Civil Wars

by June Jordan

In Civil Wars, June Jordan's battleground is the intersection of private and public reality, which she explores through a blending of personal reflection and political analysis. From journal entries on the line between poetry and politics and a discussion of language and power in "White" versus "Black" English to First Amendment issues, children's rights, Black studies, American violence, and sexuality, Jordan documents the very personal ways in which she meshes with the social issues of modern-day life in this country.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Feminism, Poetry, Race, History, Theory

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was a Caribbean-American poet and activist.

Jordan received numerous honors and awards, including a 1969-70 Rockefeller grant for creative writing, a Yaddo Fellowship in 1979, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1982, and the Achievement Award for International Reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists in 1984. Jordan also won the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers Award from 1995 to 1998 as well as the Ground Breakers-Dream Makers Award from The Woman's Foundation in 1994.

She was included in Who's Who in America from 1984 until her death. She received the Chancellor's Distinguished Lectureship from UC Berkeley and the PEN Center USA West Freedom to Write Award (1991).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is beautiful and deep and all about writing and struggle and fury and family and love and race. Written by a poet, the language ranges from fierce to sumptuous and every now and then you worry that you're getting to that edge so many creative people got of self-involvement, but don't worry, because you never get there. She is too thoughtful, too committed to work and change and words to get there. She teaches and learns, she was there for the riots in Harlem in 1964 and her white husband never came back to her and their child. She can speak -- as no white person I know -- of the 'unspeakably brutal year of 1968'. Thinks about Black English and poetry and Brooklyn poverty and Franz Fanon and Agostinho Neto and Richard Wright and her worn down mother and abusive father and white liberals and even writes of her arguments with Frances Fox Piven -- see, sometimes you also kind of worry that some things should not be so public, but then you think about it and can't decide because it is so important to talk about these things and we don't. They fought over Zionism, but agreed that 'it has never been who is the leader but rather who are the people. It has never been what is the organization but what is the crisis'. Though I ask too, how do you sustain it? And how do you become a good daughter? And how do you overcome everything you will face?

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

June Jordan may be the collateral victim of my hatred for this class I'm in. And I apologize to the late Ms. Jordan. For her ideas are important, and her prose - as a poet herself - can be beautiful, and Civil Wars wasn't, per se, bad; but, I couldn't find within myself a possible recovery for a reading that, in context, left me wishing I had been reading something else.

[a]

“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love and respect myself as though my very life depends on self-love and self-respect. … The achievement of self-love and self-respect will require inordinate, hourly vigilance, and I am entering my soul into a struggle that will most certainly transform the experience of all the peoples of the Earth.”

[Beth MacDougall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing content, but the writing style wasn’t for me :(

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coursework coursework coursework

[Rivse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The joyously pugilistic essays collected here on topics as diverse as the Harlem riot of 1964, Apocalypse Now, Black English, feminism, and Jordan’s own vocation as a poet cover the generative tumult of the 1960s and the retrenchments and defeats of the 1970s, becoming if anything more zestfully bellicose as they proceed through the years. Though (as she says in the foreword) Jordan is not naturally given to fighting, she’s game for a brawl if necessary, using as weapons a poet’s concision and velocity of language, a kind of bemused outrage that fights over matters that ought to be settled common sense are necessary at all, and a deep, abiding love for those she defends and, more surprising, even those she excoriates. The best essay here is the last, on Jordan’s querulous friendship with Frances Fox Piven and the Miami uprising of 1980. Bonus: a cameo appearance by Toni Cade Bambara in the foreword to one essay, offering Jordan this advice on teaching: “Anything you have to give, just give it to them. They’ll be grateful for it.”

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Civil Wars is a gem of a book, filled with essays, letters, and speeches by the brilliant and prolific, yet often overlooked, revolutionary poets and writer of our time, June Jordan. Although the book was published in 1981, her writings about U.S. society, education, public/private space, police violence, racism, sexuality, and Black feminism still feel urgent and relevant. I have always appreciated Jordan's attention to youth and the rights of children in her work, and some of the essays touch on these subjects too. I learned about this particular book of hers in particular from the great Mariame Kaba, digital organizer and abolitionist (and author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us), who referred to this book in a podcast interview, urging everyone to read it.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays written in the 1960s and 1970s is as relevant today as when it was written. As a Black feminist, Jordan received a lot of criticism for her writing, although it is spot on. Her observations are incisive and deeply heartfelt.

This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they understand what has been happening in America and the world since the mid-20th century.

Don't believe in the status quo! Question authority.

[Oriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this while in the fire of a PTSD relapse and it was such a balm. I’ve only read June’s poetry before this collection of essays and observations and I was so blown away by how hard and deep June loved humanity. The introduction reads like a clarion call for this moment of human life — there is so much to fight for, so will we fight for each other? yes yes YES

[Katie C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Particularly "Black Studies: Bringing Back the Person", "Where Is the Love?", and "Civil Wars"

[Amy Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prophetic and gorgeous writing.

[Briana Shaw]

I havent strted yet

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Jordan's writing voice and found many of the essays compelling. It's also nice to see how so many of the Black female writers at the time were in conversation with each other.

[yasmina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incisive, powerful, and observant. These essays felt so relevant to these times. I so enjoy June Jordan's work.

[Avatara Smith carrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was honestly such a pleasure to read because of the variety of topics June Jordan is so effortlessly able to cover. Her ability to voice the unrest around black bodies and violence/disenfranchisement eerily sets a semi-modern precedence for all that is continuing to happen to black people in the US. It was also great to read her opinions on a range of topics from architecture to AAVE and see the progressions of not only her ideas but her ability to cover such topics also progress.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

June Jordan wrote these essays about events that took place 40 or 50 years ago; she could have been writing about yesterday. The essays speak of an imperialist war, the crisis in education for low income children and children of color, misunderstandings of race. She is a poet and writes as a poet. It's an amazing book and now I'd like to read her memoir.

[Ferentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jordan seamlessly blends memoir, journalism and cultural criticism in this series of essays.

[Nour · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Voice of the Children (1967)
White English/Black English: The Politics of Translation (1972)
American Violence and the Holy Loving Spirit (1972)
Notes Towards a Black Balancing of Love and Hatred (1974)
Declaration of an Independence I Would Just as Soon Not Have (1976)
Black History as Myth (1979)
Beyond Apocalypse Now (1980)
Civil Wars (1980)