Bücher der Reihe POPS the Club Anthologies

POPS stands for Pain of the Prison System, and POPS the Club stands for transforming that pain into dignity, belonging, and freedom. POPS the Club creates and sustains a welcoming and loving community in high schools that foster and support teenagers with loved ones in prison. Their stories, poetry and artwork are achingly honest expressions of their experiences: What it is like to live in dangerous and desirous neighborhoods, to love people in prison and those who have been deported or have died, to feel invisible, unseen and unheard and impotent. It is through these stories that club members enhance their transformation, from impotent to important, from invisible to seen, from silent to strong and understood. In the Key of Love is POPS the Clubs fifth release (following Runaway Thoughts (2014); Ghetto By the Sea (2015); Before There Were Bars (2016) and Cracked Masks (2017)). These are stories from across the country, from Los Angeles, Belmont, Culver City, El Camino Real Charter, James Monroe, LA High School of the Arts, Lawndale, Santa Monica and Venice High Schools; from Baltimores Renaissance Academy; and from Harrisburgs Sci Tech and Steelton Highspire High Schools.

The third anthology by the students of POPStheclub.com, Inc, a California-based nonprofit. POPStheclub.com, Inc. creates and supports clubs for high school students in California and beyond who have endured the pain of the prison system. For the most part these are the children, siblings and other loved ones of those who are or have been incarcerated. Too often any association with the criminal justice system leads people to silence. In POPS the Club, students find not only community, understanding and wisdom, but they discover that In telling their stories, they are able to untangle the web composed of stigma, sorrow and shame associated with incarceration, and they also inspire others to understand experiences and worlds too often hidden from our view. Their stories and artwork speaks to anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, to all those who wonder what it would be like not to hide. Their honesty, clarity of vision, resilience and courage will inspire.