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Living Intentionally at Twin Oaks, Virginia

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I’ve been lucky or blessed to have my best friend from high school go through life with me and figure out adulting together. However, once her younger sister graduates high school, she and her family will move to Virginia. Generously, her family offered me the opportunity to stay with them for a short time, knowing that we had planned to move out together once we were ready for the real world and real careers. With my current financial situation, I’ve had to research how I plan on surviving out there—which has led me to find Twin Oaks, a community attempting a utopia in progress where everyone is equal, free to live by nearly any ideology or way they want, and share an income with roughly 100 people.

Where Roots Run Deep: Settling on Behavioral Psychology

Twin Oaks was established in 1967 by Kat Kinkade and seven other behavioral psychology students inspired by B.F. Skinner’s "Walden Two," a utopian novel published in 1948, near the end of World War II. A prominent psychologist, B.F. Skinner was deemed the father of behavior analysis.

"Walden Two," an integration of science and philosophy, explores a community of one thousand people who live in communal dwellings and live routinely as productive and happy members based on experimenting with social practices. The book embodies Skinner’s core concept: human behavior is shaped as much by the environment as by individual will or choices and by reward and punishment contingencies.

Intentional communities are not new and have been traced back to 1500 B.C. Intentional communities are “voluntary residential communities designed to foster high social cohesion or teamwork.” These communities typically promote shared values or beliefs. This common vision can be political, religious, spiritual, or focused on sharing resources or enhancing relationships. Plenty of research has been published on these types of communities.

If you feel adventurous and have an hour of free time, check out this webinar that provides an overview of intentional communities around the globe.

Twin Oaks has survived 50 years and has tested many theories to better improve its society in various ways. In this in-depth analytic blog article, a visitor explains what the community has been thriving at implementing and what they have failed at.

Anchoring Values, Negotiable Ways of Living

Living with nearly 100 people at a time on 450 acres of farmland requires a solid framework that everyone can respect, abide by, and be flexible with to keep the community alive.

Their basic guiding principles, which they base community policies on and embed in everything they do, are:

Cooperation

Egalitarianism

Nonviolence

Everybody is equal: economically, politically, and socially. No one person has more influence in decision-making on the behavior policies—openly discussed, revised, and proposed. Jobs, roles, and work that every member must contribute to keep the property running include cleaning, cooking, gardening, etc.

Members are allowed a personal allowance—the amount is also decided by policy. Costs of living, such as medical expenses not covered by Medicare or the cost of midwives, are shared among the community.

Three planners serve as community coordinators, serving staggered 18-month terms, and each area of work is organized by managers who must stay on budget. Work is divided by self-election and hour quotas. Members can freely choose the type of work and their own work schedule.

Religion, love, and ideas all reside within every member to explore.

FUN FACT: Twin Oaks is famous for polyamory and attracting all types of romantic relationship models, which may or may not resonate with every community member. It’s a place that presents many opportunities to start a new romance—flexible work schedules allow people to explore relationships. The influx of interesting people who want to join the community makes romance easy to explore.

If you want to know more about the inside goings-on of life at Twin Oaks, watch this 30-minute documentary at the end of this article.

Village Parenting

Another essential value and appeal of Twin Oaks is the importance of sharing the responsibility of child-rearing and acknowledging that everyone should recognize the work of parenting.

Child care counts towards labor hours for parents and “primaries,” non-parental figures who work and develop relationships with a specific child to support parents. Parents also have the choice of living in the family building where other families coexist, similar to living with extended family.

Members who want to have children must live in the community for two years with their partners and apply to have or adopt a child. This application requires a certain amount of child-care hours, interviews with other parents to learn how to rear, and a formed social support system among other members who will support them. Everyone in the community reviews and responds to an application as they must agree if the prospective couple is ready and if the community wants to help and spread more resources.

No more than 15 children can live on the premises or within the community to ensure quality child-rearing and resource control.

Coexistence Isn’t Always Cozy

There’s an irony with residing in Twin Oaks, as an ex-Oaker (community members who have left) puts it to CNN:

“You have to be idealistic to live here. But you have to be willing to compromise your ideals to live here.”

Uncomfortable Realities

A Reddit thread on intentional communities reveals what it is like to live at Twin Oaks. A user who lived with the community for six months revealed that there is no healthy conflict resolution, so petty drama festers resentments that explode and then are ignored. Equality is not absolute, especially for new members and people of color who often bear the brunt of undesirable work and get the short end of living in the described, hazard-imposing buildings. Although discrimination is explicitly discouraged, racism is inherently embedded in the policies since a majority of the members are from a white, middle-class perspective, and there are not enough people of color who stay to change because of how stressful it is to enforce and gain support.

Another user comments that the image of the community is deceitful and uses virtue-signaling content to attract temporary laborers and trap applying members into staying the full three weeks of evaluation, the process for the community and the prospective individual to see if the village is the right fit for each other. Outside of this Reddit thread, the realities of not finding a life partner or facing rejection for child applications are other experiences that contradict the totally accepting face of the community.

Member Retention

Keeping members is another challenge that threatens the sustainability of the community. Members are free to come and go from the community as needed. Many decide that their life takes them in different directions to pursue lifestyles that don’t align with the community, or other factors like complex community issues, a relationship breakup, or repeated behavior issues (violence, not working) are reasons why certain members need to leave the community.

Because members are free to stay however long they want and leave for many reasons, keeping enough community members to maintain the daily and business operations is a struggle. On a basic level, attachments can be hard to form when people pass by.

Ex-Oakers also create their own communities, taking the skills and experiences they have learned from Twin Oaks to establish a different focus with different people.

Accepting New Members

Twin Oaks accepts members on a rolling basis. However, there is a waitlist, and applicants can wait months for a callback. Other qualifications determine whether they can participate in the probation stage. For example, those who are suicidal need to “get healthy elsewhere.” More information can be found on their homepage.

Temporary Recruitment

The community also focuses on recruiting visitors and interns. Through in-person visits and immersive opportunities, the community tries to sustain its membership and tackle the shared labor either temporarily or hopefully for the long term should visitors and interns want to stay. The biggest challenge is that these temporary programs often require a commitment, so sharing labor, particularly among older members, doesn’t always appeal to them.

