Washington Square Park

When they’re not in class or practicing at home, some of the members can be found in Washington Square Park. New Yorkers often see them acting out new moves or developing old ones. According to Flynn, this outdoor space seemed to unconsciously become their new hangout after losing their rental space at 440 Lafayette a couple years ago.

Since then, the park hosts both weekly lightsaber events but the annual ones as well. Non-Star Wars fanatics gathered in 2009 with noodle-type objects they dubbed Jedi weapons and hit each other senseless, but this level of public event is considered amateur hour by the New York Jedi. “The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade is like our birthday,” says Flynn, which makes New York Comic-Con and Dragon-Con their Superbowl.

What many of the Padawans have to look forward to is what the masters refer to as “massive epic stage plays.” Close to 1,000 people stood in a huddled room at last years Comic-con just to get glimpses of Flynn and his knights battling it out. To the majority of the world, they may seem like your average D&D shut-ins, but in the universe of geeks, the New York Jedi are the equivalent to the quarterbacks and pop singers. “It’s a whole new level of dorkdom,” says Flynn.