THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

June Jordan

July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002

“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black.”– 1978 Address to Black Writers Conference, Howard University

 Award-winning poet, professor, political activist. African American literature, LGBT literature. Fierce commitment to human rights and political activism. Attended Barnard College and the University of Chicago. Author of more than twenty-five major works of poetry, fiction and essays, children’s books; one of the most published African American writers. Began teaching at City College of New York, 1967. Taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College and Connecticut College, 1968-1978. Director of The Poetry Center at SUNY, Stony Brook and English professor, 1978-1989. Full professor of English, Women’s Studies, and African American Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-2002. Founded “Poetry for the People” program, University of California, Berkeley, 1991. National LGBTQ Wall of Honor, Stonewall National Monument, 2019.