Critical Noir: The Full Moon of Sonia
By Mark Anthony Neal, AOL BlackVoices columnist
"Black people's reality is controlled by alien forces. This is why Sonia Sanchez is so beautiful & needed; this is also why she is so dangerous." -- Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee)
For those who've ever heard Sonia Sanchez perform, you know that she possesses a spirit that seemingly gains energy with each word that she offers to the world. Indeed, I can still hear her polysyllabic chants in my head as if I was a 19-year-old again, watching her weave her poetic magic the first time I saw her perform in 1985. For those who've never heard Sonia Sanchez perform, she has just released her first solo recording, 'Full Moon of Sonia.'
Sonia Sanchez was born more than 70 years ago in Birmingham (Bombingham), Ala. She is more likely, though, to claim herself as a native of New York, the city that she moved to as a 9-year-old and the place where she began to cultivate her poetic skills after graduating from Hunter College in 1955. Sanchez's poetry workshops in the 1960s, at places like the Downtown Community School, proved politically challenging to her employers. According to Sanchez, she was "white-balled" in New York and eventually left the city to take teaching positions at various schools until she landed at Temple University in 1977. She retired from Temple in 1999.
Sanchez's first collection of poetry, 'Homecoming,' was published by Dudley Randall's Broadside Press in 1969, followed by 'We a BaddDDD People' in 1970. The poetry of both collections literally screamed off the pages as if Sanchez was struggling to find language to fully convey her emotions, whether it was the plight of African Americans in the United States or her failing marriage with the late "prison" poet Etheridge Knight. As Sanchez told MELUS, "You must remember, when we were reading poetry at that time, there was not an interest in poetry. People had their ears tuned to radios... something with a beat." Sanchez and many of her peers such as Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) and Nikki Giovanni found success in the late '60s and early '70s by gearing their poetry to the dance floor and the street.
Not surprisingly, Sanchez's legacy is being recovered by the hip-hop generation, particularly among spoken-word poets. Danny Simmons, executive producer of 'Def Poetry,' refers to Sanchez as the "spiritual mother" of spoken word. And indeed she gives love back, citing the late Tupac Shakur (who she pays tribute to on 'Full Moon of Sonia'), Rakim and Ursula Rucker (who bears a striking resemblance to Sanchez) as exemplars of hip-hop generation wordsmiths. More than anything 'Full Moon of Sonia' is an attempt to speak more directly to the hip-hop generation.
Recorded last summer during the National Black Arts Festival, where Sanchez was celebrated as a "living legend," 'Full Moon of Sonia' is Sanchez's first solo recording after more than 35 years as a published poet. Backed by a stream of R&B, funk, jazz, soul, blues and gospel, Sanchez brings to musical life a range of poetry that captures the demons and passions of African-American life. Poems such as 'Bubba' (which first appeared in 'Home Girls and Hand Grenades'), 'Tupac' and 'For Langston/I've Known Rivers' (for the legendary poet) recalls figures from Sanchez's past, allowing her memories of them to speak to the humanity of black men in the midst of ongoing demonization.
Earlier in her career, Sanchez was often lockstep with the fieriest expressions of '60s styled Black Nationalism. Though Sanchez remains fiery, her Black Nationalist politics are muted these days, in part because of her embrace of feminist politics. So a piece like 'Poem for Some Women' performed to the gospel track 'There's a Leak in This Old Building' gives light to a women who leaves her baby in a crack house, indicting the men who take advantage of both the woman and her child, as well as a society that offers little support for poor, single mothers. Even more powerful is a track like 'He/She,' which examines the utter tragedy of domestic abuse. And still Sanchez takes time to have fun as she does with 'Good Morning Sex.'
'Full Moon of Sonia,' represents Sonia Sanchez as a poetess at her peak. At once she embodies the power and promise of African-American expression and a clarion example of longevity and vitality for a hip-hop generation in dire need for artistic role models.
Feb. 23, 2005