2:25 p.m., Oct. 7, 2008----Sonia Sanchez, an internationally acclaimed poet also celebrated for her role in racial activism over the past 40 years, will read from her poems and answer questions about her writing and work for social change at 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 20, in 127 Memorial Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

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Sanchez, who was born in 1934 in Birmingham, Ala., was raised by her grandmother until she was 9 and moved to live with her father and stepmother in Harlem in New York. At 21, she graduated from Hunter College with a bachelor's degree in political science, after which she pursued postgraduate work at New York University and studied with the poet Louise Bogan.

Still in her early 20s, Sanchez formed a writers' circle in Greenwich Village that was frequented by such poets as Amiri Baraka, Haki R. Madhubuti and Larry Neal. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, several published plays and three children's books. Additionally, she has edited two anthologies and has lectured at more than 500 universities and colleges in the United States alone.

From 1977 until her retirement in 1999, Sanchez taught at Temple University, where she was the first Presidential Fellow. Among the many honors she has received are a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a National Endowment for the Arts Award and the Lucretia Mott Award.

This event is sponsored by the Honors Program, UD Libraries, Office of Women's Affairs, Department of English, Black Studies Program and Women's Studies program. For more information, e-mail [jwalker@english.udel.edu].

Article by Becca Hutchinson