Hi friends! Last week my friend Jaydra and I met to talk about our ongoing vision for Femm Fighting, the twice-yearly event we are creating for women and genderqueer martial artists in Portland, Oregon. Our next two event dates are Saturday, May 17th, and Saturday, October 4th, 2025. Both events will be held at SouthwestContinue reading “Planning for Femm Fighting 2”
Tag Archives: women martial artists
Femm Fighting Success!
On September 28th my buddy Jaydra Perfetti and I hosted Femm Fighting, a martial arts workshop for women & genderqueer martial artists. Our intention was to create community among those of us who may experience being gender minorities in the martial arts. The event was a lovely success: 15 of us gathered at Southwest PortlandContinue reading “Femm Fighting Success!”
Martial Arts Community
Earlier this week I co-hosted Markstravaganza, a martial arts party in the park to practice with my old training buddies, the Marks. One of the Marks, Dr. Mark, moved to California years ago, so we don’t see him very often. Back in the day, he was one of the people I trained with the mostContinue reading “Martial Arts Community”
The Partner/Opponent: Paradox in Push Hands
I’ve liked fighting since I was a kid. Not real fighting, and not watching sport fighting, but wrestling with my little brother. I loved the energy of it— getting mad at each other, getting riled up, then yelling at each other, the grappling, the slapping each other, but not so hard that we’d actually hurtContinue reading “The Partner/Opponent: Paradox in Push Hands”
Harmonizing Polarizations
My tai chi teacher says that the art of tai chi, and the philosophy behind it perhaps, is all about harmonizing polarizations. And we always start by harmonizing polarizations in the self. One way to think of polarizations is to think in terms of projections and hollows–places in our self where we are projecting tooContinue reading “Harmonizing Polarizations”
Michelle Folk Johnson 