June Jordan, born on this day in 1936, was a queer Jamaican-American author, feminist, and educator whose works include Some of Us Did Not Die and Report From the Bahamas. "Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth."

In her writing, Jordan explores issues of gender, race, capitalism, privilege, immigration, and representation. Jordan was passionate about using Black English in both her writing and her classroom, teaching her students to treat Black English as its own language and as an important outlet for expressing Black culture.

As a professor at Berkeley, Jordan founded the "Poetry for the People" program in 1991. Its aim was to inspire and empower students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression.

Although not widely recognized when first published in 1982, Jordan's essay "Report from the Bahamas", has since become an important work in gender studies, sociology, and anthropology.

"Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth."

  • June Jordan

June Jordan - Poetry foundation

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  • Moss [they/them]
    ·
    6 months ago

    God I wish we got to read her sailing across the sea and fighting the dark mage with Yaad. Or just like 90 chapters of her hanging out

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Gonna make a shonen manga where the heroes train real hard and beat the baddie in, like, idk, chapter thirty and then the next 352 chapters are just chill slice of life stories with no violence or action.

        • buckykat [none/use name]
          ·
          6 months ago

          A lot of the op protag isekai slop is basically this but since it's slop the characters usually aren't compelling enough to sustain the slice of life