June Jordan once described poetry as 'a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention.' Born in Harlem in 1936 and raised in the vibrant, sometimes turbulent streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Jordan spent her life building a legacy that refused to separate the beauty of the word from the necessity of the struggle. To read June Jordan is to enter a space where the personal is not just political, but architectural—a blueprint for a more just and loving world.
New World Poetics
Her poetic style was defined by a breathtaking immediacy and a commitment to clarity. She rejected the 'ivory tower' of academia, instead championing what she called 'New World' poetics—a tradition she saw stretching from Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda to the street-level brilliance of Black English. Jordan was a revolutionary linguist; she fought for the legitimacy of African American Vernacular English, or Black English, insisting it was a language of survival and power. In her 1971 novel written entirely in Black English, 'His Own Where', she demonstrated that the cadences of her community were as capable of profound literary expression as any standard dialect.
Skyrise for Harlem
One of the most fascinating chapters of her life was her 1964 collaboration with the visionary architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Together, they designed 'Skyrise for Harlem,' an urban redesign project intended to transform public housing into a space of dignity and sunlight. Though the project was never built, it earned Jordan the Rome Prize in Environmental Design in 1970—the first African American to receive the honor. For Jordan, designing a building and writing a poem were the same act: both were attempts to improve the 'environmental design' of human existence.
The Poet of Witness
Throughout her career, Jordan’s books—from 'Some Changes' in 1971 to her posthumous collection 'Directed by Desire'—received critical acclaim for their 'unsparing yet finely wrought' nature. She was a poet of witness, turning her gaze toward the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the struggles in Palestine, and the systemic violence at home. In her iconic 'Poem for South African Women,' she wrote these stirring lines:
'And we who will be free
do not desist from this duty
do not falter from this marathon
of our hearts'
She famously concluded that same poem with the refrain that has become a global activist anthem: "We are the ones we have been waiting for."
Essential Works
If you are new to her work, the essential starting point is 'Poem about My Rights.' It is a masterclass in the rhythmic accumulation of truth, beginning with a deceptively simple evening walk and expanding into a global indictment of colonization and erasure. It contains perhaps her most defiant assertion of self:
'I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name
My name is my own my own my own
and I can tell you who I am'
We recommend this poem first because it encapsulates Jordan's 'Lyrical Campaigns'—her ability to take the most intimate violations and transform them into a universal demand for self-determination. In her later years, as a professor at UC Berkeley, she founded the 'Poetry for the People' program, a revolutionary curriculum that treated student voices as equal to the literary canon. June Jordan passed away in 2002, but her voice remains a fundamental architecture for anyone seeking to speak truth to power. She was, as Alice Walker described her, the 'universal poet,' a woman who used the lyric not to escape the world, but to rebuild it.
Backgrounder Notes
As an expert researcher and library scientist, I have identified several key historical, linguistic, and cultural references in the article that warrant further context. Below are the backgrounders for these concepts:
Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant These two New York City neighborhoods served as the historic epicenters of Black American culture and political consciousness during the 20th century. While Harlem was the site of the 1920s Renaissance, "Bed-Stuy" in Brooklyn became one of the largest and most influential Black communities in the United States, known for its strong grassroots activism.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Also referred to as Black English, AAVE is a distinct, rule-governed linguistic system with its own complex grammar, vocabulary, and accent. Jordan was a pioneer in arguing that AAVE is a legitimate language of literature and intellectual thought rather than a "broken" form of Standard English.
R. Buckminster Fuller Fuller was a world-renowned 20th-century architect, systems theorist, and futurist most famous for popularizing the geodesic dome. His design philosophy focused on "doing more with less" to solve global housing and resource problems, which aligned with Jordan’s interest in using environmental design to improve human lives.
The Rome Prize Established in 1894, this is a highly prestigious fellowship awarded by the American Academy in Rome to emerging artists and scholars. Jordan’s 1970 win in Environmental Design was a landmark achievement, as the prize is typically associated with traditional classical arts rather than urban social redesign.
Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda Whitman was a 19th-century American poet known for his "democratic" free verse, while Neruda was a Chilean Nobel laureate who fused surrealist imagery with fierce communist politics. Jordan drew on both men to define her "New World" poetics, combining Whitman’s expansive American voice with Neruda’s commitment to global human rights.
Apartheid This was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white-minority government in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Jordan’s poetry served as a vital international link to the anti-apartheid movement, connecting the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S. to the struggle in Africa.
Poetry for the People (P4P) Founded by Jordan at UC Berkeley in 1991, this program is a pioneering model for "democratizing" the arts by training students to lead poetry workshops in schools, prisons, and community centers. It operates on the radical pedagogical principle that the poet’s role is to empower others to find their own voices rather than to occupy an elitist hierarchy.
