The Free Book Exchange is a mobile library of hope, gratitude and change. The public is invited to donate/exchange a book of significance that inspired a change in them, offered them hope or started them on a different path. The initial catalog was curated by John D. Freyer and features the creative output of artists and writers participating in the Recovery in Practice Conference at The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. The Free Book Exchange is community building conversation on wheels about creative practice, human connection and the perseverance of persons in recovery.

Fifty/Fifty is an ongoing project founded by artist John D Freyer in partnership with VCU’s Collegiate Recovery Program Rams In Recovery and the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Fifty/Fifty programming includes a network of Free Hot Coffee Bikes, the Free Narcan Bike, the Recovery Ally Choir and a series of innovative social practice artworks including Free Ice Water, Free Hot Supper and a photographic portrait project “We Want Our Pictures Back.”

Fifty/Fifty

Fifty/Fifty hosts and supports a traveling series of interdisciplinary, social practice art projects fostering dialogue on addiction and recovery. Fifty/Fifty programs include: Free Ice Water, 11 editions of Recovery Roast coffee used on our Free Hot Coffee bike initiative, the Free Narcan Bike, Free Hot Supper and the Recovery Ally Choir, each respectively creating space for solitude and self reflection, outreach and conversation, and a larger dialogue with diverse and often unexpected audiences. Fifty/Fifty programming to date, has engaged multiple local, regional and international audiences including programs at Tate Modern in London, the Liverpool Biennial Fringe, UK, the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU and events in New York City, Doha, Qatar, Baltimore MD, Athens, GA and we will craft a new edition of Recovery Roast in Portland OR for Recovery Month 2022, with Marigold Coffee.

Why Social Practice Art Works?

Despite the widespread prevalence and costly nature of substance use problems, few affected individuals seek treatment. Findings from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) indicate that less than 20% of individuals with AUD ever receive treatment (Hasin & Grant, 2015). Substance use disorders remain a highly stigmatized health condition (Livingston, et al., 2012), with affected individuals marginalized by society and experiencing discrimination (Room, 2005). It is believed that a large reason for non-treatment seeking surrounds the stigma associated with substance use disorders. Further, the internalization of stigmatizing projections is believed to be one of the barriers in the recovery process (Buchanan, 2000; Roy, 2012a and b – refs found in chapter). Socially engaged art has been proposed as one way to change perceptions about addiction (Roy & Prest, 2014). Many disenfranchised groups (LGBTQ, women, disabled individuals) have used art as a means to take control over their representation and humanize their experience. This has the potential effect of evoking change in attitudes toward these marginalized groups, as well as creating a sense of power and control among the marginalized individuals who are taking ownership of their lived experience and making it transparent and visible through their own perspectives. By extending this to the recovery community, Fifty/Fifty programing allows affected individuals to have their experience with addiction more visible and better understood. The theory behind why this may evoke change in attitudes dates back to psychoanalytic theory, when Winnicott (1972) posited that “creative illusion” is a first step toward change. In other words, the ability to imagine things differently allows for the possibility of new ideas and viewpoints. In this sense, art can be a vehicle to personal and societal change in attitudes. The long-term objective of Fifty/Fifty is to develop a pipeline of projects exploring the role of the arts in changing attitudes surrounding addiction. Fifty/Fifty programming connects individuals affected with substance use disorders with the broader community and can be an effective means for changing attitudes toward addiction.

Impact/Goals

Fifty/Fifty programming creates space for individuals, groups, and communities to have meaningful conversations about addiction and recovery. Successful outcomes include active engagement with populations affected by addiction, including those in long term recovery, artists and non-artists alike, and connections between local arts and recovery communities. The project rationale is driven by John D. Freyer’s long-standing commitment to an artistic practice that transforms individual and community engagement with self and others via the viewing of everyday activities (drinking water and coffee, for example) through a new lens. The expected benefits for artists, individuals in recovery and those who counsel them professionally, and the general public is a deeper understanding of the potential for creative expression and engagement to assist the recovery process. Artists, art educators, but most importantly those struggling with addiction and leaders of other Recovery Community Organizations will be able to use this project as a resource and model for how recovery and artistic expression can intersect.

Fifty/Fifty Programs:

The Free Naloxone Bike is used in coordination with Rams in Recovery to train and distribute the life saving opioid reversal drug Naloxone. In 2022 the Free Naloxone Bike was officially approved by the Virginia Department of Health to distribute naloxone as part of their Harm Reduction Partner Program. The Free Naloxone Bike serves as an icon of Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU School of the Arts’ active response to the Opioid Crisis and plays a small but important role in efforts to combat the Opioid Emergency in the Commonwealth.

Free Hot Coffee welcomes individuals in long-term recovery and their allies to a tasting event hosted by a regionally specific coffee roaster, where we create a custom roast profile for a localized edition of “Recovery Roast” coffee. Then, this communally created roast is distributed to a general public through a mobile coffee bike, run by Fifty/Fifty volunteers, that travels to various locations across Richmond (and partner communities). Anyone is welcome to a free, freshly brewed cup of pour-over coffee in exchange for conversation, fostering social connection, education and public awareness about issues affecting individuals recovering from addiction.

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Free Ice Water is a local public performance event in which interested visitors and passersby are invited to participate in conversations with strangers. Each person is paired with another, where they take turns responding to the question: “What has been a major turning point in your life?” At the end of the conversation, participants share a jar of ice water, add a token of the conversation to the jar, and sign and seal the lid. At the heart of Free Ice Water is the humble American mason jar, which is transformed by social engagement into a vessel for conversation that is fragile yet lasting. The signed and sealed jars are put on display in the host venue and photographed for inclusion in the Fifty/Fifty program documentation.

