Celebrating 30 Years on U Street NW

Here's a photo before 1995, before all the bars, before the big condo/apartment buildings. WMATA will open the nearby Metro station in 1991. HTCMLI gets started four years later.
Sifu Rahim Muhammad in front of Emperor Jones. Learn your strengths and weaknesses so you don't lose your way.

Owner Clay Woods acquired this building for his auto repair and paint business. The second floor was unoccupied when Sifu Muhammad explained he wanted to rent and open a martial arts studio teaching local kids. Decades later it has fully emerged as you see it today.

  • With new skills, synchronized drummers learn how to work together and help each other learn the rhythms.
  • National Zoo panda naming ceremony: we did a few of these over the years.
  • Even the youngest quickly realize the rewards of practice.