{"id":494475,"date":"2026-10-13T08:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494475\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:10:09","slug":"the-party-for-self-defense-black-asian-solidarity-through-martial-arts-at-the-life-is-living-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/494475\/","title":{"rendered":"The party for self-defense: Black-Asian solidarity through martial arts at the Life is Living Festival\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two masked kendokas faced off with long bamboo sticks, their feet planted firmly. Each strike was accompanied by a yell that reverberated across Lil Bobby Hutton Park, continuing Oakland\u2019s more than 50-year legacy of martial arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This live demonstration took place at the \u201cLife is Living\u201d Festival\u201d in West Oakland Saturday. The free annual event was founded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifeisliving.org\/about\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oakland-rooted creatives<\/a> in 2008.\u00a0This year\u2019s \u201cParty for Self-Defense,\u201d theme came from the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which was the original name for the Black Panther Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey carried arms because they were trying to defend themselves,\u201d said Hodari Davis, an educator who co-founded Life is Living. \u201cThey built health clinics because they were trying to defend themselves against disease. They built a free breakfast program to defend against hunger. They had schools and book mobiles to defend against illiteracy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Martial arts is also one of the Black Panthers\u2019 defense tactics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Drawing on the Panthers\u2019 strategies, the event featured organizations and activities: dancing, drumming, spoken word, graffiti battles and free breakfast.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/martial-arts-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"On a patch of grass on a residential street, four people are chatting near a sign that shows a raised brown fist with the words &quot;all power to the people.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-153072\"  \/> Life is Living Festival in Lil Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland (All photos by Mary Mijares)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A panel discussion facilitated by author a Jeff Chang drew around 75 people and centered on the history of martial arts in Oakland and its role in the Black Panthers, as well as threats from police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facing some Oakland communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shannon Lee, educator, author, and daughter of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, was among the two panelists. She talked about her father\u2019s involvement in the Oakland martial arts scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/martial-arts-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A bald man in a black shirt with white letters speaks into a microphone in a room with several microphones and white walls. Behind him leans an woman with long salt-and-pepper hair and a brown long-sleeved shirt.\" class=\"wp-image-153074\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4992892477398079;width:336px;height:auto\"  \/>Shannon Lee stands behind Hodari Davis <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1964, at age 23, Bruce Lee opened a martial arts studio in the city. \u201cUnder the sky, under the heavens there is but one family,\u201d Shannon Lee quoted him as saying, stressing her father\u2019s openness to teaching martial arts to everyone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Panelist Steve McCutchen, an advanced Taekwondo practitioner, was a member of BPP in the 1970s and taught martial arts to the Panthers and the public. McCutchen said Bruce Lee\u2019s teaching about creating common ground against oppression resonated with diverse groups, including Black, Asian and poor communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That message continues to resonate.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLiving in these times, where we are being attacked on all sides, we have to have some kind of practice we can turn to that helps us feel our inner power,\u201d said Stephanie Parker, who was among the martial artists participating in the demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, a new offering was added to the festival: martial arts demos, featuring: kendo, fencing, karate, aikido, jujutsu, tai chi, qigong, boxing, and Visayan style corda kadena largo mano eskrima \u2014 a Philippine martial art founded in Oakland in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn general, the population of Oakland doesn\u2019t necessarily know about the heritage or know about all of the different varieties of arts that you can study in our city,\u201d Davis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/martial-arts-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in caps, dressed in black are swinging sticks in motion on a wooden floor on top of grass on a residential street.\" class=\"wp-image-153073\"  \/>N\u016br Jam\u0101lul Rashad (left), from Filipino Martial Arts in Oakland, and Jay Jasper Pugao demonstrate Visayan style corda kadena largo mano eskrima. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jay Jasper Pugao, who joined others in a Visayan style corda kadena demonstration, said Oakland\u2019s marginalized communities are interested in learning martial arts, and he hopes to create space for them to do that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re like, I want to learn how to defend my family, or I want to connect with my roots, or this martial art keeps me healthy,\u201d Pugao said. \u201cOr, I\u2019m a person of color and a lot of people doing martial arts are people in law enforcement, and I don\u2019t feel comfortable in those settings. Or, I\u2019m a woman, gay, or queer, and in some spaces, it\u2019s super machismo. I noticed it was dominated by that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The festival emphasized martial arts as an inclusive practice. It also highlighted the work of the volunteer organizations that worked to make the event a success, including: People\u2019s Kitchen Collective, Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses, and The Living Word Project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe currency of Life is Living,\u201d Davis said, \u201cis definitely community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandnorth.net\/2026\/10\/09\/fruitvale-park-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day-with-immersive-ohlone-exhibit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fruitvale park celebrates Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day with immersive Ohlone exhibit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two masked kendokas faced off with long bamboo sticks, their feet planted firmly. Each strike was accompanied by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[95972,192307,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-494475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bruce-lee","tag-life-is-living-festival","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494475","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=494475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}