Bringing It All Home?

Every community has its strengths and weaknesses and attempts to improve the quality of life and live intentionally. While I don't plan on moving to Virginia with my best friend or moving to Twin Oaks, being open to learning how others live life intentionally at least gives me a better idea of what I want my life in the next 10 years to look like.

https://pin.it/7deNzulnl - A Pinterest board of everything I want eventually in life.

What would it look like if you had the chance to design and make your own community?

[thecollectivestrange]

Find Us Nowhere in Slab City: A Free Community on the Outskirts of California

Although I just turned 22, I tire of adulting and being independent. I can barely survive on my own (feed myself) and can’t imagine fending for myself like the residents of Slab City.

Way out on the outskirts of Niland, California, and a little ways past the Salton Sea, a community of 150 squatters dwell on the abandoned concrete slabs of Camp Dunlap, a U.S. Marine Corps base built in 1956. These homesteaders survive temperatures of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in their makeshift homes of RVs, trailers, tents, and bunkers and spend their days dedicated to art and preserving freedom by creating a community in “the last free place.”

From an outsider's perspective, a lawless and destitute community such as this can be challenging to understand, even if thousands of tourists come by annually during winter to revel in Slab City's unique art. On the other hand, residents see their community as a new attempt to start anew with the best that they can do. But as readers, let’s keep an open mind and explore what makes Slab City’s community unique.

Bare Living: the Basics of Survival

One of the biggest things that any adult worries about living is paying rent. Avoiding rent is precisely the most significant appeal in living in Slab City, especially since you can really just make your own home however you want it to be.

In an article by Smithsonian Magazine, an architect and photographer shared their observations and discoveries about how Slab City is structured. They noticed that the open slabs provide a grid and an inviting permanence for residents to go and build what they imagine a home to be. With their four days of research, they published this book, which further explored the contradictions of Slab City.

However, residents don’t live a completely cost-free lifestyle. Food, water, gas, and other basic necessities of fending for oneself are all expenses that the residents need to cover, making bartering, trading, and living a consumption-conscious lifestyle essential to continue living in the last free place.

In other words, people make do and sacrifice many modern conveniences like flushable toilets, long showers, and kitchens. This article covers FAQs about how Slabbers survive out in the desert.

Living in the last free place also means learning how to protect oneself from the danger that others bring. Naturally, a rent-free homestead invites people who have nowhere to go, are running from the law or mental disability, or are fleeing bad relationships.

Drug abusers, often referred to as tweakers, bring the most disruption in the community. They tend to steal, set residents' homes on fire, or destroy anything they can. Aside from situational awareness, you can't be naive and must know some self-defense. Fortunately, violence is heavily discouraged, and the community, which wants to keep the peace and live in harmony, steps up to prevent violence.

As destitute as this lifestyle may be, residents aren't without means to enjoy and express themselves or lack a social life entirely.

Art, Music, and Desert Coffee: How to Enjoy the Nowhere

Salvation Mountain

Recognized as a national treasure, one resident named Leonard Knight spent nearly three decades building and painting a five-story-high, 150-foot-wide mountain of hay bales, donated paint, tires, and adobe clay to spread his one message:

“God is Love”

Leonard Knight was featured in the film "Into the Wild," which drew pilgrims and many tourists to revel in awe of the structure. Admission is free for everyone, but donated cans of paint are gratefully accepted by volunteers who live at the site and maintain the structure to prevent it from crumbling under the desert sun. Knight welcomed curious onlookers with postcards, magnets, and puzzles when he was alive. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 82.

East Jesus

Inspired by Leonard Knight, Charlie Russell started his art project in 2007 at the opposite end of Slab City called “East Jesus.” Here, nothing is wasted. Anything and everything is recycled into art.

Russell’s art project draws adventurers, nomad drifters, hippies, artists, and anyone who wants to express themselves.

Russell died unexpectedly and is now memorialized for East Jesus. His legacy is cared for by a married couple who founded the Chasterous Foundation, a nonprofit, to continue the artist community by helping artists reside in Slab City for the short or long term.

Internet Café

What’s a community without a shared cup of coffee? The Internet Cafe, managed by whoever wants to maintain the tradition of preserving freedom, offers residents and tourists a way to connect to everywhere else. Coffee is served every morning for free, but donations are greatly appreciated to keep the café supplied. Multiple generators charged by solar panels allow electricity and access to Wi-Fi for nearly a whole day.

However, aside from connecting to the world, the Internet Café is a traditional and social place for residents to spend time together.

Lizard Tree Library

Another free resource is the Lizard Tree Library, which never closes because there is no door. Here, an accumulated collection of donated books, board games, and magazines sit on shelves on the lumpy dirt floor and are protected from the sun by draped fabrics and plywood walls. The library and its contents aren’t too concerned about rain; it will quickly dry.

The best part of the library is that there is no checkout system. If you want to take a book and never return it, that’s alright. The library is maintained by partners who expand the space and keep it from falling apart.

The Range

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Every kind of music is welcomed onto the stage of The Range. A builder created The Range as a place where artists can express themselves and always have an accepting audience. Live music is played every Saturday, where everyone dances to have a great time. It’s also where concerts and an annual ball take place.

Concrete Morals, Shifting Freedom

The documentary linked above provides an intimate insight into how year-round residents regard Slab City, their community, and what they hope for out of life. Beyond engaging, I felt like I was truly immersed in this world out of nowhere.

To the people featured in the documentary, it’s like any other city. They are different, but that doesn’t mean they lack a moral code or sense of justice.

Slab justice involves residents putting those who cause disruption and violence in their place by burning the possessions of individuals deemed troublesome and then calling the police after belongings are beyond salvage. The police don’t do much, although they are present. It sends a message to those trying to lead a decent life that they must take care of themselves and that the police want to keep the disruptive individuals, mainly tweakers, in one place.

Everyone lives by their own rules as long as it doesn’t negatively affect anybody else. Some community members take it upon themselves to stand up to the disruptive behavior of tweakers and confront them. But as they see it, it’s better to argue and yell than to let resentment build up and cause real violence.

