http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~micmag/issue1/poetryforthepeople.php. See also Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People.
8. Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, 13.
9. Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, 16. For additional information on June Jordan’s P4P and the ground rules, see Junichi P. Semitsu, “Course Profile: Poetry for the People,” http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~micmag/issue1/poetryforthepeople.php.
10. Junichi Semitsu, former director of Poetry for the People, who was appointed by June Jordan, writes the following in a 2005 online posting: “In the Poetry for the People (“P4P”) program I direct at Berkeley, we include hip hop lyrics on our study of poetry.
This year’s reader includes Aceyalone’s ‘The Balance,’ Talib Kweli’s ‘The Proud,’ and 2Pac’s
‘Dear Mama,’ which reflects the choices of numerous student teacher poets in the P4P
program.” See http://www.o-dub.com/weblog/2005_02_01_archive.html.
11. For more information, see Korina Joscon, “‘Taking it to the Mic’: Pedagogy of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People and Partnership with an Urban High School,” English Education 37, no. 2 (January 2005), 132–148; Kinloch and Grebowicz, Still Seeking; and The Poetry for the People Collective, Poetry for the People, Speak on It! Smash the State: The Second Coming (Berkeley: P4P, 2002).
12. For information on the Senior Seminar course, visit the online listing of courses at http://english.berkeley.edu/courses/upperf03ll.html. In the course description, the instructor writes, “in this class we will carefully and critically analyze Jordan’s work, reading some of her writing (poetry, essays, plays, memoir and novel, and even course syllabi) very closely and placing it in a variety of contexts. Topics we’ll follow Jordan in addressing include: autobiography, children’s literature, and the politics of childhood.”
13. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 100.
14. Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, 5.
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15. Ibid.
16. In her essay, “For the Sake of a People’s Poetry: Walt Whitman and the Rest of Us,”
Jordan defines what she means by New World Poets. She writes, “New World does not mean New England. New World means non-European; it means new, it means big, it means heterogeneous, it means unknown, it means free, it means an end to feudalism, caste, privilege, and the violence of power.” From this definition, Jordan provides lines from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself as an example. See June Jordan, Passion, xix.
17. Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, 14.
18. Ibid., 6.
19. Ibid., 14.
20. Van Doren, ed., The Portable Walt Whitman, xx-xxi.
21. Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, 15.
22. Ibid., 14.
23. Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, 4.
24. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1970/1997).
25. Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, 4.
26. Ibid., 5.
27. Ibid., 4.
28. Ibid., 5–6.
29. Ibid., 8.
30. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 100.
31. Ibid., 99.
32. Lyndon B. Johnson, “To Fulfill These Rights,” in The Affirmative Action Debate, ed.
George E. Curry, 17–18 (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1996).
33. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 100.
34. Ibid. Placement of words and format are those of the author, June Jordan.
35. Ibid., 100–101.
36. Ibid., 101.
37. Ibid., 102.
38. Ibid., 102–103.
39. Ibid., 247.
40. Ibid., 101.
41. For a longer, critical discussion of these points, see essays included in the collection, Kinloch and Grebowicz, Still Seeking. In particular, see Christina Accomando,
“Exposing the Lie of Neutrality: June Jordan’s Affirmative Acts,” 33–47, and Ramona Coleman, “Exploring the Space of Americanness and the Place of African American Women through the Works of June Jordan,” 49–65.
42. In her discussions on affirmative action, Jordan cites the case of affirmative action in Houston, Texas, and how Houston residents voted in favor of affirmative action and against the use of the word “preference.” Both affirmative action and bilingual education programs are important topics in a state such as Texas because of student demographics and the composition of that particular metropolitan city—the number of Spanish-speaking residents has rapidly increased over the last fifteen years and will continue to increase.
43. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 115.
44. Ibid., 248.
45. For more information, see Nanette Asimov, “Big Victory for Measure to End Bilingual Education: Opponents Say They’ll File Suit Today” in the San Francisco
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Chronicle (June 3, 1998). See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
1998/06/03/MN79691.DTL&hw=Proposition+227&sn =002&sc=701.
46. Ibid., 247.
47. Ibid., 249. Italics belong to the author.
48. Ibid., 252.
49. Ibid., 255.
50. Ibid.
51. Jordan, Moving Towards Home, 128.
52. California Poets in the Schools, or CPITS, is an important organization that offers support to teachers and students by placing culturally and ethnically diverse, established writers into classrooms to demonstrate the power of imaginative language and some of the many processes of writing. According to the organization’s Web site, CPITS
“became a statewide organization in the mid-1970s and there are now CPITS programs in 29 counties from Humboldt to San Diego. It is estimated that since 1964 a half million students have been introduced to creative writing by CPITS poets. Since 1987, CPITS has placed a yearly average of over 150 poets in more than 300 schools across the state to work with 25,000 students in grades Kindergarten through Twelfth.” The significance of the program, as well as that of Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W), Writers-in-the-Schools (WITS), and Poetry for the People (P4P), is immeas-urable. For more information, see http://www.cpits.org/.
