Sanchez, Sonia

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SANCHEZ, Sonia

Born Wilsonia Benita Driver, 9 September 1934, Birmingham, Alabama

Daughter of Wilson L. and Lena Jones Driver; married Etheridge Knight; children: Anita, Morani, Mungu

Born in the South, Sonia Sanchez moved north at the age of nine with her family to the Harlem community of New York City. She graduated from Hunter College (B.A., 1955) and did postgraduate work at New York University, where she studied with poet Louise Bogan.

Sanchez worked in the civil rights movement and became further radicalized as a result of hearing Malcolm X. Becoming involved with the burgeoning black arts movement in Harlem during the 1960s and early 1970s as a poet and dramatist, Sanchez became one of the most forceful and best known of the cultural nationalist African American writers of that period. In 1966, she began teaching at San Francisco State College where she was a founder of the nation's first black studies program. Sanchez has since taught at a number of colleges and universities and has been a faculty member at Temple University since 1977.

Following in the tradition of such writers as Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and Margaret Walker, Sanchez is widely credited as one of the writers most important in the establishment of "Black English" as legitimate literary diction. In addition to her use of a distinctly African-American syntax and phonetic spelling, she often, particularly in her early work, broke the lines of her poems unusually and used unorthodox spellings that were not phonetic—leaving out certain vowels, for example—forcing the reader to look more carefully at the words themselves and to consider them as a distinctive African-American cultural product. Sanchez also constructs her poetry and her short fiction so as to emphasize the oral performative aspect she sees both as an important part of the African-American tradition and as more accessible to popular audiences. Some of Sanchez's best work engages with African-American music, as in "a / coltrane / poem" from We a BadddDDD People (1970), in which Sanchez literally attempts to re-create the structure and sound of John Coltrane's music while connecting it to the oppression of black people and the fight against that oppression.

Sanchez's poems and short stories both celebrate the survival and strengths of the black community in the U.S. and chronicle its losses. Since the beginning of her career, she has gradually adopted a stance rooted in her experiences as an African-American woman that addresses itself beyond a specifically black context to concern with all oppressed peoples. The powerful and moving "MIA's" in homegirls and handgrenades (1984), for example, links the disappearance of black children from the streets of Atlanta in the early 1980s to the death squad disappearances in El Salvador and the death of Stephen Biko in South Africa. The volume won the American Book Award for poetry in 1985.

Her concern with social justice has also led Sanchez to write a number of books for children, who she sees as having been particularly poorly served by literature. These include a volume of inspirational poems, It's a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs (1971); The Adventures of Fat Head, Small Head, and Square Head (1973); and a collection of stories, A Sound Investment (1980), which invites children to draw moral meaning from the tales.

Since the beginning of her career, Sanchez has been a voice for the concerns of women even during the black arts era, when such concerns were generally muted. In this respect, she consciously sets herself in the tradition of female blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues singers who are tough, strong, loving, and often betrayed by love in a harsh world. Several poems in Wee a BadddDDD People reflect the suffering in her marriage to poet Etheridge Knight, who had a severe drug problem. Love Poems (1973) demonstrates the poet's lyricism, but here too the poems of man—woman relationships reflect their difficulty as well as their passion. Sanchez's work celebrates the power, pride, and solidarity of black women; she also portrays the personal betrayals of love—which often have a larger social implication—as in the poem "Blues" and the short story "After Saturday Night Comes Sunday." A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women (1974), written while Sanchez was a member of the Nation of Islam (1972-75), praises black women, "Queens of the Universe," and urges them to turn away from false values to "embrace Blackness as a religion / husband." Her concern for women's lives and their freedom reverberates through such later volumes as I've Been A Woman (1978) and Under a Soprano Sky (1987).

Sanchez has also written a number of significant plays, including The Bronx is Next (1968, produced 1970), where she speaks "symbolically" about the need for blacks to destroy urban centers, "to move out of that which is killing them," and the autobiographical Sister Son/ji (1969). Sanchez remains one of the most powerful writers, and readers, of poetry, drama, and prose in the U.S. Her voice speaks forcefully, and at times bittersweetly, about racism, sexism, oppression, and the need for revolutionary change. She is also one of the most poignant chroniclers of the social and emotional experience of a woman in the late 20th century in the United States.

In 1995 Sanchez was featured reading her poem "I Have Come into the City" on Sweet Honey in the Rock's CD, Sacred Ground. Her poetry has been featured in many other mediums also, such as in the movie lovejones, in various black magazines, or on rapper D-Knowledge's CD.

Sanchez's poetry includes a mixture of styles, languages, and dialects, specifically the Black English she has brought to the surface of the literary world. Her 13th book, Wounded in the House of a Friend, explores the plights of the African-American people, from the terrain of Africa to the poverty-stricken urban areas of America. It is a journey into racism, anger, and many issues that have faced blacks throughout history. Does Your House Have Lions (1997) mixes the many speech patterns, tones, and styles Sanchez is known for to create and speak of her characters. It recounts her brother's death from AIDS and her family's reaction to the tragedy.

Her 1998 collection, Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums: Love Poems, expresses the passions and fire of a new generation. She has dedicated these works to such persons as Ella Fitzgerald and Tupac Shakur. Her recent book, Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems (1999) is a collection from over 30 years of her work. It comes soon after her 1998 nominations for both the NAACP Image and National Book Critics Circle awards. It includes selections from her previous books as well as some unpublished works. Ann K. Van Buren of Library Journal said of the collection, "This retrospective of 30 years of work leaves one in awe of the stretches of language Sanchez has helped to legitimize throughout her career."

Donna Seaman of Booklist said, "Her ringing voice gives voice to the emotions of many." Yet praise of Sanchez from the literary and black communities is sparse. However, another great black writer, Maya Angelou, has said "The world is a better place because of Sonia Sanchez: more livable, more laughable, more manageable." She goes on to say, "I wish millions of people knew that some of the joy in their lives comes from the fact that Sonia Sanchez is writing poetry. I wish they knew it so they could write her, and thank her, and love her up as I do."

Other Works:

Home Coming (1969). New Plays from the Black Theatre (edited by E. Bullins, 1969). Ima Talken bout the Nation of Islam (1972). Uh Hub: But How Do It Free Us? (1975). Malcolm Man Don't Live Here Anymore (1979). I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't (1982). Culture in Crisis: Two Speeches by Sonia Sanchez (1983). Generations: Selected Poetry, 1969-1985 (1986).

Bibliography:

Baker, H. A., Jr., "Our Lady: Sonia Sanchez and the Writing of a Black Renaissance," in Black Feminist Criticism and Critical Theory (1988). Curb, R., "Pre-Feminism in the Black Revolutionary Drama of Sonia Sanchez," in The Many Forms of Drama (1985). Madhubuti, H., "Sonia Sanchez: The Bringer of Memories," in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation (1984). Melhem, D. M., Heroism in the New Black Poetry: Introductions and Interviews (1990). Black Women Writers at Work (1983). Voices From the Gaps: Women Writers of Color (1998).

Reference works:

CANR (1988). CLC (1976). DLB (1985). FC (1990). MTCW (1991). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995). SATA (1981).