Ramona Lofton (born August 4, 1950), better known by his pen name Sapphire , is an American writer and poet of performance.
Video Sapphire (author)
Kehidupan awal
Ramona Lofton was born in Fort Ord, California, one of four children from a couple of soldiers who moved in the United States and abroad. After disagreement about where the family will settle, his parents parted, with Lofton's mother "just like leaving them". Lofton dropped out of school and moved to San Francisco, where he got a GED and enrolled at City College of San Francisco before going out to become a "hippie". In the mid-1970s, Lofton studied at City College of New York and earned his MFA degree at Brooklyn College. Lofton held various jobs before starting his writing career, working as a performing artist and as a teacher reading and writing.
Maps Sapphire (author)
Careers
Lofton moved to New York City in 1977 and became deeply involved with poetry. He is also a member of a gay organization called United Lesbians of Color for Change Inc. He writes, performs and finally publishes his poems during the peak of the Slam Poetry movement in New York. Lofton took the name "Sapphire" because of a one-time cultural association with the image of a "black war woman," and also because she said she could more easily imagine the name on the cover of the book than her birth name.
Sapphire published itself a collection of Meditations on the Rainbow poems in 1987. As noted by Cheryl Clarke, Sapphire's 1994 poetry book, American Dreams is often mistakenly referred to as the first Book. One of the critics called it "one of the strongest debut collections of the 1990s".
His first novel, Push , was not published before it was discovered by literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, whose interest in creating demand and ultimately led to a bidding war. Sapphire sent the first 100 pages Push to the publisher auction in 1995 and the highest bidder offered $ 500,000 to complete his novel. The book was published in 1996 by Vintage Publishing and has since been sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Sapphire noted in an interview with William Powers that "he noticed Push for sale at one of Penn Station's bookstores, and by then he realized that he was no longer a creature from a small world of art magazines and a homeless shelter from where is he coming ". The novel brings Sapphire praise and much controversy because of his graphic reports of a young woman growing up in the incest and abuse cycles.
A film based on his novel aired at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. The film is named Valuable to avoid confusion with the action film 2009 Push . The cast includes Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, who won an Academy Award for her role as Precious Mary's mother, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz. Sapphire himself appeared briefly in the film as a daycare worker.
In 2011, she released The Kid, a semi-sequel to Push, which Sapphire admitted part of the reason she decided to continue the story is because of encouragement and interest. Push received in a scientific conversation.
Sapphire's writing was the subject of an academic symposium at Arizona State University in 2007. In 2009 he was a recipient of the Fellow's Award in Literature from US Artists.
Sapphire has been focusing on turning parts of the life that are not getting attention. In his words,
"The main focus of my art is my determination to reconnect with the mainstream of human life, the segment of humanity that has been released and made invisible.I have brought to the public gaze of women who have been marginalized by their sexual abuse, poverty, and darkness. trying to focus them on the world. "
Personal life
Sapphire lives in New York City. He is openly bisexual.
Like his Precious character, Sapphire was sexually abused at the age of eight by his father, a sergeant of the US army.
Bibliography
Novel
- Dorong (1996)
- The Kid (2011)
Puisi
- Meditasi pada Pelangi: Puisi (1987)
- American Dreams (1994)
- Sayap Hitam & amp; Blind Angels: Poems (1999)
Referensi
Bacaan lebih lanjut
- Juno, Andrea; Vale, V, eds. (1999). "Safir". Wanita Marah . New York, NY: Juno Books. hal 163-176. ISBN: 1890451053.
Tautan eksternal
- Wawancara dengan Sapphire di Rollins College (Februari 2015)
- Sapphire: Wawancara di [The Root (Juli 2011)]
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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