People’s Pottery Project: Community and Decarceration Through Clay

SCI-Arc Channel and Carla have teamed up to co-produce a series of short films that focus on LA-based artists who are working around issues of community and social justice.

Noticing a shortage in resources for formerly incarcerated women, People’s Pottery Project, a non-profit ceramics studio in LA’s Glassell Park neighborhood, offers stability, support, employment, and empowerment for women, trans, and non-binary individuals. Through the sensitive and intuitive art of ceramics, PPP offers the opportunity for a second chance at life, encouraging growth and healing through community building in the arts.

People’s Pottery Project was founded in 2019 as an artist-driven initiative whose mission is to empower formerly incarcerated women, trans, and nonbinary individuals through the arts. Through paid job training, People’s Pottery Project provides access to a healing community, and meaningful employment in its collective non-profit ceramic business. PPP’s flexible programs allow participants to earn a living wage at every point of involvement with the business, from training, to fabricating, to ongoing employment. Through their collective work, members gain a platform to connect to others, share their stories, and ultimately transform dominant narratives about those who have experienced incarceration.

Crew Credits:

Production:
Creator and Executive Producer – Hernán Díaz Alonso
Producers – Marcelyn Gow/Reza Monahan
Segment Producer/Interviewer – Lindsay Preston Zappas
Director – Reza Monahan
Director of Photography – Sean Morris
B Camera – Steven Wetrich
C Camera – Jason Chapron
Swing Tech – Attilio Bonnelli
Sound Engineer – Carli Plute

Post-Production:
Story Producers – Caroline Post/Tanita Enderes/Lindsay Preston Zappas
Editors – Claudia Fucigna/Reza Monahan

Soundtrack by: Sara Johanne and Jason Breeden

Additional Images and Video Provided by People’s Pottery Project

Image Credits:

1) 01:01:16:02
Wikimedia Commons
Title: Los Angeles County Jail “Twin Towers Correctional Facility”
Author: Basil D. Soufi
Los Angeles, California, USA
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
December 16, 2008

2) 01:01:22
Wikimedia
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Title: “Skid Row, Los Angeles USA – panoramio”
Date: March 2, 2011
Author: The Erica Chang

3) 01:01:55:23
California Coalition of Women Prisoners Logo

4) 01:01:58:10
“No One Gets Free Alone”
Artwork by Jessica Jiang
California Coalition of Women Prisoners

5) 01:02:06:07
Skid Row/San Pedro Street
Getty Images

6) 01:03:23:19
WikiMedia Commons
Title: Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail
Description: Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail “Twin Towers”
Author: Downtowngal
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Date: November 6, 2013

7) 01:03:27:18
Wikimedia
Title: Los Angeles County Jail “Twin Towers Correctional Facility”
Author: Basil D. Soufi
Los Angeles, California, USA
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
December 16, 2008

8) 01:03:52:12
Wikimedia
Description: Los Angeles Homeless/Skid Row
File Name: Homeless people, Los Angeles, California.
Author: Ron Reiring
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
Date: May 31, 2021

9) 01:03:58:11
Wikimedia
File Name: “Tenting in Los Angeles Skid Row”
Description: Homeless Tents in Los Angeles Skid Row
Date: July 8, 2018
Author: Russ Allison Loar

10) 01:05:59:07
Wikimedia
LACMA
Title: Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California
Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color. Notes: Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer.;
Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.; Gift; The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation in memory of Jon B. Lovelace; 2012; (DLC/PP-2012:063).; Forms part of: Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.Carol M. Highsmith – Library of Congress Catalog: This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division Public Domain

11) 01:06:01:12
Wikimedia
LACMA
Title: Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California\
Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color.
Notes: Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer.;
Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.; Gift; The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation in memory of Jon B. Lovelace; 2012; (DLC/PP-2012:063).; Forms part of: Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive. Carol M. Highsmith – Library of Congress Catalog: This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division Public Domain

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