Benito García

C.I. 12.975.945

Sonia Sánchez

“To CHuck"

Essay

Sonia Sánchez, from her earliest years had to live strong emotions of life, at 6 years old
she already knew what loss and instability were, experiences that were taken with
resilience, and it is not difficult to interpret it that way since today it is known as a
leading figure in the art of writing.

Sonia Sanchez, born Wilsonia Benita Driver, September 9, 1934, is an American poet,
writer, and teacher. An activist, idealist, defender of African-American descent, and
feminism, she carries the banner of the Black Arts Movement and has written more than
a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays and books for
kids. In the 1960s, Sánchez published poems in periodicals aimed at African-American
audiences and published her debut collection, Homecoming , in 1969. In 1993, she
received the scholarship Pew fellowship in the Arts and in 2001 she received the
Robert Frost for his contributions to the canon of American poetry.

The goal of the Black Arts Movement was to renew the will, insight, energy, and
consciousness of Black people. Her writing established her importance as a political
thinker for the "black aesthetic" agenda. Sánchez gained a reputation as an important
voice in the Black Arts movement after publishing the book of poems Home Coming in
1969.

It is known for its innovative combination of musical formats, such as the blues, and
traditional poetic formats such as haiku (a haiku is a short poem of Japanese origin
inspired by nature, especially the changing seasons) and tanka (The tanka is a type of
traditional Japanese poetry, consists of five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables). He also uses
the spelling to celebrate the unique sound of black English, for which he credits poets
like Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown.
Among so many poems by Sánchez, let's make a stop, just as Elisabeth A. Frost in his
book " the feminists advance guard in american poetry ” he in poem de Sánchez “To
CHUCK , which is an ironic poetry ars that appropriates an avant-garde surface that
attracts attention, since it is practically a kind of homage to ee cummings , for its
unusual syntax, characteristic of this white poet, who breaks the structures and includes
unorthodox uses of lower case and punctuation, where many of his poems are written
without hesitation to the lines and the paragraphs of some do not seem to have footnotes
or head until they are not read aloud. This is the case of the structure of “to CHuck ”.
The poem adapts his love motives, setting aside idealism in favor of explicit sexuality.

“To Chuck” is a way of expressing irony, position and feminine freedom to transmit
passions. “to CHuck ”, it is almost a claim, but his formal Cummings style (name that is
placed in lowercase by decision of the poets, it is a way of remembering his original
way of writing) adapts very well to the "language war with the United States" . Sánchez
exploits the form of cummings to launch a critique of an Anglo-American avant-garde
that failed to fully address the racial divide symbolized by white paper and black ink.

This poem breaks the ice to give entrance to a revolution in the form of sexual love
poems.

Sanchez , poet, university professor, writer... with very marked beliefs and tendencies,
she left her legacy of pride both in her lineage and her gender, all in letters, sometimes
messy, but even the implied form was an expression of itself. Manifesting through art is
the best way to make a beauty claim. Her constant concern for the well-being of the
black community and her commitment to social justice, made her feel that she had
something to say, for those who silence, and she said it, it only remains for the readers
of her being able to interpret it.
 Reference

Frost, Elisabeth A, The feminist avant-garde in American poetry

University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2003 .
Joyce Ann Joyce, ed. (2007). Conversaciones con Sonia Sanchez . Prensa de la
Universidad de Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-952-1
Sonia Sanchez Bio, [Documento online], Available:
https://mypoeticside.com/poets/sonia-sanchez-poems
Sonia Sanchez, [Documento online], Available: https://hmong.es/wiki/Sonia_Sanchez