The Voice of the Children

by June Jordan

Twenty black and Puerto Rican children write their poetic impressions of growing up in the ghettos of America.

Genres: Poetry

101 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 1970

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

[BookChampions · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1970, The Voice of the Children is a collection of writings by a group of young writers mostly 12-14 years old, who worked with poet and teacher June Jordan in the late 60s. It is significant because it is such an early example of the validation of the student voice. Like Brave New Voices' teen slam competition--some of the most powerful writing I've ever seen "performed," made more powerful by the youth of the writers--this book reminds me why I teach.

June Jordan writes a short afterword, and it is worth immortalizing here:

"It would be something fine if we could learn how to bless the lives of children. They are the people of new life. Children are the only people nobody can blame. They are the only ones always willing to make a start; they have no choice. Children are the ways the world begin again and again.

"But in general, our children have no voice--that we will listen to. We force, we blank them into the bugle/bell regulated lineup of the Army/school, and we insist on silence.

"But even if we cannot learn to bless their lives (our future times), at least we can try to find out how we already curse and burden their experience: how we limit the wheeling of their inner eyes, how we terrify their trust, and how we condemn the raucous laughter of their natural love. What's more, if we will hear them, they will teach us what they need; they will bluntly formulate the tenderness of their deserving."

The children may be the true stars of this collection, but it is the words of Jordan that resonate most with me. June Jordan is fast becoming a hero of mine.