Throughout the anthology, Sanchez espouses experimental form with poignant life experiences. It should come at no surprise that a collection of poems spanning more than half a century and over a dozen acclaimed poetry collections is as cohesive and bildungsroman-like as “Collected Poems” - but the immediate power and movement the poems evoke from the very start of the anthology are perhaps stronger than any of her other works individually because of the way they are arranged in this anthology.
She became a torchbearer for the Black Arts movement, in which Black artists, writers, musicians and performers sought to redefine art so that it depicted Black people with realistic imagery and depth. As a result, her dramatic poetry recitations became a facet of her poetry that helped lead to widespread fame. In order to combat her stutter, Sanchez read her poetry out loud when she wrote it. And although she studied political science, her writing voice and poetic style started developing during this period. “I promise, as other artists do, that I will continue to write and talk about the importance of answering this question - the importance of celebrating the beauty of the world and its people.Among “hide and / seek faces peeling / with Freudian dreams,” poet Sonia Sanchez manages to rise above that facade and claim her own distinct voice in her new anthology, “Sonia Sanchez: Collected Poems.” In this accumulation of what seems to be a lifetime of picturesque and powerful anecdotes, Sanchez, a Hunter College alumna, travels through the incredibly dense landscape of her life.ĭuring her time at Hunter in the fifties, Sanchez was able to manage the stutter that she had grown up with. “What an honor it is to receive this award, most especially since we as a country are attempting to answer the most important question facing us: What does it mean to be human?” Sanchez said in a statement Thursday. Her collected poems came out this spring. Her previous prizes include the Wallace Stevens Award and Robert Frost Medal, both given for lifetime achievement in poetry. Sanchez, 87, first achieved prominence with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and has been widely cited as an innovative poet who often draws upon street slang, a popular speaker and a pioneering teacher of Black studies. NEW YORK - Poet, educator and activist Sonia Sanchez is this year’s winner of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, a $250,000 lifetime achievement honor previously given to Chinua Achebe, Bob Dylan and Maya Lin among others.Įstablished in 1994 through the estate of Lillian Gish, the silent film star and sister of fellow actor Dorothy Gish, the prize is awarded 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.”
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