Barnard Alumna and Former Professor Calls for Brooklyn Memorial to June Jordan in The Village Voice, July 2

New York, NY, July 3, 2002—In the July 2 Village Voice, Thulani Davis ’70 and former professor of English at Barnard, called for a memorial to be erected in honor of Brooklyn native June Jordan ’57 in her article commemorating what Jordan’s poetry and life meant to her.

"The loss of June Jordan is a great one," Davis begins. "A loss for the legions who took up writing poems because she inspired; a loss for the friends she held close; a loss for American literature, which did not give her her due; and a loss for countless activists who took courage from the bottomless pit of determination that was June."

Jordan, who succumbed on June 14 to the breast cancer she had been fighting for a decade, was clearly a beacon of hope for Davis, who says, "I personally owe her for telling me how to look at my own life’s metaphors and improve more than poetry."

In calling for a memorial to Jordan, Davis says it is time those who were thanked in Jordan’s final book, Some of Us Did Not Die, as well as those who were touched by her life and poetry give something back to her.

"In a borough that has landmarks for the writers Thomas Wolfe, W.H. Auden, and Henry Miller, just to name three, there ought to be a street in Bed-Stuy called June Jordan Place," she writes, "And maybe a plaque reading, ‘A Poet and Soldier for Humanity Was Born Here.’ I’m serious about that."

Click here to read the full Village Voice article.

Contact: Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
James Griffith, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7583