SOURCE: "Sonia Sanchez: Will and Spirit," in MELUS, Vol. 12, No. 3, Fall, 1985, pp. 73-98.

In the following interview, Melhem provides an introduction to Sanchez's career, which is followed by an interview in which Sanchez discusses the influences, themes, and forms of her work.

Dynamic: the word immediately describes Sonia Sanchez and her art. Petite, attractive, her diminutive size, like that of actress Vinie Burrows, seems to acquire physical volume on stage. Born to Wilson L. and the late Lena (Jones) Driver on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama, Sanchez was named Wilsonia after her father who had wanted a boy. She has an older sister, Patricia. Her half-brother, Wilson S. Driver, Jr., about whom she is writing, died in 1981.

At the age of nine, Sanchez moved to New York, where she attended elementary school, junior high, and George Washington High School. She was graduated from Hunter College in 1955. Selected for a...