An Important Transition Announcement from the Executive Director

12.7.2018 by Ryan Libel

Dear Kiai Readers,

Many of you are aware that Thousand Waves is on the brink of a major transition – Sei Shihan Nancy Lanoue and Jun Shihan Sarah Ludden, our founding co-Directors and Head Instructors of our Seido Karate program, are stepping away from their roles at the end of this year.  In 2019, Sei Shihan Nancy will continue to teach on Sundays and Tuesdays, while Jun Shihan Sarah will step away from a regular teaching schedule.  Both will continue to participate as active training members in our community.

Read the rest of Senpai Ryan’s letter.

It is impossible to fully express the gratitude I and all of us at Thousand Waves feel for Nancy and Sarah’s strong and compassionate leadership.  They have created an organization that is singular in scope and impact, a place that welcomes all and challenges us to be our best.  As thoughtful leaders, Nancy and Sarah also had the courage and vision to spend years planning for this transition.  We’ve been expanding our teaching corps steadily and are well-positioned to continue to serve our training members and families.

Sensei Alan Miller, who has trained with Sei Shihan and Jun Shihan since he was six years old, will be stepping into the Head Instructor role in the new year.  Alan has demonstrated his dedication to our school, our students, and our art in multiple ways and in increasing capacities over these past many years.  His strong teaching skills, compassionate nature, and spirit of service inspire others, make him the right person to lead our Seido Karate program into the future.

I hope you will join us on Saturday, December 15 from 6-8 pm for a transition ceremony we’re creating for this important moment.  The ceremony will allow us to spend time expressing our gratitude for all Sei Shihan and Jun Shihan have done and allow us to welcome and support Sensei Alan as he takes on this new role.  Thousand Waves will provide appetizers; please bring drinks to share.

Thank you for your steadfast support of Thousand Waves as we begin this new chapter.  I remain as excited as ever about our organization’s ability to impact Chicago and the world beyond as we carry out the mission Nancy and Sarah set in motion – fostering fitness, healing, empowerment, and peacemaking.

Yours,

Ryan Libel
Executive Director

Seido Tournament Report

12.7.2018 by Ryan Libel

Thousand Waves was well-represented at the World Seido Karate Organization’s 42nd Anniversary Tournament, held at John Jay College in New York City on Saturday, October 20.  Our team included Sei Shihan Nancy, Sensei Alan, Senpai Ryan, Senpai Mattie, Senpai Michele, Senpai Tabitha, Avery Sherman, and Cely Garcia. 

With the exception of Sei Shihan, who was busy judging events all day long, the entire team performed their best karate in the tournament events.  Senpai Mattie successfully defended her previous year’s grand championship in sparring, and she took second place in kata and breaking.  Sensei Alan placed first in kata and second in heavyweight men’s sparring.  Advanced Brown Belt Avery Sherman took 1st in kata and 2nd in sparring, while Green Belt Cely Garcia placed 3rd in kata and survived her 1st tournament sparring rounds!  It was a pleasure to see Senpai Gabby Afable, currently training at Honbu, placing in kata and sparring and breaking, and an unexpected joy to see our Youth Green Belt student Yohei and his parents make the trip.  Yohei was welcomed into the Honbu kids’ demo team with open arms!  A final special shout out to Cely’s partner, Cassandra, who was a supportive presence all day long.  We hope you can join us next October!

Every Kid a Winner at TW’s Tournament

12.7.2018 by Thousand Waves

Thousand Waves kids in all our programs, from Little Kicks all the way up through Teens, shared their karate with our community during our all-day kids’ tournament on Saturday, October 18. Senpai Liliana Schommer won the Sogo award for the highest combined score in all three events, kata, sparring and board-breaking. Every child won a medal for taking on the challenge of polishing their karate and performing under pressure.

See more photos of the tournament.

See more photos of the tournament in our Facebook album.

Thank You For Your Ongoing Support!

12.7.2018 by Thousand Waves

During this season of gratitude and giving, we want to take the opportunity to thank you for all you do for Thousand Waves all year long – whether you’re a past or present training member, a self-defense program participant, a parent, or an interested community member, your support means a lot to us.  If you are able to make a final financial contribution to Thousand Waves this year, know that we will put it to great use.  This linked donation page provides some information about the work we’ve been doing over the past year. Of course if you’re a regular reader of Kiai! then you have some idea already.  Thank you, and happy holidays.

