Janet Aalfs

Janet Elizabeth Aalfs (born August 14, 1956)[1] is an American poet and martial artist. She is a founding member of Valley Women's Martial Arts and the National Women's Martial Arts Federation, and founder and director of Lotus Peace Arts.[2] She served as poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts from 2003-05.[2]

Janet Aalfs
Born
Janet Elizabeth Aalfs

(1956-08-14) August 14, 1956
Elmira, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHampshire College (BA)
Sarah Lawrence College (MFA)
OccupationPoet, martial artist, community educator
Known forPoet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts
Parent(s)Joann Aalfs

Life and work

As a 13-year-old, Aalfs wrote her first poem, and began focusing on her writing practice. Her father (1922–2001), a minister, is credited with teaching Aalfs about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. By the age of sixteen, Aalfs had participated in assisting her mother in the founding of the women's center in New Bedford, Massachusetts, read and found inspiration in Sisterhood is Powerful, and had her poems published by the women's center at Southeastern Massachusetts University.[3][4]

During her first year at Hampshire College, in 1974, she joined the women's center and registered for women's studies classes at University of Massachusetts, which shared classes with Hampshire.[4] While still in college, Aalfs came out of the closet as a lesbian.[4] She would go on to get her Master's of Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College.[3] Shortly thereafter she founded a women's writing group, and eventually two lesbian writing groups: Calypso Borealis and the Tuesday Night Lesbian Writers Group. She also founded Orogeny Press, a publishing house for fiction and lesbian poetry.

In 1978, Aalfs began practicing martial arts and became a founding member of Valley Women's Martial Arts and the Institute for Healing and Violence Prevention Strategies (VWMA/HAVPS) and the National Women's Martial Arts Federation.[4] Aalfs, founder and director of Lotus Peace Arts, has served as the director and member of the Leaders Group of VWMA since 1982.[3][4] She holds a seventh-degree black belt in Shuri-ryū, a sixth-degree black belt in Modern Arnis, and is a Jian Mei Chief Instructor of tai chi and qigong.[5]

Between 2003 and 2005, she served as the poet laureate for Northampton, Massachusetts. In 2013, she received the Leadership and Advocacy in the Arts Award from the Center for Women and Community, University of Massachusetts Amherst.[6]

Further reading
Library resources about
Janet Aalfs
Works by Janet Aalfs
  • with Carol Wiley. Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching. Mumbai: Frog Books (1995). ISBN 1-883319-09-9
  • Reach. Florence: Perugia Press (1999). ISBN 0-9660459-2-0
  • "Women and the martial arts." Women of Power 3 (1986).

References
  1. Robert J Elster (2004). International Who's Who in Poetry 2005. London, New York: Europa Publications. ISBN 978-1857432695.
  2. "Poet Laureate". Northampton Arts Council. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  3. Stephanie T. Hoppe (March 1, 1998). Sharp spear, crystal mirror: martial arts in women's lives. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-89281-662-0. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  4. Barbara J. Love (2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-252-03189-2. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  5. "Martial art classes provide confidence and defense training", masslive.com; accessed January 20, 2018.
  6. "Bird of a Thousand Eyes". Collective Copies. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
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