The Chapel Hill Youth Against Rape Culture (YARC) club hosted a self-defense seminar in the dance room on January 16, with self-defense instructor Angela Kirby teaching students techniques to defend against assault.
Angela and her daughter Celeste had previously held a seminar through YARC at East Chapel Hill, which motivated Chapel Hill’s YARC to request the mother-daughter team visit campus.
“Next year, many current seniors will be on college campuses, which can often feel unsafe or intimidating for many,” Celeste said. “We wanted to focus on empowerment and making participants feel more safe and capable in their own bodies.”
Chapel Hill senior Sergio Jimenez, who has been a member of YARC for two years, helped to organize the event for Chapel Hill. He echoed Celeste’s motivations for holding the seminar.
“We wanted to have a resource for students to learn how to defend themselves, especially with college always coming up. It can be a dangerous place,” Jimenez said.
Several seniors who will have the opportunity to go to college next year attended the event, including Flora Arnsberger.
“I’m glad we have access to courses that can teach us this very important skill,” Arnsberger said, “especially as a senior girl on the way to college.”
Senior Alyssa Portanova also took part in the event.
“I thought it was a super cool idea, and I learned a lot,” Portanova said. “The teacher was super helpful. There are lot of different techniques you can do to defend yourself from different positions of attack.”
Angela, who has taught many self-defense classes over the last 30 years, currently works as a Health Science Specialist at the Durham VA Health Care System in the traumatic stress and health research lab.
At the seminar, Angela went over several possible positions of attack and techniques that could be used to defend against each kind of attack. Participants used a no-contact approach when practicing techniques on their partners.
“My focus is on very basic, ‘dirty’ self-defense techniques,” Angela said. “Usually, I focus on body targets that are useful and body ‘weapons’ that are effective. My approach is generally something like, ‘Don’t use it if you don’t have to, but, when you decide to, go all in.’”
Angela discussed resources available on college campuses and other institutions to avoid walking alone at night or entering other potentially dangerous situations. She also went over options for survivors of sexual assault.
“Self-defense is one small piece of the puzzle in violence reduction,” Chapel Hill YARC’s advisor Michael Irwin said. “While it is important for women—or anyone for that matter—to feel powerful and capable of defending themselves against a potential assailant, preventing violence is most effective when programs aim to prevent the violent behaviors from occurring in the first place.”
The Kirbys held another self-defense seminar at the Chapel Hill Public Library on January 19.
