The Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley’s 2021-22 Critical Conversations speaker series is organized as a celebration of the life and legacy of June Jordan, a gifted and prolific writer, a powerful activist, an innovative teacher and a longtime member of our Department. Fall 2021 will be devoted to June’s activist work, her prose and her architectural imaginary. Spring 2022 will be devoted to her work as a poet and teacher. Building on our successful Spring 2021 series celebrating Dr. Barbara Christian and exploring the concept of abolition democracy, this series continues to ask: what are the lessons of the Black Feminist, Black Radical, and Black intellectual traditions for our moment and what is the role of Black Studies in building more just futures?

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Critical Conversations 2021-22: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of June Jordan.

Black Childhoods

On April 4, 2022 the Critical Conversations series offered a creative follow-up to the fall semester Black Girlhood panel by featuring two poets whose work foregrounds Black childhood: Joshua Bennett (Dartmouth) and Chiyuma Elliott (UC Berkeley). Bennett and Elliott will read their work, share some of their favorite poems written by June Jordan, and then participate in a conversation about Black childhood in life and literature co-moderated by UC Berkeley Professor Nikki Jones and doctoral candidate reelaviolette bitts-ward (African American Studies). This event is in culmination of a year-long celebration of June Jordan’s life and legacy.