imillaSkate
Park
Each member of the imillaSkate collective has a different personal reason why they skate:
To express. To embrace tradition. To fly.
But as the recognition of their bright traditional style and legit skills began to grow, they all shared an awareness that skateboarding was also their gateway to a circle of friendship and resilience.
They began to imagine a way their whole community could access the abilities, relationships and experiences that Imillaskate had offered them—and grow that potential from person to person.
The vision of imillaSkate Park was born not just to make the next level of skateboarding possible in Bolivia, but to offer access to that kind of care to other girls and vulnerable members of the community.
Bolivia lacks an Olympic level skate facility and the Imillaskate collective envisions not only a space to advance the sport from beginners to experts but also individual lives, with facilities for therapy and personal development through other movement like parkour, breakdancing and hip hop.
In doing so, they see a way to gather and align both the collective resources and needs across the community of Cochabamba and the skateboarding community across the globe, to gather, teach and learn in a shared physical space.
As each of the imillaSkate girls began their skateboarding journey, they began to be invited to speak and do workshops around Bolivia. As they met other neighborhoods and communities across the country, they saw how the imagination and hunger to learn grew as they interacted with people of all ages.
They recognized how a facility that gathers intergenerational learning in one space could not only seed a new generation of skateboarding in Bolivia but change the pattern of learning—and that, with the right space and support, each girl who sparks a new sense of power within themselves becomes the inspiration for the next generation.
The heart, skill and style of imillaSkate has also gathered global imagination, with a recent documentary in partnership with Vans, Optimist Films, Nowness and Pachamama Sabia. As each of the founding collective members tells both their personal and shared stories across social media and film screening audiences, a new lens on the experience and power of both indigenous women and the sport of skateboarding is possible.
imillaSkate Park will serve as a centering “studio” for new voices to continue to emerge and have resources and production tools for more girls to develop their skills to share their own story in a variety of different shorts and creative pieces.
imillaSkate Park is an authentic bridge not just between sport and personal possibility but amongst the different communities of Bolivia. It offers a literal concrete way to reimagine not only the future of skateboarding but also the power of friendship, tradition and physical spaces to change lives.
Each ramp, bowl and skill that creates opportunity for one furthers opportunity for all in a multitude
of ways.
It will also be one of the first skate parks in the world designed specifically to be a community center serving the needs and opportunities of local girls and women.