The community collectively protects children and animals, mainly the dogs that individual owners bring with them or the "strays" born into the community.

Aside from protecting children and animals, the community collectively upholds the duty of preserving freedom, not just their own, but the idea of human freedom to exist and live however they want.

An Oasis of  inspiration

Despite the bare and life-draining expectations I have of a survival lifestyle in the desert, there is truly something inspiring about this community: they take agency for their lives and still hold onto hope, their dreams, or who they want to be.

Yes, it is a fact that these people are here because they did not have the agency to lead an everyday life in the system. But it is also apparent that they don’t let that stop them from allowing Slab City to be an opportunity for them to wait until they are ready to move on to the next part of their lives, wherever and whenever that may be.

[thecollectivestrange]

Unmasking the Zentai Subculture: A World of Anonymity and Expression

As a child, I wanted to be the Pink Power Ranger, but morph suits for short people were hard to find. In Japan, however, skin-tight bodysuits, known as Zentai suits, are common. Members of zentai groups wear these garments, which come in various forms, for all sorts of occasions.

Since the 1990s, these garments were initially worn as a new kind of fetish. At first, they were mostly worn by men, but then the trend transformed from a fetish to a form of performance art.

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Zentai has become an outlet for young people to express themselves, especially for those with social anxiety or trouble getting out of their shell.

For many enthusiasts, it's less of a fetish and more about freedom, a tool to liberate oneself from societal pressures and stereotypes.

Identity in Disguise: The Zen of Zentai and the Freedom of Anonymity

One might wonder, how and why does being faceless allow people to be their unique selves? Academic research and ethnographic exploration offer three key explanations:

1. Zentai provides an escape from the stressful urban life in Japan and an answer to identity crises.

Ikuo Daibo, a professor at Tokyo Mirai University, told The Washington Post that “wearing a full body suit may reflect a sense of societal abandonment” where younger generations feel lost and incapable of finding their own role in society. Hamdan Nafiatur Rosydia, a qualitative researcher from Indonesia, argues that the subculture is a reaction of youth looking for an escape from tiring urban life daily routines where they are haunted by the constant isolation of overworking.

Rosydia further argues that Japan’s economic booms since the 1980s have also encouraged a disconnection from families, where families are less united, and a lack of communication due to the obstacle of work is more prevalent than ever. Thus, youth are left without a close role model to navigate life and harbor discomfort and distrust in opening up to others. A zentai suit eliminates their fear of judgment by seeking others who feel the same way.

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2. Anonymity gives individuals social and emotional freedom.

In the same qualitative research, Rosydia finds that in studying the Tokyo Zentai Club, the oldest Zentai organization in Japan, members can freely explore new emotions such as anger, strength, prude, sensuality, or ambition. With others, they can empathize and open up about their life experiences, from romance to personal problems, without fear of being prejudged or misjudged.

Yukinko in 2022

For Yukinko, a prominent Zentai enthusiast in media, the emotional and social freedom allowed her to be herself attracted her to the activity in the first place. As she told Vice, “When wearing a zentai suit, it feels like I’m taking off the armor of the person I should be and letting myself be the real me with complete anonymity.”

She believed this is particularly empowering for young girls, who are conscious of their appearances and suffer from low self-esteem as they compare themselves to others on social media. People with social anxiety are able to overcome their troubles by interacting with others.

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3. The obscurity of zentai suits allows wearers inward identity transformation.

Through a philosophical lens and the physical experience of wearing a suit, the obscurity of the fabric allows a psychological liberation to redirect the mind to focus inward, become more meditative, and heighten self-awareness and the sensual experience of being.  Our naked, genuine, and authentic selves, arguably, are expressed the most through our bodies, not our faces, which, according to Peter Sloterdijk, is a mask that we wear for others, and thus, our self-perceptions are not genuinely based from within. By obscuring the face and decentralizing the basis of our perceptions, we pay more attention to nonverbal communication and interactions with others, extracting meaning, emotions, and personality traits from how Zentai artists engage with others. (Read more on zentai philosophy here.)

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A Faceless Network Around the Globe

Zentai is not limited to Japan; it is an activity enjoyed worldwide as an art form. 

Since 2014, Singapore has hosted a Zentai art festival, which has inspired other projects to develop in Israel, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Myanmar. 

In fact, the Zentai Art Project collects traditional media of the activity practiced globally. From events and informational resources to various media, outsiders are encouraged to explore what Zentai is all about. 

The Tokyo Zentai Club has not stopped organizing and is hosting a booth at this year's FetiFesh. This festival explores all kinds of kinks, sexual and nonsexual alike. 

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Kickin’ It Together: The Rhythm and Community of Discofoot

When I competed in color guard in high school, being told that color guard was not a sport irked me the most since it included everything involved in a sport: competition, physical movement, strategy, skills, and teamwork. Thus, when Discofoot appeared in my Instagram feed, I was happy that another performative sport was making its way into the sports scene.

Discofoot, a sport that combines football (soccer) and disco dancing, challenges players to move across the field and work together in teams to score goals. The rules of the game are much more fluid compared to its respective components. Aside from the novelty of the experimental sport, we must also explore what drives this particular dance community to keep it relevant.

Groove, Glide Goal: Basic Motions of Discofoot

A match of Discofoot retains the basic elements of football, such as the duration, structure, and usual ceremonies including announcements, warm-ups, handshakes, the anthem, and team photo ops. However, beyond these basics, everything is adapted to performance.

To move across the field, all participants must dance in continuous improvisation while artfully tracking the ball. Scoring a goal is not as crucial as earning the highest evaluation of artistic merit, which is determined by a panel of three judges who assess performances throughout the first half, second half, and halftime. These scores are combined with goal scores, making it entirely possible for a team to win without scoring a single goal.

Another major difference in the game is the penalties. You receive a yellow card if you run or stand still without dancing. For more severe infractions, you can earn a pink glitter card. Aside from the artistic panel, a referee also facilitates the game.

