, and Brooklyn kicked ass! They defeated Queens mercilessly, and will be playing the finals again the Bronx on Saturday October 29. So don’t miss it!
Championship Bout: Brooklyn Bomshells v. Bronx Gridlock on Saturday, October 29, 2001 at 8:30pm at CCNY – Nat Holman Gym. More info here.