Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere

Directed by John Malpede and Henriëtte Brouwers

Performances:
May 3, 4, 5, 2013 @ Inner City Arts, Skid Row, LA.
June 15, 2013 @ MicroFest, Honolulu, Hawaii.

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‘Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere’ at Inner City Arts, 2013

Performance project

flier festival2xBiggest Recovery Community Anywhere, documents the development of Skid Row as a site of recovery and transformation. It highlights not only the considerable concentration of professional resources and programs in the neighborhood, but also the 80+ weekly meetings organized by community residents. Getting clean and sober happens in funded programs, but recovery happens in the community. Because so many people living and working in the neighborhood are following the spiritual path of recovery, the neighborhood is suffused with a sophisticated recovery consciousness. People still in addiction are confronted with people in recovery everyday, concrete evidence that they too can change. Created and performed by people who live and work on Skid Row.
Open the Sites of Recovery map here – it shows all the recovery meetings that are happening in Skid Row on a weekly basis.

REEL Recovery Film Festival

booklet-5.5inx8.5in-h-frontLos Angeles Poverty Department partnered with the REEL Recovery Film Festival to present 3 days of recovery themed performance, film, discussion and fellowship, with 3 films at 1:00, 3:00, 5:00pm and LAPD’s performance at 7:00pm each day. The REEL Recovery Film Festival is a project of Writers In Treatment. Writers in Treatment has produced previous editions of the film festival in New York, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Vancouver. This festival THE REEL RECOVERY Film Festival – the Skid Row Edition was a first in several ways: first time on Skid Row and first time integrating theater and film.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Building the Project

Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere was yearlong project that focused on Skid Row as “The Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere”. Los Angeles Poverty Department teamed up with Otis College of Art & Design’s Public Practice Graduate Students and downtown residents to organize events, film screenings and discussions at different locations and organizations on Skid Row and we curated a bookshelf about recovery and Skid Row at the Last Bookstore.

Free Community Events

  • Open rehearsals every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7 till 9 pm and Saturday 2 till 5pm at UCEPP, at the corner of 6th and Stanford street.
  • Oct. 3, 7pm @ UCEPP: film screening “My name is Bill W.”
  • Oct. 17, 6:30pm @ Weingart garden: film screening “Finding Normal”
  • Oct.13, 5pm @ Movies on the Nickel, James Wood Community Center, film screening “Gridlock’d”
  • Nov. 3, 3-5pm @ The Last Bookstore: Launch of the Indie Shelves initiative, a project that seeks to draw attention to the high-caliber work produced by LA writers and publishers by devoting shelf space to independent books. LAPD curated a bookshelf with Skid Row based writers about recovery. It includes a video and 6 books: Alcoholics Anonymous – the Big Book and books by Robert Sundance, Michael Dolphin, Flo Hawkins and Los Angeles Poverty Department.
  • Nov. 11, 3-5pm @ The Last Bookstore: Conversation with Mike Dolphin, who reads from his book Bridge to Shore, a workbook based upon the practical application of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
  • Nov. 14, 6-8pm @ AMITY: film screening “Bill W.” documentary.
  • Jan. 26, noon @ corner 6th and Main street: Happy Birthday Recovery. LAPD and OTIS students celebrate the first AA meeting, which happened at the Cecil Hotel in 1940.
  • Feb. 6, 6-8pm @ AMITY: film screening ‘The Death Of An Addict’ and discussion.
  • March 21, 1-3pm: James Wood Center: film screening ‘Unguarded’ and discussion.
  • April 4, 2-4pm: Lamp Community Space, film screening ‘No Kidding, me 2!!’ and discussion.
  • April 20, 8:30-10pm: the Drifters in Gladys Park: film screening ‘A Program of Shorts, Songs and Comedy’ and discussion.

Artists Celebrate Downtown as the Birthplace of Recovery in LA

BRCA_IMG_2242CUriarteWhat: A surprise birthday party celebrating the birth of the recovery movement in Los Angeles.
When: Saturday, January 26, 2013, 12pm-1pm.
Where: Meet on the corner of Main & 6th downtown.
Why: Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) & Otis College of Art & Design’s Public Practice Graduate Students and downtown residents are teaming up to throw a surprise birthday party for Los Angeles and it’s long-term commitment to recovery.

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BRCA_events2THE LAST BOOKSTORE LAUNCHES ITS INDIE SHELVES INITIATIVE  WITH READINGS BY JIM RULAND, CHUCK ROSENTHAL, SESSHU FOSTER, AND BRUCE BOSTON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Los Angeles (October 31, 2012)—The Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles is proud to present The Indie Shelves Initiative, a project that seeks to draw attention to the high-caliber work being produced by Los Angeles’ publishers and writers by devoting considerable shelf space solely to independent books.  Selections are chosen either from the catalogs of the participating independent publishers or by individuals in the city’s literary community who have been selected as curators in recognition of their work to promote a culture of literature.

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The Cast

BRCA_2013_byHelkiFrantzen9aAustin Hines, Ronnie Walker, Celestine Williams, Adrian Excel, John Malpede, KevinMichael Key, Jennifer Campbell, Linda Harris, Henriëtte Brouwers, Silvia Hernandez, Antony Taylor, Chas Jackson, Walter Fears, Sean Gregory, Chella Coleman.

Project Funders

This project is funded in part by the MAP Fund, LIA Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts-Theater, The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Los Angeles City Department of Cultural Affairs, DLANC and Inner City Arts.