The definitive introduction to the work of the bravest of us . . . the universal poet Alice WalkerFor the poet and activist June Jordan neither poetry nor activism could easily be disentangled from the other. Her storied career came to chronicle a living breathing history of the struggles that defined the USA in the latter half of the twentieth century and her poetry accordingly put its dazzling stylistic range to use in exploring issues of gender race immigration representation and much else besides.Here above all are sinuous lashing and passionate lines virtuosic in their musicality and always bearing the stamp of Jordans irrepressible personality. Here are poems of suffusing light and profound anger poems moved as much by political animus as by a deep love for the observation of human life in all its foibles eccentricities strengths and weaknesses.With a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown The Essential June Jordan allows new readers to discover and old fans to rediscover the vital work of this endlessly surprising poet who in the words of Adrienne Rich believed that genuine upfromthebottom revolution must include art laughter sensual pleasure and the widest possible human referentiality.