This Unruly Witness

Becky Thompson is a scholar, poet, activist, and author of poetry collections To Speak in Salt and Zero Is the Whole I Fall into at Night.Lauren Muller (1959–2023) was chosen by June Jordan to edit the collectively-inspired June Jordan's Poetry for the People. Muller, the Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at City College of San Francisco, also coedited Reckonings: Contemporary Short Fiction by Native American Women.Dominique C. Hill, an assistant professor of women’s studies at Colgate University, is a qualitative researcher and body archivist studying Black girlhood and Black queer resistance.Durell M. Callier is an artist-scholar who documents the lived experiences of Black youth and their communities, examining how Black art and creative practices subvert and reimagine Black life in the face of violence.alexis pauline gumbs created the June Jordan Saturday Survival School and the Juneteenth Freedom Academy in Durham, North Carolina, where she co-creates a living library of Black LGBTQ Feminist Brilliance called the Mobile Homecoming Trust with her partner Sangodare. gumbs won the Whiting Award in Nonfiction for Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (AK Press, 2020), and is a National Humanities Center Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, and author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2024)

"June Jordan was an insurgent intellectual giant of her time and ours. But she was more than that. She was a principled Black left feminist internationalist voice in solidarity with Palestine and in defense of LGBTQ justice at a time when many others were quiet. Her words were companions to her actions. Jordan's clarity, courage and steadfastness were matched only by the eloquence of her poetry and prose. This Unruly Witness with its stellar roster of editors and contributors reminds us of Jordan's powerful influence at a time when we all need to stand boldly and staunchly in her tradition." —Barbara Ransby, author, activist and historian“Through poignant, funny, and searing reflections by so many who walked alongside Jordan, this collection offers readers of Jordan's work a living portrait of a great American poet.”—Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, author of Something About Living“If you do not know this poet, no matter how many material possessions you amass—you are impoverished.”—Regie Gibson, Massachusetts Poet Laureate“For June, the struggle ultimately was about and in the service of love. The ways this book allows both to coexist is impressive.”—Cornelius Eady, author of Brutal Imagination

• Foreword: A Definition of Love by Alexis Pauline GumbsPART ONE: POET ON THE WORLD STAGEIn Response to “The Bombing of Baghdad” by June Jordan, Naomi Shihab NyeBlack Alive and Looking Straight at You: The Legacy of June Jordan, Elizabeth AlexanderIt Began as a Romance: The Collaboration of June Jordan and Adrienne B. Torf, Adrienne B. TorfArchive of a Bruise, Arc of the Blues, Alexis De VeauxJune Jordan and the Renaissance of Poetry as a Performing Art, Zack RogowUrban Ghazal, Zack Rogow“A Report from the Bahamas”: And What of Identity Politics? Margo Okazawa-ReyElegy for a Soldier, Marilyn HackerLetter to My Friend, for June Jordan, Kathy EngelPuño en Alto! Libro Abierto! / Fists, Up! Books, Open!: On Anti-Intellectualism, Literacy Brigades, and Revolutionary Consciousness, Maria PobletThe Set Up, Mahogany L. BrowneThe Waters Are Wide: We Can Cross Over, Becky ThompsonCall and Response, Gwendolen HardwickPART TWO: WE ARE LUCKY SHE DAREDSome of Us Did Not Die, Remembering June Jordan, E. Ethelbert MillerBit by Bit, Dima HilalElphinstone, Bombay 1993“The Bombing of Baghdad”: Building Connections in a Time of War, Shanti Bright BrienMaestra, Xochiquetzal CandelariaDear June, Ruth Formannot past, Ariel LuckeyA Blueprint for June’s Love, Sheila MenenzesChoosing a Praxis of Liberation, Kate HolbrookOn the Spirit of June Jordan: The Ultimate Capacities of a School’s Lifeforce, Jessica Wei HuangStay All the Way with Reggie and Ranya, Reid GómezI choose/anything/anyone/I may lose: June Jordan, Faith, and Holy Risk, Dani GabrielBetween the Knuckles of My Own Two Hands: Learning from June Jordan, Sriram ShamasunderPART THREE: THE AWESOME, DIFFICULT WORK OF LOVEA Place of Rage: A Conversation, Angela Y. Davis, Pratibha Parmar, and Leigh RaifordSo Long Our Sisters Love Us Strongly, Rachel Eliza GriffithsIn Response to “Apologies to All the People in Lebanon,” adrienne maree brownAfter June Jordan, A Poem About Police Violence, Jehan BseisoFor the Sake of a People’s Poetry: June Jordan and Walt Whitman, Donna MasiniTruth-Telling as an Emancipatory Act: What June Jordan Taught Me About Liberation, Elizabeth Riva MeyerFinding “Living Room” with My Drone, Zeina AzzamLove Like a Mango, Obvious, Will HorterJune Jordan: When All Things Are Dear Disappear, Wesley BrownSomething Like a Sonnet: Reading June Jordan, Finding My Voice, and Becoming an Oral Historian, Kelly Elaine NaviesChoosing My Mind Between the Mosquitos and the Moon, Ruth Nicole BrownA Note on Praxis and Black Girls, Dominique C. HillBecome a Menace, Afaa M. Weaver 尉雅風Afterword by Imani PerryAcknowledgementsNotesBibliography