Maya Angelou once called the poet Sonia Sanchez “a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk quietly.”
As a leading figure in the 1960s Black Arts movement and one of the first people to set up a Black Studies program at an American university, Sanchez’s life and work have established her as one of the greats in American poetry.
Last month, she won the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize -a 250, 000 lifetime achievement honor given to “a highly accomplished artist from any discipline who has pushed the boundaries of an art form, contributed to social change, and paved the way for the next generation.”
Combining Black slang, traditional forms and jazz music on stage
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Sanchez wrote her very first poem around the age of five, and she’s still going. This spring, she published her Collected Poems -a book that lasts four decades of work.
Sanchez draws deeply on Black oral traditions, skillfully mixing blues bars with traditional Japanese forms like haiku and tanka. She’s known to bring jazz musicians, drummers, and other musical guests on stage to aid and elevate her performances.
Lifting Black voices through art and then education
Simmons says that the spoken word and its power to create change is at the core of Sanchez’s work. That’s evident in her involvement with the Black Arts movement: Inspired by Malcolm X, Sanchez and her contemporaries-other legendary writers like Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, and Amiri Baraka-worked vigorously to lift Black voices through art. And when they spoke, Sanchez says, “people would jump up, I mean literally jump up and stamp their feet.”
Influencing a generation of younger poets
Part of Sanchez’s power comes from advocating for her people-and from lighting a trail for poets who came after her. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, who now has five poetry collections and a novel, says she learned how to lean into her power through Sanchez.
【小题1】Why did Maya Angelou compare Sonia Sanchez to a lion?| A．She was cruel to animals. | B．She won a literature prize. |
| C．She had an effect on literature. | D．Her works were popular. |
| A．Bringing about social change. | B．Completing and publishing many poems. |
| C．Laying the foundation for younger poets. | D．Promoting the development of an art form. |
| A．Casually. | B．Attentively. | C．Regularly. | D．Energetically. |
| A．She admires Sonia Sanchez. | B．She’s very popular. |
| C．She’s very ambitious. | D．She teaches poetry. |
