![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/hand-to-hand-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAfter 46 years in the same San Pablo Avenue storefront, the future of Oakland\u2019s venerable Hand to Hand Kajukenbo Self Defense Center is up in the air like a roundhouse kick.<\/p>\n
The martial arts studio, which opened in 1980 to train women and the LGBTQ community, was recently informed by its building owner he planned to sell the building and they would have to vacate their longtime studio. As the group began searching and fundraising for a new location, the owner relented and offered a two-year lease extension \u2014 albeit with higher rent.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s left the studio\u2019s leaders mulling over what\u2019s the next move: stay or find a new home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re closing down a chapter that\u2019s been so very meaningful,\u201d said lead instructor Professor Sonya Richardson before learning of the potential lease extension. \u201cWe are the school, but this is our home.\u201d<\/p>\n
As students of varying degrees and belts gathered for evening classes during a recent day, there was a sense of melancholy as well as excitement over a potential change of location.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like losing a little piece of yourself,\u201d said student Ana Sheriff. \u201cLike physically, like an arm, a body, a piece of your heart a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJoe Rosato Jr.\/NBC Bay AreaJoe Rosato Jr.\/NBC Bay Area<\/p>\n
Students at Oakland\u2019s Hand to Hand Kajukenbo Self Defense Center perform kicks during a recent class.<\/p>\n
Though the upheaval had shaken up the school, Richardson, who\u2019s served as lead instructor the last 24 years, had nothing but praise for the building\u2019s owner, who she said long offered below-market rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur building owner has been an amazing person,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cI feel like he has had such an act of love with us over 46 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The studio was founded by the late Professor Coleen Gragen with a goal of teaching self-defense skills to girls and women. The school teaches Kajukenbo, a hybrid of five different styles of martial arts. Hand to Hand\u2019s legacy of inclusivity expanded over the years to become a welcoming space for the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the day I walked in the door I looked at people of all colors and shapes and backgrounds,\u201d said student Lex Martin. \u201cAnd so many kinds of people doing something together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leader of the studio said it isn\u2019t just a self-defense school, but a community within itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had so many students come through and say, ‘This is where I feel most safe, I can be myself, I can express myself here,’\u201d said seventh-degree black belt and assistant lead instructor Aarin Burch.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/hand-to-hand.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJoe Rosato Jr.\/NBC Bay AreaJoe Rosato Jr.\/NBC Bay Area<\/p>\n
Students at Oakland\u2019s Hand to Hand Kajukenbo Self Defense Center perform kicks during a recent class.<\/p>\n
With the future unsettled, Richardson felt waves of nostalgia as she looked around the studio she\u2019s been a part of for 30 years \u2014 the creak of the highly-sheened wood floors, the art on the walls, the altar created by a student, and the sign bearing the studio\u2019s mantra: \u2018The more sweat in peace, the less blood in war.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI love just pausing even in these days of feeling some loss,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cIt really gives me a chance to pause and appreciate who we are, who we\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wherever the school goes next, if it moves at all, Richardson said it was important to focus on the fact that Hand to Hand was ultimately about the people, not a building or even a space. Just like the act of facing an opponent is about applying lessons but focusing on the present.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to let everything go in the movement \u2013 the wins, the losses, the benefits, the fear \u2013 and just stay right there with the person who\u2019s right in front of you,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 46 years in the same San Pablo Avenue storefront, the future of Oakland\u2019s venerable Hand to Hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-314602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}