Gaia Ferrency, 17, of Swissvale, Pa., waits to take part in a long-sword match as a part of Friday Evening Fights, hosted by Pittsburgh Sword Fighters, on Oct. 4 at a former Catholic church northeast of Pittsburgh.
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Over the previous few years and thru this 12 months’s contentious marketing campaign season, which was rooted in America’s deep divisions, there was a coarsening in the best way individuals speak to one another. We wished to discover how some try to bridge divides. We requested our reporters throughout the NPR Community to search for examples of individuals working by means of their variations. We’re sharing these tales in our collection Searching for Widespread Floor.
CREIGHTON, Pa. — With their faces hidden behind exhausting black masks, two fighters stand just a few ft aside and lift their swords.
They step ahead and clank the broad, boring metallic blades in opposition to one another repeatedly. One fighter strikes the opposite within the chest. The battle is over, and a small crowd applauds.
Inside this former Catholic church northeast of Pittsburgh, below a 25-foot ceiling flanked by Gothic, pointed-arch home windows, members of the Pittsburgh Sword Fighters membership and faculty collect.
The viewers cheers on two sword fighters as they participate in a long-sword match hosted by Pittsburgh Sword Fighters.
Justin Merriman for NPR
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It is a match — in addition to a celebration — billed as Friday Evening Fights.
There are many guidelines in a sword battle. However there’s one rule that applies after the fighters have put down their weapons: no speak of politics.
The evolution of the rule began round 2016, when membership proprietor Josh Parise says he was getting fed up with the rancor of political discourse within the U.S. — private assaults have been on the rise, even inside households, as was cancel tradition.
“I could not tolerate the dearth of decency between human beings,” says Parise, whose membership focuses on historic European martial arts.
“None of it made sense anymore,” he says.
Josh Parise, 48, of Oakmont, Pa., is the proprietor of Pittsburgh Sword Fighters.
Justin Merriman for NPR
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After which there have been just a few would-be sword fighters who got here to the membership and did not deal with others properly. Parise needed to inform them to get on their horses and depart.
“It is infuriating to me, so with this place, we simply do not permit that to occur,” Parise says.
Leaving their politics on the door
As membership volunteer Kat Licause watches the matches, she says the directive to keep away from politics has led to nearer relationships within the membership.
“I do not suppose we keep away from it within the sense that we’re operating scared of huge questions and matters,” says Licause, who works as a tech author. “I feel we simply have this mutual understanding right here that if any of us was ever in hassle, we’d decide one another up, like instantly.”
The membership house is outfitted with medieval and Gothic touches, like coats of arms, a three-eyed raven sculpture and fake stonework that Parise made himself.
Chuck Gross, one of many head long-sword instructors at Pittsburgh Sword Fighters, stands within the doorway of the previous Catholic church the place a long-sword match will happen.
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Towards the far wall, a customized Dumbledore throne sits on a faux altar. Off to the edges, there is a desk for potluck dishes and an open bar. The gang and the vibe are noticeably chill, contemplating the primary exercise.
“You stroll up, you acknowledge each other, and then you definitely hit one another with massive metallic sticks,” Parise says with a wry smile.
However divisive political rhetoric, which may be sharper than the swords right here, have to be left on the membership’s massive wood door. The politics ban does not rise to the extent of, say, a Fifteenth-century heresy regulation, however it’s there.
Parise says his college students and membership members run the gamut politically, from spiritual conservatives to progressives. He likes to see them discover widespread floor.
“I simply don’t desire individuals to really feel uncomfortable, however I additionally don’t desire them to deliver their baggage with them,” he says. “Depart it outdoors and simply do the factor.”
Instructing and studying from fellow fighters
Because the match will get underway, a choose briefs the fighters and urges them to play by the principles and keep below management, lest he “red-card” them.
Todd Rooney, a highschool English trainer, is photographed on Oct. 4. Rooney is a competitor within the long-sword match.
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“These are teachable moments,” the choose says. “We battle at Friday Evening Fights to study and assist one another.”
Extra fighters line up. Amongst them is highschool English trainer and long-sword teacher Todd Rooney.
He is holding his headgear, ready for his identify to be known as to battle. Rooney has been a member of the sword fighters’ membership for nearly 10 years and appreciates the politics-free zone.
“As a result of that rule exists right here, I get to work with, spar with, educate, study from individuals from all completely different walks of life, all completely different political affiliations, spiritual teams,” Rooney says.
And the managed battle of a sword battle, he says, brings a couple of sort of readability.
“We have now to come across one another as totally human — we now have to respect one another,” he says. “And it is particularly vital right here, once we’re coming at one another with weapons.”
Members collect on the steps of the previous Catholic church the place Pittsburgh Sword Fighters hosts a Friday Evening Fights long-sword match.
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Justin Merriman for NPR
