2 day conference
October
24-25
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 24
workshops
The Alano Club of Portland, 909 NW 24th Ave. Time: 12-5 pm
12 pm: Cafe
The Story of Yourself: a 2-Hour Generative Writing Workshop
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 new pages in your preferred genre, but with a refreshed, more intentional narrative of who you are—and who you are becoming—as a writer.
2-3 pm: Loft
Maintaining Conscious Contact: Movement, Meditation and Herbalism in Recovery
3-4 pm: Loft
Zine-Making Workshop
4-5 pm: LofT
Creative Coalition
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.
Programming
Bodecker Foundation: 2360 NW Quimby St. Time: 5-9 pm
5 pm: social hour
Try the Alano Club’s new Recovery Roast collaboration with Dear Francis
6 pm: Free Ice Water: John Freyer in Conversation with Carvell Wallace
John Freyer & Carvell Wallace - 60 Minutes - This opening event will begin with a conversation between Carvell Wallace and John Freyer about how their experiences in recovery shape and inform their current creative practice. Audience members will then have their own 20-minute one-on-one “Free Ice Water” conversations about turning points in their lives. The event will end with a brief Q&A and the completion of the audience’s Free Ice Water jars for display during the conference.
7 pm: Free Hot Supper
Dinner prepared by Ben’s Friends PDX
Free Hot Supper is a simple supper for invited guests, including individuals who participated in Recovery in Practice programming, and additional guests from the broader recovery community, including persons who belong to or provide services for communities affected by addiction. Dinner will be coordinated by the Portland members of “Ben’s Friends,” a support network for food and beverage industry professionals who struggle with substance use and addiction, to develop a simple, locally-sourced menu, served in an environment with communal seating that allows for participants to dine and engage in dialogue.
october 25
Bodecker Foundation: 2360 NW Quimby St. Time: 11am-9 pm
11 am
Panel: Recovery in the Service Industry
Panelists: Jason Alley, Gregory Gourdet, Dion Denny
Interlocutor: Hailey Hosler
12 pm
PUSH Movement All-Ages Skate
1 pm
Panel: Ghost In the Machine
Does regular exposure to recovery narratives in mutual aid recovery meetings impact writers’ ability to develop full bodied characters on the page. In this first of its kind panel, we hear from three writers with lived experience in recovery, with active personal/professional creative practice who also write/work as ghost writers.
Panelists: Anna Godbersen, Bernadette Murphy, Carvell Wallace
Interlocutor: John Freyer
2:30 pm
Panel: Visual Artists in Recovery
A panel discussion featuring artists John Freyer, Lisa Congdon, Erin Williams, and Ariel Dunitz-Johnson will focus on their experiences navigating recovery and artistic journeys. The panelists will share impactful moments, discuss their artistic processes, and explore the various ways recovery plays a significant role in their creative practice.
Panelists: Lisa Congdon, Ariel Dunitz-Johnson, Erin Williams
Interlocutor: John Freyer
4 pm
Panel: Remote Recovery: Communities of Care outside the IRL
This panel explores the online communities of care established during the 2020 pandemic that often had no geographical home & included members from all over the US. Advocacy groups like Ben’s Friends and small anonymous recovery groups built and sustained communities that are currently serving folks in recovery today. What does it mean to be in a community where you can’t share a cup of coffee or tea, or give someone a hug after a difficult share? And what does it mean for some of the panelists to meet each other for the first time this week at Recovery in Practice?
Panelists: Krissy Shields, John Freyer, Rax King
Interlocutor: Kasey Anderson
5 pm
Social Hour
Drinks provided by Ghia, snacks provided by the Alano Club of Portland
6 pm
Rax King and Chelsea Bieker in Conversation with Kasey Anderson
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Jason Alley is a person in long term recovery from substance use disorder and the restaurant industry. After 35 years in kitchens, and owning restaurants for 20, Jason has found himself in the position of “Policy Advisor for the Opioid Crisis Response” in his adopted hometown of Richmond, VA.
Jason’s wife of 27 years, Mercedes Schaum, is a theater set designer and clearly patient person. They have 4 wonderful children together and are always grateful when everyone is in the same space.
Jason is a Peer Recovery Specialist, active in the Richmond chapter of Ben’s Friends (bensfriendshope.com), and still finds time to play drums occasionally. This year, Jason has enrolled in the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School for Addiction Counseling and is working towards a Master’s in Addiction Counseling.
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Chelsea Bieker is the California Book Award winning author of three books, most recently the national bestselling novel, Madwoman, a Book of the Month club pick the New York Times calls “brilliant in its depiction of the long shadows cast by domestic violence.” Named a best book of the year by NPR, Oprah, and Elle, Madwoman was a finalist for the WILLA Literary Award and was longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize. Her first novel, Godshot, was longlisted for The Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a Barnes & Noble Pick of the Month. Her story collection, Heartbroke won the California Book Award and was a New York Times Best Book of the year. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Marie Claire UK, People, The Cut, Wall Street Journal, No Tokens, and others. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship, as well as residencies from MacDowell and Tin House.
