Some of Us Did Not Die: Selected Essays

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.

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.

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