Advance Tickets Available – Click Here!

Advance Tickets Available – Click Here!

A Very Special Event!

10:30 pm Saturday, November 3 to 3 am Sunday, November 4

 

The City Reliquary Museum’s popular current exhibition, Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco, is extending its time on the floor! Empire Skate will be on view at the Reliquary through November 25, 2018. To celebrate this extended run, and in homage to Empire’s legendary roller disco parties, the Reliquary has organized a late-night skate at Hyde Park Roller Magic. Join us at 10:30 pm on Saturday, November 3 for a sneak preview of the skating documentary United Skates followed by skating til the early morning hours.

 

United Skates, a 2018 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner, reveals close-knit skating communities across the country and their fights to save local rinks from closure and to preserve these hubs of African-American culture. Co-director Tina Brown and documentary participant Reggie Brown will screen clips and discuss the film. Then, Empire legends DJ Big Bob – a keystone of the Empire sound for almost 2 decades – and DJ Q spin soul, disco, and R&B to get the Brooklyn bounce going!

 

Advance tickets are on sale now for $25 ($22 for Reliquary members) and include round-trip bus transportation from Brooklyn to Hyde Park Roller Magic. The bus will depart at 8:00 p.m. from the City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg. Hyde Park Roller Magic is located at 4178 Albany Post Rd. in Hyde Park. Tickets without transportation are $15 ($12 for Reliquary members). Deadline for purchase of tickets with transportation included is October 31.

 

Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco brings the world of the Crown Heights Empire Roller Skating Center to life, exploring its role as a national icon and a focal point of the African-American community in Brooklyn. Converted from the old Ebbets Field parking garage, Empire was famous as the birthplace of roller disco, a skate craze that swept the nation in the 70s and 80s. Locally it was known as a place where New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds could come together; where grandparents showed grandchildren their favorite moves, and former gang members and Hasidic Jews skated side by side. Through the examined histories of and around Empire, the show reveals connections between roller skating and larger narratives of race, class, and urbanization in America. Beyond the roller disco movement, the exhibit traces the history of roller skating in the United States, highlighting the diversity of rinks around the country and the unique history of skating in New York City, which was home to over 20 rinks at its skating peak.