June Jordan

June Jordan (born July 9, 1936, New York, New York, U.S.—died June 14, 2002, Berkeley, California) was an African American author who investigated both social and personal concerns through poetry, essays, and drama.

Jordan grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and attended Barnard College (1953–55, 1956–57) and the University of Chicago (1955–56). Beginning in 1967, she taught English and literature; she later taught African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She fought for the inclusion of black studies and Third World studies in university curricula and advocated acceptance of Black English. With architect R. Buckminster Fuller she created a plan for the architectural redesign of Harlem in New York City. Her first poetry collection, Who Look at Me, appeared in 1969; among her subsequent collections of poems were Things That I Do in the Dark (1977), Living Room (1985), Naming Our Destiny (1989), Haruko/Love Poetry (1993), and Kissing God Goodbye: Poems 1991–1996 (1997).

In the 1970s Jordan wrote books for children and young adults, including the novel His Own Where (1971) and the biography Fannie Lou Hamer (1972). As a journalist and a poet, Jordan wrote about feminism, freedom of choice, and the struggle against racism. Her essays are collected in the books Civil Wars (1981), On Call (1985), Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union (1992), and June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint (1995). In the 1980s her play The Issue (directed by Ntozake Shange) and the musical Bang Bang Uber Alles, for which she wrote the libretto, were performed. She later wrote the lyrics and libretto for I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995). Jordan’s autobiography, Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood, was published in 2000.

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