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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So I’m watching some of yonder new Jon Stewart Daily Show stuff because like a lot of people I used to enjoy his show when I was an ignorant lib teenager who literally didn’t know shit about goddamn anything, and I braced myself for libness going in. In general Jon does have better takes than the average lib - I believe because he genuinely wants things to improve for people instead of just being a “blue team good” head empty lib - yet like all libs he seems to be bewilderingly incapable of applying context to his worldview.
Specifically, in the video I watched today he’s talking about Fucker Carlsbad’s Putin interview, and I don’t really have an issue about anything he says about it right up until this part in the video, where he shows a bunch of footage of Russians speaking out about Navalny’s assassination being arrested by gangs of police thugs, and then says “the difference between America and Russia is that we have FREEDOM™” and I’m like… J-Jon… you know that we - I mean, you know that happens here too, right? You know there’s, like, a non-stop stream of footage of the police brutalizing Americans speaking out against the state… right? Like, you know that. I know that you know that, because you’ve commented on it before. So like… what’s up, dude?
Anyway I’m gonna continue half-hate-watching these videos maybe I’ll comment more on it here idk.
I think in general, people like Jon Stewart are good at getting liberals to be at least somewhat critical of the system. He doesn’t offer any real solutions, but he points out that there are some pretty fucked up things going on under capitalism.
He doesn’t create Marxists, but he was certainly one of the many influences that moved me towards the far left.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
