Tribute to June Jordan

Tribute to June Jordan ana Others Recently Departía ANGELA DAVIS Tribute toJuneJordan July 15, 2002 ReprintedJrom Sojourner No one who had the privilege ofknowingJune Jordan—a poet reading her work, a political agitator delivering a speech full ofrage, a teacher conveying the passion and import ofpoetry, a friend talking about whatever —could escape the seductive, high-pitched laughter that always punctuated her conversation. There was joy in everything June undertook. I would call her sometimes for no other reason than to feel the exhilaration ofher protracted laughter. Her lifelong devotion tojustice, equality and radical democracy seemed to revolve around the pleasure she felt in hurling beautiful words at a world full ofracism, poverty, homophobia and inane politicians determined to preserve this awful state ofaffairs. There was always joy in her rage. Politics was her life; collective pain, as well as collective resistance, was always something she felt in a deeply personal way. June is often characterized as an activist. Many ofthose who were troubled by her insistent coupling ofpoetry and politics used the word [Meridians:feminism, race, transnationalism 2003, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 1-2]©2003 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. activist to discredit her. What, they asked, did the mundane world of politics have to do with poetry? On the other side, there were activists, who wanted to know how poetry could possibly change the world. June was a magnificent poet and a powerful activist. She changed people's worlds with herwords and she created beauty in the process. In an interview a few years ago, she talked about the political work ofher poetry: What is important about poetry in the context ofleadership is that most ofthe time power has to do with dominance. But poetry is never about dominance. Poetry is powerful, but it cannot aspire to dominate anyone. It means making a connection. That is what it means. June made connections with people all over the globe and she did more than anyone else I know to persuade people to think about their own connection with the world, about the relationship between their everyday lives and the state ofthe world. When, long ago, she stood up in support ofthe Palestinians, she was banished from many circles. But she was unswerving, as always. Whether itwas the Civil Rights movement , the GulfWar, the war on Afghanistan, the murder ofMatthew Shepard, or the San Francisco earthquake, June was always there with all her remarkable courage and her capacity to choose the words that summon people to produce profound insights about their own responsibility to make a better world. I know ofno one else who was always so fully present in everything she did. As I once told her, the first time I spoke to her by telephone to arrange our first meeting I did not know I was speaking to an adult until she identified herselfas June Jordan. It certainlywas not a lack ofmaturity in her voice that made think I was talking to a child. Rather it was a sense that she was holding nothing back. She made everyone she liked— and some she didn't particularly like—to feel as ifshe was offering them everything she had. Because she honed the discipline ofreinventing so much ofher life and so much ofthe life ofthe world, the twenty-eight books she wrote, the tapes ofher readings and lectures and ofher amazing collaboration with her life-long friend Adrienne Torf, June has left us an extraordinary chest oftreasures. 2 ANGELA DAVIS ...