“All Love and No Hate” for Tyre Nichols

On February 10, Chicago’s skateboarding community gathered at Grant Skate Park for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of Tyre Nichols and all victims of police brutality. 

FroSkate, the city’s first skate collective centering BIPOC skaters of trans, gender nonconforming, womxn, and queer communities, hosted the vigil at sunset to honor Nichols. He was a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after being beaten by Memphis police in a traffic stop in early January. According to family members, Nichols went to Shelby Farms, a park just east of Memphis, almost every day to watch the sunset. 

With the horizon awash in baby pink and creamsicle orange, members and friends of froSkate huddled together to meditate and sing, sharing in froSkate’s guiding principle of “All Love and No Hate.” In a beanie embroidered with the words, “Black Skaters Matter,” froSkate founder Karlie Thornton passed out handwarmers and welcomed attendees, who were asked to dress in sunset hues. 

“Once we found out Tyre Nichols was murdered, we were, of course, distraught,” said Thornton. “But once we heard he was part of our skateboarding community, we were hurt on a whole nother level because this feels like losing a family member. We felt like doing something in his honor, as we would for anyone else in the community.” 

As attendee Blake Davis performed a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “It’s Been a Long Time,” the crowd swayed together in solace. Damon A. Williams, vigil guest and cofounder of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, invited attendees to remember not just Nichols, but all other victims of police brutality. He noted that “community and love” are the solutions to “deal with everything we’ve been going through.” He asked attendees to make eye contact with the people around them and tell them, “I love you.” 

Moreover, as he concluded his speech, Williams’s final message encapsulated the vigil’s prevailing attitude: resilience. 

“The only way we can make more freedom is to live and embody freedom,” he said through the megaphone. “Write your poems and sing your songs. But don’t do them alone. Know that you are not an individual—you are part of a collective experience, and we are trying to create this new world.” 

Photographer DuWayne Padilla was at the vigil on behalf of the Reader and shared this slideshow.

Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Tyre Nichols was a Black man who died three days after being beaten by Memphis police in a traffic stop. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
froSkate founder Karlie Thornton. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Rest in Liberation. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Vigil guest T Banks leads the crowd in physical exercise and meditative healing. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Karlie Thornton speaks to vigil attendee. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
The crowd stretches to reconnect with their bodies and experience emotional release. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
“Once we heard he was part of our skateboarding community, we were hurt on a whole nother level,” said Karlie Thornton. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Damon A. Williams invites the crowd to remember and honor past victims of police brutality. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
A vigil attendee lays gifts at Nichols’s memorial. Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
Credit: DuWayne Padilla for Chicago Reader
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