For Immediate Release: May 9, 2006
Contact: Sherri Eng (415) 557-4282
seng@sfpl.org
Bay Area Poets, Artists Celebrate June Jordan’s Work
A group of Bay Area poets, writers, activists, and artists will celebrate June Jordan’s life and read from her poetry at Directed by Desire: A Reading of June Jordan’s Poetry at 2 p.m. on May 21 in the Koret Auditorium at the Main Library.
The event will celebrate the tender, fierce, innovative poetry of Jordan, and her enduring influence on generations of writers, poets, activists and artists. Jordan’s new collection of poems, Directed by Desire, is cause for celebration and reflection on
the poet and the meaning of her work. Sara Miles, executor of Jordan’s literary estate and co-editor of the book, will introduce the legacy of one of America’s most beloved political thinkers and writers. Angela Davis, Al Young, Janice Mirikitani,
Junichi Semitsu, Zack Rogow, and Maria Poblet will read from Directed by Desire. Members of Poetry for the People, the program Jordan founded at the University of California at Berkeley, will perform “Poem About My Rights,” and special documentary footage of Jordan reading several of her most powerful poems will be shown.
Born in Harlem and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Jordan was the author and editor of 28 books; poetry, essays, novels for children and a memoir. Throughout her life, Jordan never withdrew her mind’s eye from a controversial or sensitive image. She
wielded language with great skill and passion, crafting powerful mediations on war, poverty, race, violence, family, friendship, sexuality, love, and the cancer that ended her life. Jordan’s poetry is at once serious, humorous, astute, sexy, formally
innovative and profoundly generous in spirit; Adrienne Rich calls Jordan the “most personal of political poets.” Jordan died in 2002 in Berkeley.
Upon the release of Directed by Desire, the American Library Association’s Booklist magazine called it “a powerful addition to the entire canon of American poetry.” The book also received a special recognition award in Poetry & Publishing from the
Northern California Book Reviewers, and is currently a finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the Audre Lorde Award.
This event is co-presented by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Copper Canyon Press, The Poetry Center and American Poetry Archive, and Poetry for the People.
All programs and events are free and open to the public.
For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.
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