By Barbara Ellington, Flair Co-ordinator
Sonia Sanchez
DISTINGUISHED WRITER, poet, playwright, professor and activist, Sonia Sanchez, will be one of the featured presenters at the Calabash International Literary Festival set to take place at Jakes Resort in St. Elizabeth between May 25 and 27.
Those attending the festival will certainly be in for a treat during Dr. Sanchez's sessions because of her unique style of presentation. In an interview with Flair last week Sanchez, who first came here to conduct interviews with the late Amy Garvey, widow of late National Hero, Marcus Garvey, professes a liking for Jamaicans.
"I have always liked the Jamaican people I have found them extremely friendly and caring. I like the land and the fact it belongs to so many black people, so when I was asked to participate in the festival, it was a pleasure," says Sanchez who is currently enjoying her retirement.
During her visit, she plans to purchase some of the works of local authors so that she can better understand the culture.
A recent recipient of the 2001 Otto Awards and the Poetry Society of America's 2001 Robert Frost Medal, Dr. Sanchez regards her greatest achievement as still being alive and able to write at a private level. But she was also thrilled to be introduced by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe at the ceremony as well as to receive words of praise from African American writer Toni Morrison. Sanchez is the second African American to receive the Robert Frost medal for lifetime achievement.
Prior to retirement, Sanchez lectured at more than 500 universities and colleges in the US. She was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she held the Laura Carnell chair in English. Her focus is now on trying to get more of her plays done in New York. Her plays have been performed in theatres in The Village, New York.
Having spent the last few years caring for her late father, Sanchez is currently working on her memoirs and does have stories to tell, having travelled to all continents of the world.
At the Calabash Literary Festival, the mother of three will share her poetry and ideas about the world and how we position ourselves in the African Diaspora. "I will look at how we do what the ancestors are calling us to do so that we can leave a good legacy for successive generations."
Dr. Sanchez has authored more than 16 books including Homecomong, We a BaddDDD People, Love Poems, I've Been a Woman, New and Selected Poems' and Under a Soprano Sky
