From the Vault: June Jordan

Born in 1936 in Harlem, New York and raised in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as the only child of her Jamaican Immigrant parents, June Jordan began writing poetry at an early age…

June Jordan began teaching poetry in 1967 at the City College of New York.

The Pacifica Radio Archives has a rare interview and poetry reading with June Jordan in 1968 from our New York WBAI studioby famed producer and writer Julius Lester.

The year following this interview in 1969 June Jordan would publish her first book of poetry and then continue writing 27 more books before her death in 2002.

In 1969 she would also begin an illustrious teaching career at Yale University Sarah Lawrence College and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

In 1989 she would relocate to the West Coast and become full professor in English, Women Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Here she would begin a long relationship with Pacifica’s flagship station KPFA.

But in 1994 June Jordan sat down with Pacifica Station KPFK’s Josie Catoggio, coproducer of the weekly program Feminist Magazine, and conducted one of the most comprehensive interviews with the prolific June Jordan.

June Jordan spent much of her time passing along her knowledge of poetry with her students of all ages. Jordan would often times show up at poetry events where she was the featured poet, and have her students read their own poetry before her.

Taking part in local, national, and global movements was an important part of June Jordan’s life. She incorporated her civic life as an important component of her social life. It was not uncommon to see June Jordan at town hall meetings and mass movement ralleys. Here, June Jordan speaks to a massive crowd in San Francisco in 1991 a week after the United States became engaged in the Gulf War.

Here is Pacifica station WBAI Producer Julius Lester with June Jordan in 1968

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