Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays [Paperback]

June Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2003

"She remains a thinker and activist who 'insists upon complexity.' "Reamy Jansen, San Francisco Chronicle*Some of Us Did Not Die brings together a rich sampling of the late poet June Jordan's prose writings. The essays in this collection, which include her last writings and span the length of her extraordinary career, reveal Jordan as an incisive analyst of the personal and public costs of remaining committed to the ideal and practice of democracy. Willing to venture into the most painful contradictions of American culture and politics, Jordan comes back with lyrical honesty, wit, and wide-ranging intelligence in these accounts of her reckoning with life as a teacher, poet, activist, and citizen.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

An established voice on racism and feminism, Jordan offers a collection of essays that criticizes our reluctance as a nation and as individuals to examine our own moral stances even as we discuss the immorality of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. She declares that Americans are not hated because the nation is free and just, but because it fails to respect the self-determination of others. The collection includes a letter to a friend of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and several essays on a wide array of subjects, including reversals of affirmative action, breast cancer, rape, O. J. Simpson, racial and sexual identity, and bisexuality. All of the pieces are aimed at provoking readers to adapt a larger, more global perspective. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"She remains a thinker and activist who 'insists upon complexity.' " -- Reamy Jansen, San Francisco Chronicle

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (May 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465036937
• ISBN-13: 978-0465036936
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A luminous voice that is missed..., October 19, 2002

By 

A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Some Of Us Did Not Die: Selected Essays (Hardcover)

June Jordan was many things: woman, Mother, friend, poet activist essayist. She excelled, apparantly, at each. She died earlier this year from breast cancer. She left us this final testament, a group of essays that touch on allof her abiding concersn: race, poetry,feminism, anit-semitism, The plight of the Palestinian refugees, breast cancer,militarism, rape[agonizingly, she had been rapes. Twice!},Martin Luther King, Jr. and his womanising...She touched on each of these subjects in essays, rails about the lack of spending in research in breast cancer, goes to a LA synagogue for Shabbat service after a psychotic gunmen had opened fire at a Jewish day care centre,speaks about her son and his childhood friend, Daniel Pearl, who had been brutally murdered in pakistan,wonders aloud about the racial implication of the 2000 election and the curiopus way it was handled in Fla., speaks on rape in blunt,terrifying fashion. June jordan was a superb writer, and a better human being. the world is emptier without her light and wisdom, though as succor we have her essays and poems, for which I, for one, am so damn grateful. Highly recommended

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than words...., June 25, 2005

By 

A. Harper "Breeze Harper" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays (Paperback)

This is an excellent piece of literary art. June Jordan, quite frankly, "makes love to the English language." This is how I describe the writing in this book. It is rare that I feel connected to any author in the way that I feel emotionally and spiritually connected to Ms. Jordan, through her writing. It is the first work of hers that I picked up. At the time, I was unaware that she had passed away from breast cancer. She will be missed but I am confident that her words and legacy will never be forgotten.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A loss to the world, December 4, 2004

By 

Kaye Barlow (Vancouver Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays (Paperback)

A poet, an activist, a writer and a teacher, June Jordan died in 2002.

It is somewhat depressing to read these essays, some of them years old, and realize how little events have improved or changed. Her essay on Palestine's children is one such example. The title of her book refers to the attacks on September 11th, and she ranges over subjects such as poverty, racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, rape and far too many of the horrors of the world. Articulate and passionate, Jordan brings a keen creative mind to her subjects and strangely enough, considering her subjects, a feeling of optimism.

Reading Jordan does give one some hope for the future and the fervent wish for more of her ilk. An original, creative mind, she is sorely missed.