The idea began as an art exhibit, when Hanan Khatoun and Susan Barnett — graduate students at the School of Art and School of Journalism respectively — collaborated with skate community organizer Joycee Quevedo for INFUSE 2024, a gallery exhibit and competition that celebrates interdisciplinary art. The theme of the gallery in 2024 was borders. 

 

For the exhibit, the three contacted roller skate communities in Hermosillo, Sonora and began planning a day to meet up. In early April 2024, the three travelled down to meet them for the first time. The final product for the gallery was two podiums with border check points framing two TV’s. On each TV played the two roller skate communities on each side of the border, showing how despite the border wall, people in the borderlands share more things in common: things that connect us to our humanity and subvert the national narrative fed from our government. 

 

After the first meetup, we were confident we could plan something bigger, and so began the planning of the Binational Roll Out that would eventually lead Khatoun, Barnett and Quevedo to create TRC as a way to represent skaters from Tucson in logos on the flyers for the event. What started as a way to have Tucson represented on the event flyer flourished into its own organization with a much bigger purpose. 

 

The Binational Roll Out, sponsored by the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, brought nearly 100 skaters together for lively skate and roller skate competitions. It also brought the organizers on both sides of the border even closer together as they spent months connecting over Zoom to plan every detail. 

 

As TRC has evolved we’ve continued to collaborate with our friends on the other side of the border, but have begun to put more emphasis on what we can do for the community here in Tucson. We've recently started a Youth Sk8 Workshop every third Sunday, a free event where young kids can learn how to roller skate in a safe space. 

 

With the addition of new members, TRC has transformed into a hub of community, education and support. We hope to provide a safe space for people of all ages, races, ethnicities, genders, and immigration status to be able to learn resilience through roller skating. We also want to encourage movement and being outside to the younger generations.