Sanchez emerged as a seminal figure in the 1960s Black Arts Movement, writing in the name of black culture, civil rights and women's liberation. A poet, playwright and activist, her work responds to oppression by using black dialect as a poetic medium and a jazz-like improvisational rhythm, urging readers to embrace their blackness and turn away from the falsity of Western values.

"The haiku in her hands is… as abrupt and as final as a fist." David Williams