Remica Bingham-Risher

Sep 9, 2024 | beaconbroadside.com | Remica Bingham-Risher

By Remica Bingham-Risher Editor’s note: Poet, playwright, educator, and activist Sonia Sanchez turns ninety today! To celebrate her momentous solar return, we’re turning to poet Remica Bingham-Risher’s interview with the revolutionary poet in her memoir Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions That Grew Me Up. As Bingham-Risher discovers upon meeting her, much as we all do when we are blessed to do so, dear Sister Sonia Sanchez is a force! *** I met [Sonia] Sanchez at the second...

Feb 17, 2023 | poets.org | Remica Bingham-Risher |Bettina Judd |Kaveh Akbar |Omotara James

Mess like this sullies everything:             my grandmother will call and say Who’s that white lady             on your answering machine? She will laugh and I will wonder what’s missing?             (What did I forget? What does it mean             to lose your mother? Am I brilliant yet?) Pretty-mouthed girl with perfect diction.             How my teachers praised me. Didn’t they love             my lost convention, were they equipped to raise me?