June Jordan, the Universal Poet

"Universal" meaning her imagination, themes, and candor have inspired generations of poets. June Jordan is a poet, activist, journalist, essayist, and teacher who passed away at 66 year old in 2002. The only June Jordan book I had my hands on was Some of Us Did Not Die. The title alone was enough to deter me for years, and Jordan's only posthumously published book sat on my shelf like an urn's altar- a pretty decoration with a black & white photo of a smiling ancestor.

Her birthday is July 9 and to honor her, I wanted to read more of her work. Scraping up the courage to pick up that book, I was embarrassed by my anxious avoidance of... feeling. The emotion and connection I got from her last piece made my imagination go wild. Now living in Oakland, I can easily access many of the elements of June Jordan's legacy in Northern California. The program at Berkeley, the events honoring her work, the San Francisco youth programs, the June Jordan school, etc.

With gratitude, here are quotes from June Jordan's poems that I hope also spark your imagination.

Black Feminism

"Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires...”

“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.”

"Behold the heart and mind of Angela Davis: open, relentless, and on time! She is as radiant, she is as true, as that invincible sunrise she means means means to advance With all of the faith and all of the grace of her entirely devoted life.”

Humanity

“Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasions of love among and between peoples.”

“Freedom is indivisible or it is nothing at all besides sloganeering and temporary, short-sighted, and short-lived advancement for a few.”

Poetry

“Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

“The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think.

“This is the difficult miracle of Black poetry in America: that we persist, published or not, and loved or unloved: we persist.

“Good poetry and successful revolution change our lives. And you cannot compose a good poem or wage a revolution without changing consciousness unless you attack the language that you share with your enemies and invent a language that you share with your allies.”

Values

"To believe is to become what you believe"

"To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. and that's political in its most profound way."

"As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth – whatever the truth may be – that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

Oppression & Identity

"Reproductive choice is not some trendy item to toss or keep around the house. If you cannot get an education or a job, if you cannot choose what will or will not happen with your own body, then what freedom do you have?”

"Let me just say, at once: I am not now nor have I ever been a white man. And, leaving aside the joys of unearned privilege, this leaves me feeling pretty good..."

“I do believe that the analogy for bisexuality is a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multiracial world view. Bisexuality follows from such a perspective and leads to it, as well.”

"If we even tolerate any oppression of gay and lesbian Americans, if we join those who would intrude upon the choices of our hearts, then who among us shall be free?”

“We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.”