Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides

Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides tells the history of women and non-binary skateboarders from the 1960s onward, who built their own scene through underground networks when the industry shut them out. Natalie Porter, a skater and librarian, draws on interviews and archival research, including the DIY zines these skaters made to find one another, and threads in her own account of what that community meant to her.

Porter connects the grassroots organizing of the 1980s to the women now competing in Olympic skateboarding, giving the history behind what can look like overnight progress. The 368-page paperback is published by ECW Press.