Performance Space New York Announces Upcoming Programming For Taíno Needle Science Institute

Performance Space New York has announced upcoming programming for Taíno Needle Science Institute: Electric Works Laboratory, the acupuncture clinic that doubles as a guerilla academy, currently ongoing in Performance Space's Open Room, organized by Standing On The Corner Art Ensemble. Expanding on the activist, cultural, and medical histories that form the basis of the Laboratory, these events range from a performance by "Godfathers of hip hop" The Last Poets; to talks with the key figures surrounding the Lincoln Detox Center and the development of NADA Protocol; to chair yoga classes, workshops on traditional Asian herbs and tea practices, and poetry; to Drone Acupuncture Session performances; and more. (See below for full programming details and schedule).

Since the Laboratory launched in January 2023, its weekly acupuncture sessions have built a community of regulars and guest artists, activists, and practitioners whose presence has shaped and left an imprint on this installation-as-gathering space. With vastly expanded programming in April, May, and June, the Laboratory will continue to grow as a space of healing, learning, and liberation. Participants in upcoming programming include The Last Poets members Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan, and Babatunde; founding members of Parents Against Police Brutality Iris Baez and Margarita Rosario; health worker, acupuncturist, former Young Lords member, and NADA protocol co-developer Walter Bosque and community and labor organizer, former member of the Young Lords, Black Panthers, HRUM (Health Revolutionary Unity Movement) Cleo Silvers; poet and educator Mariposa Fernández; Puerto Rican Nationalist Party of NY leader and founding director of South Bronx's El Maestro Boxing Gym Fernando 'Ponce' Laspina; founding Young Lords Party member Mickey Melendez; Board certified herbalist founder Margie Navarro; founding member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party former political prisoner Sekou Odinga; activists and former street gang leaders Lorine Padilla and King Tone; holistic health worker and artist Margarita Pietri; organizer Makini Shakur; among a growing list of others.

For our moment of digital excess, the Electric Works Laboratory adapts experimental needle protocols developed by Dr. Mutulu Shakur and the associated activists who founded Lincoln Detox in the South Bronx in the 1970s to combat heroin addiction. Merging these practices with forms of minimalist music, the Laboratory offers a new paradigm from which to consider health of mind, body, and spirit within our shared technographic reality.

Extending into the realms of politics, culture, and identity, the Laboratory continues the search for alternative treatment methods for marginalized and oppressed people. These methods-accessible, non-chemical-are paired with education and arts, and committed to upholding the principle that the ability to choose and control one's healthcare is a basic human right.

Those who enter and engage with the Laboratory are taken into a portal overloaded with stimuli, teeming with moving images: footage from history; meteorological and interstellar information; live feeds capturing the room itself; exhibitions of detox acupuncture's history; and portraits depicting revolutionary ancestors. Sound from Standing On The Corner Art Ensemble-whose multifarious approach to music and explication of Caribbean cultural signifiers form the underlying structure that the institute is built upon-submerges visitors in the techniques of minimalism and drone.

This experiential environment mirrors the detoxification approach of the NADA protocol developed by Mutulu Shakur and Walter Bosque. (Bosque extensively collaborates on the Electric Works Laboratory, in the administration of acupuncture, and in various contributions to the programming). The Laboratory is designed to shock and reset the individual's omnipresent reliance on ("addiction" to) technology, utilizing the labyrinthine and sensorially overwhelming space itself as a form of exposure cleansing. The Laboratory features anti-algorithmic programming-seminars, lectures, performances-that recasts culture in vivid color and dimensionality.

Taíno Needle Science Institute: Electric Works Laboratory continues and, in this months-long installation within Open Room, opens new opportunities for the project Gio Escobar/Standing on the Corner Art Ensemble initiated at Performance Space as part of the organization's Octopus series. The ideas that would coalesce into Taíno Needle Science Institute began germinating after Escobar was asked to teach music making classes to inmates at Rikers Island-which he treated as a vehicle for offering a political education.

Escobar explains, "In the research I was doing to put together an appropriate 'reading list,' I began to read all the writings of 'prison intellectuals', and specifically George Jackson, who I was absolutely taken by, and followed that path of readings until I came across Mutulu Shakur. I came into knowledge about his above ground work as an acupuncturist and discovered that he started an acupuncture collective in coalition with a Puerto Rican man named Walter Bosque, together creating the auricular (ear) 'NADA protocol' to combat the heroin addiction epidemic in the Bronx, prompted by the medical diplomacy of Chairman Mao. This felt to me like finding secret information, something I had never known that 'we,' as a 'pueblo,' had any role in the history of acupuncture-let alone in an effort that was so ideological and political. From there, I set off to find Walter and/or anyone left from the Lincoln Detox collective in the '70s. I was successful, and from that point on he was my acupuncture teacher and I, his student."

Prior to meeting Bosque, Escobar had been experimenting with minimalist composition, predominantly long tone exercises and prepared piano (placing metal objects between the strings of a piano to produce a new, unrecognizable timbre). Escobar had an epiphany about the inherent overlap of prepared piano and acupuncture: "the act of inserting a needle into an ear and then a nail into a string opens up a world of unseen possibility."

The Laboratory is part of Performance Space New York's Healing Series, a year-long reflection on the political potency of healing and the role performance plays in it, in the midst of what feels like a momentous shift in art-making to foreground modes and practices of care.