Here’s a match in play:

Legendary Moves That Created Discofoot

Under the choreographers Peter Jacobson and Thomas Caley, Discofoot was born in 2016 with the dancers at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) - Ballet De Lorraine, a French contemporary dance company of 26 dancers who program rich performance projects on their own as well as with other dance companies such as Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago.

Ballet De Lorraine, under Peter Jacobsson's direction starting in 2011, has become a space to encourage public dialogue with the projects they develop around unique themes each artistic season.

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Thomas Caley and Peter Jacobsson created the free-form sport for the UEFA Euro 2016 Trophy Tour, the tradition of moving the Champions Cup of the UEFA European Championship, a major football tournament. In 2016, the trophy was hosted in Nancy, France, where CCN originated. So, in celebration of the tournament, the choreographers created Discofoot.

Watch Peter Jacobsson’s TEDx Talk about the creation process of Discofoot, starting at 7:40. Like any great idea, it all was written out on a napkin.

Moving with Meaning: A Unique Dance Philosophy

The point of Discofoot is to challenge people on what constitutes dance. In the first half of his speech, Peter Jacobsson talks about how dance can be anything—whether that’s a mixture of existing styles and forms like ballet or belly dancing—or something entirely new. This reflects Ballet de Lorraine’s position as an artistic research institute.

This philosophy manifests in the fundamentals of Discofoot, from the rules to norms. The experimental dance sport challenges the norms of its mainstream counterpart. In football, teams are divided by gender and culture. But Ballet de Lorraine does away with the division of gendered teams and instead adopts mixed teams. As they put it on their website, focusing on gender would take away from the limitless possibilities of artistic expression in the field. And at any rate, everybody is too busy dancing to be concerned with the typical hypermasculinity associated with football.

Naturally, the sport requires open-mindedness and collaborativeness, with just enough healthy competition. Through these ways, dancers and spectators can engage with performing arts outside of what is commonly thought of as dance.

When Funk Meets Footwork: The Future of Discofoot

As Jacobsson touches on in his TEDx Talk, the discourse around discomfort has only just begun. The sport, with more mainstream visibility, generally receives positive praise and invites curiosity. For the company, Discofoot provides new opportunities to collaborate with other dance and performing arts institutions, where they are invited to play a match.

He notes that there are negative perspectives, such as football enthusiasts who cannot support their sport being ruined. He gives a powerful line in his speech:

“Just by moving your body and kicking a ball—you are moving into politics.”

Despite this, that doesn’t take any ounce of fun away from the sport, nor the amusement of curious onlookers and spectators. At the end of the day, Discofoot is about an open and expressive community whose members have fun by dancing in gold pants.

[thecollectivestrange]

Shields and Brotherhood: Exploring the World of Armored Combat and Community

As a proud Wattpad user, the fantasy of having knights fight for undying love was the hopeless romantic ideal set for me. Fortunately for me, I can hire knights in shining armor to fight for my love and devotion. I witnessed these knights in real-time action when attending this year’s Fit Expo in Anaheim in mid-January to support my sister-in-law in bodybuilding competitions.

What attracted me the most to their exhibition was not just the brutal spectacle of axes flying at heads but the camaraderie each knight showed each other after being jumped by the same five knights.

Unveiling the Dawn of Steel: The Rise of Armored Warfare

Armored combat is an extreme, full-contact sport where participants use armor and blunted weapons to fight each other for competitions or for show. It is important to note that armored combat is included in the larger category of medieval martial arts.

Like any niche activity, armored combat started in the '60s by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). This international living history group aims to study and recreate medieval European cultures. 

Athletes who partake in this type of extreme sport join for various reasons. Alexander Friedman, the owner of Warlord Combat Academy in Irving, Texas, shared that people participate for different reasons—most of his members who train, learn, and practice at the academy join for the intrigue of the sport itself, desire to be active in a team sport or meet new people, or have an interest in history. “Not everyone involved is an adrenaline junkie or combat psycho,” he explained.

Since the '60s, armored combat has grown considerably, with more than 100 teams across the U.S. and international teams. When Alexander started eight years ago, there were only 10 active teams that could actually compete. The nearest team in Texas when he started was a team in Minnesota. Now, the activity is beginning to go mainstream, and its visibility is only growing with social media and traditional news outlets like the Los Angeles Times picking up on team stories.

Beyond Chivalry: A Code of Teamwork and Cooperation

As a Sport

Unlike any other combat sport, armored combat differs in that the sport itself promotes teamwork, team growth, and healthy trust. “The sport is safe in the general sense since you are putting your safety in the hands of your teammates,” Alexander added. Other combat sports focus on individual success as a direct competition incentive, which still exists in armored combat but does not foster team growth.

Within a Team

Fostering an inclusive and accessible space is key to promoting teamwork and cooperation within a team. The Warlord Combat Academy has members from diverse backgrounds, religious and non-religious, liberal or conservative, and LGBTQ+. People who don't necessarily want to be welcoming or mirror the academy's culture quickly learn to adopt the values and code of conduct or leave of their own volition. The institution goes further to give all participants a chance to be better or warn them that they cannot participate should they infringe on others' abilities and enjoyment.

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Teamwork and cooperation are reinforced by members' motivations to not let the team down. “Nobody wants to be the guy that isn’t training enough, but rather be the guy that is doing as much as everybody else,” Friedman revealed. Not training enough to put in the time to be in the gym and work on your technical skills also makes the difference in keeping your teammates safer by reducing their likelihood of sustaining injuries.

Among Other Teams

Genuinely supporting the growth and celebrating the success of other teams is critical to developing this niche activity. Although more than 100 teams are currently in the U.S., 40 to 50 teams are actively competing. Friedman explained that the frequency and hosting of tournaments, duels, or matches rely on collective investment in the sport's growth. "You want to be nice and support each other in each team, not hope for their failure before or after matches," he shared. People also fill in as mercenaries on other teams, so participants are inevitably fighting with and against the same team.

