This Unruly Witness
June Jordan's Legacy
Published on 11. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
979-8-88890-457-2 (ISBN)
Description
A collection of bold and tender writing on June Jordan's multidimensional legacy as a poet, healer, and activist.
This Unruly Witness was curated for people who see love as a life force, who seek a community that can sustain us, who know that "we are the ones we have been waiting for." Celebrating the life and legacy of the poet activist June Jordan, this collection illuminates why we need Jordan more than ever.
Featuring a foreword by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, an afterword from Imani Perry, essays, poems, letters, and interviews from internationally acclaimed poets and thinkers such as Angela Davis, Pratibha Parmar, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Naomi Shihab Nye, Afaa M. Weaver, E. Ethelbert Miller, and many other people touched by Jordan's work.
This Unruly Witness was curated for people who see love as a life force, who seek a community that can sustain us, who know that "we are the ones we have been waiting for." Celebrating the life and legacy of the poet activist June Jordan, this collection illuminates why we need Jordan more than ever.
Featuring a foreword by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, an afterword from Imani Perry, essays, poems, letters, and interviews from internationally acclaimed poets and thinkers such as Angela Davis, Pratibha Parmar, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Naomi Shihab Nye, Afaa M. Weaver, E. Ethelbert Miller, and many other people touched by Jordan's work.
Reviews / Votes
"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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
No
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-88890-457-2 (9798888904572)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2025
Haymarket Books
€9.49
Available for download
Persons
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)
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)
Content
Foreword: A Definition of Love by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
PART ONE: POET ON THE WORLD STAGE
In Response to "The Bombing of Baghdad" by June Jordan, Naomi Shihab Nye
Black Alive and Looking Straight at You: The Legacy of June Jordan, Elizabeth Alexander
It Began as a Romance: The Collaboration of June Jordan and Adrienne B. Torf, Adrienne B. Torf
Archive of a Bruise, Arc of the Blues, Alexis De Veaux
June Jordan and the Renaissance of Poetry as a Performing Art, Zack Rogow
Urban Ghazal, Zack Rogow
"A Report from the Bahamas": And What of Identity Politics? Margo Okazawa-Rey
Elegy for a Soldier, Marilyn Hacker
Letter to My Friend, for June Jordan, Kathy Engel
Puno en Alto! Libro Abierto! / Fists, Up! Books, Open!: On Anti-Intellectualism, Literacy Brigades, and Revolutionary Consciousness, Maria Poblet
The Set Up, Mahogany L. Browne
The Waters Are Wide: We Can Cross Over, Becky Thompson
Call and Response, Gwendolen Hardwick
PART TWO: WE ARE LUCKY SHE DARED
Some of Us Did Not Die, Remembering June Jordan, E. Ethelbert Miller
Bit by Bit, Dima Hilal
Elphinstone, Bombay 1993
"The Bombing of Baghdad": Building Connections in a Time of War, Shanti Bright Brien
Maestra, Xochiquetzal Candelaria
Dear June, Ruth Forman
not past, Ariel Luckey
A Blueprint for June's Love, Sheila Menenzes
Choosing a Praxis of Liberation, Kate Holbrook
On the Spirit of June Jordan: The Ultimate Capacities of a School's Lifeforce, Jessica Wei Huang
Stay All the Way with Reggie and Ranya, Reid Gomez
I choose/anything/anyone/I may lose: June Jordan, Faith, and Holy Risk, Dani Gabriel
Between the Knuckles of My Own Two Hands: Learning from June Jordan, Sriram Shamasunder
PART THREE: THE AWESOME, DIFFICULT WORK OF LOVE
A Place of Rage: A Conversation, Angela Y. Davis, Pratibha Parmar, and Leigh Raiford
So Long Our Sisters Love Us Strongly, Rachel Eliza Griffiths
In Response to "Apologies to All the People in Lebanon," adrienne maree brown
After June Jordan, A Poem About Police Violence, Jehan Bseiso
For the Sake of a People's Poetry: June Jordan and Walt Whitman, Donna Masini
Truth-Telling as an Emancipatory Act: What June Jordan Taught Me About Liberation, Elizabeth Riva Meyer
Finding "Living Room" with My Drone, Zeina Azzam
Love Like a Mango, Obvious, Will Horter
June Jordan: When All Things Are Dear Disappear, Wesley Brown
Something Like a Sonnet: Reading June Jordan, Finding My Voice, and Becoming an Oral Historian, Kelly Elaine Navies
Choosing My Mind Between the Mosquitos and the Moon, Ruth Nicole Brown
A Note on Praxis and Black Girls, Dominique C. Hill
Become a Menace, Afaa M. Weaver ???