53. See also Kinloch, “Poetry, Literacy, and Creativity: Fostering Effective Learning Strategies in an Urban Classroom,” English Education 37, no.2 (January 2005): 96–114.
54. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 255.
55. Muller, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, 3.
56. Ibid., 9.
57. Ibid., 225.
58. The June Jordan School for Equity is located at 325 La Grande Avenue in San Francisco, California.
59. Torf, interview by author.
60. For more information on the June Jordan School for Equity, see http://www.jjse.org.
61. For more information on this quote and/or The Progressive, see http://progressive.org/?q=node/11/print, accessed on August 7, 2005.
62. Jordan, Some of Us Did Not Die, 3.
63. Ibid., 8.
64. Ibid, .97.
65. Ibid., 98.
66. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 219.
67. For more information, see Jordan, “Introduction,” Some of Us Did Not Die, 3–15.
68. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 14.
69. Ibid.
70. Jordan, Some of Us Did Not Die, 229.
71. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 151.
72. Ibid.
73. Ibid., 147–148.
74. Ibid., 143.
75. Ibid., 155.
76. Ibid., 153.
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77. Jordan, Naming Our Destiny, 99.
78. Ibid., 81.
79. Ibid., 142–143.
80. Ibid., 143.
81. A group of women joined together in 1988 to sponsor weekly, silent vigils for pe
ace. The group continues to hold vigils in various Israeli cities as a way to “protest the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.” Their united presence has demonstrated “that Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs can work together, and that while the men at the negotiating tables and in the halls of power seem intent on prolonging the conflict, women—always the greatest victims in war—are intent on making peace.” It should be noted that the “Women in Black in Israel and Serbia were nominated” for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. For additional information, see http://www.wib-la.org/.
82. Jill Nelson, “A Conversation with June Jordan,” Quarterly Black Review of Books Vol.1 (May 1994), 50–53. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3384/
is_199405/ai_n8129832.
83. R. D.Laing, Politics of Experience (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), 18–19.
84. Nelson, “A Conversation with June Jordan,” 50–53. http://www.findarticles.com/
p/articles/mi_hb3384/is_199405/ai_n8129832.
85. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 189.
86. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 176.
87. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 188.
88. Ibid., 192.
89. Jordan, Passion, 13.
90. Ibid., 79.
91. Ibid., 78.
92. Ibid., 89.
93. June Jordan, Haruko/Love Poems (New York: High Risk Books, 1994), inside cover.
94. Ibid., ix.
95. Ibid., 7.
96. Ibid., 14.
97. Peter Erickson, “After Identity: A Conversation with June Jordan and Peter Erickson,” in Transition 0, no. 63 (1994): 144.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid., 147.
KISSING GOD GOODBYE
1. Jordan, Levi, and Miles, eds., Directed by Desire, 609.
2. E. Ethelbert Miller, interview by author, October 29, 2005.
3. For more information about this collection, see the library Web site, which provides full catalog details: http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/scrbg004.xml. A special thank you is owed to poet E. Ethelbert Miller and reference librarian Karla Davis for making this collection available to the general public and for entertaining my queries.
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4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Erickson, “After Identity,” 147.
7. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 217.
8. Ibid., 69.
9. Ibid., 70–71.
10. Orridge, interview by author.
11. Ibid. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is a widely known medical facility with locations throughout the greater New York area.
12. Ibid.
13. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 159.
14. Ibid., 161.
15. Ibid., 74–75.
16. Ibid., 70.
17. Ibid., 161.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 162
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., 75.
22. Erickson, “After Identity,” 148.
23. Orridge, interview by author.
24. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 163.
25. Jordan, Levi, and Miles (Eds.), Directed by Desire, 629.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Jordan, Kissing God Goodbye, 69.
29. Miller, interview by author.
30. Miles, "Directed by Desire," 265.
31. Jordan, Affirmative Acts, 70.
32. Adrienne Torf, “For June’s Memorial Celebration, 15 September 2002,” in The Women’s Review of Books: A Feminist Guide to Good Reading, 20, no.1 (October 2002): 15.
http://www.wellesley.edu/womensreview/archive/2002/10/special.html#special.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Orridge, interview by author.
