Sonia sanchez short biography

In , she received the Wallace Stevens Award , given annually to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. Sanchez began teaching in the Bay Area in and was a pioneer in developing Black studies courses at what is now San Francisco State University, where she was an instructor from — She was the first presidential fellow at Temple University, where she began teaching in , and held the Laura Carnell Chair in English there until her retirement in She lives in Philadelphia.

A poet, novelist, fiction writer, and playwright, Langston Hughes is known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties and was important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance. Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote more than twenty books of poetry in her lifetime, was the first Black woman appointed Poet Laureate of the United States.

Born in , Nikki Giovanni is the author of numerous collections of poetry and was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award. The fame and success of Sonia Sanchez has at least helped to remedy that situation. She has inspired other black woman poets, such as Krista Franklin. Sonia Sanchez has been a passionate supporter of civil rights throughout her career, and she has been involved in civil rights movements for decades.

Her poetic style is wonderfully eclectic, and manages to blend haiku, tanka, and the musical styles from genres like the blues. As such, her sound is very unique and difficult for other people to replicate. Sonia Sanchez has a great deal of cultural power, and a talent that matches her desire for social justice. Member Area. Word Counter.

She has taught as a professor at eight universities and has lectured at more than college campuses across the US, including Howard University. She was also a leader in the effort to establish the discipline of Black Studies at the university level. Sanchez was the first to create and teach a course based on Black Women and literature in the United States and the course she offered on African-American literature is generally considered the first of its kind, as it was taught at a predominantly white university.

These efforts are clearly in line with the goals of the Black Arts Movement, and she was a known Black feminist. Sanchez was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University , where she began working in There, she held the Laura Carnell chair until her retirement in She is currently a poet-in-residence at Temple University. Though she was originally an integrationist in her thinking, after hearing Malcolm X speak Sanchez became more separatist in her thinking and focused more on her black heritage and identity.

She continues to advocate for the rights of oppressed women and minority groups. The aim of the Black Arts Movement was a renewal of black will, insight, energy, and awareness. Sanchez published poetry and essays in numerous periodicals in the s, including The Liberator , Negro Digest , and Black Dialogue. Her writing established her importance as a political thinker to the "black aesthetic" program.

This collection and her second in , titled We a BaddDDD People , demonstrated her use of experimental poetic forms to discuss the development of black nationalism and identity. Sanchez is known for her innovative melding of musical formats—such as the blues—and traditional poetic formats such as haiku and tanka. She also uses spelling to celebrate the unique sound of black English , for which she gives credit to poets such as Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown.

Her first collection of poems, Homecoming , is known for its blues influences in both form and content. The collection describes both the struggle of defining black identity in the United States as well as the many causes for celebration Sanchez sees in black culture. These poems make use of urban black vernacular, experimental punctuation, spelling, and spacing, and the performative quality of jazz.

Though still emphasizing what she sees as the need for revolutionary cultural change, Sanchez's later works, such as I've Been a Woman , Homegirls and Handgrenades , and Under a Soprano Sky , tend to focus less on separatist themes like those of Malcolm X , and more on themes of love, community, and empowerment. She continues to explores the haiku, tanka, and sonku forms, as well as blues-influenced rhythms.

In addition to her poetry, Sanchez's contributions to the Black Arts Movement included drama and prose. She began writing plays while in San Francisco in the s. Several of her plays challenge the masculinist spirit of the movement, focusing on strong female protagonists. Sanchez has been recognized as a pioneering champion of black feminism. Her more recent contemporary endeavors include a spoken-word interlude on "Hope is an Open Window", a song co-written by Diana Ross from her album Every Day is a New Day.

Sanchez is currently among 20 African-American women to be a part of "Freedom's Sisters," a mobile exhibition initiated by the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Smithsonian Institution. She served in that position from to Though retired from teaching, Sanchez did not quit writing. She kept to her discipline that she started as a youngster.

She attributes her desire to keep writing to her "love of language," as she told African American Review. I would repeat what she said and fall out of the bed and fall down on the floor and laugh, and she knew that I was enjoying her language, because she knew that I didn't speak black English. But I did speak hers, you know. It is that love of language that, when you have written a poem that you know works, then you stand up and you dance around, or you open your door and go out on the porch and let out a loud laugh, you know.

With the publication of the spoken-word album, Full Moon of Sonia, Sanchez is continuing her legacy as the poet who brought black English to the world. As put by Black Issues Book Review: "It is refreshing to see a legend, a respected artist, come forward and show all of us how to do it right. Full Moon of Sonia does more than give us good poetry set to music; it galavants through an amazing formal and stylistic range that reminds us all how Sonia Sanchez finally got to this place.

Contemporary Authors, Gale, Vol. Contemporary Black American Poets and Dramatists , ed. At a Glance Addresses : Home —Philadelphia, PA. Poetry Homecoming Poems , Broadside Press, Liberation Poems , Broadside Press, Love Poems , Third Press, Homegirls and Handgrenades: Poems , Third World, Wounded in the House of a Friend , Beacon Press, Does Your House Have Lions?

Black Cats Back and Uneasy Landings, Homecoming , Broadside, Sonia Sanchez and Robert Bly , Blackbox, Full Moon of Sonia, Books Black Women Writers at Work , ed.