Raised in Hawai’i and California, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children where she is the co-creator of The Fountain with the writer Kimberly King Parsons, writes about creative practice at her substack, Make Up Your Life, and is at work on a new novel.
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Lisa Congdon is an internationally-known, award winning fine artist, illustrator and writer.
Lisa is best known for her colorful, graphic style and her exploration of themes of joy, liberation and inclusion. She makes art for clients around the globe, including The Library of Congress, Target, The U.S. Postal Service, Wired Magazine, Amazon, Google, Smith Optics, Warby Parker, Method, Comme des Garcons, Peets Coffee, REI and MoMa, among many others.
Lisa exhibits internationally, including solo shows at Saint Mary's College Museum of Art (California), Chefas Projects (Oregon) and Paradigm Gallery (Philadelphia), along with group shows at Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles, Museum of Design Atlanta and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.She is the author of ten books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist and Find your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic.
Lisa is self-taught and didn’t achieve momentum in her career until she was nearly 40 years old. Despite her untraditional path, Lisa has achieved recognition, not just as an artist, but as a leader in the industry for her work in social justice, mentoring and teaching. In March of 2021, she was named “One of the 50 Most Inspiring People and Companies According to Industry Creatives” published by AdWeek.
Lisa and her team run a popular shop which you can visit here on her website or at Cargo Emporium in Portland Oregon.
When she's not making art, you can find her racing her bike around Oregon. She lives and works in Portland. Scroll down to learn more fun facts about Lisa!
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Ariel Dunitz-Johnson (they/them) is a disabled trans artist and illustrator. A Portland native, Ariel attended Parsons School of Design before living in San Francisco for two decades and returning to PDX in 2020. Renowned for realistic pen and ink portraits, Ariel’s series QUEER, chronicling influential community members, was displayed on San Francisco MUNI buses and tickets starting in 2016. Their work’s been shown in San Francisco, Los Angeles & New York, in national publications & anthologies, and their clients include: Showtime, 13EXP, Old Navy, Juanita MORE!, and the 99% Invisible Podcast. After twenty years as an artist and curator, Ariel pivoted in 2024 to found and fundraise for Ever AFter: a creative and community-creating non-alcoholic business & third space. Their vision for Ever After is shared by foodies, makers, performers, artists, and everyday people looking to reimagine social spaces that don’t center alcohol.
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Ella Floyd is the Communications Coordinator at CARITAS, a nonprofit based in Richmond, Virginia, working to create safe spaces to heal and rebuild from houselessness and substance use disorders. Originally from Southwest Virginia, Floyd brings a strong storytelling sensibility shaped by her Appalachian roots and background in the arts. She earned her BFA in Photography + Film from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts in 2024.
At CARITAS, Floyd assists in communications strategies that amplify recovery-based initiatives across the Commonwealth, including content development, brand/social media management, and multimedia storytelling. With a commitment to representing Virginia culture and substance use recovery with nuance and dignity, her work highlights the voices and lived experiences of individuals navigating housing and addiction challenges.
Her creative practice—focused on identity, regional narratives, and media representation—continues to inform her communications approach, bridging visual storytelling with advocacy. Outside of work, she finds renewal near rivers, waterfalls, and any place that offers slowness and reflection.
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John Freyer is an Associate Professor of Cross-Disciplinary Media at VCUarts. Freyer is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist & is a founding member of the Inclusive Recovery City initiative in Richmond VA. His projects include the Free Narcan Bike, All My Life for Sale, Free Ice Water, Free Hot Coffee, & Free Hot Supper. Freyer is a Fulbright Scholar, a MacDowell Fellow & an Artist in Residence at Light Work & the Fannon Center, Doha. Freyer has brought his social practice projects to the TEDx stage, Mixed Greens Gallery in New York, the Liverpool Biennial Fringe, & was a 2018 Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern. Freyer founded the traveling symposium Recovery in Practice at Columbia University in the Fall of 2023. Recovery In Practice has since been hosted at University of Derby, Teesside University in the UK in 2024 and Virginia Commonwealth University and at the Portland Alano Club in October 2025.
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Anna Godbersen is the author of the New York Times bestselling Luxe series for young adults. Her subsequent novels reflect an enduring interest in historical fiction and coming-of-age narratives. She was born in Berkeley, California and moved to New York to attend Barnard College. After graduating she worked in the literary department of Esquire magazine. She holds an MFA in fiction from New York University, where she was the Axinn Foundation Writer-in-Residence and NYU Veterans Writing Workshop Fellow. She has taught creative writing at NYU, the Bard Prison Initiative, the Hotchkiss School, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, and Catapult Classes and has written on artists, writers and creatives for Departures, Upstate Diary and Liber. She lives with her family in the northwest corner of Connecticut.
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Gregory Gourdet is a three-time James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef, best-selling author, and television personality. He is best known for his award-winning cuisine, bevy of TV appearances, and trendsetting role in the culinary boom of Portland, Oregon.
A native of Queens, NY, Gregory attended the Culinary Institute of America, becoming the school’s first student to land an internship with celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. For nearly seven years, Gregory honed his culinary skills at three of Jean-Georges’ trailblazing restaurants, climbing the kitchen ranks to become one of his chef de cuisines. Gregory ran the kitchen at Portland’s Departure Restaurant + Lounge for 10 years, leaving in 2019 to focus on opening Kann.
