Rough Notes: Where To Find Your Valkyries People
Introducing: the Ultimate Map of Valkyries Fandom, from R
This is a Rough Notes Guide, free to everyone, with special additions just for paid subscribers.
I wanted to celebrate the WNBA’s return to our lives with a project I’ve been working on for the last few weeks — a comprehensive map of where Golden State Valkyries fans can find one another, far beyond the walls of Chase Center: The Ultimate Map of Valkyries Fandom! (Note: the map is best viewed on a non-phone device. You can also scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the selections from the map broken down in cute listicle form, only for paid subscribers.)
There are two big inspirations for this map: first, being part of the People’s Watch Party - a collective that brings women’s basketball fans together in the East Bay (including for Valkyries away game watch parties this season), all about lowering the cost of entry to WNBA fandom and bringing community together, rooted in Oakland. Often, this is the space where I feel MOST connected to other women’s basketball fans, something I wrote about in this Guide To WNBA Watch Parties from last season:
Then there was a more recent piece of inspiration - or should I say, anti-inspiration? That was the announcement of the Valkyries Bar Network - a list of some bars I’m familiar with (Rikki’s & the White Horse, for example!) that are big hits with Valks fans, others I’d never heard of (that can also be a good thing), and also bars I’m actually really familiar with - but NOT for playing Valkyries games. That puzzled me. I was also confused that some of the spots I was sure would be there - Xingones, George & Walts (where they already make Valks-themed cocktails, by the way) - couldn’t be found. How did the Valks marketing team come up with this list? I’m not sure, but in my humble & candid opinion, it’s lacking.
And it got me thinking: where can you Golden State Valkyries fans + community, spread across the Bay (& beyond!) I went asking in the FB groups, digging through Reddit threads, and doing my own research. And with some inspiration from my friend Aimee Espiritu, I wrote down the qualities that really shape this map:
I also included a range of locations, from ones that are well-known already to others that seem rife with potential. Along with these selections, I included humble/candid opinions in each description, so you can get the real Rough Notes lowdown + my personal perspective.
What would be really dope is if we could keep adding to this map - with your own experiences, reflections & DIY creations, too. And again, to see selections from the list - check them out in listicle form below - just for paid subscribers :)
Finally, a housekeeping note: It’s just the start of the WNBA’s regular season and I am in it, y’all. My brain is a constellation of big story ideas, tiny moments & a lot of freelance hustle: sometimes, it can be hard to know where to focus. So I’ve decided that this season, instead of doing Game Notes recapping each Valkyries home game, I’m gonna write a weekly column called “Lavender Scare” - featuring rabbit holes, hot takes, historical clues, queer theories & personal groundings (all of these being takes on the classic ‘rough notes,’ of course) from in and around the world of the Golden State Valkyries. Get ready for the first installment later this week :) Upgrade your subscription to make sure you have full access to it!
