
About this Event
Join The Alano Club of Portland, The Bodecker Foundation, and VCUarts for Recovery in Practice - Portland at the Alano Club of Portland and The Bodecker Foundation from October 24th-25th, 2025!
Recovery in Practice—a free two-day conference—will take place October 24-25, 2025, in NW Portland, uniting artists, authors, activists and researchers for workshops, panel discussions, and community events that celebrate the broad and diverse national recovery community. This annual event was previously hosted in NYC (2023), the United Kingdom (2024), and at Virginia Commonwealth University early this year.
October 24th
🕑: 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
The Story of Yourself - Afternoon Workshop Series
Host: Chelsea Bieker
Info: Every writer carries an inner narrative—not just the stories we put on the page, but the story we tell ourselves about who we are as writers. These self-stories shape our confidence, our creative process, and our capacity to grow. Some of them lift us up, while others quietly hold us back.
In this two-hour generative workshop, we will investigate the story of you as a writer. Through guided writing exercises, discussion, and reflection, you’ll illuminate the emotional identities you’ve internalized around your creative life and uncover the self-limiting beliefs that may be shaping and prohibiting your work. Together, we will clarify which stories no longer serve you and begin to write new, empowering ones that align with your vision and creative integrity, and define the stories you actually want to be writing.
This workshop is designed for writers of all levels who want to deepen their self-understanding and connect with their creative energy. By the end, you’ll leave not only with
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Maintaining Conscious Contact - Afternoon Workshop Series
Host: Krissy Shields
🕑: 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Zine-Making Workshop - Afternoon Workshop Series
Host: Erin Williams
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Creative Coalition - Afternoon Workshop Series
Host: Ella Floyd
Info: The Creative Coalition, a mutual-aid support group hosted by Ella Floyd, offers a platform for creative expression as a means of connection, healing, and empowerment, inviting community members to collaborate on a long-term project of creating a recovery banner. By showcasing your talents and strengths through creative practice, this group aims to act as a tool for growth and self-discovery, allowing us to break down social stigmas and develop a greater understanding of ourselves and the support we may need. Participants of this workshop will be asked to explore how they can tell their stories through various images, colors, senses, feelings, and shapes, rather than intellect alone, and the opportunity to create a small fabric square that will be sewn into the next recovery banner.
🕑: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Social Hour/Coffee
🕑: 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Free Ice Water - Keynote Event
Host: John Freyer
🕑: 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Free Hot Supper
October 25th
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Recovery in the Service Industry
Host: Hailey Hosler
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
PUSH Movement Skate / Coffee Services
Host: Dear Francis Coffee
🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM
Ghost in the Machine
Host: John Freyer
🕑: 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Visual Artists in Recovery
Host: John Freyer
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Remote Recovery: Communities of Care Outside the IRL
🕑: 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Social Hour
🕑: 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Rax King and Chelsea Bieker: Reading and Conversation with Kasey Anderson
Host: Rax King
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Alano Club of Portland, 909 Northwest 24th Avenue, Portland, United States
