Justified Rage: Happy Birthday June Jordan

On July 6th 2022 hundreds of us gathered for an online workshop because we needed June Jordan more than ever. A slate of terrifying Supreme Court decisions including the overturning of abortion protections through Roe v Wade, mass shootings at summer gatherings, pandemic denial and more were sparking our justified rage about the state and structures of our days. June Jordan who had already written poetry in protest of one of our despicable Supreme Court Justice and his white supremacist insurrection inciting wife was exactly the touchstone we needed. And so, three days before her birthday we gathered to write through our own rage. Drawing on her poetry and one particularly beautifully rageful archival letter we used reflective writing to let ourselves explore the depth and complexity of our rage, the connection between our rage and our love and the commitment and clarity our loving rage is teaching us. At the end of our session we wrote a group poem to witness and affirm how rage is transforming us. Here it is. Best read outloud.

Oh and if you want to do the workshop yourself the video is available here: https://sangodare.podia.com/justified-rage-a-transformative-writing-workshop-inspired-by-june-jordan

And if you want to take a deep dive into June Jordan’s poetry you can get all of her poems in the collection Directed by Desire.

Justified Rage

a group poem from the participants in our June Jordan Birthday Workshop

“I must become the action of my fate.”

      June Jordan in “I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies”

I must become

the champion of my heartbreak

            I must become

the transformation of my rage

            I must become

the witness to my own rage and share my rage aloud.

It is the test of the truth of my conviction

            I must become

the catalyst of my grief's transformation.

            I must become

the sanctuary of my purpose.

            I must become

soft(er)

            I must become

the revolution of my fear.

            I must become

the woman my ancestors before me believed I could be.

            I must become

my white body on the line for collective liberation

            I must become

the freedom of my fear.

            i must become

the archeologist of my expectations

            I must become

a salve to my fellow ones in pain

            I must become

the surrender of my wildest dreams.

            I must become

tender

            I must become

the living witness beyond my disposal

            I must become

the butterfly to my lizard

            I must become

the softness of my living heart.

            I must test the power

(or hidden underbelly) of my rage.

            i must become

the momentum of my longing

            I must become

the vessel for rage to bring forth love

            I must become

the growth from the lives and losses I've shed.

            I must become

valuable of my own mind

            I must become

the loving father of my child self

            I must become

the leader of my legacy

            I must become

fully seated in my own power

            I must become

the dance to the rhythm of my life

            I must become

the space my Hopes need to become my Reality.

            i must become

the loudspeaker for my voice and make way for yours & ours

            i must become

the fullness of my possibility

            I must become

the teacher I will learn from.

            I must become

earth, water, mountain, animal

            I must become

the fury of my loving

            I must become

whole so I can help heal.

            I must become

the old one making my way slowly

            i must become

the hope of my tender heart

            I must become

the river of all love

            I must become

the pathway to my most blooming free

            I must become

the marrow of my imagination

            I must become

the next stepping stone toward freedom.

            I must become

the de facto undoing of my destroyers.

            I must become

the tenderness I never extend to myself.

            I must become

the truth of my heart.

            I must become

the grace of my family

            I must become

"the balm" for my own Gilead.

            I must become

the loving witness of my hidden wounds

            I must become

the steady protector of my loving rage.

            I must become

my whole true self, unmasked, naked, beautiful, divine

            i must become

the hero of my sorrows

            i must become

the sound of my desire

            i must become

the medicine to my wounds

            I must become

the pride of my cognitive kin

            I must become

a tidal force where the waters have gone stagnant

            I must become

the refusal of my enemies desires

I must become

fearless of my own fear

            I must become

the stardust of my hope.

            I must become

the joy that is the memory of my future

            I must become

the crucible for my pain’s alchemy.

            I must become

the healing of my neglect

            I must become

the quality of care and presence

            I must become

the permission to redefine rage

            I must become

healed

            I must become

more than my own healing

            i must become

 awareness of all that is

I must become 

shaped by my desires and the terrain which I value my, all life

I must become

as clear as a dewdrop in daybreak

            I must become

the unapologetic love poem

            I must become

Oya goddess of storms who never loses

            I must become

the compost of the hierarchy that has lived in and out of me

I must become          

the wonder that imagines otherwises

I must become

the hope that allows me to protect possibilities

            I must become

all the love I lacked. And grow it tenfold.

           I must become

the vessel that holds space for collective healing

            i must become of

the mother of my rage

I must become

the daughter of my revolution

            I must become

myself