Ron Allen (playwright)
Ronald "Ron" Allen was an American poet and playwright associated with Detroit’s Cass Corridor arts scene. An Army veteran of the Vietnam era, he co-founded the Horizons in Poetry series in the early 1980s and became known for experimental theater pieces that fused poetic language, music, and performance. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2007, where he continued staging new work and performed with the jazz-poetry band Code Zero.
Artistic philosophy
In a 2009 interview, Ron Allen described his artistic philosophy:Career
Detroit
Allen emerged as a prominent voice within Detroit’s Cass Corridor community in the 1970s–1990s, mentoring younger writers and organizing readings. He was a co-founder of the H.I.P. series in the early 1980s and developed “mind-stretching” theater pieces while sustaining an active presence in the city’s poetry venues. His Detroit-rooted work and community organizing are frequently cited by peers and later chroniclers of the Corridor scene.Los Angeles
After moving to Los Angeles in 2007, Allen continued to write and stage new works and also performed with the band Code Zero. His play My Eyes Are the Cage in My Head was produced by the Los Angeles Poverty Department ; the piece explores the effects of colonization and recurring behaviors through a poetics-driven theatrical idiom. LAPD also developed Allen’s performance project Fried Poetry.Allen published four books of critically acclaimed poetry, including I Want My Body Back and Neon Jawbone Riot. He released a book of poetry in 2008 titled The Inkblot Theory. He was founder and director of Weightless Language Press. He taught poetry and theater for 13 years in the drug recovery community in Detroit. He also taught poetry and meditation in an assisted-living facility in Inglewood, California.
Ron Allen died August 10, 2010, in Los Angeles.