Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez is an influential African American poet, playwright, and political activist whose career began in the 1960s. Born Wilsonia Benita Driver, she experienced personal loss early in life, which shaped her perspective and artistic expression. Raised in a jazz-influenced environment, Sanchez's education in political science and her studies under renowned poet Louise Bogan significantly impacted her lyrical style, emphasizing conciseness and emotional depth. Throughout her career, Sanchez has been dedicated to the philosophy of functional art, which serves a social purpose and conveys important messages. Her activism has evolved over the years, reflecting various political movements, from advocating for integration to antiwar protests, particularly against the Iraq War. Sanchez's improvisational and speech-like poetic style, inspired by Black oral traditions and jazz, has garnered critical acclaim through her extensive body of work, including poetry, children's books, and essays. A professor emeritus at Temple University, she has received numerous awards recognizing her contributions to literature and culture, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Edward MacDowell Medal. Her legacy continues to inspire future generations of artists and activists.
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Subject Terms
Sonia Sanchez
Poet
- Born: September 9, 1934
- Place of Birth: Birmingham, Alabama
Author Profile
Sonia Sanchez’s emergence as a writer and political activist in the 1960s marked the beginning of the career of a poet, playwright, and cultural worker. Sanchez is noted as a poet and as a Black activist committed to the belief that the role of the artist is functional. Sanchez’s political interpretation of the situation of African Americans informs the creative forms she produces. The activist spirit has remained a constant in her work.
Sanchez’s mother died when Sanchez, born Wilsonia Benita Driver, was one year old, and Sanchez was raised to the age of six by her grandmother. Her father, Wilson Driver Jr., a jazz musician, moved the family to New York when Sanchez was nine years old; she was thrust into the jazz world of her father. She entered Hunter College and received her bachelor’s degree in political science in 1955. As a graduate student, Sanchez studied with Louise Bogan at New York University. Bogan, a poet and literary critic, wrote restrained, concise, and deeply intellectual poetry, often compared to that of the English metaphysical poets. Bogan’s influence upon Sanchez is most evident in the conciseness of her lyrical poetry; Bogan’s encouragement caused Sanchez to pursue the life of a poet. Sanchez formed a writers’ workshop and soon began reading poetry around New York City.
Sanchez’s early works were published in little magazines; later they were published in Black journals. Home Coming (1969), Sanchez’s first anthology of poetry, placed her among poets who espoused a philosophy of functional art. Functional art is characterized by a sense of social purpose, information, instruction, and inspiration. Sanchez's politics, and consequently her work, swung from advocating integration to separatism, under the influence of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam (the latter of which she abandoned in the 1970s because of its treatment of women). Later, her activism included antiwar protests against the Iraq War.
Sanchez’s improvisational style combines strategies common to Black speech. This is particularly evident in her early poetry. Indirection, or signifying, is a key element of this poetic style. Another key element of Sanchez’s style is her oral delivery, reminiscent of improvisation in jazz. Her creative vision is also expressed in her inventive poetic forms. Sanchez’s speechlike, versatile style is evident in all of her poetry.
Sanchez has produced books for children, edited anthologies, written plays, and published essays in addition to producing more than a dozen volumes of verse. As an instructor, she led the way on the creation of Black studies at the university level. Sanchez has received much critical recognition for her efforts, including the 1984 Lucretia Mott Award, the 1985 Community Service Award from the National Black Caucus, and the 1999 Langston Hughes Poetry Award. In 2016, she was the subject of the PBS America Reframed documentary BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez.
Sanchez was granted the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in September 2019. In 2021, the writer was granted the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. The following year, she was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for her contributions to American culture.
Sanchez married and divorced twice, first to Albert Sanchez and later to fellow poet Etheridge Knight. She has three children. Sanchez is professor emeritus at Temple University and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she served as poet laureate from 2012 to 2014.
Bibliography
Bingham-Risher, Remica. "For Sister Sonia Sanchez, Revolution Has Always Been Both a Verb and Noun." Beacon Broadside, 9 Sept. 2024, www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2024/09/sonia-sanchez-revolution-verb-and-noun.html, Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.
Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, ed. Introduction to Sister Son/ji, by Sonia Sanchez. In Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present. New York: Praeger, 1990.
De Lancey, Frenzella Elaine. “Refusing to Be Boxed In: Sonia Sanchez’s Transformation of the Haiku Form.” In Language and Literature in the African American Imagination, edited by Carol Aisha Blackshire-Belay. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Jennings, Regina B. “The Blue/Black Poetics of Sonia Sanchez.” In Language and Literature in the African American Imagination, edited by Carol Aisha Blackshire-Belay. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Joyce, Joyce A. Ijala: Sonia Sanchez and the African Poetic Tradition. Chicago: Third World Press, 1996.
Lynch, Doris. Review of Wounded in the House of a Friend, by Sonia Sanchez. Library Journal, March 15, 1995, 74.
Reich, David. “As Poets, as Activists.” World, May/June, 1999, 1-11.
Sanchez, Sonia. “As Poets, as Activists.” Interview by David Reich. World, May/June, 1999, 1-11.
Sanchez, Sonia. “Disciple and Craft: An Interview with Sonia Sanchez.” Interview by Susan Kelly. African American Review 34, no. 4 (Winter, 2000): 679-687.
Sanchez, Sonia. “Exploding Myths: An Interview with Sonia Sanchez.” Interview by Herbert Leibowitz. Parnassus, Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter, 1985, 357-368.
"Sonia Sanchez." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.