Becoming A Menace to Our Enemies: The Transformative Teachings of June Jordan: A Reading List by Breya Johnson
Collage of June Jordan by Doriana Diaz.
A reading list by Breya Johnson from her teach-in “Becoming A Menace to Our Enemies: The Transformative Teachings of June Jordan” for the School for Black Feminist Politics.
On Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 3:30 PM EST, writer and educator Breya Johnson led her first teach-in “Becoming A Menace to Our Enemies: The Transformative Teachings of June Jordan” of a two-part teach-in series for The School for Black Feminist Politics. You can watch the teach-in here.
About the teach-in: June Jordan was a poet, activist, journalist, essayist and teacher. She was concerned with the conditions of survival in and beyond the United States. Her work embodied a sense of urgency and a radical refusal to accept things the way they are. She taught us constantly that there is another possibility. Together we will explore Jordan's lessons and trace a radical care ethic throughout. How does one become a menace to their enemies? About Breya Johnson: Breya M. Johnson (she/they) is a cultural worker and freelance writer living in Brooklyn NY. Her work looks at modes of disposability, Black health, reproductive justice, radical love, and abolition. She is interested in the inner workings of Black women and girls and is finding a location for healing in the writings of black folks globally.
Photo of Breya Johnson. Courtesy of Breya Johnson.
About Breya Johnson: Breya M. Johnson (she/they) is a cultural worker and freelance writer living in Brooklyn NY. Her work looks at modes of disposability, Black health, reproductive justice, radical love, and abolition. She is interested in the inner workings of Black women and girls and is finding a location for healing in the writings of black folks globally. You can follow her @TheBlackLayers on Twitter and @theblackestlayers and @blackreadingtoheal on Instagram.
The Transformative Teachings of June Jordan: A Reading List
Poems:
Moral leadership as Political Dilemma
Essays:
The following essays can be found in Some of Us Did Not Die:
Many Rivers to Cross
A LETTER TO MARIA
Black people and the Law
The following essays can be found in Life As Activism
I am seeking an attitude
Breast Cancer Still Here: Feb 1999
Books from June Jordan’s website:
His Own Where, The Feminist Press, New York, May, 2010. Reissue.
Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, 2005.
Soulscript: A Collection of Classic African American Poetry, Harlem Moon Classics, 2004. Reissue.
Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays, Basic Books, New York, 2002.
Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, Basic Books, New York, 2000.
Books from June Jordan’s website (cont’d):
Affirmative Acts: Politcal Essays, Doubleday, 1998.
Kissing God Goodbye: New Poems, Doubleday, 1997.
Civil Wars, Scribner's, 1996. New edition with a new introductory essay.
June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint, Routledge, 1995.
I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, Scribner's, 1995.
Haruko/Love Poems, Virago Press, 1994.
Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union, Pantheon Press, 1992.
Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1989.
Lyrical Campaigns: Selected Poems, Virago Press, London, 1989.
Moving Towards Home: Political Essays, Virago Press, London, 1989.
Living Room: New Poems, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1985.
On Call: Political Essays, South End Press, 1985.
Civil Wars: Selected Essays 1963-1980, Beacon Press, 1981.
Kimako's Story, Houghton Mifflin, 1981.
Passion: New Poems 1977-1980, Beacon Press, Boston, 1980.
Things That I Do in the Dark, Random House, 1977.
New Life: New Room, T. Y. Crowell, 1975.
New Days: Poems of Exile and Return, Emerson Hall, 1974.
Dry Victories, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Fannie Lou Hamer, T. Y. Crowell, 1971.
His Own Where, T. Y. Crowell, 1971.
Some Changes, E. P. Dutton, 1971.
Soulscript: Afro-American Poetry, Doubleday, 1970.
The Voice of the Children, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
Who Look at Me, T. Y. Crowell, 1969.
Documentary
Essays about June Jordan
The Love Poetry of June Jordan By Peter Erickson
Remembering June Jordan by Author(s): Adrienne Torf, Jan Heller Levi, Sara Miles, Ruth Forman, Donna Masini, Alexis De Veaux, Laura Flanders and Marilyn Hacker
June Jordan Work Breya used throughout the teach in:
Poem Resolution # 1,003
A Poem About My Rights
Directed by Desire
Many Rivers to Cross
Black people and the Law
The Blood Shall be sign unto you
Breast Cancer Still Here: Feb 1999
I am seeking an attitude
civil wars "forward"
Where is the love?
On Moral Leadership as Political Dilemma
The test of Atlanta
A Letter to Maria
Remembering June Jordan
The Essential June Jordan
Life as Activism