June Jordan, lauded dissident poet, writer, and radical thinker, taught at Stony Brook University from 1978 to 1989. In 2024–2025, a group of scholars held a monthly reading and discussion group (aka a book club) to reintroduce Jordan’s work to a new generation, focusing on her writing and speaking about Palestine, human rights, global solidarity, and racial justice during her years at Stony Brook University, excavating part of SBU’s institutional legacy for our collective benefit and survival.

Supported by SBU’s Department of Africana Studies, the Lichtenstein Center for the Creative Arts, the Department of English, the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Judi Brown Clarke, the group was facilitated by a team of artists and scholars: Dr. Abena Ampofoa Asare (Africana Studies and CCSP, SBU), Dr. Alexis De Veaux (emerita, SUNY Buffalo), Kathy Engel (Tisch School of the Arts, NYU), Jenna Hamed (Parsons School of Design, The New School), and Ahmad Almahdi (Tisch School of the Arts, NYU).

Together, they focused on June Jordan’s thinking about community solidarity, complicity, and accountability in the context of dehumanizing global violence.

This initiative has already sparked campus-wide actions and upcoming events, including the Poems from Palestine / Earthstock 2025 action and the Fall 2025 symposium, On Call!: June Jordan, Palestine, and the Black Radical Tradition at Stony Brook (November 7, 2025).

To learn more or join the ongoing work, please reach out to Dr. Abena Asare (abena.asare@stonybrook.edu).

Watch the Poems from Palestine actions:

• “If I Must Die,” A poem by Rafaat Alareer
• “Letter to June Jordan in September” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha