June Jordan Quotes

A collection of quotes by June Jordan.

June Jordan (1936-2002) was an influential American poet, writer, activist, and teacher who dedicated her life to challenging racial, social, and gender injustices through her work. Born in Harlem, New York City, Jordan's early experiences with racism and inequality heavily influenced her activism and writing.

Jordan's poetry often explored themes of identity, love, and the struggle for social justice. She was known for her distinct poetic style, incorporating elements of rhythm, music, and oral tradition. Her collections, including "Some Changes" and "Naming Our Destiny," garnered critical acclaim and resonated with diverse audiences. Jordan also wrote numerous essays, plays, and children's books, further showcasing her versatility and commitment to education.

As an activist, Jordan was involved in various civil rights and feminist movements. She campaigned against apartheid in South Africa and was an advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rights of marginalized communities. Through her writings and speeches, she encouraged active citizenship and fought for inclusivity and equality for all.

June Jordan's impact extended beyond her literary and activist work. She taught at universities such as Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, where she inspired generations of students with her passion for justice and creative expression. Her determination to empower marginalized voices and challenge social norms continues to inspire activists and writers worldwide.

Note: The word count of this response is 212 words.

I wrote those poems for myself, as a way of being a soldier

I wrote those poems for myself, as a way of being a soldier here in this country. I didn't know the poems would travel. I didn't go to Lebanon until two years ago, but people told me that many Arabs had memorized these poems and translated them into Arabic.

So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between peopl

So, poetry becomes a means for useful dialogue between people who are not only unknown, but mute to each other. It produces a dialogue among people that guards all of us against manipulation by our so-called leaders.

Poetry

But, based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers, I st

But, based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers, I started going on freedom rides in 1966.

Friendship

In the process of telling the truth about what you feel or w

In the process of telling the truth about what you feel or what you see, each of us has to get in touch with himself or herself in a really deep, serious way.

Truth

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the tr

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

Poetry

The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn

The first function of poetry is to tell the truth, to learn how to do that, to find out what you really feel and what you really think.

Poetry

That attitude that fighting is probably not fair, but you ha

That attitude that fighting is probably not fair, but you have to defend yourself anyway and damage the enemy, has been profoundly consequential as far as my political activism goes.

Attitude

As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words.

As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language; every human use of words that is joyful, or honest or new, because experience is new... But as a Black poet and writer, I hate words that cancel my name and my history and the freedom of my future: I hate the words that condemn and refuse the language of my people in America.

Words

If any of us hopes to survive, s/he must meet the extremity

If any of us hopes to survive, s/he must meet the extremity of the American female condition with immediate and political response. The thoroughly destructive and indefensible subjugation of the majority of Americans cannot continue except at the peril of the entire body politic.

Sex

Our children will not survive our habits of thinking, our fa

Our children will not survive our habits of thinking, our failures of the spirit, our wreck of the universe into which we bring new life as blithely as we do. Mostly, our children will resemble our own misery and spite and anger, because we give them no choice about it. In the name of motherhood and fatherhood and education and good manners, we threaten and suffocate and bind and ensnare and bribe and trick children into wholesale emulation of our ways.

Children

Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble do

Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute middle of the homemade cherry pie. In our history, the state has failed to respond to the weak. You could be white, male, Presbyterian and heterosexual besides, but if you get fired or if you get sick tomorrow, you might as well be Black, for all the state will want to hear from you.

America

Self-determination has to mean that the leader is your indiv

Self-determination has to mean that the leader is your individual gut, and heart, and mind or we're talking about power, again, and its rather well-known impurities. Who is really going to care whether you live or die and who is going to know the most intimate motivation for your laughter and your tears is the only person to be trusted to speak for you and to decide what you will or will not do.

Independence

The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, su

The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment: these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per se.

Manners

anytime you see white men suppose to fight each other an you

anytime you see white men suppose to fight each other an you not white, well you know you got trouble, because they blah-blah loud about Democrat or Republican an they huffing an puff about democracy someplace else but relentless, see, the deal come down evil on somebody don have no shirt an tie, somebody don live in no whiteman house no whiteman country.

Voting

To rescue our children we will have to let them save us from

To rescue our children we will have to let them save us from the power we embody: we will have to trust the very difference that they forever personify. And we will have to allow them the choice, without fear of death: that they may come and do likewise or that they may come and that we will follow them, that a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.

Children

All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British

All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it's your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.

Invervention

Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and

Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law. Because, in other words, the powerful don't play; they mean to keep that power, and those who are the powerless (you and me) better shape up --mimic/ape/suck --in the very image of the powerful, or the powerful will destroy you --you and our children.

Language

There are two ways to worry words. One is hoping for the gre

There are two ways to worry words. One is hoping for the greatest possible beauty in what is created. The other is to tell the truth.

Beauty

To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love y

To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.

Truth

I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same

I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

Respect