Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan

June Jordan (1936–2002) was born in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrant parents and became a powerful political poet, essayist, and activist over her forty-year career. Her poetry and prose addressed race, gender, sexuality, and imperialism with extraordinary clarity and urgency. Her collections include Things That I Do in the Dark (1977), Passion (1980), and Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon, 2005). She taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded the Poetry for the People program, committed to teaching poetry as a tool for social change. She received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.