21 PLEASURE PRINCIPLES | Day 8 | Toni Cade Bambara

Pleasure Muse: Toni Cade Bambara 

Tantalizing Trivia: 

Born Miltona Mirkin Cade, this author, activist, and professor, changed her name at the age of 6, to Toni. She then added Bambara to honor the West African ethnic group, Bambara. 

Her anthology, “Black Woman”, was the first feminist collection to focus on Black women. It included works from her friends Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Alice Walker. 

After the success of her two fiction books, Gorilla My Love and The Salt Eaters, she became a filmmaker, covering topics like the Philadelphia MOVE Bombing and the disappearance of over 40 children in Atlanta. 

She believed strongly in clairvoyance, dream analysis, telepathy, and ancestral healing, and wrote about those themes in most of her work. 

She died at 56 from colon cancer. Toni Morrison posthumously edited and published her last book, Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions. 

Mirror Work:

Do a two minute free write, completing the sentence, “The truth is, I…” There’s not right or wrong. Just let your truth, about whatever comes from your spirit, flow onto the paper. Now look at yourself in the mirror as you read it out loud. “The Truth is I…” Repeat three times. Look at yourself while you speak and honor the courage that it takes to face our truths head on. 

Speak Your Truth: A Playlist 

Self-Care Shopping List:

Pick up The Salt Eaters for yourself and Gorilla My Love for your pre-teen or teen to read this Summer. 

“The dream is real my friend, it’s the failure to realize it that’s the unreality.” - Toni Cade Bambara 

Didn’t catch the live recording of today’s episode? We don’t want you to miss out on getting the full experience. Check out the opening and closing songs below.

Opening ⁠Song⁠

Closing ⁠Song