Tag Archives: acupuncture

Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America is Back in Operation

The Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America was formed by Dr. Mutulu Shakur in 1979 to foster interest in acupuncture by encouraging research and educational programs and to disseminate information about the practice and application of acupuncture, including but not limited to the use of acupuncture in the treatment of drug abuse.

For more information on how to join and support this important organization, see baaana.com.

Maroon Party for Liberation Gathering (March 20, 2021)

Join Maroon Party for Liberation this Saturday, March 20th from 3-5pm EST, for a screening of a short film on the radical history of acupuncture produced by Eana Meng followed by a discussion featuring:

  • Talib Shakur (son of Dr. Mutulu Shakur)
  • Dr. Shadidi Kinsey (former student of Dr. Shakur & founder of PEACE Health Center)
  • Bro. Shep (Veteran Black Panther & Zulu King)
  • Laura Whitehorn (former political prisoner & activist)

Join via Zoom

We, the North Sphere of the Maroon Liberation School, have initiated a response to the opioid epidemic (along with addictions of all kinds, trauma and stress relief) in a way that amplifies some of the genius that emerged after the Human Rights Movement through the efforts of Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Republic of New Afrika healer and acupuncturist.

We are inviting people to come together and extend the celebration of 50th Anniversary of the Lincoln Detox Center by considering it’s contribution to our current health crisis through a national Zoom Gathering on Saturday, March 20th from 3 to 5 pm Eastern.

The week following that gathering, we are inviting organizers to create Healing Hubs in tune with the unique needs of their communities. Right now, we have Healing Hubs being coordinated in Vermont, Los Angeles and Chicago (New York needs a co-coordinator) and are inviting others to consider generating a healing hub in their respective communities anytime March 20 – 28.

NADA, an easily accessible acupuncture technique developed by Dr. Mutulu Shakur was a grass-roots, people-powered response to heroin being planted in Black communities to halt/slow the progress of Human Rights for all. Now, with almost 2 million suffering from opioid addiction in the United States, we wish to emphasize this effective solution made available by Dr. Mutulu Shakur and support actions that can free him as a political prisoner.

National Acupuncture Detoxification Association Support for Dr. Mutulu Shakur

The National Acupuncture Detoxification (NADA) is a not-for-profit training and advocacy organization, encourages community wellness through the use of a standardized auricular acupuncture protocol for behavioral health, including addictions, mental health, and disaster & emotional trauma. This organization originated from Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s development and use of what is now known as the NADA protocol to treat heroin and methadone addiction. Thousands of healers continue to be trained through NADA to carry on this healing work in communities all over the world. Due to Dr. Shakur’s foundational role in bringing acupuncture to underserved communities in NYC, organizations such as NADA support his freedom.

Click on image above to for PDF version

Acu-Points: Black Acupuncture Meet & Greets – July 26, August 2, 9 & 16 (Online)

The next four events in Dr. Tenisha Dandridge’s ‘Acu-points: Black Acupuncture Meet and Greet’ series will direct donations to the Family and Friends of Mutulu Shakur organization. These online events are held every Sunday featuring Black acupuncturists from all over the country, and everyone is welcome to participate!

Register now on Eventbrite!

July 26 – 8pm EST
Dr. Lorena White on Women’s Health

August 2 – 8pm EST
‘Meet Our Elders’ feat. Dr. Tolbert Small, the renowned People’s Doctor and Acupuncturist in Oakland, CA

August 9 – 1pm EST
‘Meet Our Elders’ feat. Dr. Shadidi Kinsey, Dr. Shakur’s former student and acupuncturist at PEACE Health Center in Brooklyn, NY

August 16 – 8pm EST
Alison Reid-Bretell, Herbologist

Learn more about this fabulous medicine we all love. Ask us questions and get to know your melanated healers. What’s better than the gift of health, wellness, and peace of mind? Be sure to check the bottom of your confirmation email to get the link for the Zoom meeting!

How the Young Lords Took Lincoln Hospital, Left a Health Activism Legacy

by Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard on filtermag.org

“They just took over the Nurses’ Residence at Lincoln Hospital,” says Walter Bosque, an acupuncturist and community organizer. His salt-and-pepper eyebrows are an archive.

I sat down with Bosque at the New York City Botanical Garden cafe on a brisk fall afternoon to discuss his involvement in the radical health activism of a fabled group in the history of grassroots organizing: the Young Lords.

The Puerto Rican liberation organization–founded in Chicago in 1968 and pollinated to New York in 1969–kicked off its activism around issues like failing garbage collection services, infrastructure laced with lead paint, and lethal medical services. In ‘69 and ‘70, the Lords took direct action with the Black Panthers and other allies against derelict facilities and care deficits at Lincoln Hospital–known locally as the “Butcher Shop.” It was the only medical facility in the majority Black and Latinx South Bronx.

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Montreal, the South Bronx and the Early Days (Acupuncturist Mark Seem on Dr. Shakur)

In the spring of 1977, a colleague of mine in the human services field invited me to attend an open house announcing the Lincoln Detox School of Acupuncture in the South Bronx. I went and we listened to a fascinating story about Black and Puerto Rican activists who were working as drug counselors at Lincoln Hospital. They had heard of ear acupuncture being used to detox addicts in East Asia, and that lead them to search for possible acupuncture training closer to home. They learned of the Quebec Institute of Acupuncture in Montreal founded in the 1960’s by Oscar Wexu, a Romanian physiotherapist who fled the Nazi invasion and moved to Paris, where he learned acupuncture. He made his way to Montreal where he settled with his family and began practicing.

Mario Wexu, Oscar’s son, had been sent to New York City to help these Lincoln Hospital acupuncture pioneers establish their training program as a branch of the Quebec Institute and to teach the students in English. Unfortunately, none of the French texts used by the Montreal school were available in English and the only text in English was the Outline of Chinese Acupuncture from China.

After listening to the director of the Lincoln Detox school, Mutulu Shakur, and speaking with the other faculty– Richard Delaney, Walter Bosque and Wafiya, who were all gainfully employed drug detox counselors in the satellite clinic where this orientation was held– I approached Shakur and spoke to him in French, mistakenly assuming he studied in French in Montreal. When he saw that I was fluent and had worked as a translator, he asked if I would translate some materials they had in French. As I began working on some articles, I was immediately hooked, and the course of my professional life was altered forever. Following the advice of one of my professors, the well-known French philosopher Michel Foucault, I drop my plans to use my PhD in French studies for an academic teaching job and I became a student in the first class.  

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