Poet, playwright and actress Teresa Walsh, in her powerful one-woman show,
Body Revolution: From Harlem to Havana, tells the story of her ascent into a new life. Literally. After she falls from her third story Harlem apartment window and is paralyzed, Walsh - and her audience - embark on a powerful, poignant and sometimes humorous journey from New York to Havana, Cuba.
The play speaks of gender, race and class, of medical care, and U.S. - Cuba relations. But most of all, it shows how one woman comes to terms with her permanent disability, and the role of human solidarity in this "body revolution."
Walsh worked with playwrights Ann Galjour and Canyon Sam during the development of
Body Revolution. It has also captured accolades from others in the arts community - author Meredith Maran calls it "equal parts passion, politics, and poetry." Writer Opal Palmer Adisa says it's "brave beyond words!" Cultural critic and filmmaker Elena Featherston praises the play for showing "what adversity can do for the human spirit."
Walsh received a BA in History (with a Latin America emphasis) from the University of San Francisco (USF) in 1996 and an MFA in Writing from the California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2002.
Walsh has a long history of social change activism concerning community and youth issues and with Latin American particularly Cuba. She first visited Cuba in 1976 and worked, for twelve years, with the Venceremos Brigade, an educational project aimed at building ties between the people of Cuba and the United States.
After her disabling accident in 1988, Walsh was a medical patient in Cuba for three years in-hospital and at
El Hotelito, a residential hotel for Latin Americans receiving medical treatment in Cuba. Since returning to the United States, she has worked with Global Exchange (GX) on four Cuba-related campaigns and leads GX seminars to Cuba on a regular basis.
Walsh works as the Program Manager at the MFA in Writing program at California College of the Arts. She is an editor: her most recent project was
Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar, Inc. by Gary Erickson & Lois Lorentzen.
Walsh writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction. She began
Body Revolution while a student at CCA; it is her first play.