Taíno Needle Science April-June 2023 Programming Details and Schedule

APRIL

Chair Yoga with Margarita Pietri

April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6 | 11 AM

Adapted yoga practice with poses modified for a seated position. Accessible for those who have injuries and/or low mobility.

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. April 26 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

Traditional Asian Herbs & Tea Practices with Margie Navarro

Thu. April 27, 7PM

Learn about the history of medicinal herb usage across the Asian continent and ways to properly utilize Tea into your diet. This workshop will be focusing on Kratom-- the origins of this herb in Southeast Asia, why it has been criminalized in certain areas just like cannabis, and how to source the safest and highest quality strains to yield the effects you are seeking. What are some things known about kratom in Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) and some ways we can learn about herbs in a non-Western/decolonized framework? How can tea practices continue to fuel self and community care?

Unseen Nuyorican Pictures: "Drugs Kill"

Sun. April 30, 6PM

Films: Skezag (1970), The Flop (1969), The life of junkie Junior (1987)

Moving images on the destructive effects of drugs within the Puerto Rican diaspora.

Unseen Nuyorican Pictures is a film club dedicated to the exhibition and canonization of the moving images created by/of the Puerto Rican people of New York. Organized monthly, screening festivals illustrate the material reality of the diaspora and examine the inextricable affixation between a people's depiction of themselves to their economic and social conditions.

MAY

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. May 3, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

History of Detox Acupuncture and Revolutionary Healthcare Workers in the Bronx with Walter Bosque and Cleo Silvers

Thurs. May 4, 7 PM (1.5 hrs)

Photo Exhibition (on screens): Carlos Ortiz

Cleo Silvers and Walter Bosque reflect on the community based initiatives that combined acupuncture, healthcare, and social activism to provide accessible and holistic healthcare to underserved communities in the Bronx.

Cleo Silvers is a community and labor organizer and a former member of the Young Lords, Black Panthers, HRUM (Health Revolutionary Unity Movement).

Walter Bosque was a member of the Young Lords, health worker, and acupuncturist. Bosque, along with Mutulu Shakur, developed their own radical acupuncture treatment called "The People's Protocol," a treatment that continues to be used in treating addiction today.

Poetry Workshop with Mariposa Fernandez

Mon. May 8 at 7PM

Poet and educator Mariposa Fernandez talks about the history of Nuyorican Poets followed by a poetry workshop.

Healing Our Warriors: Street Gang Acupuncture Sessions (Private)

• Latin Kings
  • • Leader: King Tone
• Savage Skulls
  • • Leader: Lorine Padilla

A series of intimate gatherings and conversations between former gang members, followed by a group by acupuncture session. These gatherings are not open to the public.

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. May 10, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

Parents Against Police Brutality: An Oral History in Organizing and Communications

Sun. May 14, 3PM

Speakers: Margarita Rosario and Iris Baez

Founding members of Parents Against Police Brutality, Margarita Rosario and Iris Baez, will reflect on their experience organizing against police brutality.

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. May 17, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

The Work and Legacy of BAAANA and Mutulu Shakur with Makini Shakur

Thu. May 18, 7PM

Activist Makini Shakur talks about the work and legacy of Black Liberation and Civil Rights Activist, Mutulu Shakur who spoke out against systemic racism, inequality, and oppression faced by the Black community. Mutulu was incarcerated by the state for 37 years and was just recently released in December 2022.

Unseen Nuyorican Pictures: "Vieques Libre"

Sun. May 21, 6PM

Films: A selection of films celebrating the 20th anniversary of the US Navy's withdrawal from Vieques, an island part of the Puerto Rican archipelago.

Unseen Nuyorican Pictures is a film club dedicated to the exhibition and canonization of the moving images created by/of the Puerto Rican people of New York. Organized bi-monthly, screening festivals illustrate the material reality of the diaspora and examine the inextricable affixation between a people's depiction of themselves to their economic and social conditions.

Mickey Melendez & Sekou Odinga Speak

Tue. May 23 , 7PM

• Screening: "Assata Shakur & Guillermo Morales Speak On Political Prisoners In The US", 1990

Founding Young Lords Party member Mickey Melendez and Black Panther leader & former political prisoner Sekou Odinga discuss their political origins and the conceptions, purpose, and ramifications of organizing an underground struggle. What are the circumstances that create such a necessity and what effect did it have on the individuals who participated?

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. May 24, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

A Guerilla History of Puerto Rico with Fernando 'Ponce' Laspina

Thu, May 25, 7PM

Ponce Laspina, Leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party of New York and organizer of El Maestro Boxing Gym in the Bronx, leads a conversation on the origins and untold histories of Puerto Rico's liberation movement, detailing the efforts of various Leftist organizations that contribute to the fight.

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. May 31, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

JUNE

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. June 7, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

The Last Poets

Fri. June 9, 7PM

Originating out of the Civil Rights Movement, The Last Poets used music and spoken word as a tool for political activism, their poems advocated for social change and raised awareness about the challenges faced by the Black community.

Drone acupuncture session with performance by Standing On The Corner ensemble

Wed. June 14, 6-8PM

30 minute sessions of drone acupuncture combine the Nada Protocol (an experimental auricular needle protocol developed by former Young Lords and Black Panther members) with minimalist music, for all those in need of alternative modes of healing.

Reclaiming Indigenous Memory: Pre Columbian History of Puerto Rico

Date: June TBD

Taíno Needle Science Institute's Closing Performance

Date: Thu. June 22, 7PM

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