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

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
  • 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

  • AlicePraxis [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    4 months ago

    so I’m downloading all the recent Planet of the Apes movies before I watch the new one, and I’m utterly in awe of the fact that Rise of the Planet of the Apes has a running time of only 105 minutes

    like it’s impossible to imagine a major studio releasing big budget action blockbuster that’s under 2 hours these days. we need to go back…