Staying Alive in Little Five

Staying Alive in Little Five is a graphic novel developed with community input from Service Industry Workers in Little Five Points Atlanta, GA, who encountered and responded to an overdose in their place of work. This work was informed by participant observation, individual interviews, and historical research that uncovered decades of stigma in the representation of people who use drugs, even in the most liberal outlets such as The Great Speckled Bird, a counterculture underground newspaper that reported on drug use (among other things) from 1968-1976 and 1988-1990. The historical representation of people who use drugs as less than humans, zombies, and animals informed the project’s art direction to avoid contributing to drug use stigma. This venture in communication science continues to inspire Dr. Febres-Cordero to disseminate science to the individuals and communities that need it most.