Self-reflection and an examination in essays of what it means to be human
Jazz June: A Self-Portrait in Essays traces a life, not by recounting its major events but by going deep into its representative moments: the moments of wonder, hope, fear, uncertainty, humor, love, and epiphany that make up human experience. Along the way, as a son of a widowed mother, as a young man in the big city, as a husband and father, as an aging empty nester, and as an artist, the author discovers, with each new role, more of who he is. A lover of the arts, he offers creative reflections on literature, music, and film; a Black American whose life is informed but not defined by race, he embraces Black culture while remaining defiantly himself.
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Clifford Thompson has skillfully captured in words a distinct era of American history, the specific feel over time of two major cities (Washington and New York), an intimate glimpse of the complexity of race and masculinity, and the small details of family, love, ambition, fear, fatherhood, and aging that make up a life. It is a charming, quiet but powerful, well-crafted collection.
" - author of Between Panic & Desire
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Clifford Thompson is an essayist of the finest order.
" - author of How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
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Jazz June [is] a collection of 22 essays by Clifford Thompson in which he recounts his obstacles not as defining wounds but as motifs to incorporate into his own discursive but always guided narrative. As a personal essayist, he emphasizes gratitude over grievance.
" - Ronslate