Some teams to checkout in the nation:

Los Angeles Golden Knights

Philadelphia Rhinos

New York Sentinels

Lexington Lycans

Twin Cities Wyverns

Friedman recollected a fond memory where half of his team had joined with one Canadian team at a major tournament in South Carolina. Half of his team had decided to make an 18-hour drive to South Carolina, and one of his newer members accidentally put diesel instead of gas when they stopped to refuel. The car broke down, and they couldn't make it to the tournament on time to participate with the rest of their team. One Canadian team faced similar issues and arrived at the tournament later, so Friedman and his team joined theirs and fought together. The apparent moral of the story is to not put diesel in your car. The other important lesson is that armored combat spaces are forgiving and encouraging.

"You can screw up, and we still want to show up and be your friends," he candidly shared.

Forging the Future: Sport Continues to Grow

Armored combat is now starting to become mainstream. When Alexander used to talk about sports, people were unaware of what the sport was about and that it existed. But now, people walk into the academy wanting to sign up. Efforts to focus on recruiting and building teams can now be focused on educating new teams that spring up and helping maintain older teams that keep growing.

Interestingly, the women’s division has grown faster than the men’s in the U.S. When women initially joined the sport, they would need to travel overseas since there were not enough opportunities to fight with and against other women. Now, eight full women’s teams, according to Friedman, represent 800% growth.

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With many teams growing, armored combat is becoming more popular and more accessible for people to join. Social media has enabled Friedman’s team to pack a venue whenever they have events. Teams can now support themselves by being able to have their training expenses covered and defray the travel costs incurred when competing.

As Friedman noted, the costs of participation are not high. In fact, people don’t spend anything, except for a gym membership, to join. Gear and other costs come later, typically after a year, and even then, personal gear is acquired slowly. If you are starting out, the community recommends and highly suggests you don’t buy anything and instead use loaner gear available just for training.

Through the Hatch: Personal Insights on the Bonds Forged in Armored Combat

"When I started this, we were very much nerds and not martial artists, but now it's the opposite—we are martial artists who are nerds." And that doesn't make armored combat any less of a sport. Other groups, like professional MMA fighters and Sambo competitors at the academy, affirm that his team members are real athletes.

Throughout our conversation, it became clear that armored combat is more than just a hobby; Friedman's passion is to continue building communities with people who want to be active and have fun.

[thecollectivestrange]

Brie-lliant Madness! Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling Returns with Guts, Glory, and Gouda!

Recently, I’ve been craving quality cheese. In my search for gourmet cheese, I came across an interesting tradition: a downhill race where participants roll down a hill to chase a tumbling wheel of cheese. This blog will focus on the daredevil global community that surrounds the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake race and its cultural significance.

Ambiguous Cultures: How the Race Started

Chasing after cheese is a nearly 600-year-old tradition, with the first recorded race in 1826 in a message written to a town crier in Gloucester, the birthplace of the event. The reasons for the competition’s origins remain unclear, but it’s generally thought to be linked to a fertility rite for an abundant harvest as spring follows winter.

What does rolling cheese have to do with producing a good harvest? Who knows, but it’s suspected to be tied to a general pagan custom of rolling objects down a hill. This theory makes some sense, considering the town’s origins in the Roman Empire.

While the historical origins remain unclear, so do the identities of the original organizers. In an article referencing BBC, Jean Jefferies, a local who has lived on the hill for 25 years, confirmed that even with family recollections dating back to the 1700s, the event was described as ongoing, with no mention of its start.

Regardless of its murky beginnings, the competition has grown into a global sporting event, covered by National Geographic and even featured on Netflix’s documentary series We Are the Champions. If you want live footage, just wait until May 26 this year.

The Curdling Chaos of the Cheese-Rolling Event

The race is simple: participants chase a 3-kilogram wheel of Double Gloucester cheese moving at approximately 70 miles per hour down a 200-meter slope.

As you can imagine, this extreme sport results in plenty of injuries, which has led to debates about banning the tradition. In 2010, the race was canceled. However, the tradition remains alive, in part for the sake of the cheesemakers who supply the racing wheels. You can view more photos of the injuries in a New York Times article, though some images may include blood.

The risk of injury and the intensity of the sport don’t stop participants from around the world from flocking to race each year. In fact, they’re even more determined to make it to the top of the leaderboard. Abbey Lampe, a two-time champion of the cheese-rolling race, is a North Carolina native who has trained and refined her rolling technique, as she shared in an NPR interview.

Aged to Perfection: How Tradition Cultivates a Sharp Sense of Community Identity

Despite the global nature of the sport, cheese rolling retains its local culture and history as a symbol of the area’s dairy farming heritage.

On the actual hill, a small family farm is responsible for making the famous rolling cheese. Smart’s Traditional Gloucester Cheese has operated for more than 60 years and was started by Diana Smart, who took over the dairy farm and began cheese making in the 1980s. The family continues the operation today, still using the original working machines, which have been slightly updated after a century of use.

Cheese chasing is more than just an absurd race to crown a winner. The festival, though simple, is a testament to keeping old local traditions alive.

[thecollectivestrange]

Different Schools, Same Passion: How Furry Clubs Thrive in College

Finding your community as a college student is hard, especially when they come in all flavors and sizes. But if you don’t mind a little fur or scales, consider joining the furry clubs on campus at California State University, Fullerton, or across the California State University system.

We’ll focus on research into the wider furry fandom and community in general and compare the perspectives of club officers from CalStateFurryton, the club at CSUF, and Furries at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, on how furry communities organize on campus.

"Unpacking the Fur-tastic World of Fandom: A Beginner’s Guide to All Things Furry!"

Furries come from diverse backgrounds—some are artists, writers, engineers, and essentially anyone (Roberts, n.d). Anyone can create their own fursona, a personalized anthropomorphic character they identify with, and participate in society by representing themselves in such a way. It’s not unlike having another facet of identity or a hobby, which it is in many cases.

Having a fursona is just another form of self-expression. While some people choose fashion trends like coquette or grunge to express themselves, furries choose anthropomorphic characters that they develop themselves. Mainstream media often depicts furries in full suits, but not everyone creates or wears a full suit everywhere they go. Only 10-15% own a fursuit, and 25% own partial fursuits.  

Fun fact: There are even trends in fursuit styles and makers!  Two, the vice president of finance for Furries at Cal Poly SLO shared that every few years, new styles emerge as people incorporate new techniques while DIY-ing their suits.

