|
Toni
Cade Bambara
Original
name Toni Cade (Born.
March 25, 1939
,
New York
,
N.Y.
, U.S. Died
Dec. 9, 1995
,
Philadelphia
,
Pa.
), American writer, civil-rights
activist, and teacher who wrote about
the
concerns of
the
African-American community.
Reared by her mo
the
r in
Harlem
, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and
Queens
,
N.Y.
, Bambara (a surname she adopted
in 1970) was educated at
Queens
College
(B.A., 1959). In 1961 she went
to
Europe
, studying acting and mime in
Italy
and in
France
. She received an M.A. in 1964
from
City
College
of
the
City University of 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.
Bambara's fiction, which is set in
the
rural South as well as
the
urban North, is written in black street dialect and
presents sharply drawn characters whom she portrayed with
affection. She published
the
short-story collections "Gorilla, My Love"
(1972) and "The Sea Birds Are Still Alive" (1977), as
well as
the
novels "The Salt Eaters" (1980) and "If Blessing
Comes" (1987). She edited and contributed to "The
Black Woman: An Anthology" (1970) and to "Tales and
Stories for Black Folks" (1971). She also collaborated on
several television documentaries
|
