Poetry is transformative, and words hold power. This week, we celebrate National Poetry Month with a 2001 video of renowned poet and activist Sonia Sanchez. She read her poem “For Sweet Honey in the Rock” in the State of the Arts studio, then joined host Amber Edwards in conversation.

 

“Sanchez deals bluntly with social injustice and racism in her work and challenges her readers to confront these issues, too,” Amber Edwards said in introduction as the Black Arts Movement icon took the State of the Arts stage. As the poet later noted, “I think we underestimate the intelligence and the love and the appreciation that people, that Americans, have for truth.”

Sonia Sanchez returns to New Jersey this June when the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and New Jersey Performing Arts Center host This is Not A Small Voice, a celebration of her illustrative career. The event will feature special guests, including poetry curator and writer Mahogany L. Browne, rapper and writer Saul Williams, the Christian McBride Trio, and Mayor Ras J. Baraka– whose poetry readings Sonia Sanchez praised highly in our archival video.