Branch Brook Park Skating Rink

A Historic Home of Skate Culture and Musical Innovation : The Birthplace of Jersey Club

Black Heritage Trail Marker Approved

As of September 2025, Branch Brook Park Roller Skating Center in Newark, NJ, has been formally approved as a site on the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail, administered by the New Jersey Historical Commission. This designation affirms the rink’s deep legacy as a site of Black artistic innovation, youth expression, and community resilience.

Established under L.2022, c.102, the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail celebrates the history, sites, and contributions of Black New Jerseyans. The Trail installs state-funded historical markers at locations that represent Black life, labor, creativity, resistance, and joy.

The inclusion of the Branch Brook Park Skating Rink ensures that Newark’s contributions to American dance music and creative economy are acknowledged and preserved. This marker and its tourism programming bridges the past and present, offering residents and visitors an opportunity to experience , Brick City Club/Jersey Club, a deniable aspect of Newark’s cultural legacy.

Newark’s story is deeply entwined with the history of Black America. Enslaved Africans contributed to New Jersey’s colonial economy, and many Black Newarkers lived in communities shaped by segregation, redlining, and systemic disinvestment. The 1967 Newark Rebellion was a catalytic moment in the city’s civic evolution—marking both an outcry against injustice and a call to honor Black life and self-determination.

Since the 1970s Branch Brook Park Skating Rink, originally an ice skating, has offered inter-generational recreational experiences. During the new millennium Branch Brook Park Skating Rink would become the place space Newark youth and adults could gather, dance, and build cultural identity. Today Branch Brook Park bridges past and present, providing residents and visitors a portal into Newark’s rich cultural legacy. Amidst the post-industrial decline, divestment from youth services, and rising gang violence of the 1990s and early 2000s, the rink stands as a beacon of public safety and joy—a place for intergenerational recreation and haven where families can escape danger and build community through movement and music.

Jersey Club music emerged from grassroots organizing and recreational events at Branch Brook Park Skating Rink. Jersey Club is more than a genre. It is a survival mechanism, a creative outlet, and a tool for community healing.

Birthplace of Jersey Club Music

Branch Brook Park Skating Rink cultivated the foundation of Jersey Club through grassroots organizing and recreational events featuring skating, dj, and dance battles. The rink nurtured various forms of electronic dance music, through sonic and performance expression, cultivating production and dj battles, arts and culture movements like Brick Bandits Collective and Illmatic Force, and community organizing efforts. Branch Brook Park’s roller skating culture vital thread in Jersey Club history and both are being actively achieved for cultural preservation. Branch Brook Park Skating Rink was a platform for the creative economic leaders that would eventually become the pioneers of Jersey Club.

Branch Brook Park’s roller skating culture is a vital thread in Jersey Club history and both are actively being archived for cultural preservation. Branch Brook Park Skating Rink was a platform for the creative economic leaders that would eventually become the pioneers of Jersey Club.

Branch Brook Park Skating Rink and Tech Nurtured a Global Sound

Built on the backbone of Chicago house, The New Jersey Sound ( Church/R&B house), Miami Bass, and Baltimore Club music, Jersey Club quickly evolved into a uniquely Newark sound characterized by breakbeat loops, staccato vocal chops, triplet kick drum patterns, and an intensely syncopated rhythm that invited dancers in the Branch Brook Park Skating Rink the ability to engage in skating and dancing. Operating between 130–140 BPM, Jersey Club dancing emerged alongside its music during a digital revolution.

At its inception Jersey Club pioneers like DJ DoughBoy were not only producing beats and working with choreographers to create performance troupes for Branch Brook Park Skating Rink experiences, but also distributing their work through peer-to-peer networks, MySpace, YouTube, and early file-sharing platforms. The Newark developed and New Jersey cultivated genre evolved from rink-floor dj and dance battles to global platforms, with pioneers like DJ TIM DOLLA who worked with the Brick Bandits Collective to establish a digital legacy that resonated well beyond Branch Brook Park Skating Rink walls.

Today, Jersey Club’s presence is present across:

• Music Charts: Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock”, produced by Newark native MCVertt, reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022.

• Pop Culture: Jersey Club rhythms are frequently sampled by mainstream hip hop and pop acts.

• Gaming & Esports: The genre features in rhythm games and esports soundtracks due to its high-energy patterns (typically 130-140 BPM).

• Social Media: Viral dances on TikTok and Instagram have popularized routines based on Newark’s choreography.

• Fashion & Film: UNIIQU3’s music and presence has been included in Jersey Club documentaries, press releases, luxury fashion runway shows, and most recently during Beyonce’s Renaissance tour.

Dance Artistry, Production Pioneers, 2nd Generation Enthusiast, and Beyond

DJs first produced on hardware like the Boss DR770, SP202, and Akai Remix 16 before transitioning to Acid Pro—a software suite that became a cornerstone of the genre’s production style.

Jersey Club’s dance movements are essential to its culture and cultural economy. Club dancing incorporates diverse movement lineages: African American dance forms like such as Hiphop(breaking, popping, locking, and tutting), Jersey house footwork, vogue’s stylized poses, and Caribbean and West/Central African body isolations.

• EnVy: A Choreography and dance troupe, who performed on international platforms, using dance to amplify Jersey Club’s international reach, and helped push the genre from Branch Brook Park Skating Rink into televised dance showcases.

• DJ Tameil: A Jersey Club pioneer and cultural archivist who introduced countless generations of producers to the Brick City Club/Jersey Club movement and cultural economy through mentorship, music production, Dj’ing , and grassroots events production. DJ Tamiel Paynes was a primary contributor to the BBPSR Black Heritage Marker application.

• Brick Bandit Collective (founded in 2001): A foundational Jersey Club creative collective and business cooperative that preservers the cultural, promotional, and performance infrastructure that brought Jersey Club into international awareness. Brick Bandits is currently led by 2nd generation producer /DJs and Jersey Club educators DJ Sick and DJ Fresh. DJ Sick was a primary contributor to the BBPSR Black Heritage Trail Marker application.

• UNIIQU3: A Jersey Club producer and DJ known globally as the “Queen of Jersey Club,” her influence has shaped festivals, fashion, and youth culture.

• Unicorn 151: A Liberian‑American Jersey Club artist and creative entrepreneur from East Orange, New Jersey, widely recognized as a pioneering figure in the evolution of the Jersey Club music rap scene. Unicorn 151 operates Illtown Philanthropy and is a contributor to the BBPSR Black Heritage Marker application.

• SLIINK: Jersey Club Artist Sliink emerged from the underground party scene of Newark to become one of the first global ambassadors of the Jersey Club genre. He began producing music as early as 2006 using FL Studio and Sony Acid Pro, having picked up digital production workflows from his younger brother. He later collaborated with Grammy‑winning artists such as Skrillex and Wale.

• Jayhood Jersey Club Artist emerged from the underground dance‑floor circuit in Newark in the early 2000s and became a pivotal voice in the evolution and national spread of the Jersey Club genre. His Jersey Club production collaborations include Sharaya J, Missy Elliot, and more.

Nomination

This marker nomination came from Urban Seeds Grow (USG)—a Newark-based nonprofit committed to land justice, cultural preservation, and community-led development.

The application was supported by The Brickerati Group, DJ Tamiel and Dj Sick: Brick Bandit Collective, and Illtown Philanthropic, with wide local endorsement from Essex County creatives, policymakers, and educators.