Renowned poet Sonia Sanchez appeared at George School on Monday, October 25, 2010, at an all-school assembly in Walton Center Auditorium. She read from her first new book in over a decade, Morning Haiku (Beacon Press 2010), which celebrates revered African American figures in the realms of music, literature, art, and activism. The collection of haiku includes tributes to jazz musician Max Roach, folk musician Odetta, poet Maya Angelou, cultural historian Richard Long, writer Toni Morrison, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Brother Damu, and others.

Maya Angelou has said, “Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.” The author of sixteen books, Sonia Sanchez has received numerous awards and honors, including the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry, the highest honor of the Poetry Society of America; the Langston Hughes Poetry Award from the City College of New York; and a National Endowment for the Arts.

Known not only as a poet but also as an activist and scholar, Sonia Sanchez was the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was also the university’s first Presidential Fellow. She is considered one of the most important writers of the black arts movement, which was undertaken from approximately 1960 to 1970 by African American artists who aimed to produce politically engaged work that addressed their culture and history. Sonia Sanchez is currently one of twenty African American women featured in “Freedom’s Sisters,” an interactive exhibition about the civil rights movement, created by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Cincinnati Museum Center.

At George School, in addition to reading from Morning Haiku, Sonia Sanchez also presented selections from Does Your House Have Lions? (Beacon Press 1997). A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the volume is an epic poem that addresses themes such as alienation, sexual identity, and loss while depicting the life of the poet’s late brother, a vibrant young man who became a victim of AIDS.

About George School
Founded in 1893 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), George School, a rigorous coed boarding and day school for grades nine through twelve, educates students from twenty-one states, thirty-seven foreign countries, and a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, and economic backgrounds. Through its commitment to diversity and the Quaker values of equality, integrity, and peacemaking, George School inspires students to be led by their own truths while respecting and appreciating opinions and beliefs different from their own. George School was one of the first schools in the United States to implement an International Baccalaureate diploma program. For information about admission, please call 215.579.6547 or visit http://www.georgeschool.org.

Photo courtesy of http://soniasanchez.net/.