Sonia Sanchez Biography

Sonia Sanchez is an African-American poet best known for her work in the Black Arts Movement. She has written over a dozen poetry books, as well as plays and children's books. She received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 1993. Sanchez was born on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama. Sanchez's mother died when she was just a year old, therefore she was raised by her paternal grandmother. She then resided with relatives and friends until 1943, when she relocated to Harlem with her father, sister, and stepmother, her father's third marriage. Sanchez earned a B.A. in political science from Hunter College in 1955, where she also took numerous creative writing classes. She later pursued postgraduate studies at New York University, where she studied poetry under Louise Bogan. She taught fifth grade at the Downtown Community School in New York City until 1966. Sanchez has taught at eight institutions and talked on over 500 college campuses around the United States, including Howard University. She advocated for the establishment of black studies classes in California. Sanchez was the first person in the United States to design and teach a course on black women and literature. Sanchez was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University, when she joined the faculty in 1977 and held the Laura Carnell chair until her retirement in 1999. She is a poet-in-residence at Temple University right now. She has performed her poems throughout Africa, the Caribbean, China, Australia, Europe, Nicaragua, Canada, and Cuba, among other places. Sanchez also starred in the 1990s on Bill Cosby's CBS sitcom. Sanchez is a Plowshares, Brandywine Peace Community, and MADRE member. She also supports MOMS AND and the National Black United Front in Alabama. Sanchez was an important figure in both the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement. Sanchez was a people's advocate. She met Malcolm X while she was a member of CORE (Congress for Racial Equality). She created several plays and novels about the problems and lives of African-Americans. Sanchez edited two black literary collections, "We Be Word Sorcerers: 25 Stories by Black Americans" and "360� of Blackness Coming at You." Sanchez is also noted for her unique blending of musical genres "like the blues" with conventional poetry forms like as haiku and tanka. She also has a habit of using wrong spelling to make her point. Sanchez received the P.E.N. Writing Award in 1969. She received the National Education Association Award from 1977 to 1988. In 1978, she received the National Academy and Arts Award as well as the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award. Homegirls and Handgrenades won her the American Book Award in 1985. She has also received the National Black Caucus of State Legislators' Community Service Award, the Lucretia Mott Award, the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Humanities, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's Peace and Freedom Award. A spoken word interlude on "Hope is an Open Window," a song co-written by Diana Ross from her 1998 album "Every Day is a New Day," is one of her more recent modern ventures. The song serves as the soundtrack for a 9/11 commemoration video, which may be watched on YouTube.

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