“José Martí wrote, ‘In the world there must be certain degrees of honor just as there must be certain degrees of light. When there are many men without honor, there are always others who bear in themselves the honor of many men.’ What inspires me are the men and women who bear in themselves the ‘honor’ of survival—men like the brothers I taught at Graterford Prison, reconnoitering their lives after having fought in Vietnam; young mothers dragging their children around corners of fatigue at the end of the day, looking neither left nor right. What inspires me is how we make one another see ourselves as we rise up to tell our stories. And survive. What inspires me, I guess, are women—from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, South America, the Middle East, Europe, America. So listen to our talk, walk, accents, smiles, silences, songs.” —Sonia Sanchez, author of Morning Haiku (Beacon Press, 2010)
Photo credit: Kalamu.com
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griot27@aol.com replied on Permalink
You have inspired me...
I have been inspired by you Sister Sanchez. I am 47 years old, an African-American woman from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. In the early 1970's my family attended a Black Family Day gathering at Randall's Island hosted by the Nation of Islam. You read your beautiful poetry on the stage and then came down onto the field later for your booksigning. I always loved to read and I immersed myself growing up reading every and anything I could written by African-Americans and then I was ready for the world. For my generation you and the other writers of the Black Arts Movement, was the Harlem Renaissance! I followed your work throughout the years and the last time I got a chance to hear you read and speak in person was with Lucille Clifton at the New School for Social Research not long after 9/11. I thank you for all of the work you have down throughout your lifetime for sharing wisdom, truth, humility and insight through your poetry, prose and essays for world literature and humanity. Peace & Love, Cynthia Jones