Berkeley

COMMENTARY: Aikido is More than Martial Arts: It’s Community

For the last six years, I’ve practiced Aikido at a Berkeley dojo called the Aiki Arts Center—previously named Aikido Shusekai. Aikido is a Japanese martial art focused on responding calmly to attack without hurting the attacker or yourself. Instead of using force, you blend with the attack to redirect it. The name roughly translates to “The Art of Peace.”

Published

4 years ago

April 19, 2023

Oakland Post

Azzia Walker Sensei, with student Zoe Jung. Aiki Arts Center web site photo.

Post News Group Intern

For the last six years, I’ve practiced Aikido at a Berkeley dojo called the Aiki Arts Center—previously named Aikido Shusekai.

Aikido is a Japanese martial art focused on responding calmly to attack without hurting the attacker or yourself. Instead of using force, you blend with the attack to redirect it. The name roughly translates to “The Art of Peace.”

When I first started practicing Aikido at the age of 10, I loved it for its physicality. The throws and rolls, kicks and punches—it was an outlet for my brimming energy.

Aikido is also spiritual. There’s a sense that we’re all working together toward something we don’t really know or understand. We trust each other; if we didn’t, the physicality would corrupt.

This same physicality makes the practice hard. I have recurring feelings of malaise and dread regarding Aikido. Every committed practice I’ve had has eventually run into this reluctance: swimming, horseback riding, internships.

What keeps me going to the dojo is the community.

The dojo’s senior instructor is Nick Walker Sensei, an autistic trans woman and professor of psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies. I started practicing there shortly after receiving my own autism diagnosis at age 9.

I am autistic, queer, trans, and so is the dojo. I feel safe there, and I love the practice, and so I stay. I train every Sunday.

Here’s how it goes.

The dojo is located in the dark red Sawtooth Building, so named because of its jagged, angular roof. After parking, I go inside at half past noon, passing a sign propped up by the door that reads “Aikido in Studio 12! Beginners Welcome!”

Studio 12 is a beautiful space: two large skylights and sunlit rafters draped with acrobatics swings.

The far wall, called the Shomen, holds a Shinto shrine. We bow to it when we enter or leave the room or step onto or off the mats. It’s a traditional dojo furnishing.

If we’re late, other students have already put out the mats, and the floor becomes a sea of blue. If not, I step to the doorway, bow, and join them.

Once the mats are laid out, we stream away to get dressed. Those of us who are nonbinary get to choose which changing room to use, and I like the women’s room. It’s in the back, a cozy curtained-off storage room with rugs, mirrors, and a stack of chairs along one wall.

There’s usually some sort of conversation in the changing room. When I shaved my head a few weeks ago, Azzia Walker Sensei and I joked that people wouldn’t be able to tell us apart. She taught the Youth Program when it was still running. Now, I’m the only one left.

Changing is the step between Aikido and the outside world. I take off my street clothes and put on the uniform: long white pants, white jacket over a tank top, tied closed with a belt. It’s comfortable for stretching, rolling and falling.

I take my water bottle and step back through the curtain. In floods the sun.

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Activism

Black Repertory Group Needs Volunteers to Help Shape the Next Generation of Artists and Leaders

Legendary performers such as Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover worked with and were inspired by BRG’s founders. More recently, Grammy award-winning artist Kehlani attended the Black Repertory Group Summer Day Camp for several years.

Published

5 months ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Courtesy image.

By Sean Vaughn Scott, Special to The Post

For more than 60 years, the Black Repertory Group (BRG) has changed lives through the arts.

Founded in 1964 by educators and visionaries Birel L. Vaughn and Nora Vaughn, BRG has become one of America’s oldest continuously operating Black theater institutions. For generations, it has preserved culture, developed talent, and provided opportunities for young people to discover their voices and their potential.

The results speak for themselves.

Long before international recognition, Kehlani performed on the BRG stage. During a summer day camp production of “Princess and da Frog,” she portrayed Ray, the lovable firefly whose light guided others through the darkness. Her journey is proof that today’s camper may become tomorrow’s artist, entrepreneur, educator, or leader.

Located at 3201 Adeline St. in Berkeley, BRG continues that mission through its Youth Summer Day Camp of the Arts.

BRG is currently accepting applications and maintains an open enrollment program. Students may enroll throughout the summer as space permits and immediately become part of the BRG family.

We are also proud to be a multicultural opportunity program, welcoming children and families from all backgrounds, cultures, and communities. Through theater, music, dance, public speaking, visual arts, technical theater, and leadership development, students gain confidence, discipline, creativity, and lifelong skills.

As our programs grow, so does our need for volunteers.

We are seeking community members to assist with youth mentoring, registration, costumes, set construction, painting, props, ushering, photography, social media, marketing, technical theater, and fundraising activities. Whether you volunteer for a few hours or throughout the season, your support directly impacts the lives of young people.

BRG also partners with churches, civic organizations, alumni associations, fraternities, sororities, and community groups through theater party fundraisers, group sales, and buy-out performances. These partnerships have helped organizations raise funds while supporting arts and cultural programming.

The theater also serves as the home of the Berkeley NAACP Chapter, which meets every second Saturday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m.

For more than six decades, the Black Repertory Group has remained committed to one belief: every child deserves an opportunity to shine.

The next great artist may already be among us.

The next Kehlani may already be walking through our doors.

We invite you to volunteer, enroll, participate, and become part of the legacy.

For more information please go to www.blackrepertorygroup.com, call (510) 652-2120, or email info@blackrepertorygroup.com

Sean Vaughn Scott is the director of the Black Repertory Group.

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Bay Area

UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

Published

5 months ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries

By Lila Thulin

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.

Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.

Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.

“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.

This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.

In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.

That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.

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Arts and Culture

Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh

The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Published

1 year ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

By Antoinette Porter

Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.

Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.

A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.