The Essential June Jordan

ISBN: 1556596200

Author: Jordan, June

Condition: New

Product DescriptionHonored as a "Best Book of 2021" by Publishers Weekly"This volume of verse displays the undeniable legacy June Jordan left on both our literature and culture. Collected here are blazing examples of poetry as activism, stanzas that speak truth to power and speak out against violence against women and police brutality. But Jordan also speaks on the significance of hope, mixing, as Brown puts it, 'the doom and devastation made mundane through media with the hard decision to love anyway.'"-O, The Oprah Magazine"A selection of poems published between 1971 and 2001, this posthumous volume reflects Jordans view of poetry as 'a political action' that can 'build a revolution.' Her own work is filled with love and delight as well as revenge and justice."-New York Times Book Review, "Editor's Choice"The Essential June Jordan honors the enduring legacy of a poet fiercely dedicated to building a better world. In this definitive volume, introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown, June Jordans generous body of poetry is distilled and curated to represent the very best of her works. Written over the span of several decades-from Some Changes in 1971 to Last Poems in 2001-Jordans poems are at once of their era and tragically current, with subject matter including racist police brutality, violence against women, and the opportunity for global solidarity amongst people who are marginalized or outside of the norm. In these poems of great immediacy and radical kindness, humor and embodied candor, readers will (re)discover a voice that has inspired generations of contemporary poets to write their truths. June Jordan is a powerful voice of the time-honored movement for justice, a poet for the ages. Introduced by Jericho Brown, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer prize in poetry.ReviewWith the publication of her collected poems, one can survey the sheer scope of a woman who merged personal and political levels of expression with unyielding conviction.-San Francisco ChronicleJordan brings to life people, places, things, and books that nourished her mind and character.-Los Angeles TimesThough best known as a poet, she wore many other hats. All of her identities were rooted in a passion for social justice-accompanied by the belief that the powerless could eventually prevail In the words of this volumes title, her activities were directed by desire-in defense of truth and justice. -The Washington PostSkeptical, angry, and sick of unexamined beliefs and hypocrisy, Jordan writes warrior poems: muscled, coiled, and unerringly accurate.- Booklist[Jordans poems are] so immediate and vibrant in their effect that they seem to be happening right there on the page.- Kenyon ReviewThe energy and seriousness of these poems are impressive and, like the essays, they are the work of a writer of integrity and will.-The New York TimesShe has comforted, explained, described, wrestled with, taught and made us laugh out loud before we wept... I am talking about a span of forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fueled by flawless art.-Toni MorrisonAbout the AuthorJericho Brown is the winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his book The Tradition. He teaches at Emory University and lives near Atlanta.Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.I Must Become a Menace to My EnemiesDedicated to the Poet Agostinho Neto, President ofThe Peoples Republic of Angola: 19761I will no longer lightly walk behinda one of you who fear me:Be afraid.I plan to give you reasons for your jumpy fitsand facial ticsI will not walk politely on the pavements anymoreand this is dedicated in particularto those who hear my footstepsor the insubstantial rattling of my grocerycartthen turn aroundsee meand hurry onaway from this impressive terror I must be:I plan to blossom bloody on an afternoonsurrounded by my comrades singingterrible revenge in mercilessacceleratingrhythmsBut