Peace on the street: A fighter finds redemption
by Yian Huang and Michelle Stockman
On a late summer evening last August, 18-year-old Kris Acevedo pummeled an off-duty U.S. Marine in the back of the neck with a pair of brass knuckles. Acevedo said the fight started with a verbal altercation after he complimented a woman who walked by his bus stop, and quickly escalated to bloody fisticuffs when the Marine lunged at him.
"He challenged my manhood," said Acevedo, now 19. "He said, 'You think you’re a man?' and I snapped. I just beat him like crazy."
Just prior to the fight, Acevedo, a beefy martial arts fighter with scraggly whiskers on his cheeks and a tousle of curly brown hair, left a class at the Ultimate Karate USA studio in East Harlem, where six months ago he began studying martial arts with teacher Richard Garcia, 30, and Zen meditation with instructor Stan Koehler, 65.
Acevedo was charged with a felony assault. But Koehler went to the district attorney's office and negotiated a reduction to a misdemeanor, convincing an assistant district attorney that Acevedo had defended himself from an adult. He promised that Acevedo was under his care in an anger management program.
"I created a picture of Kris that the ADA would not want to prosecute," Koehler said. "He was a full time student with a B average. It was not in the people's interest to pursue this."
In a neighborhood where many young men drop out of school and often end up behind bars, Koehler has reached out to Acevedo to help him learn to deal with conflict and graduate from school. They train and live together in what Koehler describes as a Japanese-inspired communal martial arts school, comprised of the martial arts studio —known as the dojo — and a nearby residence.
Overall, Acevedo has responded well to Koehler’s around-the-clock mentorship. Acevedo sometimes uses awkward descriptions of the meditation techniques Koehler has taught him. But he understands them, and appears to be applying them in his life. With Koehler’s help Acevedo graduated from high school, and has since confined his fighting to the ring.
According to a New York State Department of Education 2005 report, East Harlem has a 51 percent male high school graduation rate. It also is one of 15 New York neighborhoods with the highest rates of juvenile detention, according to a 2000 report by the Citizens' Committee for the Children of New York.
State Sen. Jose Serrano said there are tremendous challenges for youth in East Harlem: “There aren’t a lot of mentorship programs. I think it’s very unfortunate that we’re losing an entire generation of youngsters to the streets.”
Garcia and Koehler, met while working in the Information Technology department of the New York City foster care system. In 2003, their mutual interest in meditation and martial arts led them to open the karate studio on East 107th Street and Third Avenue. Ten blocks away, Koehler owns a four-story residential apartment building. He lives in the first floor apartment with Acevedo and Figueroa. Garcia lives in the top floor apartment with his wife and children.
Koehler said this living arrangement allows him to monitor closely Acevedo and Figueroa's studies and help them process the frustrations that keep them from succeeding.
"You can't gain personal growth on your own," said Acevedo. "You need to have other people. Stan helped me look at the world differently and turn it all around."
Acevedo said Koehler taught him about a meditative space called "no name," a mindset he adopts when he faces a stressful situation.
"In this state," Acevedo said, "There is nothing to be attached to. It's peacefulness. I have choice — what I wish to become and what I wish not to become."
Acevedo said he spent most of his childhood angry at the world after his brother Wilkins was murdered. By the time he was a teenager he was smashing car windows and failing school.
He first came to the dojo after attending a self-defense seminar at his high school led by Garcia.
Acevedo said he wanted to take classes, but couldn't afford to pay the $100 monthly fee. Recognizing his potential as a fighter, Koehler and Garcia told him to write an essay about why he wanted to learn martial arts. Soon Acevedo was not only training at the dojo, but living at Koehler’s apartment.
Koehler pushes Acevedo to balance his training between fighting and developing a spiritual life. Koehler helped Acevedo fund a trip to visit South Africa last summer to study knife fighting as a martial arts technique, and also sent him to a weekend meditation retreat in Kentucky sponsored by the Mankind Project, a non-profit organization that promotes male spirituality and responsibility.
Acevedo recently won a mixed martial arts match against a rival on the circuit, and credits not only his fight training but meditation for helping him control the outcome.
“Meditating is a form of fighting. That’s what I learned,” said Acevedo. “It’s like practicing pushups and practicing a punch. You meditate so that your mind can be prepared for the battles up ahead.” |
