June Jordan was the author of ten books of poetry, seven collections of essays, two plays, one libretto, a novel, a memoir, five children's books and "June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint." She received the U.S. Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Conference of Black Writers, the PEN Center USA West Freedom to Write Award, and was nominated for the National Book Award. As a professor at UC Berkeley, Jordan established Poetry for the People, a program to train student teachers how to teach the power of poetry from a multicultural worldview. She was a regular columnist for The Progressive and her articles appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, Ms., Essence, and The Nation. After her death from breast cancer in 2002, a school in the San Francisco School District was re-named in her honor.

About Directed by Desire:

"June Jordan . . . wrote from her experience in a woman's body and a dark skin, though never solely 'as' or 'for.' Sharply critical of nationalism, separatism, chauvinism of all kinds, as tendencies toward narrowness and isolation, she was too aware of democracy's failures to embrace false integrations. Her poetic sensibility was kindred to Blake's scrutiny of innocence and experience; to Whitman's vision of sexual and social breadth; to Gwendolyn Brooks' and Romare Bearden's portrayals of ordinary black people's lives; to James Baldwin's expression of the bitter contradictions within the republic."
—Adrienne Rich