Rollerskates and Legacy: The Moth Podcast

The Moth - The Moth

Dolores Canales recounts crafting handmade roller skates for her incarcerated sister, Ty, using prison-issued materials like chair wheels and tennis shoes, transforming a birthday into a powerful act of hope and solidari

Key takeaways

• Dolores Canales made roller skates for her incarcerated sister Ty using chair wheels and repurposed tennis shoes, defying prison rules to create a surprise birthday party.

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Hi there, everyone, and welcome to the Moth. I'm Jermaine Archer, executive director of a nonprofit called Rehabilitation Through the Arts, or RTA, which is celebrating 30 years of using the arts to teach life skills to incarcerated New Yorkers. I'm also a Moth storyteller, and I'm so excited to be hosting this episode of the Moth podcast. Today, we're featuring two stories from the Moth's community program, which, through workshops and events, brings storytelling. telling to nonprofits, cultural institutions, and a bunch of other cool places around the country. The community program has featured stories spanning topics from veteran and immigrant experiences to mental health and cultural identity. On this episode, we're focusing on stories from our justice initiative. In 26 alone, we've recorded stories from family members navigating incarceration, entrepreneurs who've used experiences and skills acquired in the penal system, and survivors of violence who found forgiveness. Together, these stories tell of the many ways people are working together to reimagine what justice can look like. Our first story is from Dolores Canales, who told her story at a community workshop in San Francisco. Here's Dolores, live at the moment. Okay, like that? I was in Chowchilla State Prison for Women, serving seven years on a nine-year prison sentence, and this is where much of my community still resides. During my incarceration, I had many jobs within the institution, and one of those jobs was working in the program office. I worked in D-Facility, and this is where the Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant, all had their offices. We all had our own office, my peers and my colleagues. We had our own office, and in the mornings we'd show up to work, and I'd take my Kirk Franklin and my Shirley Caesar gospel CDs. And one morning, I was playing Amazing Grace by Shirley Caesar, and my co-worker, Ty, who was serving life without the possibility of parole, and is who still is in prison right now to this day, began to cry, but it was a gut-wrenching cry. Like deep within her soul, you could hear the agony as she cried out, and I went up to her and I hugged her and I just, I knew. I said, you're tired of being here, aren't you? And she said, yes. So I let her continue to cry in my arms. but we became very close. We bonded at that moment, and we say we're each other's sister from another mister. One time Ty had shared with me that all she ever wanted when growing up was her very own roller skating party. So Ty had a birthday coming up, and I had decided I was going to find a way to get her some roller skates. I thought to myself, should I ask some staff to bring roller skates? Because roller skates are not allowed in prison. They're not permitted. But then I thought about it, and I thought I would not want anybody to lose their job over roller skates. So I thought I'll make some roller skates. So I thought if I could just get wheels. I started looking at everything with wheels. I was looking at the mop buckets, but then I thought, oh, they were too hard to take off, plus the women would get angry if we didn't have our mop buckets. So then one day I go into the chapel, where I used to work at one time, too, and I go with the two clerks. They were both lifers, and I'm telling them, I need some wheels. I'm going to make some roller skates. So I said, I'm going to get one of the chairs of Chaplain Doherty's, and I'm going to take those wheels because they have five wheels on them, and I only need them four. So I was going to leave one behind. So, of course, they had my back, and we're going to let us take the wheels. So I get my wheels, and the chaplain ends up walking in. Chaplain Doherty looks, and he's talking to us, and we're all laughing and everything, and then he looks at the chair, and he says, wasn't there wheels on that chair? And the three of us, we just stay quiet and we're looking at him. But then I don't want him to assume that maybe, you know, one of them had something to do with it. So I said, I took them, Chaplain Doherty. I have the wheels. So he looks at me, kind of puzzled, and he goes, am I going to get them back? And I said, well, probably not, you know? I mean, he just looked at me, shook his head, and walked away. So at this time, I have my wheels, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, I'll get a pair of brand-new state tennis shoes. They have the white rubber around them with the black. They resemble imitation Converse. And so I thought to myself, I'll get some of those, and I'll just make some holes in the rubber, and I'll put the wheels in them. But then I was thinking, and I was walking around the yard, and people started asking me, what's wrong with you? What's going on with you? Gypsy and Sleepy, actually. And I shared my vision. I said, I have some wheels. I'm going to make tie some roller skates. I said, but the only thing I could think of doing is just sticking them in the tennis shoes. So then they said, well, how about we send the wheels behind work exchange? we get the tennis shoes and crazy glue them on there and carve the wood precisely to the size of the shoe and drill the wheels in the shoe. And I thought, you know, what a terrific idea. All we have to do now is smuggle them behind work exchange. But no problem at all. So we get the wheels behind the work exchange. We get our shoes made. And then now to bring them back. They said, you know, the shoes are ready. And they got them delivered and they showed them to me. and they were the most beautiful pair of shoes that you could imagine. And I immediately thought to myself, if I would have just hung onto those wheels, Ty would have ended up with just like some holes in a tennis shoe. But sharing the vision and what transpired something else started to happen. People started to catch on to the vision. So they immediately said, we'll draw a backdrop. All we need is a brand new state sheet. We'll draw backdrop of a snack bar and a skating rink. And so they became involved, and they offered to do the artwork for the backdrop. Then I got a box of state issue gloves that the staff use. And if you blow them up, they blow up like a balloon. But if you just leave them like that, it's going to kind of look like a cow or something. So you have to get the fingers and tie them together. And then put bows around it, make some bows, and then you can use them as balloons. So we had our balloons. We had our backdrop. We had everything getting ready to go. And then I got a hold of some pink chalk. So I thought, I'm going to dye her shoe later. to make them pink. So I dye her shoelaces pink with the chalk and I'm in my room with my other roommates and I'm telling them what's happening. And then one of my roommates has some gel pens, pink pens. Well, if you know, Ty, you know she's all that sass.