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JUNE JORDAN was a poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, activist, and educator known for challenging oppression through her inspirational words and actions. The author of over twenty books, her poetry is collected in Directed by Desire; and her selected essays in Some of Us Did Not Die.

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His Own Where

June Jordan

Introduction by Sapphire

When His Own Where was first published in 1971, it gained both praise and notoriety. A finalist for the National Book Award, June Jordan’s first young adult novel was considered controversial for being written entirely in Black English. Would children be encouraged to shirk the mastery of standard English, or would they, as Jordan proposed, become more engaged in a story about urban survival and the power of love, written as people actually speak?

This Contemporary Classic is introduced by bestselling author Sapphire, who writes about what is real and necessary about June Jordan, and this rediscovered gem.

“This June Jordan treasure is a rare piece of fiction from one of America's most vital poets and political essayists—a tender story of young love in the face of generational opposition, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet that sings and sways.”

—Walter Mosley

"There must be bridges if we are to reach our young. His Own Where promises to be one."

—New York Times Book Review

“Jordan makes us think of Akhmatova, of Neruda. She is among the bravest of us, the most outraged. She feels for all. She is the universal poet.”

—Alice Walker

“Whatever her theme or mode, June Jordan continually delineates the conditions of survival—of the body, and mind, and the heart.”

—Adrienne Rich

“In political journalism that cuts like razors, in essays that blast the darkness of confusion with relentless light; in poetry that looks as closely into lilac buds as into death’s mouth. . . . she has comforted, explained, described, wrestled with, taught and made us laugh out loud before we wept…I am talking about a span of forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fueled by flawless art.”

—Toni Morrison

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