We A BaddDDD People

Author: Sonia Sanchez

Publisher: Cutt Press (2024)

Sonia Sanchez’s second book of poems is dedicated to “blk/wooomen: the only queens of this universe” and exemplifies the poetics of the Black Arts movement and the principles of the black aesthetic. Sanchez (1934-), a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement, is the author of over twenty volumes of poetry, seven plays, and three childrens books. She has also edited two anthologies: We Be Word Sorcerers: Twenty-five Stories by Black Americans (Bantam Books, 1973) and Three Hundred Sixty Degrees of Blackness Comin’ at You (Broadside, 1971).

“‘We a BaddDDD People’ depicts the experiences of common black folk in courtrooms, slum bars, and on the streets, with pimps and jivers, boogalooing and loving Malcolm X. It celebrates the majestic beauty of blackness and speaks of revolution in the language of the urban black vernacular. Rhythms deriving from the jazz and blues of John Coltrane and Billie Holiday create a poetry of performance in which the audience participates vigorously in meaning-making. Experimental in style, it is antilyrical free verse, using spacing, slash marks, and typography as guides to performance.”