Sonia Sanchez and Her Haiku

Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez is a poet who specializes in giving focus to the black identity in works that combine socio-political elements with more maternal and matriarchal tones to effect a unique voice of blackness in America. Born in Alabama but raised in New York, Sonia incorporated the sounds and linguistic expressions of urban blacks in Harlem into her poetry. As an adult, she introduced Black Studies at her college where she was teaching. She was a follower of Malcolm X and a member of the Nation of Islam for a few years in the 1970s. However, her views on women’s rights conflicted with those of the Nation of Islam, so they parted ways (Daniel, 2002).
Sanchez viewed the socio-political struggle of blacks as integral to their stories, and she represented a type of militant blackness at times while also retaining her core maternal feelings and expressions. Her first book of poetry was Homecoming published in 1969. This was followed We a BaddDDD People (1970) and Liberation Poem (1970), both of which emphasized the right of black people to gather and form as their own society. As a follower of Malcolm X she had embraced the idea of separation from white culture and in these books of poetry she both mimicked the colloquial street style and slang communications of urban blacks and highlighted the socio-political movement of groups such as the Nation of Islam. In 1973, she published Love Poems and A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women in which she attempted to reproduce the sounds and rhythms of jazz. She continued to write throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Her 1995 book of poetry Does your house have lions? was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Throughout her life, Sonia Sanchez has been an activist and performer, often reading her poetry throughout the world in order to spread belief in the black identity and black unity. She has promoted women’s rights and women’s equality and received the Peace and Freedom Award from Women International League for Peace and Freedom. Additionally, she has lectured on hundreds of campuses in the U.S. over the course of her career (Daniel, 2002).
One of her poetic forms is the Haiku—a three lined poetic form that allows for quick penetration and study of a subject in a matter of seven beats. In her Haiku poem [question from a young sister] she writes:
1.
What’s wrong with being
freaky on stage you a stone
freak in yo own skin.
2.
at least we up front
about this freakdom. at least
we let it all hang out.
The piece displays the thoughts of a young woman who is an exhibitionist—perhaps a stripper—and is unapologetic about her lifestyle choice. She is bold and what’s to know what is wrong with displaying oneself on a stage for others to see. She feels that everyone is more or less “freaky”—she just chooses to acknowledge it on a stage where it can be appreciated by others. She states that it is better to be open and honest about one’s “freakiness” than to try to act normal as though one were any different. There is an honesty in the poem that Sonia Sanchez seems to admire and this comes through in the last line: “at least we let it all hang out.” Sonia definitely could identify with this sentiment as she always committed herself 100% to her activities, whether they were writing poetry, speaking, teaching, or engaging in activism. No matter what she was doing, she also let it “all hang out.” Thus, the haiku’s speaker could double as a representative of Sonia’s own personal feelings about being a woman on stage and exposing her bare soul for her audience as a poet, artist and activist.
References
Daniel, C. (2002). Sonia Sanchez. Retrieved from http://www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/sanchez/
Sanchez, S. (n.d.). [question from a young sister]. Retrieve from https://terebess.hu/english/haiku/sanchez.html