The Full Moon of Sonia

by Jamie Walker


 

Atlanta, GA—Poet Sonia Sanchez launched the start of what promises to be an exciting and phenomenal new tour at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. During the “kick-off” for this year’s 10^th annual National Black Arts Festival (NBAF)—which took place July 16-25—Sanchez not only received a distinguished “Living Legend Award” to celebrate her “30-year international career as a warrior wordsmith,” but she also performed live from her debut CD, “The Full Moon of Sonia.”

Underwritten by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Georgia Council for the Arts, “The Full Moon of Sonia” was made possible, in part, through Fulton County’s DIALOG initiative (a program of the Fulton County Arts Council) and VIA International Artists, Inc., who provided the creative, artistic direction for the project.

Co-produced by Michael Simanga and Tom W. Jones II (formerly with Jomandi Productions), “Full Moon” is an enticing, spell-binding CD compilation whose contagious lyrics and vocals combine beautifully with funky, rootsy, soulful beats that are, at once, unifying and liberating—a  testament and tribute to jazz and the blues.

Patterned after an early poem of hers published in Under a Soprano Sky (Africa World Press 1987) called “ToWhomItMayConcern,” Sanchez’s new CD spans the full range of the poet’s career, illuminating Sanchez’s evolving Black woman consciousness over the years, as well as her evolution as a poet speaking truth to the spiritual and cultural needs of the people.

Appropriately titled, “Full Moon” is a meditation of sorts providing luminous, infinite wisdom about a Black woman, mother, poet, sister, lover, teacher, warrior, activist, healer, mentor, and human being who has come into her own—articulating her Black woman’s reality and view of the world while helping to free the people (all people) from internalized racism, sexism, classicism, and homophobia.

Surprisingly, “Full Moon” was recorded in Bob Whitfield’s Patchwerk Studios in only six days—mostly due to “finances” and “conflicting schedules.”

“This was a wonderful project to work on and I’m pleased with the outcome,” said Michael Simanga, whose involvement with the project began when his co-producer, Tom Jones (who actually studied with Sanchez while he was still at student at Amherst College in the early 1970s) approached him with the idea.

“[Sanchez] is a giant both in talent and in life,” Simanga said. “It’s interesting that out of a forty-year career nobody has really recorded a CD of her poetry to music.”

Unlike Sanchez’s first album called A Sun Lady for All Seasons Reads Her Poetry (Folkways Records, 1971), which reflects the influence of the historic Black Arts Movement on her poetry and development, Sanchez’s new CD features the poet at her prime, reading empowering poems not only to music, but also to inspiring, beautiful vocals arranged by producer William Knowles.

Those talented singers who wrap their amazing vocals around Sanchez’s poetry include T.C. Carson (formerly of ‘Living Single’), William F. Hubbard, Sheila D. Wheat, Kelly Rutherford, Leesa Richards, Charlotte McKinnon, and Theresa Hightower, an Atlanta-native who will be releasing a CD of her own in the next two weeks.

At opening night, audience members were particularly impressed—standing on their feet, shouting, clapping, and cheering—when Sanchez moaned, sang, and crooned an entertaining blues number called “I’ve Been Keeping Company With the Layaway Man.”

Toshi Reagan, “seasoned live performer” and daughter of Berniece Reagan (who recently retired from Sweet Honey in the Rock) strummed her guitar in the background, wrapping her sweet, irresistible voice around Sanchez’s poetry.

Amiri Baraka, who, with his wife Amina Baraka, was one of the “surprise guest artists” at the concert, fascinated audience members when he walked out on stage to perform a hip, thought-provoking poem about peace with Sanchez.

When asked what he thought of watching his contemporary from the Black Arts Movement evolve over the years, Baraka, who will be directing an opera about Nat Turner at Seton Hall in Newark, New Jersey starting July 29, 2004, responded: “[Sanchez] has steadily developed—like they say. She’s steadily gotten more skilled at what she does. She’s certainly more focused in what she does, so it’s been a steady kind of line of development.”

Amina Baraka delighted audience members when she read a fitting poem about Sanchez, who has served a multiplicity of roles in her life—alternating between mother, sister, aunt, cousin, and cherished life-long friend.

Thrilled after watching Sanchez’s performance, Amina, who claims Sanchez actually taught her “how to write a poem,” said, “Sonia be a woman. She’s always taught other women to be a woman. I’ll go to hell and heaven—and stay on earth and live—praising Sonia because she’s a poem in progress, a wild woman who got the blues.”

Indeed, Sanchez has not only “got” the blues, but she has also lived, experienced, and articulated the complex “blues journey” of Black women throughout the Diaspora non the road toward enlightenment, self-love, wholeness and purpose in the community.

Eugene Redmond, editor of Drumvoices and currently professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, says Sanchez’s concert performance was “enthralling . . . edifying . . . a trip to the near past and the future . . . a rich cross-fertilization of the generations and the genders . . . [showcasing] the best of the Black Arts Movement . . . the best of Black Art.”

While Redmond claims “several levels” were achieved in Sanchez’s performance, which, of  many things, has an “optical—psychological and sexual viscera,” Redmond also admits being “made painfully aware of the continuing struggle of Black women in the context of and apart from the Black struggle.”

Remembering such moving pieces as “A Poem To Some Women/Leak in This Old Building,” “Song #2/Mother’s Child,” or “He/She” (a poem about blind love, physical abuse and domestic violence), Redmond confides: “The pain of Black women—I picked it up several times; their views on Black children and family; the illnesses that come with struggle and the result of hand-me-down abuses and hand-me-down racism. Even though we see it, we read about it, and live it, we sit [in the audience] and have it lit up right in our faces—sparked on stage.”

Redmond says: “If you’re reading or teaching you can always turn to something else; you can always stop for awhile. But tonight it was great. It was right there in your face.”

Diana Stevens, executive producer of VIA International Artists, Inc., the organization she runs with her brother, Tom Jones, who actually brought the idea for the “Full Moon” project to the Fulton County Arts Council, agrees. She says: “The performance is spiritual in a lot of different ways. It isn’t just a concert with singing, dancing, and poetry. It’s the magic of Sonia.”

Stevens elaborates: “The performance demonstrate[s] the magic of Sonia as a human being. From her you get the performer . . . but you also get love, commitment, and all those years she’s given to others. The people in the audience were transformed by the experience. It was really ‘the Sonia experience.’”

Others who came out in support of Sanchez--such as author Joyce Ann Joyce, Valerie Boyd (Zora Neale Hurston biographer), poet Sharon Strange, Jessica Care Moore, Toni Blackmon, Joe Dingane (editor of The Journal of Black Poetry), and Avatar Neal (son of poet Larry Neal) couldn’t agree more. “The Full Moon of Sonia” is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience with an amazing, prolific poet, who has not only remained on the battlefield fighting for racial, social, and sexual justice, but who has also consistently helped to bridge the generations, unify the people, liberate history, herstory, and our very own ancestors.

Sanchez's new CD costs $15. For more information about purchasing a copy of the CD or for upcoming tour dates, please visit www.viaartists.com.

Jamie Walker is a freelance writer, student of Sanchez, and author of 101 Ways Black Women Can Learn to Love Themselves: A Gift for Women of All Ages. She can be reached directly through her website www.jamiewalker.org or via email at jamiedwalker@yahoo.com.

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