Please join the Keweenaw Roller Girls as they present Let the Good Times Roll: Art of KRG, an art show generously hosted by Cross Country Sports, Calumet.
The show will run from June 27 until July 27, with an opening reception taking place in conjunction with First Friday Calumet festivities on July 7, 6-9pm. Artists, KRG league members and friends will be present at the opening to discuss the works and local roller derby opportunities. Cross Country Sports is located at 507 Oak St, Calumet MI.
Let the Good Times Roll: Art of KRG is an eclectic and colorful show, featuring vibrant poster art and design by Katie Jo Wright, Jonathan Soper and Terri Frew. Further roller derby related art will also be presented from artists Melissa Williamson, Sam Flora, and Joe Mac. Select items will be available for purchase.
Much like KRG themselves, this art is unique and individual- a true sight to behold.
This is our posse for the battle against Dead River Derby’s Superior Sirens this Saturday, June 24th. With an ebb and flow within the roster ( as is usually the case in a rural college town ) KRG has been working on communication and a smarter not harder ethos. Defining language and terminology and building 1 on 1 connections on the track, has increased our ability to execute timed offense and more secure defensive strategies. As it is said, the only thing that is constant is change. Rosters can evolve, skater abilities can increase or decrease, but what ties it all together and keeps it whole is speaking the same language. And sometimes, our voices act quicker than our bodies. If we can’t get there, we’ll tell someone else to.
We welcome our rookie skaters, Glam Bam, Afro Disiac, and Amelia HitsHart, to their first away game, and look forward to an awesome match against our roller derby sistahs from the south.
The weather was as hot as the derby action on Saturday night at the Calumet Colosseum, as the Keweenaw Roller Girls (KRG) beat worthy opponents, the Shipwreck Alley Rollers (SAR) 366 to 72.
photo: KayEnSee Photography
Although Saturday’s bout was the first away match for the newer SAR, who made the trip up from Alpena Michigan on Friday, they played hard and were respectable opponents.
Newer KRG skaters Glam Bam, Amelia HitsHart, and AfroDisiac all had the opportunity to take a turn in the jamming rotation alongside KRG veteran jammers Thimbleberry Slam, Starbuck, Wrath B. Nimble, and Black Ice. From SAR, skaters Skellawhore, Siren Sea Pearls and Punkahotness were stand outs due to their agile skating and smart derby playing. However, newer skater No Fox Given was voted game MVP by KRG for “being a real menace on the track”.
At half-time, viewers were treated to a mesmerizing and interactive belly dance performance courtesy of 47 North Belly Dance troupe from Hancock. Their gyrating hips and artistic maneuvers were truly a sight to behold!
Hosted by Shute’s historical tavern, the bout after party was memorable: tall tales shared, cold drinks consumed, new friends made, and great tunes spun by DJ Dave Brotherton. Mother Nature even treated us to some classic Keweenaw late spring weather drama in the form of heavy rain and wind. Like most weather in Michigan, we waited five minutes and it changed.
Overall, the events of Saturday night at the Colosseum served to bring communities together: both the roller derby community and the tightly knit community that are the folks of the Keweenaw.
Our opponents, Shipwreck Alley Rollers may not have won this one, but they are showing great sisu as they continue on their journey that is sure to mean great things for them in the future. As for KRG, we are proud to know the skaters of SAR, and can’t wait to meet again!
Keweenaw Roller Girls 2017 season started off with a bang as our first WFTDA sanctioned game is now in the books. It was a tough battle against Chippewa Valley Roller Girls of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They’ve been on the track several season longer than KRG and really have some superb leadership that has carried their strategies and game play over the years. Ending their season against KRG, they left with a powerful 261 to 65. Though the score visually was a huge blow out, the gameplay itself was exciting. If you never looked at the scoreboard you might not have known who had won the game. Some great skating skill was displayed by both teams, and the 1 on 1 battles in the front of the pack, usually against CVRG’s #25 Stunt Double, were so thrilling it really didn’t seem to matter to the home crowd that KRG was having their butts handed to them. With more than 500 in attendance at the Calumet Colosseum, the house “Ooohhs” and “Ahhhs” could be heard clearly on the track amongst the chaos of shouting skaters, whistles, and the house PA.
Keweenaw showcased some new talent at the first game in Calumet this season. Glam Bam #18, Amelia HitsHart #724, and AfroDisiac #88 played in their first game as rookies against a seasoned WFTDA All Star team. We are so proud of their fearlessness (okay, maybe they were a little scared, but they didn’t show it), and their great sportsmanship. Talk about a trial by fire. These new skaters are ones to keep your eyes on. As any team should know, every loss is a win if you learn something from it, and we certainly took some pointers, made adjustments, and are ready for the games ahead of us.
Next up on the schedule for June 10th, a new team on the scene, Shipwreck Alley Roller’s (SAR) of Alpena, Michigan. They will be making their way up the peninsula this weekend, and what a great time to hit the road! This team has a lot of soul and we look forward to strengthening our connections with them. First recognized at the 2016 Mitten Kitten Tournament in Mackinaw City, SAR was in full force co-hosting and lending support to River City Renegades and the entire organizing crew. They were growing their league and supporting the growth of roller derby, and we are all about that! They have quite a presence and are hard to not notice with their iconic pirate-skull logo with pretty eyelashes.
Get ready and make some evening plans for this Saturday as KRG prepares for their opponent from below the bridge. School is out for the kids and we’re all in the mind-set for having some fun. Bring your kiddos to the game, or bring that gal who you know would just be great at roller derby (we want to recruit her).
Tickets are $5.00 for adults, and the kids 10 and under are FREE! Bevies, grub, and rolling thunder. What better way to spend a Saturday night in Calumet!?
We’re rolling ahead and ready to rumble into the 2017 season
It’s cliche to say “ready to rumble” but it couldn’t be more apropos. Every season brings excitement and energy that has just about every derbyist bursting at the seams. Games, fans, hits, rookies. It’s all of the things that make this experience what it is, and part of that is the “performance” and how it looks to the spectators.
Every fall KRG meets to plan for the year ahead. We look at the community calendar, events, fundraisers, recruitment and health of the league, and we also look at what sort of theme or feel we’d like to capture for the year ahead when considering print and media materials. Our first season on the flat track we focused on fun iterations of movies and film. Second season, all business athletic captures; the actual derby players. Season three, celebrated the feminine mythical “creatura” that lives inside all of us. And this year, we’re going Keweenaw Old Timey!
Have you seen our team portrait? The Quincy Mine Hoist Association granted exclusive access to the Keweenaw Roller Girls to climb and perch ourselves in the giant man-car that historically was used to move copper miners deep into the mines. Inspired by a portrait taken in Calumet & Helca mines, with the help from Adam of Brockit photography, we recreated the picture with all the league members we could get.
Living in the Keweenaw Peninsula, there’s so much old history that it’s hard not to be influenced by it. There are many historical sites here, great native histories, and geological tales that are silently told if you just look about you.
As we move into our forth season and simultaneously celebrate five years since our inception, we grab firmly onto the old stories of this place and celebrate it for it’s genuine uniqueness. If the Keweenaw Roller Girls existed in 1913, then this is what we think it would look like.
