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Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays of June Jordan
by
June Jordan
Poet and activist June Jordan wrote her way to the forefront of political analysis, witness and moral summoning for more than half a century. These important new essays, along with work drawn from every phase of her prolific career, document her ongoing leadership and commitment in every conflicted sphere of our second millennium lives: the varieties of supremacist values
...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
July 31st 2002
by Basic Civitas Books
(first published 2002)
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This is an excellent piece of literary art. June Jordan, quite frankly, "makes love to the English language." This is how I describe the writing in this book. It is rare that I feel connected to any author in the way that I feel emotionally and spiritually connected to Ms. Jordan, through her writing. It is the first work of hers that I picked up. At the time, I was unaware that she had passed away from breast cancer. She will be missed but I am confident that her words and legacy will never be...more
June Jordan is to my mind and experience THE premiere radical poet and essayisst...or so I'm discovering (very happily).
Her essays are her experience and vice-versa. She has been there and knows whereof she speaks. Nicaragua, Lebanon, the West Bank, South Africa, Bed-Sty, Columbia/Barnard, and on and on...
She is the Crie de Cour of her generation and her country. She MUST be hears! Pass it on!
Her essays are her experience and vice-versa. She has been there and knows whereof she speaks. Nicaragua, Lebanon, the West Bank, South Africa, Bed-Sty, Columbia/Barnard, and on and on...
She is the Crie de Cour of her generation and her country. She MUST be hears! Pass it on!
June Jordan uses the essay to discuss a variety of issues that are housed within various categories -- international, American, black, and female. This reads like a series of protest essays, but Jordan allows room for her readers' voice, and she forms a place for us to converse.
Superb collection of essays. I don't know how I happen to have this in my library, but I was looking to clear my shelves for donations and this popped up. This is a keeper. I think I have a few more books by June Jordan that have now moved up on my priority list of must reads.
this book gives me chills.
it's like, when you wake up in the morning after you've been asleep under your warm blankets and you take a step outside your bed, beyond the comfort of your cozy little world, and realize that the world is a cold place, and you start to shiver. the realization of what it means to be alive, in this world, is often chilling. this is what this book does to me; it gives me chills because it awakens me...
And then you know why one of the freedom fighters in the sixties, a yo...more
it's like, when you wake up in the morning after you've been asleep under your warm blankets and you take a step outside your bed, beyond the comfort of your cozy little world, and realize that the world is a cold place, and you start to shiver. the realization of what it means to be alive, in this world, is often chilling. this is what this book does to me; it gives me chills because it awakens me...
And then you know why one of the freedom fighters in the sixties, a yo...more
The best find from my first visit to Park Slope's public library. I had heard of June Jordan many times before but could not quite place her before reading this.
May 26, 2010
Faith
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-nonfiction,
to-buy
When the going gets tough, bring in a poet to address the crowd and try to make sense of things. That's how the title essay came about--Jordan addressed the academic community at Barnard, her alma mater, a few days after 9/11. I found it rather unsatisfying, and likewise with some of the other essays based on lectures. But many are extraordinary, from her accounts of the academic (exploring with students what "Black English" is) and the personal (the often-indifferent treatment she received for...more
Be Still My Heart. Make my blood jump up into volcanic, erupting, firework explosions. That's a good thing.
Jul 06, 2010
Thorn MotherIssues
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2010
I think she has stronger essay collections tha this one, but it was good just to hear her voice.
she's brilliant, relevant. vastly under-read. A must read, but I am biased, for sure.
This book is ART.
Feb 23, 2008
Megan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Megan by:
a gift from my brother, Chris--thank you
if you're a woman, and you have ever, at all, struggled with what that exactly means or entails, you should read this book. Jordan is insightful and moving and honest, honest, honest. many brave essays on race, gender, class, civic duty...i read it while i was pregnant with my second daughter and it made me want to be a better mother to my girls--to help them be strong, invested, honest women.
this book has traveled with me and has become what some might my call my personal bible...it made me think, a lot, the good kind of thinking that helps to make sense out of things, life, the world, politics, humanity and the lack thereof. her writings are so vulnerable and feeling, leaving you with and intimate portrait of this amazing woman that you keep coming back to
Okay, I did not really know who June Jordan was before this book. The book was on the last chance clearance shelf at a bookstore and I picked it up.
I liked more than a few of her essays, but she does have a tendency to run self-righteous at times.
I liked more than a few of her essays, but she does have a tendency to run self-righteous at times.
To be honest, I am really inspired by the work of June Jordan, but this book really didn't do it for me. I had a hard time with her writing style in this one, but am excited about the work she did. I feel more drawn to her poems than her short-essays.
Oct 27, 2008
Jomo Lumumba
added it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone
Recommended to Jomo by:
friend
That the life of any artist is worthy of being saluted at any time because they give voice to the things that sometimes those of us of the non-artistic world would love to say but either don't have the courage or stamina to say.
june jordan's righteous indignation for all things un-just is told through masterful, beautiful prose. economy of words, not beauty or meaning is what june jordan is all about.
I loved meeting June through her writing, being in her world. I don't think she's a great stylist, but interesting and enjoyable.
Mar 23, 2007
rosalie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Shelves:
readatleasttwice
This book, while melancholic, is inspiring, and ends up being a reference in many of my papers.
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“Like running trying to live a good life has to hurt a little bit, or we're not running hard enough, not really trying.”
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7 people liked it
“And then I understood that the answer is yes, yes yes: I care because I want you to care about me. I care because I have become aware of my absolute dependency upon you, whoever you are, for the outcome of my social, my democratic experience.”
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3 people liked it
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