Breaking the Barrier chronicles Chicago-based OnWord Skate Collective’s undertaking to build and bring a portable public skatepark to city parks and other public spaces that are void of such structures. The collective was formed in the early months of 2021 by Lid Madrid, T Smith, Cath Hodge, Deb Hwang, and Bridget Johnson. Most important to OnWord is to provide a safe space for the historically under-represented people of the skateboarding landscape: women, LGBTQ+ and non-gender-conforming (NGC) skaters –not to forget either the younger or older subsets as well. These skateparks also provide (smaller) obstacles catering more to beginners thereby eliminating one of the more intimidating aspects of skate parks.