Sonia Sanchez, "Song No. 3"

READER: MARIA WILDE

RESPONDENT: SHERI LOWE

RECORDER: CLAUDINE FAVORITA

Sonia Sanchez was born Wilsonia Bonita Driver in Birmingham, Alabama. She is an African American poet, writer, and political activist of the 60’s. She has a B.A. in political science. Sanchez describes herself as having been a shy child with a stutter. In time she became a powerful speaker. Ms. Sanchez is currently a member of the faculty at Temple University and teaches Black American Literature and Creative Writing. She is a recipient of several awards. These include the Pen Writing Award, Lucretia Mott Award, NEA Award, Academy of Arts and Letter Award. She has written books and poetry.

Objective 5A To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help others hear the minority voice and share the minority experience.

Objective 3A To contrast the dominant "American Dream" narritive which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and privileging the individual with alternative narratives of American minorities, which involve involuntary participation, connecting to the past, and traditional or alternative families.

Objective 2 To observe representational and narratives of ethnicity and gender as a means of defining minority categories.

• Poem is about an African American girl is seen as and objects by the dominant culture. The poem portrays that beauty is not a characteristic of the African American culture. The dominant culture sees black skin, nose, short, skinny as ugly according to the poem.
• Appearance has an effect on how people perceive you. If you are not of the Anglo culture you are stereotyped.
• The girl in the poem knows that she is not like the dominant culture therefore, she must be independent in the struggle to survive.
• At the end of the poem there is a sense of hope because there are others who look like her. In some way knowing this, keeps her going and not giving up on life. There is redemption.
• The girl in the poem has learned to cope with her problem or what she perceives is a problem. She hopes people see her for who she is.
• Song No. 3 ties in with the relationship that Jazz plays in the African American culture.

What does the poem accomplish? You get right to the point of the poem. Lyric poem expresses the poet’s thoughts and feelings. Experiences and circumstances of life led poet to write about this poem.

How is it more successful than narrative?

1. You immediately know the feelings being portrayed.
2. Poetry makes it aesthetically satisfying.
3. Lower Case letters, speed writing and fluid lines point to the frequency with which African-American poets allude to Jazz performers.

If for one minute you closed your eyes and imagine you are of dark skin color, how does this make you feel? And vice versa

What is a virtue outer appearance or inner beauty?

What is the language usage in the poem?

Works cited:

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~cybers/sanchez2.html

http://secure01.win.net/aalbc/sonia.htm

http://www.dclibrary.org/news/sanchez.html

Answer to question #1

One student said that they felt like they were not appreciated for who they were, but judged by what the looked like.

Another student used the example of being trapped in his or her own culture and by their color.

About the poem:

Looking around in a new environment feeling out of place in that environment.

Idea of being different is not only a minority, little girls often feel they are different, it is a growing up stage.

Her appearance is ugly not just disliking her color.

A person’s true character is exposed when they think no one is looking.

Children looking at the world stare in order to learn about something’s.

Little girls are not always beautiful; all the cues in her environment tell her she is ugly.

She is expressing her self-conscience.

Her thoughts and words are directed out there not at anyone in particular.

She might have low self-esteem.

Perhaps she is a bi-racial? Is that why she doesn’t feel pretty and accepted?

Redemption at the end of poem is seen.