Stephanie Glaros’ Humans of Minneapolis portraits of park-goers remind us of the many powerful ways that parks can connect us, heal us and make us whole. This summer, her 10-image series is exploring how parks transform human life, as told through each person’s own words and Stephanie’s boldly compassionate lens.

Here, we’re reposting Stephanie’s 2017 series. View all images in this year’s series, and in 2016’s, via the Humans of Minneapolis category link

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 Adelhaide, at Van Cleve Park

“We’re here every Friday at 5pm. We do dagorhir, which is a full-contact, medieval fighting sport with foam weapons. It’s really great exercise and there’s a lot of camaraderie with it. We go to national events where there’s 500 to 1000 people on the field to fight. We also make our own clothing and build our own weapons, so there’s a ton of learning involved. It’s very different from a sport where you just buy your equipment. It’s really empowering.

I’m in nursing school and this is a great way to be in a completely different mode and get some of that tension out. I’ve been doing it for four years. It really transformed my life because I’ve made so many friends through it. And I feel so much more healthy and confident in my body being able to do a contact sport.

The participants are really from all categories of society. We have everyone from doctors and lawyers to pizza delivery people. Today we have a physics student, a security guard, a computer programmer, and a guy who works at Indeed Brewing Company. When we wear our garb, it eliminates social class in a way. People with a lot of different beliefs who normally wouldn’t interact become friends.

We picked this park because it has a lot of traffic and we’re hoping to get more people to come fight with us. Anyone over eighteen is welcome. We’ll provide them with weapons and teach them. It has something to offer for a lot of people.”

Listen to Adelhaide’s story:

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Images and content are reposted with permission from Stephanie Glaros/Humans of Minneapolis.