I’ve had a number of people reach out to me about self-defense instruction in the past week. A frightening number, to be honest, because it betrays how unstable our sense of safety is right now — as women, LGBT folks, people of colour, and religious and political minorities.
So here’s the deal: I teach self-defense at Valkyrie Western Martial Arts Assembly, and I happen to think that we are damned good at what we do. We’ve got a workshop coming up in a couple of weeks, and you should take it. If the timing doesn’t work, contact me to suggest dates for another workshop; if the group format intimidates you, contact me to set up private lessons. Just come.
If you can pay, you’ll be helping support the school and making it possible for us to keep doing this work. If you can’t pay, come anyhow. We offer sponsorship for low-income workshop attendees, we have a Community Credit Pool that’s available for any kind of training, and I’ll personally barter you my time and skills for homemade jam, poetry, baked goods, a good conversation, or anything else you have to offer if it gets you the training you need to make your world a little safer. Just come.
If you’re a teacher who wants to offer your students better self-defense options and needs help getting started, talk to me. We’ve got a lot of collective knowledge here, and it’s yours to draw on if you commit to using it to help the most vulnerable in your community. This is a concrete way we can help, and I want to make it easier for all of us.
This is what I have to offer in these uncertain times. Come take it.