An addition to Rita Dove’s choice of poems in her anthropology, are selections from an acknowledgeable divorced couple: Ms. Sonia Sanchez, and Mr. Etheridge Knight. The couple are acknowledgeable because of their awards, their works, and their activism in the Black Arts Movement. The couple was married after Mr. Knight’s release, in 1968, from an 8-year sentence he served for robbery. The couple took care of three children during their marriage: Anita, who, as it is cited, to be conceived when Sonia was with her first husband, Albert Sanchez, and two children she conceived with Etheridge Knight, Morani and Mungu. Also, the reason for Sonia and Etheridge’s divorce, as cited, is to be the effect of Etheridge Knight’s drug addiction. I have seen a cite or two making this claim, however, few cites do put out inaccurate information, and similar to Wikipedia, are not one hundred percent trustworthy.

                Sonia Sanchez, born Wilsonia Benita Driver on September 9, 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama, is a poet, playwright, professor, activist, and one out of numerous foremost leaders of the Black Studies. Poems of Sonia Sanchez were included in the movie Love Jones, one being a poem Nina, a character in the movie played by Nia Long, recited entitled “I am Remembering Love.” Due to the death of Sonia’s mother, in 1935, while giving birth to twins a year after Sonia was born, Sonia went to live with her grandmother and other relatives. Her grandmother taught her to read to at age four, and to write age six. After the death of her grandmother, in 1943, her and her sister, moved to live with their father, a schoolteacher, and his third wife in Harlem. It is cited, she spent three decades in Harlem.

                Though Sonia took creative writing courses at Hunter College in New York, she graduated with a B.A. in political science. She attended graduate school at New York University in 1955 where she studied and focused on poetry alongside of “one of the most accomplished American poet critics of the mid-20^th century,” and the first woman to hold the title of Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945 for four years, Ms. Louise Bogan. Sanchez was a part of CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, and Nation of Islam, but left after three years in protest of their mistreatment of women. She began teaching in 1965, first at the Downtown Community School in New York, later at San Francisco State University teaching on the literature of African Americans from 1968-69, and, additionally, at other Universities. Sanchez also attended workshops in Greenwich Village in New York City. Here she met and formed the “Broadside Quartets” with poets, Amiri Baraka (a.k.a. Leroi Jones), Haki R. Madhubuti, and Sonia’s soon-to-be husband, Etheridge Knight.

                Etheridge Knight, born in Corinth, Mississippi in 1931 on April 19^th. Different cites inaccurately mention the number of his siblings. One writes he was one of six, another writes he was one of seven, but another writes he was one of eight. However, he mentions the number sisters he has in his poem, “The Idea of Ancestry,” but not the number of his brothers. Anyhow, Etheridge was raised in Paducah, Kentucky, where dropped out of high school and spent his teenage years working in pool halls, bars, and juke joints, introducing him to drugs and aided to his “toast” telling art. Toasts are long narrative poems coming from an oral tradition which is performed from memory involving “sexual exploits, drug activities, and violent aggressive conflicts…” using street slang as well.

                Etheridge attempted to enlist in the army at age 17. After forging his parent’s signature to enlist, he was removed for being too young. He later enlisted again, most likely at age 18, and served in the Korean war as a medical technician. He was later discharged from the army because of a shrapnel wound, allegedly, leading to his drug addiction. Though, it is cited on other sources, his drug addiction began while in Korea. For a second, I thought his robbery conviction in 1960 was the effect of his drug addiction because, in “The Idea of Ancestry,” he writes, “The next day in Memphis I cracked a croaker’s crib for a fix.” I depicted, he robbed and stole money for a house for drugs, however, it is cited, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in the Indiana State Prison for robbery in Indianapolis. Though it does not mean his case was not moved elsewhere.

                While in prison he told toasts, wrote poems, and received visits from Dudley Randall and Gwendolyn Brooks. His first poem, “To Dinah Washington” – an American blues singer and pianist and dabbled in R&B and pop music – was published in the magazine for the African American market, the Negro Digest. The same magazine Sonia Sanchez was influenced by Bogan to begin to write in. After his release from prison, in 1968, Knight’s Poems from Prison, was published by Dudley Randall’s Broadside Press. After the success of his book, he joined poets Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez which then came the Black Arts Movement including Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, etc. This movement was a response to “socio-political landscape of the time…” meaning the prejudice period and the movement was a defense mechanism to protect the rights of African Americans.

                 Though Etheridge Knight and Sonia Sanchez would later divorce in 1972 they both were ventured and lived their lives. Etheridge, winning both Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations for Belly Song and other poems, winning prizes such as the Guggenheim Foundation and earning a Bachelor’s Degree in American Poetry and Criminal Justice from Martin Center University in Indianapolis. As well as Sanchez, winning the National Academy of Arts Award, in 1978, and the National Education Association Award, 1977-1988, also lecturing in over 500 colleges and Universities

https://poets.org/poet/sonia-sanchez

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sonia-sanchez

https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/sonia-sanchez-39

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/etheridge-knight

https://poets.org/poet/etheridge-knight

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Etheridge-Knight

-Jacqui Paige