Trailblazing American Women Writer Project: Sonia Sanchez

PBS Books continues its Trailblazing American Women Writers Project Series with poet, writer, and activist Sonia Sanchez on Thursday, March 18 on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. 

Sanchez is known as a leader of the Black Arts Movement and has written over a dozen books of poetry as well as essays, plays, and children’s books. She is known as the first poet to use urban Black English in written form, using rhythm to change the world of poetry. Along with being a leader in the Black Arts movement, she was and continues to be active in the Civil Rights movement.

Poetry for Juneteenth

When I Rise Up

Georgia Douglas Johnson

When I rise up above the earth, And look down on the things that fetter me, I beat my wings upon the air, Or tranquil lie, Surge after surge of potent strength Like incense comes to me When I rise up above the earth And look down upon the things that fetter me. This poem is in the public domain.

Georgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the late nineteenth century. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, her poetry collections include Bronze: A Book of Verses (B.J. Brimmer Company, 1922) and The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems (The Cornhill Company, 1918). She died in 1966.

Celebrate and honor the important contributions of Black poets with this round-up of poems from poets.org: 

“Alone” by Maya Angelou
“The Dawn’s Awake!” by Otto Leland Bohanan
“litany” by Mahogany L. Browne 
“Family Reunion” by Rita Dove
“To America” by James Weldon Johnson
“These Poems” by June Jordan 
“Eve Remembering” by Toni Morrison
“Mercy, Mercy, Me” by John Murillo
“The Bronze Legacy” by Effie Lee Newsome
“Everything That Ever Was” by Tracy K. Smith