Synopses & Reviews
Affirmative Acts: Political Essays marks the twenty-fifth book in the celebrated career of poet, essayist, activist, and professor June Jordan. The recipient of the Lila Wallace Readers Digest and the PEN West Freedom to Write Awards, Jordan has created a widely influential and ground-breaking body of work over several decades. With the same clear-sighted passion found in her classic essay collections, Civil Wars and Living Room, in Affirmative Acts, Jordan writes brilliantly about controversial, critical, and timely issues that are currently at the center of American debate.
Whether discussing the tragic dismantling of affirmative action; ruminating on the combustible intersections of race, class, gender, and injustice; reflecting on the palpable hatred that infuses American society; or speaking out against worldwide suffering, June Jordan paints, as in her previous works, what she calls "an intimate face of universal struggle".
Intuitive, eloquent, and caustic, Affirmative Acts addresses the human meaning of social, racial, political, and economic conflict.
Synopsis
Piercingly intuitive, eloquent, and caustic, Affirmative Acts is an address to the social, economic, racial, and political conflicts that mar the otherwise beautiful human experience.
In this new collection of political essays, Jordan explores the confusion of an America in the grip of pseudo-multiculturalism and political intolerance. Continuing in the tradition of her classic collections Civil Wars and Technical Difficulties, Jordan acquaints readers with moments of American life threatened by social negligence and economic despair. With her characteristic insight, Jordan unveils how these too-frequent bouts of civil unrest bring out the weakest parts of the American spirit and challenges readers to remain inspired as society approaches the millennium.
June Jordan's wisdom shines through in this brilliant collection of inspirational essays, which will be eagerly awaited by Jordan loyalists and enjoyed by her new readers.