June Jordan, Author . Basic $26 (320p) ISBN 978-0-465-03692-9
An inspiring poet, activist, Progressive
columnist and UC Berkeley professor of African-American studies, Jordan died last month from breast cancer at the age of 65. Her Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint
provided the ideological...
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June Jordan, Author Thunder's Mouth Press $24.95 (211p) ISBN 978-0-938410-83-6
Jordan ( Living Room ) concludes this volume--which offers poetry written during the past 30 years, including 43 previously uncollected poems--with ``War and Memory,'' a poem aptly summarizing her life: ``I fell in love with Black men White / men...
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June Jordan, Author Basic Civitas Books $20 (288p) ISBN 978-0-465-03681-3
Known for her fiery protest poems and her sensitive portrayals of children, poet and novelist Jordan (Naming Our Destiny) offers a fast-moving memoir of her early years. ""Born on the hottest day in Harlem"" to West Indian immigrants, Jordan was...
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Edited by Christoph Keller and Jan Heller Levi. Alice James, $24.95 trade paper (500p) ISBN 978-1-938584-35-0
Reviewed by Aja Monet
In defiant black ink marching across the white page, June Jordan (1936–2002) speaks from the eternal front lines of justice: “I am black alive and looking back at you.” Jordan was a lover and liberator. She stood against...
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June Jordan, edited by Conor Tomás Reed and Talia Shalev. CUNY/Lost & Found, $8 trade paper (76p) ISBN 978-0-9976796-4-9
This brief, stimulating selection of education-focused writings from poet and activist Jordan (1936–2002) demonstrates her brilliance, compassion, and ceaseless engagement with the world. Culled from Jordan’s papers at the Radcliffe Institute, these
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June Jordan, Author, Sara Miles, Editor, Adrienne Cecile Rich, Foreword by Serpent's Tail $18 (140p) ISBN 978-1-85242-323-0
This latest offering by Jordan ( Naming Our Destiny ) begins with a series of poems written in 1991 and 1992 to Haruko, her female lover. What strikes one here is the absolute fragility of love, the premonitions of future loss that invade the...
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June Jordan, Author, Jan Heller Levi, Editor, Sara Miles, Editor . Copper Canyon $40 (649p) ISBN 978-1-55659-228-7
As fierce in her activist life as in her passionate verse, Jordan (1936–2002) first rose to fame in the early '70s with declamatory poems and series inspired by African-American vernacular: "Who look at me?" her first series...
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June Jordan, edited by Jan Heller Levi and Christoph Keller. Copper Canyon, $18 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-55659-620-9
Wide in scope and singular in their articulation of atrocities, Jordan’s poems shine in this thoughtfully curated volume. Ordered so that each era of her work speaks to the next, her poems contemplate war (“What will we do/ when there is nobody left/
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