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Rollergirls: The Story of Flat Track Derby
Flat track roller derby is one of the country’s fastest growing sports. What started as a single league in Austin, Texas, a couple of decades ago has grown into an international phenomenon, with nearly two thousand leagues around the world.
Rollergirls captures the spirit of the game, which is poised to become an Olympic sport, and highlights the women who have become known as the godmothers of modern-day roller derby. Documentary photographer Felicia Graham takes readers on a visual tour of more than 160 black-and-white images, showcasing the confidence it takes to become a rollergirl and the camaraderie that develops among the players. Focusing on the Texas League, where it all began, Graham celebrates the culture and personality of flat track derby everywhere.
Despite their different reasons for joining the sport, women of varying professions, ages, and lifestyles have made roller derby uniquely their own. With tongue-in-cheek team names like the Hotrod Honeys and personas like Sparkle Plenty and Buckshot Betty, the players use their brains and brawn to master the strategic game while also expanding the sport internationally. It’s all done with bravado and a brash sense of humor unique to full-contact sports.
Graham has been photographing the Texas Rollergirls on and off the track, in Texas and on the international circuit, for more than a decade. Spending untold hours with the league and collecting thousands of photographs of pivots and blockers, adoring crowds, and the sweat of the bench, she has created a visual narrative of women who embody the freedom of flying around the track. In these pages, readers learn how regular girls become rollergirls--determined, athletic, intimidating, and powerful, all on their own terms.
Rollergirls captures the spirit of the game, which is poised to become an Olympic sport, and highlights the women who have become known as the godmothers of modern-day roller derby. Documentary photographer Felicia Graham takes readers on a visual tour of more than 160 black-and-white images, showcasing the confidence it takes to become a rollergirl and the camaraderie that develops among the players. Focusing on the Texas League, where it all began, Graham celebrates the culture and personality of flat track derby everywhere.
Despite their different reasons for joining the sport, women of varying professions, ages, and lifestyles have made roller derby uniquely their own. With tongue-in-cheek team names like the Hotrod Honeys and personas like Sparkle Plenty and Buckshot Betty, the players use their brains and brawn to master the strategic game while also expanding the sport internationally. It’s all done with bravado and a brash sense of humor unique to full-contact sports.
Graham has been photographing the Texas Rollergirls on and off the track, in Texas and on the international circuit, for more than a decade. Spending untold hours with the league and collecting thousands of photographs of pivots and blockers, adoring crowds, and the sweat of the bench, she has created a visual narrative of women who embody the freedom of flying around the track. In these pages, readers learn how regular girls become rollergirls--determined, athletic, intimidating, and powerful, all on their own terms.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published November 27, 2018
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 8, 2023
I always like being immersed in a world I know nothing about. I truly did not event know that this was still going on today. Loved the intimate intensity of this photographic journey. Always nice to be able to see a world you would never encounter on your own - amazingly intimate encounter.
May 22, 2019
Books #18-20: Soon after moving to Austin, TX, about ten years ago I was introduced to the fascinating wonder that is flat track derby and rollergirls. If you have never gone to flat track derby, you need to. It's amazing and fantastic. It made a comeback here in Austin then it became big again across the country
Two books of photographs capture the rollergirls and their sport in all their splendor from their creative names (Bonnie Collide, Bettie Rage, Mo Pain, Fisticuffs, Vicious Van GoGo) to them not hesitating from hurting each other at times if that's what's needed to win. Those books are "Scars and Stripes: The Culture of Modern Roller
Derby" by Andreanna Seymore and "Rollergirls: The Story of Flat Track Derby" by Felicia Graham.
Those are good supplements to a book by Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan, "RollerGirl: Totally True Tales From The Track," where she describes seeing roller derby and seeing out joining a team, learning what she had to do to be a good player and her experiences as a rollergirl. It's all fun, amazing stuff - well, except when they got hurt. I give them all 8's. All three books are available via the Austin llbrary. .
Two books of photographs capture the rollergirls and their sport in all their splendor from their creative names (Bonnie Collide, Bettie Rage, Mo Pain, Fisticuffs, Vicious Van GoGo) to them not hesitating from hurting each other at times if that's what's needed to win. Those books are "Scars and Stripes: The Culture of Modern Roller
Derby" by Andreanna Seymore and "Rollergirls: The Story of Flat Track Derby" by Felicia Graham.
Those are good supplements to a book by Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan, "RollerGirl: Totally True Tales From The Track," where she describes seeing roller derby and seeing out joining a team, learning what she had to do to be a good player and her experiences as a rollergirl. It's all fun, amazing stuff - well, except when they got hurt. I give them all 8's. All three books are available via the Austin llbrary. .
March 7, 2020
I don't know much about roller derby but, when I saw Roller girls I had to read it. I had no idea that roller derby was still going on. I have never been to a roller derby match.
I liked that the pictures in Rollergirls were in black and white. I liked that Rollergirls was quick to read. I liked the roller derby names of the Rollergirls. Just when I think I know everything I realize I don't. I want to learn more about roller derby.
I liked that the pictures in Rollergirls were in black and white. I liked that Rollergirls was quick to read. I liked the roller derby names of the Rollergirls. Just when I think I know everything I realize I don't. I want to learn more about roller derby.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews