Philadelphia

Deadline Poet Reports: Encampment Sweep Triggers Eviction Memory

by Lindo Yes | May 8, 2024 12:06 pm

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Posted to: Spoken Word , Poetry

Philadelphia’s Parker administration took action Wednesday to remove 50 people remaining at a Kensington Avenue tent city, the final push in a month-long ​“encampment resolution” that’s cracking down on an area estimated to hold about 39 percent of Philly’s unhoused population. That news inspired community organizer and poet LindoYes to write the following poem, recalling the eviction of his own family when he was in the third grade. In the video above, he performs that poem, titled ​“Landlord,” from the scene of the encampment sweep. 

Landlord

Granny said the lord going to bless us
Next day, the landlord evicted us
Never seen my mom fold
That day I saw her
Fold clothes
Fold her hands in prayers
Folds under her eyes
I
Folded myself inside of myself
Packed all I cared about inside myself
As we went to a place we said we never go
No where
Know where I packed my feelings?
Into baggage I carry
Til this day