Acupunktrix: Acupuncture, Apothecary, Birth and Death Guide, 1800 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo, NY (2026)

02/21/2026

In the morning, I will be temporarily (or perhaps permanently) disabling my account). I need to conserve my energy and focus on the real world. The horrible things I have been called by people on the left in the past few days, from nasty antisemitism to vile comments about me defending the use of art and dance in Revolution have brought me to a place where I realize I need to be present with myself, my love, my family, my pets, my home, my patients, and my community . Social media has had some lovely benefits but it has also caused great misunderstandings and untold amounts of stress. My health and my heart need a good long break.

Be Well. Call me or email me if you need me or have something to share.

02/20/2026

Resistance and revolution require a diversity of tactics. Art is fundamentally important because it speaks to the hearts and minds of people, many who may have been on the fence or in opposite camps. Art, music, theater and dance move us. Look at protest songs, the work of puppet makers like Bread and Puppet, the Theater of the Oppressed work or Augusto Boal. Books, graffiti, songs,murals, paintings, posters, zines, dances…these are all ways to disseminate messages, experiences, information, and emotion.

Condemning and belittling artists is what fascists do. Are you following influencers that are condemning art and policing our cultural expression?

On the red neck poppa’s post mocking the creative dance performance that honored the murders of Pretti and Good, comments say things like “they should be organizing not rehearsing” or this is offensive to their memories or I’d rather —-than watch this. People labelling me a “liberal” for saying I think it’s important work. Ooooh, I’m wounded to the core. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️. Man…go jump in a lake.

What are YOU doing oh mighty keyboard warriors besides tearing down real forms of resistance? Feeding division and creating litmus tests to wokeness is not the flex you think it is.

It’s all hands on board against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, fascism, and the cruelty and lies of the rich. If people want to dance about it…let them. If you’d rather whine over your keyboard, to try to make yourself sound cool and tough and like whatever the hell you’re doing is the only valid form of resistance…have it. But you aren’t helping, you’re harming.

Grandmas at home knitting hats for kids in the street with shields are in the resistance. Moms who provide child care so other people can be street medics, are in the resistance. People who bring groceries to immigrants, do jail support, carry signs, call reps, plan direct actions, make educations zines, write protest songs, are all in this fight in real ways. Stop mocking people who aren’t helping the way you think is cool and get out of the way and let them do it.

02/18/2026

Enjoy a laugh at my expense, and maybe learn something.

I’ve been wanting to make some cayenne tincture for a little while.
Cayenne is great for circulation, inflammation, and pain relief. It’s also an awesome thing to have on hand if you’re in a crisis or disaster situation and your energy is flagging and you just need to call on that last bit of reserves to help you stay sharp and effective.

I disinfected my hands, but ignoring all good sense, I didn’t use any PPE as I (minimally) weighed and crushed my peppers. I figured meh, they aren’t super hot, I’m hardly touching them before they go into 100 proof vodka. Ha. Even with good handwashing, I am still feeling a little spicy and very awake right now. Don’t be like me, wear gloves. But wear them BEFORE you handle the peppers, not after.

Cuz, this one time…

I was in my apartment in Jenin, Palestine 🇵🇸 cutting chili peppers to make a big lentil soup when I got a call from the Red Crescent ambulance 🚑 station that they had a woman in labor and they needed me on the call.

I wash my hands well. They literally picked me up from my apartment in the ambulance. I glove up in old school latex gloves with the powder. We pick up this poor mama who is telling me she needs to push.

There is a man in the back with us, so she asks me to do the vaginal exam under a sheet. No problem. I’m now used to that. We are bumping wildly down an unpaved rocky road. Also…we are being shot at by the IDF. So, basically an average day for us.

She’s fine, protected by my gloves. We get her to the hospital in time to give birth. But the whole time the pepper oils were being spread over my hands by the powder and locked in under the gloves. By the time I took the gloves off, my hands were blistered.

It sucked with the heat of a thousand suns.

All this to say, be safe. Be smart. Don’t be like me. Pepper is a powerful medicine, and lovely in pain relief salves. But be careful! And don’t touch your eyes or your fancy bits!!!!

This message has been brought to you by experience. I do dumb s**t so you don’t have to.

