Conference

A Tribute to June Jordan

Fri, May 18, 2018

10:30 AM–8:00 PM

Proshansky Auditorium C-Level Rooms

Join us for “A Tribute to June Jordan” an intergenerational exploration of the legendary teacher, activist, and poet’s life, work, and legacy. Organized in the vein of a day-long conference, it will run from late morning to evening, with lectures, panels, discussions and readings. The conference is a partnership between Cave Canem Foundation, the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust, Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative,the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC), and The Feminist Press at CUNY.

SCHEDULE

10:30am – 11:15am: Keynote Lecture by Jan Heller Levi

11:30am – 12:15pm: Liberatory Pedagogy
Conor Tomas Reed, Talia Shalev, Dorothy Wang

1:15pm – 2:30pm: Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint for Building Literary Communities
JP Howard, Joseph Legaspi, and Deborah Paredez, moderated by Hafizah Geter

2:45pm – 4pm: For the Sake of People’s Poetry: A Discussion of Jordan’s Essay about Inclusivity and Accessibility
Donna Masini, E. Ethelbert Miller and Evie Shockley, moderated by Erica Hunt

4:15pm – 5:30pm: We’re On: Writers in Conversation about how the June Jordan Reader can carry us into new forms of revolution
Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Suzanne Gardinier, and Patricia Spears Jones, moderated by Carey Salerno

6:30 pm: A Reading of June Jordan’s Work
Jennifer Benka, Dr. Joshua Bennett, Hafizah Geter, aracelis girmay, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, JP Howard, Erica Hunt, Tyehimba Jess, Patricia Spears Jones, Christoph Keller, Joseph Legaspi, and Evie Shockley

Room C204 will be set up as a June Jordan library/reading room, and will be available throughout the conference as a quiet room and as a space to sit with June Jordan’s writing and books. A viewing/listening station will also host a video selection of June Jordan reading from her work.

Co-sponsored by Cave Canem Foundation; the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust; the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY; Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative; the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC); The Feminist Press at CUNY; and HarperCollins Publishers.