with pen and blade
I'm back from my first East Coast swordplay event, and it was awesome! When I got the invitation to teach at the 2019 DC HEMA Open last summer, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that it was a big part of the local tournament scene and that it would be their first year … Continue reading Trip Report: Capitol Clash DC HEMA Open
I was reading this interview with Samin Nosrat, the host of a wonderful cooking show called Salt Fat Acid Heat, when I felt a switch flip in the back of my head. The "click" was almost audible. It was a shift in how I viewed myself in relationship to food and to cooking, and had … Continue reading The Things We Believe About Ourselves
Last weekend's big event for Valkyrie WMAA, Big Gay Sword Day, was created in a moment of frustration. Someone had posted in one of the biggest online HEMA forums and asked a simple question: were there any HEMA events aimed at members of the LGBTQ community? The resulting conversation thread was a shitshow. People scoffed … Continue reading Big Gay Sword Day and Celebration vs Struggle
I've had a few conversations lately about the corrosiveness of emphasizing talent or "giftedness" in a physical instruction context. Something I've encountered a lot is a weird sort of predestination framework: folks born with "natural talent" will be good at a thing, and folks without it will just struggle and flail forever. It's a really … Continue reading On Talent
There are some amazing perks to being a martial arts instructor. A month ago, I was in London, England, teaching at a swordplay event. The organizers covered my flights, put me up for my entire stay, fed me delicious food, and ran an instructors' beer tab at the pub we went to every night after … Continue reading The Price of Leadership
