NEW YORK, N.Y. — Inside a community room in Brooklyn on a rainy day in May, seven women pair off for a series of drills. They practice backing toward the building's exits, as if moving away from an attacker. They yell "stop!" over and over. And they learn fundamental hand and leg strikes.
This is a self-defense class taught by Jess Ng, a Muay Thai fighter who grew up in Queens. Since August, she has taught more than 20 of these self-defense seminars to Asian and Pacific Islander women searching for ways to feel safer amid surging anti-Asian violence in the city.
