She BaddDDD: Sonia Sanchez Celebrates Her 90th Birthday

“For we the people will always be arriving

a ceremony of thunder

waking up the earth

opening our eyes to human

monuments.

And it'll get better

it'll get better

if we the people work, organize, resist,

come together for peace, racial, social

and sexual justice

it'll get better

it'll get better.”

- Sonia Sanchez, Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems

This month, Sonia Sanchez, the revered poet, playwright, professor, prolific speaker, and longtime Philadelphian, turned 90 years old. She is considered a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement and one of the mothers of the Black Arts Movement.

Sonia Sanchez was born September 9th, 1934 in pre-Civil Rights Birmingham, Alabama. She moved to Harlem, New York during the 1950s and, while studying to become an educator, joined the civil rights organization known as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Through CORE, Sanchez met civil rights leader Malcolm X, who she credits for her poetic style; blunt, crisp, and filled with passion. She also had the opportunity to meet Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957 while he was on his book tour.

Through her work with CORE, Sanchez became one of the pivotal voices of the Black Arts Movement, a movement that centered Black literature, artwork, film, and drama. Most of Sanchez’s work, specifically her books Homecoming, published in 1969, and We a BaddDDD People, published in 1970 focused on Blackness and Black culture.

In her career as a writer, Sonia Sanchez authored over 20 books, some of the most popular being the aforementioned Homecoming and We a BaddDDD People, but also I've Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems, published in 1978, Homegirls and Handgrenades, published in 1984, Under a Soprano Sky, published in 1987, Shake Loose My Skin, published in 1999, Morning Haiku, published in 2010, and, her latest work, Collected Poems, published in 2021.

In addition to that expansive body of work, Sanchez also was a contributing editor to both The Journal of African Studies and the Black Scholar. She also edited the anthology, We Be Word Sorcerers: 25 Stories by Black Americans, which was published in 1973.

She moved to Philadelphia in 1976, becoming a professor at Temple University the following year. She taught at Temple until her retirement in 2000. At Temple, Sanchez became the Laura Carnell Chair in English. The Chair recognizes “faculty who have distinguished themselves in research, scholarship, the creative arts and teaching.” Sanchez was one of the first to receive the honor. Sanchez was also named the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University.

In December 2011, Michael Nutter, then Mayor of Philadelphia, chose Sonia Sanchez as Philadelphia’s first poet laureate. Nutter called Sanchez “the longtime conscience of the city.”

Sonia Sanchez is an embodiment of what it means to be living in your purpose. With each word she writes and each time she speaks, she reminds us of not just our own humanity, but each other’s. In the spirit of giving flowers while folks can still smell them, we thank Ms. Sonia, not just for her work, not just for her activism, but for her being here. She’s so baddDDD and we are better for it.