Like every community deemed deviant, stigma and hate surround the furry community. Dr. Sharon Roberts, co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, explains in an article  that sensationalized media portrays furries as sexually deviant and categorizes their sexual orientation as its own distinct group.

With 15 years of surveying over 15,000 furries, Dr. Roberts is dedicated to educating people about the fandom, dispelling misinformation and mitigating the harmful effects of social ostracism.

The Hairy Origins of College Furry Clubs

College furry clubs are more widespread than you might think. From UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC Riverside,  these chapters are organized by the Anthropomorphic Animal Appreciation Association. This global organization oversees many university chapters. As Two shared, the organization provides specific guidelines and a handbook, which Furs & Friends adopts as its club rules. Many of these clubs have similar logos in different colors to reflect their school’s colors.

For the Califrornia State University system, CSU-Furs is a coalition of furries who attend any of the 23 schools.This coalition is more loosely organized than the Anthropomorphic Animal Appreciation Association, as furry clubs like CSUFurryton are relatively new and less than a year old. However, newly formed clubs are often established by students who are already active in local communities or online. Two has been in the fandom since 2017, similar to Aaron and Quinn, the president and treasurer of CSUFurryton.

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A post shared by Furries at Cal Poly SLO (@slofurries)

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A post shared by Cal State Furryton (@calstatefurryton)

Club Pacts: Foundational Values

For both CSUFurryton and Furries at Cal Poly SLO, three major values cultivate a strong officer board and new member base:

Safety (Both in-person and online)

CSUF: When members suit up, Aaron emphasizes the importance of having water and supervision, as costumes can overheat and have low visibility. The club also ensures that people don’t take photos without consent, which is especially important given its fair share of publicity from Barstool, which initially attempted to make fun of the group. SLO: Anonymity is important, especially on social media. Two explains that while she and the board are accustomed to negative attention, protecting the identities of newer members is a priority. The club takes multiple precautions, such as blurring faces with fursonas, censoring students entirely, and requiring identification for meetings or access to their Discord server. Members in suits, whether partial or full, always travel in a group.

Inclusivity

CSUF: Modeling PLUR (Footnote 1) and keeping an open mind to all opinions and viewpoints, Aaron and Quinn create a space where anyone can learn about the fandom. Aaron revealed an interesting fact about the community: “The community is actually more politically diverse than more people credit it for.” As a result, the club ensures there is space for respectful arguments and discussions. SLO: Since the furry fandom is already diverse, Furries at Cal Poly SLO taps into the different communities its members are already part of. The club collaborates with other campus organizations, such as the Trans Queer Student Union.

Respect

CSUF: Quinn explained that respect must always be modeled as respect goes two ways. "Respect is earned from other cultures and clubs—we are respectful and reasonable—normal people with our own hobbies, and we hope that it can be reciprocated back," she said. SLO: At every meeting, the club reminds members of their community agreements, which involve respecting people and obtaining consent.

Baring Teeth Against Challenges and Perceptions

Being yourself is not easy, but the best way that both these clubs combat negative stigmas and hate is by being confident in being themselves. "There's no better disproof of the stigmas than just being ourselves, being present, and being the opposition of perceptions," Aaron shared.

As officers of these clubs, signing up for a leadership position entails facing misconception and stigma and demonstrating to new members that perceptions can change. "We, as officers, signed up for it and have to be fine with it," Two said. Although she doesn’t care about what people say and is more flabbergasted by the crazy comments she sees on Reddit, she and the officers are cognizant that such attention can make members feel unsafe. Thus, the club takes extra precautions to protect its members and encourage them to be themselves.

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Key Takeaways from the Heart of the College Furry Community

Aaron: "We plan to be resilient, and we are not going to deny that our hobby is weird. But we are here to stay."

Quinn: "Perseverance will get you a long way—we are not going to stop enjoying our hobbies just because some people don’t like our hobbies."

Two: "We are self-aware of our weirdness, but if you want to join the weird and whimsical world of furries, anyone is welcome to join our club or any part of the community because we are always willing to answer any questions." 

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Footnotes: 

PLUR: (Rave concept/value that rave-goers should adhere to; stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect) 

[thecollectivestrange]

Furry Frequencies: How Animal Communicators Are Tuning In

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be an active listener for my family, friends, and particularly my cousin Bubba, a willful white hybrid mix of a Maltipoo and Shih Tzu, who has a lot to say. This has led me to the expert community of professional animal communicators to understand how they, collectively as a profession, build communities of people—pet owners, activists, ranch owners, pet shelter operators, and any animal lover alike—to learn how to communicate with animals and build better relationships with them, wild or domesticated.

Bridging the Gap Between Humans and Animals

Animal communicators, who are invariably white middle-class women, telepathically communicate with animals, living or deceased, through a psychic connection or intuition (Kulick, 2017). This ability is innate and something we have all lost from childhood as we have been socialized to believe that words are the only form of communication.

This psychic connection that we can tap into cannot be explained through science, although there has been extensive research into human-animal communication. Rupert Sheldrake, a former director of studies in biochemistry and cell biology at Cambridge University, describes this psychic connection as an observable phenomenon. He explains that our intuition and invisible emotional connections with animals allow us to anticipate their social needs, just as animals anticipate our social and emotional needs (Kulick, 2017). For example, science cannot yet explain how dogs know when their owners are coming home.

So, what does communicating telepathically with animals look like? Interspecies communicators, another term for animal communicators, look at pictures of an animal, living or “gone spirit,” and intuitively reach out. Pea Horsley, a TEDx speaker and prominent professional in the field, explains in her speech  how she was able to save a trapped dog and help the owner find and rescue them. Her call to action is for all of us to start learning. In fact, the profession as a whole calls us to start listening to what animals have to say.

From Pets to People: How Animal Communicators Foster Connection

To gain better insights into how interspecies communicators develop community, I reached out to the following professionals for interviews through their Instagram pages, contact forms, and press staff. Only Pea Horsley responded, declining the request. However, much can be observed simply by exploring the internet.

Ashwiinni Salve, Nancy Windheart, Kathy Van Guilder, Pea Horsley

There are a myriad of ways these professionals build connections online, locally, and internationally.

