quotes by June Jordan

"and if i
if i ever let love go
because the hatred and the whisperings
become a phantom dictate i o-
bey in lieu of impulse and realities
(the blossoming flamingos of my
wild mimosa trees)
then let love freeze me
out.

(from i must become a menace to my enemies)"
— June Jordan (Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan)

"I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this
but I can tell you that from now on my resistance
my simple and daily and nightly self-determination
may very well cost you your life"
— June Jordan (Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan)

"Like running trying to live a good life has to hurt a little bit, or we're not running hard enough, not really trying."
— June Jordan (Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays of June Jordan)

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."
— June Jordan

"If you are free, you are not predicatable and you are not controllable."
— June Jordan

"My heart is not peripheral to me."
— June Jordan