FEMINISM AND POETRY
A Literary Analysis of June Jordan’s Revolutionary Works
by Phanith Sovann
June Jordan
http://manjioca.files.wo
rdpress.com/2009/03/ju
ne-jordan.jpg
•Born in Harlem New
York on July 1936
•Poet, novelist,
playwright, essayist,
educator, activist,
biographer
•Best known for her
poetry and essays
 Thesis:
 Outline:
Feminist theories find
expression in June
Jordan’s poetry
Introduction
I. June Jordan’s life
II. Black Feminist theory
in Jordan’s poetry
 A. “Poem about my
rights”
III. Critical Race Theory in
Jordan’s poetry
IV. Conclusion
“Poem about my Rights”
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 woman alone in the
evening/ alone on the streets/alone not being
the point/ the point being that I can’t do what
I want / to do with my own body because I am
the wrong / sex the wrong age the wrong skin
and
Feminism in two different
Texts
“Poem about my Rights”
“A Black Feminist Statement”
 June Jordan
 Combahee River Collective
 A poem
 A statement
 Subjective experience
 Collective conscience
 Use of “my” and “I”
 Use of “we”
Conclusion:
 No one method is better than the other
 One may be preferable than the other
according to audience and circumstance
 Able to reach a wider and broader audience if
we convey our messages through different
means