Collective Knowledge Building - Many professionals write books, host podcasts, share testimonials, and build their social media presence. Most, if not all, of the content that interspecies communicators provide is free, as they position themselves as educators who value the ability of anyone to learn.

Hosting Workshops and Events - Aside from hosting their own webinars and classes, professionals are often invited to pet shelters to lead workshops, as Horsley notes in her TED Talk. She herself even hosts international retreats, where clients and participants can sign up through her website.

Online forums- A quick Google search will show that there are forums dedicated to specific animals, animal health and behavior, recommendations, and anything under the fur.

How Research Strengthens the Animal Communication Community

Research on human-animal communication has focused on apes, elephants, parrots, and dolphins and, surprisingly, has a scandalous track record of flawed methodology, unsubstantiated claims, and even researchers on LSD (Kulick, 2017).

Knowledge built by anthropologists, animal rights activists, philosophers, and communication scholars has come together to explore topics ranging from cognition (whether animals can truly understand human language) to language learning (teaching animals sign language or other forms of human communication) and observing animal behaviors and social interactions.

Don Kulick, a Swedish anthropologist, leads an interdisciplinary research program that studies vulnerability as a feature of existence in society. This blog mainly refers to his work, as he has published research directly related to animal communicators. In the research linked in this blog, Kulick provides an interesting synthesis of research literature drawing from various fields.

Animal communicators often reference quantum physics to explain how we can use our consciousness to communicate with the consciousness of animals.  They take academic research and translate it for mainstream audiences through their blogs and podcasts.

Paws and Practice: Learning how to communicate ourselves

Professional communicators provide numerous guides for practicing animal communication. Most techniques involve meditation to be present, setting an intention, and using intuition to connect with a pet in some way, shape, or form.

[thecollectivestrange]

Critical Hits & Lifelong Friendships: The Role of D&D in Building Community

Since becoming a communications major, I have only read textbooks and news articles. Keeping up with the news cycle is not as fun as the fantasy worlds I used to immerse myself in through Barnes & Noble’s young adult section, Wattpad, and Webtoon.

For this blog post, I wanted to reconnect with limitless worlds of fantasy through Dungeons & Dragons communities. However, it is ironic how impossible it is to cover the vast world of D&D, where anything is possible. For the scope of this one-shot campaign (see footnote), we will follow three perspectives on how the game builds community: the player’s, the dungeon master’s, and a game creator’s point of view.

D&D terminology is used throughout this article; definitions are provided in footnotes.

The Player’s Perspective – The Heart of the Game

Brandon Romo, who has been playing since 2022, shared that the game fosters a close-knit culture among newcomers and longtime friends through shared experiences.

1. Players develop skills that translate to both the real and fantasy worlds.

Communication skills: Talking is a central part of the game—not only as the primary form of participation but also to facilitate in-character (see footnote) interactions between players and the world the dungeon master builds. Additionally, keeping the table conversation lively helps maintain an engaging atmosphere.

Decision-making and strategic thinking: Unlike video games, where actions are often predetermined, D&D offers unpredictable endings and consequences. Players must thoroughly assess their choices in combat, story progression, and character development.

2. Community values are cultivated and reinforced.

Vulnerability and inclusivity: One of the defining aspects of D&D is that players create a safe space at the table for both newcomers and experienced players. “Because the game is more personal, most of the time, people are pouring themselves into their characters and stories,” Brandon explained.

Guidance and mentorship: While there are countless online resources for new players, learning directly from an experienced player is invaluable. Veterans of the game often share their appreciation by passing down knowledge and making it easier for others to participate.

3. Shared experiences create lasting friendships.

One of the most appealing aspects of D&D is its flexibility—it can be played anywhere. Brandon’s group is physically dispersed but remains socially close, enjoying sessions whenever possible. As he shared, “Every time we start a new campaign, it feels like I’m being reintroduced to my friends and learning about them again through their new characters. I feel like that strengthens our bond, as we are becoming friends again, but through different people.”

The Dungeon Master’s Perspective – The Worldbuilders & Storytellers 

Thomas Orr, nicknamed Tommy, is a forever dungeon master and has been playing the game since 2022. Dungeon masters—who guide the storyline—serve as the backbone of the game, adapting the world and story to players’ choices.

As simple as that sounds, being a dungeon master is anything but easy. Keeping a campaign running comes with challenges such as scheduling sessions, maintaining group memory of a long-running story, and preparing content—whether that means writing original narratives or personalizing premade campaigns. Fortunately, many shared tools and resources help make running campaigns more manageable. If you’re interested, Tommy provided a list of resources he utilizes, which will be linked at the end of this article.

Beyond game mechanics, Tommy focuses on keeping his table engaged and ensuring that everyone has a positive experience. “It’s more about spending time with friends and developing stories that matter to us,” he said. Creating an enjoyable experience involves encouraging players to develop their characters as they go, crafting compelling storylines, and listening to player feedback and ideas.

Like many dungeon masters, Tommy felt pressure in the role early on. When he first started, he overplanned story details that never made it into the actual game. However, the joy of writing and watching players interact with his world outweighed the stress. One of his most memorable moments involved a dramatic cliffhanger between two brothers trying to prevent massive destruction. His players were so invested in the story that they argued over what choices they could have made to avoid that outcome.

Through his passion for storytelling and collaborative worldbuilding, Tommy fosters a sense of community within his games.

The Game Designer/Creator Perspective – Shaping the Future of D&D

While everybody in DND is creative and exercises the imagination, game designers and creators mainstream their writings, art, and other works to YouTube, podcasts, live shows, websites, and storefronts.

SideQuest, a local retail company in Pomona, is a fully stocked merchandise store offering everything D&D players need, from accessories and game sets to immersive experiences people can book to play one-shot campaigns. In addition to experiences, the storefront also offers guild memberships and its own app.

SideQuest has taken local games to a whole new level—a business operation that is highly visible and accessible. Its Instagram following is impressive, and it consistently achieves high engagement with social media content. Its Discord server also hosts 823 members.

