In People's Pottery Project, people who were previously imprisoned learned ceramic art and transitioned to life outside the bar.

By Shane Mitchell | Published 5:36 PM, October 29, 2021

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"It's really weird to put a real fork in your mouth," Susan Bustament said, stacking footed oval platters at the Ceramic Collective People's Pottery Project (PPP) near Glasell Park in Los Angeles. . "Because we eat plastic. If we are locked, everything is packed in Styrofoam trays. It took a long time to save a container with a lid because it gave us something to eat, not you A small white bowl that you can buy in [the] cafeteria."

Several days a week, the 66-year-old great-grandmother leaves before dawn to commute from the San Gabriel Valley. She now lives with the extended family. She got her driver's license three years ago, but still feels uncomfortable in rush hour traffic. At this early time, the industrial warehouse she worked in turned into a studio space, which was usually empty because she began to wedge clay and shape ceramics, which would be painted with the collective unique "abolition blue" glaze.

As a survivor of child molestation and domestic violence, Bustamente was the first woman to receive a reduced sentence from the California Women's Institute in 2017. She served 31 years in a state prison without parole. "It just lets you know that you are the only one who created this little bowl," she said, holding one in her arms. "This gives you a sense of accomplishment, especially when I don't know, because there is no parole, no life on parole? You don't even want to come out."

People's Pottery Project was founded in 2019 by artist Molly Larkey, who has exhibited works at MoMA PS1, Saatchi Gallery, and Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art. In 2016, she joined the California Women's Prisoners League, a grassroots abolitionist organization that advocates institutional changes in the prison industrial complex. She decided to open a ceramics studio in her own Los Angeles workspace as an art promotion project. "I have a kiln, a flat roller and a pottery wheel," Laki said. "A friend of a friend offered to teach a class every week to formerly imprisoned people in the community."

Larkey explained that the next stage is to make the product to be sold, so the studio starts with a simple "hump mold" bowl, which is made by rolling out a piece of clay and then folding it into the shape the artist likes by hand. of. "You can even do this with a rolling pin, so it's very accessible," Larkey said. The hand-made aspect, from the imprint of the textured cloth with clay to the fingerprint of the ceramist, gives each piece its uniqueness and humanity. "The energy of the person who made it will be transferred to the person who owns the object and interacts with it," she said. 

Larkey displayed these first bowls in the pop-up gallery of the Ceramic Art Fair. She then hired Ilka Rosales Perkins and her wife Domonique Perkins as co-founders. "I hope it will become a collective created by people who have experience and are directly affected by imprisonment." Both have served the "capital punishment". They are in the same prison as Bustament and now live near her. Ilka and Domonique first encouraged her to start using clay.

A study conducted by the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy center for addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, found: “In homicides committed to escape domestic violence, a disproportionate number of women of color have received extreme punishments. The legal system has always Without considering their experience. Imprisonment tends to exacerbate their trauma." After Florida and Pennsylvania, California ranks third among the states with the largest number of women serving prison sentences. Laki pointed out that returning to society after parole does not always guarantee success; it is important for her to earn a living wage for employees at every step of joining the PPP, including on-the-job training. Bustamente's salary helped her buy her first car.

“I’m used to working with my hands,” said Bustamente, who also advocates homelessness and surviving non-profit organizations that focus on the well-being of female paroleers as they transition to life outside of prison. She learned to crochet at the age of six and made lap blankets for veterans in wheelchairs after parole. Her ceramics and ceramics made by other PPP craftsmen are part of Hatchet Hill restaurant tableware and are displayed in the gift shop of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

"When you make something that you know someone likes to buy and eat—compared to what you buy in the store—for me, it's very special," she said.      

For People's Pottery Project, Bustamente is currently focusing on shaping gravy boats with braided handles for Thanksgiving. She looks forward to sharing the meal with family and friends. Bustamente spoke frankly about surviving the prison diet for decades. She described how the women in her unit supplemented their diet by purchasing top-quality ramen noodles, peanut butter and dehydrated beans. She said that she would never eat Velveeta cheese again. But Bustamente plans to eat mashed potatoes and fillings during the holidays. "What makes me sad is that they don't have this kind of happiness in their hearts."

Please consider making a donation to Harvest Now, which creates donated gardens in correctional facilities and improves the well-being of prisoners by providing fresh food to their own cafeteria.

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