02/17/2026

Woo boy. Might delete later. 😂. PS. Sorry to my partner and friends who were there for this. It wasn’t fair to you, had you needed to help with the fallout if things had gone differently. But they didn’t…😬

02/15/2026

Yesterday, I got the best 💗Valentine’s message from a patient. I remember that treatment. I’d been seeing her for a little while and I said “We are throwing the kitchen sink at you. Today is the day!”

- “A year ago I came to you desperate to get pregnant and you told me we were going to make it happen. I remember seeing you the day before Valentine’s Day where you threw the kitchen sink at me. I can’t believe how much my life has changed for the better in just one year. I am so in love with my beautiful baby girl and I feel like you played a huge roll in making my wish come true! Hope you are doing well and are enjoying your day! Happy Valentine’s Day - 💖🥰”

I love being able to help bring health and joy into the hearts of the people I work with. I have the best job.

02/14/2026

Normalize being madly in love with your friends.

Normalize robust friendships and community that decenter the single family home as the only acceptable form of love and support.

Normalize physical affection and saying I love you to your friends.

This week my dear friend and I attended a BFF Valentine’s Collaborative Zine workshop at , hosted by the ever amazing and Samantha Serrano.

It was such a joyful exploration of the story of our (over 35 year friendship) and all the adventures and misadventures that bond us together.

It even inspired us to revisit that one time when we were teens and called the Geraldo hotline mostly as a joke and a week later they called and asked us if we could get on a plane to New York in an hour (without asking my mom)! We are thinking we’d like to examine it all as a short film. But the collaborative zine (we each cut out a shape and then made the next shape as a response to that shape to tell the story), was a good place to start.

This valentines’s day remember that putting all the pressure on one monogamous romantic partner to be your everything is NOT healthy. Ideas of only sharing parts of your life with an intimate partner were created to isolate people and keep them tethered to institutions. Building bridges and community with neighbors and those with shared interests enriches our lives and has measurable benefits for physical and mental health.

Love deeply. Love passionately. Love with consent. Love your community. Love your partner, your kids, your pets, yourself, your plants, your teachers and your friends. Romantic love is just one kind of love ❤️. We can experience love in so many kinds of ways that are all valid and important. Happy Valentine’s Day! 💌

02/10/2026

Our dearly beloved had their incredible community made ice art first forced to transform the U to a heart, and then last night a citizen thug destroyed it all.

Ten minutes later I was on my own property with food color and water paint in a spray bottle. It’s not sexy, and it’s not much, but the message is clear enough.

People are honking while driving by!

Let’s be loud. (Only if you have the privilege to do so, not everyone does! So those of us who do need to be even louder).

02/09/2026

Ok, I rarely drink anymore and I’ve had two glasses of Spanish wine, but I’m sobbing my damn eyes out.

El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido !

Look, I’m a Bills 🦬💙❤️fan, but I’m not a football fan. But I had a moral and ethical obligation to watch Green Day and Bad Bunny (and Gaga!).

Not disappointed. Holy cow.

That halftime performance was so powerful and so beautiful and so unapologetically BROWN.

America doesn’t want what’s happening. We are a continent not just a country. The world doesn’t want what’s happening. And the cracks are starting to show.

The people have the power.

So many times, I start to feel down, I start to despair…how can we fight the rich? We can and we will and we are.

The people are rising. We are resisting. Neighbor to neighbor, heart to heart, we are America.

I had to take a Lyft home from the hospital the other night because our car was damaged in the Hertel flood, and my driver was this beautiful Somali man whose mother had my name. We spoke heart to heart, not just Muslim to Jew, but human to human. We spoke love and compassion and kindness and resilience. He is just as much America as I am.

It is dark as f**k right now, but as Leonard Cohen said “ there is a crack in everything…that’s how the light gets in.” Don’t despair…we are rising. Justice will prevail.

02/08/2026

I started blacking out this morning while getting up from breakfast. Had to be on the ground awhile. Finally felt better, went up to bed, but started blacking out on the stairs. Eventually, I did make it to my bed and it hit me, there is a non-zero chance that with 2 neurological events in 2 parts of my brain, symptomatic empty silla syndrome, severe osteoporosis, chronically high d-dimer, pericardial effusion, etc, despite my best efforts…I may, at some point have an event bad enough, or enough small events, to permanently incapacitate me either physically or mentally.

