Still Seeking an Attitude

Margret Grebowicz is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston, Downtown.Valerie Kinloch is Assistant Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Despite her tragic premature death, June Jordan remains an essential American writer, ludic and transgressive, whose work rescues the idea and ideals of American culture from their current debasement in government. Her poems and essays continue to spark delight, rage, and an energy which . . . is in itself an act of resistance. This thoughtful critical collection on Jordan's poetry and prose . . . will enable a new generation of readers to take June Jordan's writing as example, inspiration, and permission, and will incite the both the activists and the scholars among them to keep it firmly in view.

• 1 Introduction: "Olive and Us: Notes for an Empire of Barbarians"2 Part I: Individual and National Identity in a (Not So) Democratic State3 Poem: "Case in Point" by June Jordan4 "This is the only time to come together": June Jordan's Publics and the Possibility of Democracy5 Exposing the Lie of Neutrality: June Jordan's Affirmative Acts6 Narrating Nation: Exploring the Space of Americaness and the Place of African American Women through the Works of June Jordan7 Part II: Who Says It's Not a Language? Black English in Theory and Practice8 Poem: "What Would I Do White?" by June Jordan9 Black English as a Linguistic System: A Statement about Our Rights10 Telling Her Own Truth: June Jordan, Standard English, and the Epistemology of Ignorance11 Notes Toward a Multicultural Writing Center: The Problems of Language in a Democratic State12 Section III. Radicalizing Children's Lives and Literatures13 Poem: "One Minus One Minus One" by June Jordan14 "Affirmative Acts": Language, Childhood, and Power in June Jordan's Cross-Writing15 Taking Children Seriously: June Jordan's Contribution to African American Children's Literature16 Beyond "Orientation": On Sex, Poetry, and the Violability of Children17 Section IV. The Art of Resistance, or Poetics Politicized18 Poem: "Calling on All Silent Minorities" by June Jordan19 Performing "Righteous Certainty": The Shifting Poetic Address of June Jordan's War Resistance Poetry20 June Jordan's Radical Pedagogy: Activist Poetry in Public Education21 Finding a Democratic Speech: The Intercultural Poetics and Pedagogy of June Jordan's Poetry for the People22 Section V: Writers Reflect23 Poem: "War and Memory" by June Jordan24 Writing War, Writing Memory25 Words & Roses26 June, with love27 A Colored Democracy: "Cultural Exchange" Revisited28 Directed by Desire