Sandra Proto's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-inspiration"

Black Arts Movement poet Sonia Sanchez was the next of my discoveries.


In 2003, when I first started to concentrate more seriously on my writing, I read an interview with Ms. Sanchez in the book Heroism in the New Black Poetry and two years later was fortunate to meet her in person.


In 2005, I volunteered for African Voices Magazine’s Elle Charles Award honouring Sonia Sanchez at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. I worked at the information table selling African Voices magazines and subscriptions. I heard (read more)

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As I begin the winter ritual of pruning, wiring, and the general tidying up of my bonsais after their summer growth, I reflect on the size which many of them have reached as they have grown and matured during the many years I have cared for them. Along the way, some of my bonsais have died, afflicted by old age or disease or inclement weather. Some trees have withered, branches covered in lichen mingling with living limbs, aging much like their human counterparts. The deciduous trees have lost their leaves, just as I have lost my hair. This work, and this particular winter have induced in me a certain degree of melancholia, having recently suffered a potentially life threatening illness. At the age of 72, I decided that I should commit to paper my life experiences, for my three children, and to give my eleven grandchildren a record of their grandfather.

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