Dear Friends

Kat Secaida, wearing white Converse sneakers, wanders through her hood, collecting "the stories of the Culver City projects." Julian Izaguirre recalls the drama at school that starts "when you don't want it to." The young artists and poets in Dear Friends, the eighth anthology from POPS the Club - a nonprofit serving youth impacted by the Pain of the Prison System - forged their work largely during the pandemic and in isolation. Though they were separated by screens from friends, teachers, counselors, and peers, their work still brims with hope and curiosity. It is searing, straightforward, sensitive, and sometimes startling in its wisdom and honesty. Mikey Estrada writes that he is "a kid who like to read and learn...a kid who grew up in violence and gangs...where others were waiting for me to fail." Instead, this volume speaks of these students' success and of all they have to teach us. This collection represents the work of students from California, Georgia, New York, and Pennsylvania.