Footnotes Campaign – An ongoing storyline with characters (players); the story lasts until the dungeon master and players conclude it. One-shot campaign – A storyline that players can complete within a single session. In-character – When a player role-plays as their character rather than speaking as themselves.

Resources: 

https://www.dndbeyond.com/

https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/

 https://pages.roll20.net/free-dnd-character-builder

[thecollectivestrange]

Real-Life Vampires: Separating Fact from Fiction in Today’s World

I have always appreciated vampires in pop culture, from Dracula’s three wives in the 2004 film "Van Helsing," to Netflix’s "Castlevania," and Hulu’s "What We Do in the Shadows." But my appreciation of vampire culture does not run as deep as the vampire communities in New Orleans and Atlanta. In taking a deep dive on the internet and interviewing two real-world vampires, I found that I resonate with the vampiric value of inclusivity that vampire communities across the U.S. share.

Vampire communities have been established since the early 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1960s that organizations dedicated to the study of vampires emerged and revealed self-identified vampires who gather and organize. In fact, these studies have continued to the modern day, where society gleans from five years of ethnographic research by John Edgar Browning, Ph.D., professor of liberal arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design, on the vampire communities in New Orleans, La., and Buffalo, N.Y. He is internationally recognized as an expert on the horror genre, vampires, and monster theory and has been a guest on many mainstream media and entertainment outlets to discuss his work.

In multiple writings and an interview with The Blood Project, Browning explains that real vampires describe having a condition where they “lack subtle energies that their bodies produce.” This can involve symptoms similar to lethargy, weakness, and an overall lack of energy that physicians can’t explain.

Vampires are people from all ages, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and cultures. But they all commonly share an “awakening” experience, where they realize they need sustenance (energy, blood). Based on the differing needs for sustenance, there are different types of vampires, such as sanguinarian vampires, who feed on animal or human blood, and psychic vampires, who feed physically on life force energy. Feeding on blood or energy looks nothing like how the silver screen portrays it. Rather, blood feeding vampires find consenting donors who they formally establish parameters of how they feed as informed by a CNN article published in 2022.

In all, what’s really important to know is that while these vampires belong to an overall larger community, they also belong to localized organizations, which usually are structured courts. Larger, international organizations are called “houses.” These organizations gather locally at hubs such as nightlife bars, conventions, and balls. “No community is alike, as different cities have different needs and different visions,” said Maven Lore, the king of the Vampire Court of New Orleans.

Whispers from the Shadows: Key Insights into Vampiric Communities

As I followed my curiosity into the bloodstream of these communities, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Maven Lore himself and his fiancée, Pixie, through a phone call on Messenger.

I not only had a great time conversing with them and getting a good laugh in, but getting their inside perspectives of their world in organizing vampire communities in New York and New Orleans revealed important lessons.

Organizing and committing to a philosophy is key to growing healthy communities.

Maven shared his journey in embracing vampire culture since his 20s. He was adopted by his mentor and mother-like figure Goddess Rosemary, who had started building what is now called Temple House Sahjaza in her 20s, moving from the Midwest to New York. He emphasizes being a servant leader and guiding the house culture towards being honest and openly communicative. To him, being a servant leader “means taking all the hits for your people, solving problems, spending your own money, looking for ways to better everyone. In the end, your whole personal life is dedicated to their well-being.” Lore has been in the vampire scene for 30 years and has seen how organizations evolve for the worse under bad and ill-intentioned leadership.

Maintaining an ultra-inclusive community is difficult.

Pixie shared that there is a major discussion about where to draw the line in accepting new members, especially to ensure that people can participate in these spaces safely from individuals who are mentally unstable. Handling people who want to be part of a community can be tricky when individuals show signs of mental instability, like having a genuine belief in being a 5,000-year-old descendant of Vlad the Impaler, to people with criminal backgrounds who want to exploit others in various ways. To maintain an inclusive space, Lore explained the concept of “twilight,” which he learned from his mentor, Goddess Rosemary. Twilight is the balance between day and night, and it’s important that one doesn’t get lost and is able to balance what is real and not real

2. Safety is a high, if not ultimate, priority.

In the ’90s, vampire hunter organizations also began to emerge. Once in a bar called Dungeon, Maven witnessed a friend who was stabbed with a stake. Luckily, her large chest saved her life. Another danger comes from participants within the community as well, individuals that sow discord, grift money, and instigate infighting.

3. Intolerance and echo chambers also exist within these communities, like any other community.

Pixie noted that vampire culture is a subculture that is about inclusivity, self-empowerment, and challenging the status quo. But with polarizing ideas and viewpoints, some organizations are becoming closed doors to people who do not share the same viewpoints as set by the house or court. Maven recalls that in the ’90s, vampire culture was the result of being excluded from mainstream media and uniting over having different people come together to openly communicate about differing worldviews. “The narrative is flipped—we used to be the cancel culture, and now we are being canceled among ourselves,” he said.

Into the Darkness: Future Directions of the Vampire Community

Since the ’60s and possibly earlier, vampires have organized in multiple ways. Today, most organize through the use of forums, websites, and Facebook. Facebook offers, as Maven explained, all the tools they need. And during the pandemic, Zoom was used to host online balls. Maven shares that his first online ball was successful despite it being a logistical nightmare. He shared his sentiment that he wished interactive chat rooms existed when he first started and found his community in New York and New Orleans.

The couple finds other ways to implement other technologies to contribute to their families. His mentor, Goddess Rosemary, needed a new signia, one that reflected the divine feminine and the house’s origin as the Black Rose Coven. Using 3D printing and metalworking, Pixie and Maven designed a new symbol, one much needed for decades.

As a communication student and a Filipino American who shares a value in community, I can only begin to understand and resonate with the world of vampires. However, after hearing the journeys of Pixie and Maven and their love story, I believe the most poignant aspect is their commitment to their values of integrity and leadership. They take initiatives to not only change the negative mainstream narratives about their community but even the narratives within their court and houses after years of seeing the community transform itself with time.

Currently, the couple has not been as active as they once were in 2022. For now, they are focusing on their wedding and living a happy and healthy life. But as Maven assured, he’ll be back in the community once they are ready.