SOURCE: A review of Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union, in The Progressive, Vol. 57, No. 1, January 1993, pp. 33-4.

In the following excerpt, Rothschild favorably reviews Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union.

For those who are June Jordan fans, as I am, Technical Difficulties is an exhilarating collection of some of her best essays and speeches from the last six years, many of which appeared first in these pages. Every time I read Jordan's work, I am struck and re-struck by her authentic voice, her fresh poetic style, and, above all, the intensity of her commitment to justice and equality.

Like most great American agitators, and she is proudly an agitator, Jordan holds up our country's ideals and points out the distance we are from realizing them. Hers is a patriotic quest in the best sense: to make America live up...