MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 7pm – POETRY
Moonstone and Art Sanctuary Present:
SONIA SANCHEZ
Reading from her new book Morning Haiku ($19.95 Beacon Press)

This new volume by the much-loved poet Sonia Sanchez, her first in over a decade, is music to the ears: a collection of haiku that celebrates the gifts of life and mourns the deaths of revered African American figures in the worlds of music, literature, art, and activism. In her verses, we hear the sounds of Max Roach “exploding in the universe,” the “blue hallelujahs” of the Philadelphia Murals, and the voice of Odetta “thundering out of the earth.” Sanchez sings the praises of contemporaries whose poetic alchemy turns “words into gems”: Maya Angelou, Richard Long, and Toni Morrison. And she pays homage to peace workers and civil rights activists from Rosa Parks and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to Brother Damu, founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. Often arranged in strings of twelve or more, the haiku flow one into the other in a steady song of commemoration. Sometimes deceptively simple, her lyrics hold a very powerful load of emotion and meaning. There are intimate verses here for family and friends, verses of profound loss and silence, of courage and resilience. Sanchez is innovative, composing haiku in new forms, including a section of moving two-line poems that reflect on the long wake of 9/11. In a brief and personal opening essay, the poet explains her deep appreciation for haiku as an art form. With its touching portraits and by turns uplifting and heartbreaking lyrics, Morning Haiku contains some of Sanchez’s freshest, most poignant work.

Sonia Sanchez—poet, activist, scholar—was the Laura Carnell professor of English and women’s studies at Temple University. She is the recipient of both the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award. One of the most important writers of the Black Arts movement, Sanchez is the author of sixteen books, including Like the Singing Coming off the Drums, Does Your House Have Lions?, Wounded in the House of a Friend, and Shake Loose My Skin.

“Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.” —Maya Angelou

“Only a poet with an innocent heart can exorcise so much pain with so much beauty.”—Isabel Allende

“The poetry of Sonia Sanchez is full of power and yet always clean and uncluttered. It makes you wish you had thought those thoughts, felt those emotions, and, above all, expressed them so effortlessly and so well.” —Chinua Achebe

“Her songs of destruction and loss scrape the heart; her praise songs thunder and revitalize. We need these songs for our journey together into the next century.” —Joy Harjo

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 8pm – Moonstone Members Only

A Reception with Sonia Sanchez at Time Restaurant, 1316 Sansom Street, cash bar
Spend an informal hour with Sonia Sanchez after her reading, have a drink, your book autographed, and conversation with others who love poetry and Sonia. If you are not a member you can join at our website: www.moonstoneartscenter.org or on site.

Autographed books can be ordered for home delivery by calling 215-735-9600

Help spread the word! Download this PDF flyer and share it with anyone and everyone who might be interested in attending.
Sonia Sanchez

Dylan Landis author of Normal People Don’t Live Like This ($15.00 Persea Books)

“Delicious writing…Evocative, lyrical prose, and vivid imagery coupled with a subtle fictional approach, mysterious references, and ambiguities. Buy this for your literary fiction readers and short story fans – they’ll appreciate it”. – BOOKLIST, review by Ellen Loughran

“In this bracing debut, Dylan Landis guides us into the harsh, secretive
world of girls, where the mysteries of power and sexuality baldly govern, and adults and teenagers occasionally intersect across the barbed wire of a mutually earned mistrust.” – Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black

“Dylan Landis leaves me breathless with admiration. Her haunting, luminous characters hold secrets we can’t help but recognize as our own, and we’re privy to their most intimate, complicated moments. Beautiful and unrelenting, Normal People Don’t Live Like This had me nodding and sighing and thinking, ‘Oh, but we do, we do.’ “- Lisa Glatt, author of A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That and The Apple’s Bruise

Joanna Smith Rakoff author of A Fortunate Age ($26.00 Scribner)
was a New York Times Editors’ Pick, a winner of the Elle Readers’ Prize, and a selection of Barnes and Noble’s First look Book Club. Like the characters in that novel, she attended Oberlin College, and she holds degrees from University College, London, and Columbia University. She’s written for the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, and numerous other publications. She lives in New York with her husband, son, and daughter.