An avid traveler and lifelong student of food and culture, Gregory has made a name for himself by infusing methods and ingredients from all over the world, balanced together with his Haitian heritage, and creating signature flavors adored for their seasonality, boldness, complexity, and spice.
He was named “Chef of the Year” by both Eater Portland and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and is a two-time Bravo Top Chef finalist.
In 2021, Gregory released his first cookbook, Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health, the ultimate guide to cooking globally-inspired dishes free of gluten, dairy, soy, legumes, and grains. The book is a national bestseller and a 2022 James Beard Award winner for Best General Cookbook.
August 2022 brought about the opening of Kann, a live-fire dinner house that showcases traditional Haitian flavors alongside dishes inspired by the cuisines of the African and Caribbean diaspora. Kann was quickly recognized by Eater, The New York Times, and Robb Report as a “Best New Restaurant”; Esquire named Kann the #1 “Best New Restaurant in America.” Portland Monthly and The Oregonian also named it restaurant of the year. Kann was named the James Beard Foundation Awards 2023 “Best New Restaurant.”
In September of 2022, Gregory opened Sousòl, Kann’s subterranean sibling cocktail bar. Sousòl draws inspiration from the greater Pan-Caribbean for its food and drink menu. It also features a full zero-proof menu for an inclusive experience for drinkers and non-drinkers alike. In 2023, Sousòl was named one of Esquire’s “Best Bars in America.”
In 2024, Gregory’s culinary career was recognized by the James Beard Foundation Awards, which named him “Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific.” The same year, Kann was featured on the inaugural “25 Best Restaurants in Portland, OR Right Now” list by The New York Times and was featured on La Liste’s 2025 list of the world’s best restaurants.
In his role as Culinary Director of Printemps New York, opening March 2025, Gourdet will oversee five concepts, ranging from fine dining to a casual cafe—each a celebration of artistry, unparalleled quality, innovation, culture, and creativity.
Gregory sees food as nourishment and is committed to moving the restaurant industry forward sustainably and equitably. He is a member of the US State Department’s American Culinary Corp. He is also an ambassador for the Marine Stewardship Council.
He spends his spare time trail-running in the woods for hours.
Gregory is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and openly gay. He is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and Ben’s Friends, a national recovery group for the restaurant industry.
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Hailey Hosler is a Portland, OR based member of many recovery communities including national non-profit, Ben’s Friends, where she serve as an executive board member and co-chair of meetings. She is currently the Director of Sales - West for a national non-alcoholic beverage company.
She has a deep passion for supporting folks in the hospitality/ F&B industry with mental health, resource advocation and substance use disorder awareness.
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Rax King is a James Beard award-nominated bitch. She is the author of Tacky (Vintage 2021) and co-host of Low Culture Boil. She lives in Brooklyn with her toothless pekingese. She isn’t sure how to make this photo of herself less embarrassingly huge without jacking up the page formatting, but she wants you to know she knows it’s too big. Her second essay collection Sloppy was published by Vintage July 29, 2025.
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Bernadette Murphy is an author and NYT-bestselling collaborative writer who lives in Park City, Utah. She has published four book in her own name (the fifth to be released in 2026), and has helped celebrities and other persons of note pen their books, including a CNN anchor, an Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy award winner, a fan-favorite TV star, and a former WWE wrestler. She served as a weekly book critic for the Los Angeles Times for six years, as a professor of creative writing at the Antioch Los Angeles MFA program for fifteen years, and currently is a core faculty member of the Newport MFA at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island.
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Krissy Shields is a wellness expert, activist and the founder of The Lotus (formerly Maha Mama). For over 20 years, she has empowered women and families through accessible movement practices, spiritual herbalism, and mindfulness. Weaving together her passion for social justice and maternal health, Krissy has led yoga teacher trainings across the U.S. and taught in diverse settings—from homeless shelters and prisons to public schools and ICYPAA NYC in 2010. Her work centers on fostering well-being through embodied movement and collective care. Krissy lives with her family between Hell’s Kitchen and the Catskills, where she practices deep reciprocity with the land.
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Carvell Wallace is a writer and podcaster who has contributed to The New Yorker, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Pitchfork, MTV News, and Al Jazeera. His debut memoir, Another Word For Love (MCD, 2024), explores his life, identity, and love through stories of family, friendship, and culture and is a Kirkus Finalist in Nonfiction and a winner of the PEN Oakland prize. He was a 2019 Peabody Award nominee, a 2022 National Magazine Award Finalist, a 2023 winner of the Mosaic Prize in Journalism, and a 2025 UCross Fellow. He lives in Oakland.
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Erin Williams is the author and illustrator of ten books, including What's Wrong? Personal Histories of Chronic Pain and Bad Medicine, Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame, How to Take Care and the Big Activity Book series (250k+ in print). Her writing and art have also been featured in publications including MoMA Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Believer. She has over a decade of experience in healthcare, specifically data analysis and scientific research. She teaches illustration at Parsons School of Design and creative writing at Hunter College in New York City.