Toni Cade Bambara

Biographical Information
Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade (March 25, 1939 – December 9, 1995), was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor. She was raised by her mother in New York City. Her mother, Helen Henderson Cade, was greatly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and encouraged her children to use their creativity.

Bambara earned her BA in Theater Arts and English from Queens College in 1959. She then lived in Milan for a while, before moving to Paris to study mime. She moved back to NYC and earned an MA from City College, New York. She was a frequent lecturer and teacher at universities and a political activist who worked to raise black American consciousness and pride. In the 1970s she was active in both the black liberation and the women’s movements.

Toni Cade Bambara died from colon cancer in 1995.

Themes
Race and gender are prominent themes in Bambara’s work. In 1982, in a taped interview with Kay Bonetti, Bambara reflected on her work: "When I look back at my work with any little distance the two characteristics that jump out at me is one, the tremendous capacity for laughter, but also a tremendous capacity for rage." Bambara spent her entire life writing about both. Her ability to laugh and imbue laughter into her stories came from her strong conviction and belief in family and community. Her rage came from the injustices she saw in the treatment of children, the elderly, and the oppressed black community.

Style
Bambara’s fiction, which is set in the rural South as well as the urban North, is written in black street dialect and is known for presenting sharply drawn characters whom she portrayed with affection. Bambara’s feel for the rhythms of speech owes more to jazz music than to specific literary predecessors. “For the most part, the voice of my work is bop,” Bambara has said.