UPDATE – April 25, 2016 – The works of feminist poet/playwright Ntozake Shange, have been acquired by the archives at Barnard College, her alma mater. Shange is best known for the poetic play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” which ran for two years on Broadway in the late 1970s. To learn more about Shange, visit the Bunche Center Library and Media Center. To read the article, Click Here.

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Who’s That Poet? In honor of National Poetry Month, we take a look at  Jamaican writer June Jordan. Take the quiz to find out how much you know!

For more information about poets of color, please visit the Bunche Center Library Media Center.

(image 1 credit, image 2 credit)

A. These lines are from which of June Jordan’s poems?

“Even tonight and I need to take a walk and clear

my head about this poem about why I can’t

go out without changing my clothes my shoes

my body posture my gender identity my age

my status as a women along in the evening”

1. “On a New Year’s Eve”
2. “Jim Crow: The Sequel”
3. “It’s Hard to Keep A Clean Shirt Clean”
4. “Poem About My Rights”

B. Who was June Jordan?

1. A prolific Jamaican frontline writer of American poetry and activist who used writing as a tool to seek liberation for all.
2. An anti-war, pro civil rights feminist who worked heavily with Black/African American leaders in the 1970s (e.g. Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X) to unite people of color.
3. A UC Berkeley professor who gave up teaching to fight at the forefront of the civil rights movement.
4. A divorced woman whose traumatic experience with domestic violence lead her to become a writer to create community and seek liberation.

C. When did Jordan die?

1. 2000
2. 2001
3. 2002
4. 2003

Answers:

A. 4

B. 1

C. 3