VALUES
We welcome everyone to train with us, regardless of age, gender, race, (dis)ability, immigrant status, etc. We recognize that meeting the needs of a diverse community requires ongoing work and adaptation - we will not always get it right, but we are committed to continuously moving closer to the goal of including everyone.
Martial arts are for everyone.
Community is power.
Nobody gets a black belt alone. Martial arts is an individual journey undertaken in community, an opportunity for personal growth and development without toxic individualism. We mark milestones as a community, not to glorify accumulating achievements, but rather to celebrate progress and denote responsibility on an endless path of learning and growth. Everyone, regardless of rank or ability, contributes to this journey in their own way: we work together to make each other better. What we give to each other is also a gift to ourselves.
This is a queer space.
The community we are building is non-normative, and will not be modeled on typical or dominant structures and examples. This does not mean everyone who trains with us needs to be LGBTQIA2S+, but rather that white heteropatriarchy is not the guiding center of our community.
We honor the paradox of tolerance.
We welcome everyone with the single exception of those who promote hateful and limiting beliefs, which have no place in our community. Hate will not be tolerated.
We are nature.
The idea that human beings are separate from or superior to nature is a colonialist concept created to justify unsustainable resource extraction and the subjugation of indigenous people, women, and gender non-conforming folks. Environmental stewardship is a consideration in all aspects of our community functioning. We reject the idea that sustainability can be a separate, self-contained program or department. Taking responsibility for caring for the earth is a rejection of the deification of consumption and profit. Caring for the earth is caring for ourselves.
Martial arts are resistance.
Marginalized people developed many forms of martial arts as a means of self and community defense. These practices continue to offer tools for resisting violence today. Resistance can take many forms, from the micro level of defending our bodies against a physical attack, to the macro level of disrupting systems that function through violence against the vulnerable. Resistance is also healing. The communal practice of martial arts provides a joyful path towards healing the personal and generational traumas we carry from existing in a world that denies the inherent worth of all people and the earth.
Martial arts stand on the side of justice.
As we resist structures of oppression, we stay mindful of the fact that the end goal is not resistance itself, but rather justice. Our collective is a way of living that dream of a just world here and now, even as we work to make it a reality across the earth. As a community, we commit to the work of resistance in service of this dream - on the mat, in the streets, and in our hearts. We take responsibility for the world we inhabit.