Recoverist Month is the UK’s only arts-based awareness event that places people and communities in recovery from substance use centre stage, by increasing visibility and directly supporting the voice of lived experience.
This September, Recoverist Month will see a series of events at venues around the region, including HOME Mcr, The Turnpike Gallery in Wigan, Oldham Library, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and the Whitworth.
Artists and organisations taking part include Harold Offeh, Fallen Angels Dance Theatre and Venture Arts, an award-winning visual arts organisation which works with learning-disabled and neurodivergent artists.
‘Recoverist’ is a portmanteau word blending recovery and activism and it includes those in recovery, their family, friends, and significant others.
An annual feature for the region’s cultural calendar now in its second year, Recoverist Month is the brainchild of Manchester visual arts organisation Portraits of Recovery (PORe).
Recoverist Month aims to establish itself as a nationally significant, yearly flagship arts & cultural event for recovery communities, paralleling Black History Month and Pride.
All events will be free or pay what you can.
PROGRAMME
Recoverist Month welcomes back artist Harold Offeh, for the second phase of his project called Let’s Talk About Chemsex. An EP featuring audio recordings of shared experiences of chemsex, sound works and music will launch at a ‘listening party’ during Manchester Pride (Wednesday 25 August 2024, 1 – 3 pm, FREE). A gallery takeover of invited queer artists will follow on Sunday 29 September.
Beyond the Surface is an exhibition that profiles 10 years of Fallen Angels Dance Theatre’s work in the borough of Wigan. Its focal point is the newly commissioned work Samadhi, an immersive digital dance, light and sound installation. Playing over multiple screens in a discreet gallery space, the piece aims to bring audiences to the heart of healing journeys experienced by people in recovery.
Transfiguration is a trio of short dance films called I Fall, I Need and We Rise. The trilogy focuses on a series of defining moments in the journey from addiction to recovery.
Portraits of Recovery + Venture Arts in Dialogue: Spaces Between: Will Belshah is a neurodivergent queer artist, working predominantly with paint. During a speaker-informed discussion about the intersectionality between neurodiversity, substance use and artistic practice, the audience will be invited to take part in a shared creative response.
Sober Curiosity is a series of newly commissioned video monologues by Scott James AKA certigrammer. Taking to the streets of Greater Manchester, the roving filmmaker will stop people for impromptu conversations around sober curiosity as a lifestyle choice.
IZZAT: South Asian Women & Substance Use is an invited speaker presentation and discussion exploring the unique barriers South Asian women face in accessing support for substance use.
Led by Dr Njabulo Chipangura, curator of living cultures at Manchester Museum, African Objects: Psychoactives and Spirituality offers a rare chance to handle cultural heritage objects that are used for spiritual purposes. Ordinarily confined to the museum basement, the historical items will be explored through the lens of addiction recovery.
The Recoverist Curators: Cabinet of Curiosities presents a back catalogue of work by Portraits of Recovery since 2011, including ephemera, poetry and the Recoverist Manifesto.
The Political History of Smack and Crack (reading) chronicles the heroin epidemic of the Thatcher era through the lens of two Manchester users, who are also lovers. Inspired by playwright Ed Edwards’ own experiences in jail and rehab, the story follows the lives of Mandy and Neil, from the Moss Side riots of 1981 to the present day.
Mark Prest, director, PORe, said: “PORe’s work is about increasing access and opportunity to the transformational power of the arts and culture. Last year’s inaugural Recoverist Month engaged with in-person audiences of 4,175 and online audiences of 87,779. This demonstrates a very real appetite for the work that we aim to build on this year.