Self Defense

In 2004 Gwen started teaching self-defense for women and trans folks with Girl Army, a self-defense collective. She has been teaching self defense continuously since that time.

About Girl Army

Girl Army is a peer-taught self defense collective that started in 1994. We teach a six weeks self-defense course that covers basic physical and psychological self defense and concludes with a padded attacker scenario. We also teach a self defense against weapons course, teaching defenses against club, knife and gun. Gwen has been teaching the weapons class for two years.

For more information please see our website, www.girlarmy.org.

Martial Arts

Gwen began training at Suigetsukan Dojo in February of 2001 in the traditional Japanese arts of Danzan Ryu Jujitsu, Aikido and Toyama Ryu Battodo (Japanese sword) under Professor Mike Esmailzadeh. In 2002 she moved in to Suigetsukan as a live-in student. She received her Shodan (black belt) in Aikido and Toyama Ryu Battodo in June 2007, and holds a brown belt in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. Professor Esmailzadeh's teachers were Soke Toshishiro Obata and David Bellman Sensei.

About Suigetsukan Dojo

Suigetsukan Dojo is a collectively run martial arts school in Oakland. For more information please see our website, www.suigetsukan.org.