POPS the Club is a California-based nonprofit creating and supporting high school clubs for those young people whose lives have been touched by the Pain of the Prison System. In weekly club meetings, guided by teachers, writers, artists, activists, performers, and nonprofit leaders, club members tell their stories, write their stories, draw, paint and otherwise share their lives with each other, and with the larger community. The students publish their work on our website and in partner publications, and each year POPS the Club publishes an anthology of work generated by these powerful, wise  young people who are telling us stories we all need to hear. 

Cracked Masks: With You and Without You is the fourth release by POPS the Club, another powerful compilation of work by students from schools across Los Angeles and as far away as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We also welcome the work by Friends of POPS, those who have visited our clubs as speakers, teachers, volunteers guides and observers, those who have stories to tell about the impact of incarceration on their lives, most ofen as the loved ones of the incarcerated.

These are stories from the children, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, boyfriends and girlfriends of the incarcerated. These are stories readers seldom hear. These are stories vital to our understanding of our country, of who and what we are and how we live. 

Teachers who use these anthologies in their classrooms tell us their reluctant readers cannot stop reading, that often the POPS Anthologies are the books that introduce their students to the pleasures of reading.

Introduction 

Flashback 13     Katherine Secaida 

I Watch          Milena Mousli 

Where I’m From Vincent Gutierrez

Happy Mask Leslie Aquino 

Letters from the Moon  Amani Scoggins 

Chasing Pavements  Jiselle Torres 

Kicking It with My Homies Joslyn Stevenson 

Where I’m From Jasmin Moreno 

Walter Mosley and Me  Glorious Owens 

Everything for a Reason

 Zamillah Phillips 

Cookies Crumble  Joslyn Stevenson

I Come From Rap Stars and Crenshaw  Mereya Sanchez

How Can I Love?  Alfonso Manzo Casteneda

Love Is Everywhere  Linda Duran 

Coathanger  Zoë Carpenter 

The Love for Poison Nina Estevan 

I Feel Loved  Melissa Rodriguez 

Eighteen Years Through My Eyes  Darlene Silva 

The Endless Ride  Andrew Hernandez 

My Uncle and I  Justin Munoz 

Another Rich Crack Baby  Alfonso Manzo Casteneda

Kept My Head on Straight Demetrius Davis 

Who I Am Katherine Secaida 

Growing Up All Alone Kimberly Alejandri 

10 Minutes to Say Good-bye  Jose Santiago 

Missed a Visit  Jennifer Birstein

Mother  Bianca Monroy

A Mother of Four  Bianca Lopez

My Short-term Mother-in-Law  Angela De La Cruz

Fear of Losing Her Anonymous

Amazing Amy  Jessica De La Mora

His Life His Life His Life  Andrew Hernandez

I Have a Disability But Still Have the Capability  Leslie Mateos

Trouble by Jessica De La Mora

The Top Six by Colbie Witherspoon

La Vida de los Buses Tyanni Gomez

Nothing to Something  Alfonso Manzo Casteneda

Mi Chicano by Angela De La Cruz

The Ugly Truth, Parts 1& 2  Angela Hernandez

Two Together  Tony Lopez Figueroa

When I Fly  Angela De La Cruz

It Wasn't My Plan  Frances Flores

Fatherless Girl, Parts 1& 2  Kimberly Alejandri

I Never Wanted to Be  Angel Harrison

Behind the Glass Wall  Maynor Galletan

You Weren't There  Crystal Gutierrez

My Best Friend  Tania Paz Morales

An Ounce of Love  Alicia Valenciana

Mask  Jasmine Silva

Constant Crisis  Jessica De La Mora

Dear Papa  Maynor Galletan

Dad, Do You Remember?  Katherine Secaida

Pops Poetry  Jennifer Birstein

Pain of the 'Hood  I'sis Wyche

POPS  Marcel Manson

A Place at POPS  Group Write

I'm Here, He's There by Daisy Lopez

From Us to Them by Emiria Henry

Dear Brother by Leslie Aquino

Faded Memories by Rosio Salas

Break the Chains of Oppression by Mona Viera

The History of Violence by Devin Garza

They Don't Know Us by Lizeth Garcia

Los Scanalous, California by Marcel Manson

A World of Gunshots by Tyanni Gomez

Free Time by Oscar Lopez

Simply Me by Daniela Sanchez

When I'm Alone by Milena Mousli

I'm Right Here by Priscilla Guererro

Wide Eyes by Joslyn Stevenson

Shy Girl by Lizbeth Ramos

Melanin Queen by Kei'Arri McGruder

Vacant by Milena Mousli

I Come From Africa by Sindé Tantua

More Than Just Black by Emiria Henry

You Look Old Enough  Devin Garza

I Write Because  Paradyse Oakley

Once There Was by students of El Camino POPS

Unite by Jennifer Birstein

I'm Afraid of Being Afraid by Tyanni Gomez

All On My Own by Gloria Funes

Someone Save Me by Jessica De La Mora

Not Ever Again by Marilyn Ruiz

The Value of Life by Vanessa Barajas

Thankful by Delmas Arnold II