About Sifu Walter Bosque

Community Tai Chi classes and conversation with The W.O.W. Project in Chinatown, NYC.

Photos by Cal Hsiao

Walter Bosque was a member of the acupuncture collective at the Lincoln Hospital Detox Program, where the now widely practiced National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) protocol was developed. This important community work was prominently featured in the 2018 film People’s Detox and the 2020 documentary Dope Is Death.

He was among the first American students to graduate from the Quebec Institute of Acupuncture in 1977 and in 1979 became the first Puerto Rican licensed to practice acupuncture in the state of California. This year marks 45 years of Walter bringing acupuncture and Tai Chi Chuan to underserved populations in New York City.

Now retired, he continues to volunteer in free community clinics and programs throughout Puerto Rico and New York City. He works with organizations including Salud y Acupuntura Para el Pueblo (SAPP), New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), Friends of Brook Park, and Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB).

In 2021, he became Treasurer of the reinvigorated Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA), an organization originally founded in 1979 to continue the revolutionary work begun at Lincoln Detox after its radical origins were suppressed.