Afterword by Imani Perry
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
PART ONE: POET ON THE WORLD STAGE
In Response to "The Bombing of Baghdad" by June Jordan, Naomi Shihab Nye
Black Alive and Looking Straight at You: The Legacy of June Jordan, Elizabeth Alexander
It Began as a Romance: The Collaboration of June Jordan and Adrienne B. Torf, Adrienne B. Torf
Archive of a Bruise, Arc of the Blues, Alexis De Veaux
June Jordan and the Renaissance of Poetry as a Performing Art, Zack Rogow
Urban Ghazal, Zack Rogow
"A Report from the Bahamas": And What of Identity Politics? Margo Okazawa-Rey
Elegy for a Soldier, Marilyn Hacker
Letter to My Friend, for June Jordan, Kathy Engel
Puno en Alto! Libro Abierto! / Fists, Up! Books, Open!: On Anti-Intellectualism, Literacy Brigades, and Revolutionary Consciousness, Maria Poblet
The Set Up, Mahogany L. Browne
The Waters Are Wide: We Can Cross Over, Becky Thompson
Call and Response, Gwendolen Hardwick
PART TWO: WE ARE LUCKY SHE DARED
Some of Us Did Not Die, Remembering June Jordan, E. Ethelbert Miller
Bit by Bit, Dima Hilal
Elphinstone, Bombay 1993
"The Bombing of Baghdad": Building Connections in a Time of War, Shanti Bright Brien
Maestra, Xochiquetzal Candelaria
Dear June, Ruth Forman
not past, Ariel Luckey
A Blueprint for June's Love, Sheila Menenzes
Choosing a Praxis of Liberation, Kate Holbrook
On the Spirit of June Jordan: The Ultimate Capacities of a School's Lifeforce, Jessica Wei Huang
Stay All the Way with Reggie and Ranya, Reid Gomez
I choose/anything/anyone/I may lose: June Jordan, Faith, and Holy Risk, Dani Gabriel
Between the Knuckles of My Own Two Hands: Learning from June Jordan, Sriram Shamasunder
PART THREE: THE AWESOME, DIFFICULT WORK OF LOVE
A Place of Rage: A Conversation, Angela Y. Davis, Pratibha Parmar, and Leigh Raiford
So Long Our Sisters Love Us Strongly, Rachel Eliza Griffiths
In Response to "Apologies to All the People in Lebanon," adrienne maree brown
After June Jordan, A Poem About Police Violence, Jehan Bseiso
For the Sake of a People's Poetry: June Jordan and Walt Whitman, Donna Masini
Truth-Telling as an Emancipatory Act: What June Jordan Taught Me About Liberation, Elizabeth Riva Meyer
Finding "Living Room" with My Drone, Zeina Azzam
Love Like a Mango, Obvious, Will Horter
June Jordan: When All Things Are Dear Disappear, Wesley Brown
Something Like a Sonnet: Reading June Jordan, Finding My Voice, and Becoming an Oral Historian, Kelly Elaine Navies
Choosing My Mind Between the Mosquitos and the Moon, Ruth Nicole Brown
A Note on Praxis and Black Girls, Dominique C. Hill
Become a Menace, Afaa M. Weaver ???
Afterword by Imani Perry
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography