Blues Ain't No Mockingbird

Bambara (1939-1995) was an author, filmmaker, professor, and activist who won the American Book Award in 1981 for her novel The Salt Eaters and was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2013. Her work explores themes of racism, feminism, and what it means to be a Black American. In a 1982 interview, Bambara reflected, “When I look back at my work with any little distance, the two characteristics that jump out at me are one, the tremendous capacity for laughter, but also a tremendous capacity for rage” (“Toni Cade Bambara [1939-1995].” Annenberg Learner, American Passages: A Literary Survey). These elements are detectable in “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird,” in which the story’s overall tenor is comic even while the characters (in particular, Granny) feel outraged at outrageous situations. Granny’s cumulative trauma and anger are no laughing matter, yet the larger narrative arc and perspective gesture toward a triumph and redemption that typify literary comedy. Likewise, the county men’s covert racism is hardly a joke, yet Bambara crafts a risible image in these characters’ absurd combination of smarm and hubris.

Bambara was active in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which sought to cultivate Black pride and create new cultural institutions.