Situated between a red brick church and a luxury condo building was The Mansion, an old Edwardian house in San Francisco’s Japantown. It looked quite the desolate wreck on the outside, but inside, it was home to a young Black man newly arrived from Atlanta—and 29 houseless others. Oakland performance poet Dee Allen returns with his 10th volume of poetry, The Mansion, named in honour of his first real home in the Bay Area. The Mansion covers Allen’s first 5 years surviving homelessness in San Francisco by squatting numerous buildings, whether long-abandoned or new ones under construction. In a city where alarmingly high rents, gentrification and displacements are the norm, and squatting is seen as a viable means to live for the less fortunate [ and resourceful ].
For every book sold, we will donate $1 to The Coalition on Homelessness. COHSF organizes homeless people and front line service providers to create permanent solutions to homelessness, while working to protect the human rights of those forced to remain on the streets.
Dee Allen’s collection of poems and song lyrics flesh out his premise that “Not every mansion is a playground for the wealthy.” Within this book, he shares his experiences in the world of the homeless, hungry, disenchanted and dispossessed. In his poem “Standstill”, he echoes Mario Savio, free speech warrior, suggesting the only way to halt the cruelties of capitalism is to jam up the cogs through passive resistance and shut down the machine. Other poems speak of social justice, articulating a vision of a sustainable alternative where “anyone can partake from what collective work ushered in: the growing green future freed from asphalt and the grasp of landlords.” In “Hoody” he calls out white privilege for the lethal toll it takes on black lives, specifically Trayvon Martin. His title poem, The Mansion, rendered as a series of journal entries, is a powerful chronicle detailing squats, busts, stubborn persistence. He concludes with a call to feed the hungry, claim the unused—this is how to survive.
The ongoing crisis of homelessness and the broken systems our unhoused communities are dependent upon gets a long overdue insiders’ perspective in Dee Allen’s brilliant The Mansion, an essential and brutally honest collection of personal poems and song lyrics. A long admired and passionate poet, Allen uses his storyteller skills to illustrate what living a locked out, chained out life is really like. Suffering erratic housing, squatting in abandoned buildings owned by hostile landlords, treated like a criminal despite having committed no crime... Dee Allen’s The Mansion looks squarely at the people experiencing homelessness with grace, respect and loving compassion.
The Mansion is a collection of witness statements which opens the veil on those who we would rather not see, the homeless. Dee Allen speaks of "Keeping the invisible poor quite invisible." He teaches us: "You have good intentions, // Good for you." He shows us who they are: "Never mind Punk Rock. // Squatting saved my ass." Every piece shows us the truth of our shared humanity with the wit, kindness, and courage which makes the truth of our shared failure as a nation worth the discomfort of knowing.
Some of the poems in The Mansion I’ve heard before. Powerful presentations from Dee Allen, borne on his magnificent voice. Reading this collection of his poems, set into a context and a chronology, brings a cumulative comprehension of the poetry, drawing the reader into Dee’s life and spirit—his means of survival, his political nuance, his sense of adventure.
Meet the Author
Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 9 books—Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black [ all from POOR Press ], Elohi Unitsi [ Conviction 2 Change Publishing ], Rusty Gallows [ Vagabond Books ], Plans [ Nomadic Press ], Crimson Stain [ EYEPUBLISHEWE ] and Discovery [ Southern Arizona Press ]—and 72 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far. To date, The Mansion is his 10th book.
