WEST RIDGE — The day after the presidential election, Ravenswood Manor resident Michael Una said he couldn't face the day.
After a few days of reflection and inwardly searching for ways he could help others feeling fearful or dismayed, Una said the idea came to him: hold a self-defense and martial arts class.
"It's not just a coping mechanism," Una said. "It's a step toward taking positive action in your life to say, 'I'm not going to let this just push me down and I'm just going to deal with being pushed down, I'm going to stand back up and I'm going to push back.'"
The free class will run from 12:30-2 p.m. Sunday at Northern Raptor Kung Fu, 7014 N. Western Ave. and prior experience in martial arts is not required.
Sessions will focus on both inner and outer strength and focus through exercise, practicing with a partner, meditation and learning movements and techniques rooted in traditional Japanese martial arts, Kung-fu, Aikido and yoga.
By day, Una, 35, is a father and works as a social media consultant, runs his own business in which he designs and builds synthesizers and drum machines and works for a friend who builds and designs robots.
But it was his lifelong skill and experience in teaching martial arts that Una said offered the most value to the public, in particular people in the queer and trans communities, as well as women — all of whom are welcome and encouraged to attend.
"With the election results coming in and seeing Donald Trump had won, I was just in shock," Una said. "The effect of that is that it enabled a huge amount of racism, misogyny, xenophobia come to the surface in a way people are aggressively, outwardly expressing those things to people in the queer community [and] online in a way that's kind of a precedent in my lifetime. There's just a lot of fear out there."
Una said after a massive response to his class on Facebook, he met with other martial arts teachers from across the city to discuss ways they can band their resources together to form a network of classes.
In the meantime, he said he would like to make the sessions he leads recurring, something Northern Raptor Kung-fu studio has agreed to work with him on.
"The idea here is to offer a self-defense class which is doing something, this is a skill that I know how to do, let me share this with other people," Una said.
Michael Una holding nunchucks that are on fire. [Provided/Michael Una]
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