37. Jordan wanted to be cremated, and her friends fulfilled her wish. There were no funeral services for the poet; instead, close friends organized a memorial for the beginning of September in order for admiring students and colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley to attend. Orridge was pleased that there was not a funeral service:
“I needed the two or so months between the time she died, June and September. But I needed some closure too, because I hadn’t seen her, hadn’t seen any dead body, hadn’t attended a funeral. There was nothing in terms of reality to make me understand that she was gone” because Jordan was cremated even before Orridge was told of her death.
Orridge exhibited sadness as she sat with me and recalled the occasion of discovering the death of her cousin: “When she died, a friend of mine, who was living up in Cape
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Cod, phoned me and left this message on my machine because I was working . . . and he said, ‘oh, I am so sorry to hear about June. I guess you’re getting ready to go to California to the funeral.’ And that’s the first I’m hearing she died. I was just flabber-gasted that nobody out there called me.” Orridge, at the prompting of her son, eventually contacted Adrienne Torf, who informed her of Jordan’s death.
38. For more information about this particular memorial service, see the official Press Release by Kathleen Maclay, “Memorial service to celebrate the life of poet June Jordan,” http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/06/17_jordan.html.
39. Thulani Davis, “June Jordan, 1936–2002,” Village Voice (2 July 2002), www.vil-lagevoice.com/print/issues/0226/davis.php.
40. Alexis De Veaux, “Freedom Fighter,” The Women’s Review of Books: A Feminist Guide to Good Reading, 20, no.1 (October 2002): 18, http://www.wellesley.edu/womensreview/archive/2002/10/special.html#special.
41. June Jordan, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (New York: Scribner, 1995).
42. Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, 82.
43. Ibid., 83.
44. Jordan, Kissing God Goodbye, 13–14.
45. Adrienne Torf, June Jordan and Adrienne Torf: COLLABORATION (Selected Works 1983–2000) (San Francisco: ABT Music, 2003), compact disc liner notes.
46. Ibid.
47. June Jordan and Adrienne Torf, Track 1 on June Jordan and Adrienne Torf: COLLABORATION.
48. Jordan, Things That I Do in The Dark, 102.
49. Jordan, Passion, 52.
50. Torf, “For June’s Memorial Celebration,” 15.
51. Jordan, Naming Our Destiny, 37.
52. Ibid., 103.
53. June Jordan, and Adrienne Torf, “June Jordan and Adrienne B. Torf: On Collaboration,” in HOT WIRE: A Journal of Women’s Music and Culture 1, no.3 (July 1985): 28–30.
54. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 42.
55. Torf, interview by author.
56. Jordan, Technical Difficulties, 46–47.
57. Torf, interview by author.
58. Pratibha Parmar, A Place of Rage (London, England: Women Make Movies, 1991), documentary film, http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c287.shtml.
59. Jordan, Kissing God Goodbye, 96.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Jordan, Civil Wars, 104.
63. Ibid., 108.
64. Ibid.
65. Jordan, Some of Us Did Not Die, 241.
66. Ibid., 275–276. One wonders if Jordan was actually writing about her cousin, Valerie, or whether she was referring to some fictional child.
67. I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Valerie Orridge on November 28, 2005 at a New York City bookstore during a second tribute to June Jordan on the publication of
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the poet’s collected poems. Mrs. Orridge is a phenomenal woman. We have kept in touch since.
68. Jordan, Some of Us Did Not Die, 7.
69. Ibid.
70. Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, 2.
71. Jordan, Naming Our Destiny, 122.
72. Jordan, Some of Us Did Not Die, 14.
73. Ibid., 14.
74. Jordan, Things That I Do in The Dark, ix.
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Selected Bibliography
Allen, D., and W. Tallman, eds. The Poetics of the New American Poetry. New York: Grove Press, 1973.
Allen, F. “June Jordan, Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint.” Library Journal (December 1995): 115, 120.
Angelou, Maya. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 1994.
Baker, David. Heresy and the Ideal: On Contemporary Poetry. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.
Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Vintage International, 1993. First published 1962 by Dial Press.
Baraka, Amiri. The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1999.
Black, Les, and John Solomos. Theories of Race and Racism. London: Routledge, 2000.
Braxton, Joanne M. Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition Within a Tradition.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
Brogan, Jacqueline Vaught. “From Warrior to Womanist: The Development of June Jordan’s Poetry.” Pages 198–209. Speaking the Other Self: American Women Writers.
Edited by Jeanne Campbell Reesman. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.
———. “Planets on the Table: From Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop to Adrienne Rich and June Jordan.” The Wallace Stevens Journal 19, no. 2 (1995): 255–78.
Brown, Wendy. States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1990.
Caroll, Rebecca, ed. I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like: The Voice and Vision of Black Women Writers. New York: Carol Southern Books, 1994.
Carpenter, Humphrey, and Mari Prichard. Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Clifton, Lucille. Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969–1980. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 1987.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
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