Free Hot Supper is a simple supper for invited guests, including individuals who participated in Fifty/Fifty programming, and additional guests from the broader recovery community, including persons’ who belong to, or provide services for communities affected by addiction. Fifty/Fifty partners with local chapters of “Ben’s Friends” a support network for food and beverage industry professionals who struggle with substance abuse 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. Fifty/Fifty programs engender a variety of new relationships between strangers, between artists and recovery organizations, and between arts presenters and recovery resources.

Recovery Ally Choir provides a safe, joyful, and encouraging environment for members to celebrate recovery through music, singing and community. While our membership is primarily composed of persons in long term recovery, many of whom are affiliated with twelve step mutual aid groups, we are open to multiple pathways to recovery and welcome recovery allies, friends and family to sing with us. The Recovery Ally Choir seeks to help build a recovery-ready community in Richmond and beyond.

“We Want our Pictures Back” is a pop up portrait studio program that enables persons in recovery and their allies to have professional portraits and headshots made to celebrate their recovery journeys. Participants are NEVER asked if they are in recovery or participating as a recovery ally, so these images are images of people who care about all things recovery and there is no way to sort them out. The photographic history of persons in recovery often include images of them in active use. These new professional portraits serve as a record of the new path that we are on. These images are from the first edition of “We Want our Pictures Back” that was hosted by the South East Chapter Conference in 2019 and then presented at the 2020 National Conference of the Society for Photographic Education .

Project Partners:

Fifty/Fifty: Fifty/Fifty was founded by a person in recovery, host’s recovery related outreach programing and is a programing partner with the largest Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP) in the State of Virginia, Rams in Recovery at Virginia Commonwealth University. Fifty/Fifty programs are directly supported by Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, the JHW Foundation and Chip and Lori Conk.

John D. Freyer: Freyer’s work offers a unique opportunity to engage people in recovery with broader publics, emphasizing creative expression as means of assisting in the recovery process and reducing the social stigma and isolation associated with individuals struggling with addiction. It also revives the simple yet meaningful practice of face-to-face dialogue ‒ a growing rarity in an increasingly technologically mediated world. Freyer’s consideration of these elements of health and wellness speaks to the interdisciplinary and socially-engaged nature of his work, a mode of thinking and doing in short supply in our current social media landscape.

Rams in Recovery is the largest Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP) in the State of Virginia, with the mission of supporting students in recovery from alcohol and other drug disorders. CRPs are cited as a promising practice in the 2016 Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol Drugs and Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS]). Rams in Recovery supports more than 100 students each semester through 15 mutual aid meetings per week on campus, recovery coaching, a recovery clubhouse, recovery housing, the Recovery Scholars Seminar Program and community volunteering opportunities including the outreach with Free Hot Coffee and Free Naloxone Bikes.

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (VCUarts) is the top-ranked public art school in the U.S. With nearly 3,000 students and more than 200 faculty, VCUarts offers degree programs across the visual and performing arts and design. VCUarts is housed within a major urban research university that has been recognized for its community-engaged research. Encouraging intellectual inquiry in and through the creative fields, VCUarts fosters rich, interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, designers, health practitioners, Richmonders, and more. For instance, our individual faculty explore how theater and visual arts interventions can improve physician and nurse training; how graphic design helps public health practitioners communicate health data more effectively to policymakers, the media, and the public; how new avatar technologies engage older adults in reminiscence therapy; and how music interventions might improve women’s prenatal health.

Free Hot Coffee in the News:

Fifty/Fifty Conversations From the Other Side | Tate

VCU Rams in Recovery
1st Free Hot Coffee Bike

Road to RecoveryA Virginia Commonwealth University associate professor takes his Coffee Bike recovery program across the pond.

Georgia Tech Recovery Community
2nd Free Hot Coffee Bike

Recovery Connections on Campus
3rd Free Hot Coffee Bike

Virginia Tech Recovery Community
4th Free Hot Coffee Bike

Pour-over coffee on wheels has unique messageStarting this fall, bicycling baristas will ride an e-trike around campus and to events, hand grind coffee beans provided by Red Rooster Coffee in Floyd, serve pour-over coffee, and talk about substance use and recovery.

Support the Free Hot Coffee and Free Naloxone Bikes

If you would like to support the work of the Free Hot Coffee and Free Naloxone Bikes or our other Recovery related initiatives you can make direct contributions to the Fifty/Fifty Project Fund at Virginia Commonwealth University - Simply follow this link. They make it easy to make single, reoccurring and even payroll deduction gifts. Your company might have a matching gift program. Help support these important harm reduction, stigma fighting, and life saving projects. If you have questions about the project please reach out to John Freyer, Associate Professor of Cross Disciplinary Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Special Thanks To:

Chip and Lori Conk

The JHW Foundation

Rams in Recovery at VCU

Richmond City Medical Reserve Corps

Journeyman's Adventure Company

Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Big Secret

Xtracycle

The 3rd - Free Hot Coffee Bike - Launched June, 2018 - Tate Modern

Afterglow Coffee Cooperative 2022

PROJECT PARTNER: ICICLE TRICYCLES

In 2021 we partnered with our friends at Icicle Tricycles. They hand-built us five Free Hot Coffee bikes for Collegiate Recovery Communities in Virginia including a replacement for the original Rams in Recovery FHC bike. They have a custom template for building Free Hot Coffee bikes for any CRP that wants to add one to their programing.