As a and acupuncturist, I am keenly aware that being able bodied is temporary for most of us. I’ve had an advanced directive for many years.

But it’s good to revisit it from time to time. If I can’t communicate or move my own body: please, trim my nose hair. Nobody did it after my first big stroke and I’m not taking visitors looking like I belong in Super Mario Bros.

Please turn me a lot. I get sore and restless even after a few minutes in one position. I love natural light, as much as possible! But harsh cool white or fluorescent lights make me sad and cranky.

Please play me podcasts or YouTube videos about history, art, nature, herbalism, and weird cults. Let me listen to music I loved in the 80’s and 90’s, old sitcoms, vintage radio, and British television.

Massage me and scent the air with Peru balsam and rose geranium.

If I can see, let there be plants and living things in my line of vision.

Make sure the temperature is comfy and the fabrics are so soft. Protect me from the sounds of beeping machines!

Make sure body cream is applied on all my skin at least once a day. When my skin is dry, my sensory sensitivities get worse. Put lip balm on my lips…all day long. Play live music for me, and take me outside if you can. Touch leaves and bark to my skin. Let me feel the earth and bask in the presence of sky.

Describe to me your life. Let me live through your stories.

I am going to do my damndest to stay healthy. But none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Write your wishes now. Get them notarized. Revisit them often. It is a gift to you and the ones you ❤️.

02/07/2026

I probably had another stroke.

I know people hate long videos, but if you’re interested in the details please watch. They also found some fluid around my lungs and heart. Not a lot, thankfully.

I am going to forge on as best I can, but please let me know if I am slurring or my speech seems slow or I seem spaced out or my behavior is off, as I’m not always aware and I would need to go to the hospital.

I may need to step back from some responsibilities or lighten my load a bit. Know that that is the opposite of what I want, but I’m pretty freaked out and very scared that another event could cause more serious brain damage or affect my quality of life in a serious way and I need to minimize stress.

I will keep working as much as I can, but also do all the things available to me to help myself continue to recover and prevent further harm.

02/07/2026

I probably had another stroke.

I know people hate long videos, but if you’re interested in the details please watch. They also found some fluid around my lungs and heart. Not a lot, thankfully.

I am going to forge on as best I can, but please let me know if I am slurring or my speech seems slow or I seem spaced out or my behavior is off, as I’m not always aware and I would need to go to the hospital.

I may need to step back from some responsibilities or lighten my load a bit. Know that that is the opposite of what I want, but I’m pretty freaked out and very scared that another event could cause more serious brain damage or affect my quality of life in a serious way and I need to minimize stress.

I will keep working as much as I can, but also do all the things available to me to help myself continue to recover and prevent further harm.

02/03/2026

Last month, I shared about how the Black Panthers through Dr. Mutulu Shakur popularized acupuncture in the U.S. and created the first community style acupuncture clinics.

Today, I’m thinking about a woman who deeply inspired my own journey. Jewel Thais-Williams, was a powerhouse of legendary proportions. She created one of Los Angeles’s longest running discos, Jewel’s Catch One, a safe haven for Black le****ns and allies. Everyone in the q***r community and beyond knew that club.

After experiencing horrific treatment in the Western medical system, she went back to school and at 60 earned her Master’s of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She used her knowledge to create a sliding scale clinic, Village Health Foundation, right near her disco, often using the funds from the club to cover medical care for those in need.

I know I have a picture of us somewhere, but I couldn’t find it, so a stolen internet photo will have to do.

I met Jewel in her brightly painted clinic while I was studying acupuncture. I’ve only spent a couple days in her presence, but I believe she left a mark on my heart and my practice. Her passion and commitment to empowering marginalized communities and helping them access their own health and strength was inspiring.

What she accomplished is a blue print for intersectionality, and how to foster and connect communities.

I remember feeling my body vibrate with excitement when I observed treatments in her clinic and her incredible power to transform needs and ideas into living, breathing solutions.

That she was able to do so much with so many cultural hurdles (plus a huge fire!) is an example to every one of us. There is even a documentary about her called “Jewel’s Catch One.”

Jewel died last July and both the long standing club and clinic are now gone. But her legacy lives on through each of us that were inspired by the integrity of her vision. May she rest in power.

Acupunktrix: Acupuncture, Apothecary, Birth and Death Guide

02/21/2026

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