Private Story
A Field Guide to a Crisis
Who do we normally turn to in a crisis? Bona fide experts accredited by institutions and social hierarchies. What about experts of experience? A Field Guide to a Crisis (FG) challenges us to re-think the voices we elevate in times of crisis.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the privileged many are confronted by an existential threat. For those navigating the transition from substance use to sobriety, this is a familiar line of questioning. FG is an ongoing social practice project designed for people in recovery from substance abuse living in Eureka, CA, to help prepare them to be teachers in resiliency using the skills they learned in their own recovery.
Each participant is given opportunities throughout the training to present their skills within their community and later in public settings, through lesson plans, instructional videos and public presentations. We rarely turn to those dealing with substance abuse disorders for guidance. We turn away from them out of projected shame and stigma. FG activates the skills individuals developed in their recovery at a critical time when we collectively are looking for answers.
FG proposes new methods of collaboration that examine the interconnectedness of shame, stigma, substance use, and now, with the added dimension of what it means to navigate sobriety in conjunction with the Covid-19 crisis.
*Funded by the National Geographic Society, Center for Photographic Arts, the California Arts Council, and the Humboldt Area Foundation.
*FGTAC is part of a long-term project, conceptualized with artist, Marina Lopez, that seeks to challenge the status quo of expert voice in the American context.
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