TW Offers Free 12-hour Self-Defense Course to Study Participants

12.7.2018 by Amy Jones

It’s an exciting time for the empowerment self-defense team at Thousand Waves.  We’ve always known that our trainings can have a big impact on participants, and now we’re actually collecting the data to prove it!  All year, we’ve been working to implement a major strategic initiative: to rigorously evaluate our 12-hour self-defense course.  We are doing this for several reasons.  We want to contribute to the growing body of evidence that tells us that empowerment self-defense is an effective intervention.  We want to be able to tell a compelling, research-backed story to potential funders of our programming.  And, if the research points to any ways we can improve the training, we want to know that, too.  We know that our trainings can be transformational in peoples’ lives, and we’re eager to have some hard numbers to back up that observation.

Read more about the study and how you can participate by taking our self-defense class for FREE.

We’ve contracted with Brieanne Beaujolais from The Ohio State University, herself an empowerment self-defense instructor, to lead the research.  This fall, we’ve started data collection.  Our goal is to enroll a total of 150 participants in the study, all of whom will be between the ages of 15 and 29, and are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community.  We’re doing this in two ways – enrolling people who come to our Center who fit the profile into the study (and offering them the course for free), as well as partnering with organizations like City Year and colleges like Loyola and Roosevelt to bring the 12-hour course to them (and also offering it for free to those organizations).  We’ve just wrapped up our first two offsite courses, both offered through the Loyola University College of Social Work.  They were a great success, and an excellent opportunity to learn the ways things are different when we teach the course offsite.

If you know of a school or organization who would like us to bring our 12-hour course to their students, clients, or employees, I’d love to speak to them!  Likewise, if you are or know of an individual between the ages of 15 and 29 who would benefit from our course and would be willing to participate in the study, we’d love to have them!  Anyone in the specified age range can take the course, and while we hope they will also participate in the study, it isn’t a requirement.  However, there ARE some modest cash incentives for participation.  You can contact us at violenceprevention@thousandwaves.org, or point them towards our website.

Senpai Amy Jones is TW’s Violence Prevention & Self-Defense Program Manager, and a 3rd Degree Black Belt.

Introducing: Waves in Motion

12.7.2018 by Erin Epperson

Formerly called Meditations on Activism (MOA), Waves in Motion is the name for our new series of community programs that highlight healing and peacemaking across communities.  Waves in Motion aims to facilitate dialogue through film screenings, book readings, and presentations that foster Thousand Waves’ mission of fitness, healing, empowerment, and peacemaking.  All are welcome to these community programs, whether you are a karate student yourself, a friend or relative of one, or someone who has never stepped foot on a dojo floor.  These events are open for all people interested in dialogue on healing and peacemaking across communities.  Bring your friends.  Join the conversation.

Read more about Waves In Motion.

The name Waves in Motion is inspired by the Japanese phrase I Ppa Do Ban Pa Sho (“One Wave Sets Thousands in motion”), from which Thousand Waves was named.

Waves in Motion is a rebranding of our community programming series: Meditations on Activism, which was inspired by an impromptu meditation class held at Thousand Waves after the September 11th attacks.  The class provided a space to help members deal with the complex emotions of fear, sadness, anger, and confusion that the attacks engendered.  It allowed members to share feelings and concerns and to begin to consider possible responses.  Members expressed a desire to remain thoughtful and open-hearted in a stressful time and to seek ways to implement the principles of compassionate self-defense, not centered on revenge, embodied in Thousand Waves practice.

Over the years, our capacity to run these community programs has ebbed and flowed.  With renewed staff and volunteer support, we are excited to relaunch the highly popular Meditations on Activism under the new name: Waves in Motion.  Each year we will present three Waves in Motion, in each of three formats per year: a film screening, a presentation, and a book reading and discussion.

The first Waves in Motion program will be held Friday February 8, 2019 at 7 pm, with a presentation and discussion by Thousand Waves’ own Senpai Pamela Robert and Frank Fitzgerald, titled America’s Endless Wars: From Viet Nam to the Future.  Their presentation will look at the persistent human costs of the American War in Viet Nam, how U.S. veterans and activists are mitigating the legacy of Agent Orange and undetonated explosives, and how we might work to prevent such horrors in the future.

