discipline at University of California at Berkeley.
She would also teach at University of Pittsburgh,
Rutgers University, City College of the City of New
York, and the University of Massachusetts.
Joining another radical poetic voice of the Black
Arts Movement, Don L. Lee (HAKI MADHUBUTI),
Sanchez began her publishing career at Broadside
Press with DUDLEY RANDALL, who, in his introduc-
tion to Sanchez’s We A BaddDDD People (1970),
called her a revolutionary and wrote, “This tiny
woman with the infant’s face attacks the demons
of this world with the fury of a sparrow defending
her fledglings in the nest. She hurls obscenities at
things that are obscene” (9). To confirm this, Ran-
dall chooses an image by artist Emory for the cover
of Sanchez’s Home Coming (1971), featuring the
silhouette of a young black female warrior, spear
in hand, poised to let her weapon fly. And let her
weapon—her raw and piercing words—fly is ex-
actly what Sanchez does on each of the 32 pages of
her second collection of her poems. In “definition
for blk / children,” Sanchez’s speaker teaches,
a policeman
is a pig
and he shd be in
a zoo
with all the other pigs....
until he stops
killing blk people. (19)
Singularly important are lessons that celebrate
and preserve black culture—black myths. In “now
poem. for us,” her speaker warns:
don’t let them die out
all these old / blk / people
don’t let them cop out
with their memories
of slavery // survival. (We a BaddDDD 67)Equally raw and unadulterated are the former
black nationalist and member of the Nation of
Islam’s celebratory poems, whose central purpose
throughout her work is to abandon destructive
white Western values that promote black self-
hate, to critique black self-destructive behavior,
embrace blackness as a positive signifier, and ulti-
mately celebrate all aspects of black culture. These
themes recur in Sanchez’s many works, which in-
clude Homecoming (1969), A Blue Book for a Blue
Black Magical Woman (1974), I’ve Been a Woman:
New and Selected Poems (1980), Homegirls and
Handgrenades (1984), Under a Soprano Sky (1987),
and Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995). Her
poem “nigger” embodies many of these themes:nigger....
that word don’t turn
me on man.
i know i am
black.
beautiful.
with meaning. (Homecoming 12)Sanchez’s racial and cultural affirmative is evi-
dent in her very abandonment of the more formal
(written/readerly) Western language. She not only
validates black vernacular (rap) but creates a mu-
sical, jazzlike sound and rhythm in the alphabet
she inscribes. Her speech sings; the urban experi-
ence is reflected in its language.
Sanchez’s critique of Western culture was
strongest when she was a member of the Nation
of Islam. She directed pronouncements to black
women promote the teachings of Elijah Moham-
mad and the black Muslims in A Blue Book for Blue
Black Magical Women.Black wooooomen of today must under-
stand
is that looooove /
peace /
contentment will never
be ours for this crackerized country has
dealt
on us and colonized us body and soul. (12)Sanchez calls for the preservation and celebra-
tion of black heroes and heroines, such as JAMES
BALDWIN, TONI MORRISON, Johnnetta Cole, John448 Sanchez, Sonia