House Keys Not Handcuffs: Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in San Francisco and Beyond.

Written by Paul Boden with additional essays by friends and longtime allies, Art Hazelwood and Bob Prentice. It includes 67 images created by printmakers, painters, muralists, cartoonists and photographers giving a history of the art made in the struggle.

House Keys Not Handcuffs is a reflection on over 30 years of homeless organizing in San Francisco.  It is an attempt to sort out what went well and what did not as a community begins to organize in order to hold public and private institutions accountable.  Its purpose is not only to distill the lessons we have learned, but to encourage others to document and reflect on their own experiences in the hope that we can collectively contribute to a stronger, more broadly-based movement. Artwork has always been a vital part of this organizing.

The book draws from the insights of Paul Boden, whose own experiences on the street as an activist, and as a co-founder of the Coalition on Homelessness and later, the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), give him a unique and wide perspective. It is a voice for people who have no power or privilege except for their capacity to organize and demand social justice.

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“A great dystopian read that takes you on a journey around the streets and scenic marvels of San Francisco. More than an Orwellian dystopia, American Daydream draws on the revelations of Edward Snowden, imagining where the National Security might be leading us in the future. Added to this mélange is a passionate romance between the two main characters, the utopian counter point of the story.”
—Roger Burbach, author of Fire in the Americas

“Margot Pepper’s literary incursion into Science Fiction is just like her—daring, brave and fully imagined. She is a story goddess living in and out of verses, whose political stance is vital and necessary.”
—Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running and It Calls You Back