Senpai Pamela Robert and Frank Fitzgerald recently traveled to Viet Nam with Veterans for Peace for the 50th Anniversary Commemoration Peace Tour.

Have ideas for future Waves in Motion events? Know of a film or book related to healing or peacemaking you’d like to share with the community?  Email Senpai Erin (eepperson@thousandwaves.org) to share your ideas.

Senpai Erin Epperson is the Community Programming Manager for Thousand Waves, and a 2nd Degree Black Belt.

Share & Tag Us on Social Media!

12.7.2018 by Jackie Seijo

As some of you may or may not know, Thousand Waves has a social media presence with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and we would love your help. If you have pictures from an event or videos that you’ve taken at one of our programs, share, share, share! We love seeing our members and community getting the word out about us and celebrating the triumphs and awesome things we do at Thousand Waves. Please tag us when you share on each of these platforms:

Facebook: Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense Center, NFP

Instagram: @thousandwaveschicago

Twitter: @TWSeido

Please feel free to find and follow us on these platforms!

12.7.2018 by Thousand Waves

Senpai Erin Epperson is TW’s Development and Community Programming Manager and a Staff Instructor. They recently earned their 2nd degree black belt.

Briefly, how did you come to train in Seido Karate at Thousand Waves?

I was introduced to Seido Karate by Senpai Marie O’Brien and her partner Tim Wang. I started training under Tim in kickboxing and Tai Chi for two years prior to training in Seido. When Tim closed down his studio (Three Pillars) in 2010, I knew I wanted to continue training elsewhere under people with a comparably peaceful and non-competitive approach to martial arts. Thousand Waves seemed like the natural place to try next. I took my trial class in Seido the final day that Three Pillars remained open. I’ve been hooked since!

What is one thing you’d like to change about the world?

Empathy. If more of us can be encouraged and supported to listen actively past our comfort zones – to hear and understand the experiences of people different from us, even when it challenges our own assumptions – we’d be a more compassionate, more caring, and more peaceful world.

What is one thing you do well?

Write. Edit?

What is one thing you do not do so well?

Make decisions. I think… No, definitely.

Who from history do you admire, and why?

She’s not yet “history”, but my mind keeps returning to her anyway, so this will be my answer: Pema Chodron. For years I’ve been inspired by her – how does a female Buddhist practitioner rise up beyond both the significant accomplishments and the painful controversies of her teacher and become not only her own person, but a leader, a writer, and a role-model? Deftly, without either denigrating the person or glorifying his misdeeds, she rises like a phoenix rising from the metaphorical ashes of her teacher, to be truly an inspirational force in modern American Buddhism.

Other than Chicago, where have you most enjoyed spending time?

As an adult, probably in India with my Seido “family” in New Delhi.

What quotation have you found inspiring or interesting?

“Think as I think,” said a man,
“Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad.”

And after I had thought of it,
I said: “I will, then, be a toad.” – Stephen Crane (poet)

What foods do you like best?

Any food my body doesn’t reject!

What is a book that has been significant to you?

The Tao Te Ching, Stephen Batchelor translation. My stepdad gave me a copy of it when I was 16 and heading for a summer camp for Physics nerds. It inspired me both spiritually and professionally (despite its faulty translation!). This book was, for me, the seed that grew into my fascination with Asian religion and literature, culminating in me earning a PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations in 2017. This book also influenced me spiritually. Though a Chinese Taoist text, many of the concepts and ideas it shares common with Buddhism resonated strongly with me on a personal level. In some ways it even started me down the Buddhist path.

What are your musical favorites?

Oh, geez. Depending on the genre, favorites include:  Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton soundtrack, Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked soundtrack, The Who’s album Who’s Next, Smashing Pumpkins’ album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Tegan and Sara’s album The Business of Art. As a standalone number, I find Demi Lovato’s song, “Warrior” to be hauntingly poignant; it moves me every time.

“Thousand Waves Member Spotlight: Ten Questions for…” is a regular feature of Kiai!
In the next issue, Cely Garcia will answer these same ten questions.