Join Or Die 2021
Can you imagine being in a space where everyone has a love and passion for the same thing you do? Can you imagine doing that thing you love with those people, regardless of your level of skill? Being able to learn and train and observe and grow alongside people you may have only watched and admired on Instagram up until that very point… Within the sport of parkour, a jam is this space.
For any non-parkour folks reading this, a parkour jam is a gathering of practitioners of all levels to train together in different spaces in our communities. It’s both a social event and an extreme showcase of skill in one. People travel from different states and - in cases of bigger, international jams - from different countries in order to attend these events. While it’s not the first jam to be held since COVID restrictions have lifted, JOIN OR DIE is the first jam that Sqvadron, and I personally, have attended since the start of the pandemic and what an incredibly amazing experience it was.
Hosted by David Ehrlich and Alec Reduker of the Boston community, this is the 3rd annual Join or Die event, which is both a jam AND street competition. David and Alec first created The Commons in order to highlight the Boston Parkour community, but have slowly started to expand and created Join Or Die in order to unite the East Coast parkour community, and this years jam did EXACTLY that. People from all over the east coast were there, from as far southeast as Florida (yes I’m from Miami, but I’m not talking about me), as well as some representation from the west coast. The spirit of the jam was ALIVE and although it felt very different for some of us because of a lack of in-person social interaction for the past year and however many months (*ahem* please tell me that’s not just me), it was SO fulfilling. To hug friends again and make new ones, to push our skills together, and to just have conversations about anything and everything… it reminded me of how important these events are to our community.
At the second half of the jam, hosted at HUB Parkour Training Center (an incredible facility in Norton, MA outside of Boston with coaches dedicated to the advancement and betterment of their students), I sat for a while with Wenxin, a parkour athlete and filmmaker (check out his film - Controlled Descent - an impressive feat of athleticism and filmmaking) and just watched what was happening around us. There were people jumping and swinging, working on flips and just moving around the space in ways that any regular person who walked off the street couldn’t have understood. I think we both realized that, when you’re in the community, it’s easy to forget just how impressive and special everything that happens at these events are.
“It’s just people doing things. But sometimes you have a moment of clarity and fully realize how bonkers it is that every person around you is an extraordinary athlete.”
And it’s true! These events give athletes the chance to show their communities, and people from other communities as well, what they’ve been working on, how far they’ve progressed their skills, and also give them a level of community support that they may not normally have, and THAT alone can make all the difference for someone. A parkour jam can be so much more than just a bunch of people getting together to train, and that’s exactly what happened at Join Or Die. It was, of course, a bunch of people getting together to train. But it was also a community uniting and pushing and encouraging each other, the rekindling and creation of friendships, it was healing and restorative, and it was also a way to honor those in the community who we’ve lost.
Towards the end of the jam, Bryce Clarke - a long-standing leader in the New York community - paid a beautiful tribute to Basilio Montilla and Deyvid Garcia, who’s losses were both felt deeply across America, but especially within the east coast community. He reminded everyone of our responsibilities to the younger generation and to cherish these moments that were happening all around us, and said that the spirit of those we’ve lost live on within us and our movement - and that’s something that I’ve carried with me myself for a long time, but definitely needed the reminder of.
All of these experiences and more are made possible when people within the community try to do something FOR their communities. Join Or Die is something incredibly special and David and Alec, I can’t wait to see how far you guys take this.
Please take a moment to read this short, three question interview about The Commons, Join Or Die, and where these Boston Boys plan to take this event in the future.
- Mel Rivera
1. What exactly is The Commons?
- The Commons is a Boston based brand with the aim of highlighting the Boston parkour and freerunning community. We host local meet ups, promote the local community on social media, and create memorable events for the greater community.
The name comes from the history surrounding the city and the iconic location in the heart of Boston (Boston Common). The tagline “by the people, for the people” is based on the Gettysburg address, (though was actually from a sermon in Boston Music Hall) but we take it literally. What we do wouldn’t be possible without the time that our community volunteers put in, and the talents of creators bred by the sport -- and all of our profits go right back into the community.
2. Why did you decide to go with the name Join or Die for the jam?
- Join or Die is based on the political cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin, used at many points in the establishment of the country. In the cartoon, a snake cut into pieces shows the east coast states. Beyond fitting in with the historic Boston branding, it drives home our mission of bringing together the east coast community. Most importantly, it just kind of sounds cool :)
3. What are you and Alec hoping to accomplish with this event/future events?
- We have two major goals -- to radically change what a parkour street event can be, and to give back to the Boston parkour community. Boston has a rich parkour history and culture, and we want to keep it on the map.
We aren’t satisfied with just being a jam. Every year we are experimenting with new street comp formats and refining the experience. Without spoiling too much -- next year will be nothing like this year, and the year after that will likely change drastically again. As we save money from merch, and bring in more sponsors, we are able to fulfill more of our ideas. This year took off beyond our expectations, and was an important stepping stool to reach more of our goals next year.
Hub Freerunning and the OG Boston jam ‘Hubbable’ inspired us as kids, and we want to pay it forward. We preach inclusivity and hope that anybody and everybody feels welcome in our community.
*Cover image by Alec Reduker*
