{"id":391371,"date":"2026-07-30T01:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391371\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T01:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:22:12","slug":"former-san-antonio-poet-laureate-says-best-writing-comes-from-burning-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391371\/","title":{"rendered":"Former San Antonio Poet Laureate says best writing comes from burning passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 In a room full of 11th graders, reading Andrea Sanderson\u2019s<\/a> work is like sitting in a masterclass of poetry.<\/p>\n

Students\u2019 eyes were drawn to the screen in the front of the classroom, the words flowing like water as they tried to grasp every single lyric.<\/p>\n

While it was awkward for a teenage boy to read her words out loud, Sanderson\u2019s eloquent sentences paint a picture of femininity.<\/p>\n

Sanderson said she decides what to write based on what is burning in her chest to say to the world. Her writing flourishes with passion and dedication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weighing heavy on me, and I feel like I need to find a way to express it more fully and develop it,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cI\u2019ve had the privilege and honor of being able to develop a lot of the things that I focus on; a full production, with music, and lights, and sounds, and all the cool things that go along with being in theater spaces and on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea \u201cVocab\u201d Sanderson understands the power words have, which is how she earned her nickname and became the Poet Laureate of San Antonio from 2020 through 2023.<\/p>\n

Sanderson is also a singer, songwriter, rapper and author of \u201cThe Seasoned Woman\u201d and \u201cShe Lives in Music.\u201d She continues to perform for audiences and released a collaborative album with Rob Cockfield earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Sanderson grew up around music and art, discovering her love for writing after finding a typewriter at her aunt\u2019s house in Corpus Christi when she was six years old.<\/p>\n

With the typewriter, Sanderson wrote her mother a love letter. The moment sparked her love for writing and helped her gain the confidence to share her voice.<\/p>\n

When she was 13, Sanderson said her close friend, Krisha, was murdered. Sanderson wrote a poem to honor Krisha at her memorial service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of made an internal promise to Krisha that I would pay honor to her memory in my life and her influence in my life by pursuing this art form and trying to introduce as many young people to poetry and the arts as possible,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cI ended up doing that for a living. It\u2019s kind of crazy how my life just found this path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her career path led her to make history. In 2020, she became the first African-American Poet Laureate of San Antonio. The following year, the Academy of American Poets awarded Sanderson a $50,000 fellowship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I won my grant to become an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, that was a huge grant,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s when I win grants is when it really hits home for me. What we say and what we do has a heavy impact as leaders, and we can\u2019t just take it for granted and just talk recklessly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanderson started creating commissioned pieces for public works in 2020. She said one of her poems also became part of the ninth-grade STAAR Test in 2023.<\/p>\n

Years later, Sanderson continues to write and perform for others to enjoy.<\/p>\n

Alex Cubeta wrote this article for the 2025-2026 Teen Team program, which connects high school students with reporters, photographers and other media professionals for one-on-one training. Cubeta was mentored by KSAT Investigates reporter Daniela Ibarra. To learn more, visit sahispanicjournalists.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 In a room full of 11th graders, reading Andrea Sanderson\u2019s work is like sitting in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28394,53802,4014,82,137885,84,83,137886],"class_list":["post-391371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-black-history","tag-poet-laureate","tag-poetry","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-association-of-hispanic-journalists","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-teen-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}