During the early stages of the pandemic, like most people, Mama Celeste was looking for ways to get outside and find respite. The popular drag queen followed the trend of people picking up roller skating and started strapping on skates and gliding around the neighborhood when in need of some fresh air and exercise. Then, a friend told Mama Celeste about Brooklyn Basin’s outdoor space being advertised as a “hot new spot.”
“Anytime I hear things like that, I’m skeptical about it,” Mama Celeste said. “But then, when my friend and I got there, we saw how beautiful it was, and how it had the perfect outdoor amphitheater for drag.”
So, in February 2021, Mama Celeste, who is also the co-founder of the yearly drag festival Oaklash, started Rollin’ with the Homos (referencing rapper Coolio’s 1995 song Rollin’ with My Homies) alongside drag queen Nicki Jizz at Township Commons, a park that overlooks the water part of the Brooklyn Basin development.
The monthly soiree takes place every fourth Sunday of the month from February to October and features DJs and drag performances. The tips received throughout the event help pay for the performers, the DJs, and the marketing materials used to promote it.
“The first month we went fully renegade,” Mama Celeste said. “We jumped on it because it was new and cool and it felt magical and weird.”
Rollin’ with the Homos joined a budding skating culture with other Oakland crews at Lake Merritt, Panther Skate Plaza at DeFremery Park, Liberation Park, and other makeshift outdoor skating rinks that gained popularity during the pandemic and remain strong today.
“We became part of that culture; everyone was really welcoming,” Mama Celeste said.
At the first Rollin’ with the Homos in February of 2021, Mama Celeste and Nicki Jizz brought Bluetooth speakers and invited queens Phoebe Cakes, Freak Andy, and Angel Food Cakes to perform.
In the three years since Rollin’ with the Homos started, there have been many memorable events. But the one that stands out the most, according to Mama Celeste, is the May 2022 installment, when the closing performer, Beef Cakes, did a number to the song Malibu by Kim Petras. Beef Cakes roller skated to the end of the pier, put on a life vest, got on top of the railing, and jumped into the estuary. An inner tube was waiting to help drag the queen out of the water.
“That’s easily, to this day, the performance that we will never ever be able to live down,” Mama Celeste said.
For that first “renegade” rendition, Angel Food Cakes was in charge of closing out the event.
“We had this absurdly perfect rink stage space for it, and the stars aligned. That first one was this cathartic moment where a lot of people in the drag scene came out,” Angel Food Cakes said. “We were seeing so many friends that we hadn’t seen in almost a year.”
Angel Food Cakes attributes the success of the event to the welcoming environment the crew has fostered, not just for the queer community but for straight allies, families with children, and those new to roller skating.
“It’s a beautiful space and we are filling it with a lot of joy,” Angel Food Cakes said.
While other drag queen events have been under attack and the target of conservative protests and homophobic rhetoric, Angel Food Cakes said that Rollin’ with the Homos has not experienced such vitriol.
“It’s powerful and touching just seeing how much the community is not only supportive and behind us but enthusiastic and loving,” Angel Food Cakes said. “This is what we do here in Oakland. We do drag out in the open, we don’t hide anything. It provides a beacon for people in other parts of the country to see.”
And it’s the power of community and acceptance that has built a faithful fanbase with folks like Dang Nguyen, an already seasoned skater who found out about Rollin’ with the Homos through the skating community and attended his first one in February of 2022.
“Rollin’ with the Homos is a celebration of life in a beautiful setting,” Nguyen said. “The drag queens are artists. That’s how I see them. They put so much effort into their costumes and the way they become one with the music as they skate. I couldn’t do it. I know I can’t.”
Like Angel Food Cakes, Nguyen is grateful for how welcoming and accepting the Oakland community is towards drag queens and the queer community as a whole. He has read of instances of disruptions at other drag shows.
“When I read stories like that, I feel hopeless and helpless. So my way is to show up every month, be there, and clap and yell as loud as I can,” he said. “It’s a genuine love for this event and the artists behind it.”
Mama Celeste will host this month’s Pride celebration on Sunday, June 23, with performances by queens Nova Cakes, Anna Tuesday, Mysta Meaner, and Cemora Valentino Devine. DJs Charles Hawthorne and Andrew James will be behind the turntables. Angel Food Cakes will skate around to help collect tips.
“Oakland is just such a beautiful city, and I couldn’t imagine wanting to live anywhere else. People want to make art here, people love making beautiful things, and it’s a beautiful place to do it,” Mama Celeste said. “The more of that we can get, the better.”
