Tina Morton on Toni Cade Bambara for The Feminist Wire

Leeway News

December 2, 2014

Tina Morton and Toni Cade Bambara photo credit: Carlton Jones

Permission

Written by Tina Morton for The Feminist Wire
November 23, 2014

It was a warm day in May 1994; the third annual Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema was about to begin, and the city was buzzing. I was late arriving to a moderated film discussion.

Here comes one of the filmmakers now.

These are the words I heard Toni Cade Bambara say as I entered a crowded coffee house in Philly. I quickly turned around, anxious to see the filmmaker coming in behind me. No one was there. Oh, was that me she was referring to? I thought with my one eyebrow raised. I smiled at her she winked at me. See, that’s the thing with Toni; she could recognize who you were long before you realized it.

I was formally an x-ray technician at a large center city trauma center. I had the idea that I wanted to make a little film, so someone told me about Louis Massiah’s Scribe Video Center. That is where I met Toni Cade Bambara. She was conducting a scriptwriting class. It was such a safe space to explore and learn. In that class, Aishah Shahidah Simmonswas working on what ultimately became the groundbreaking film, NO! The Rape Documentary. I remember giving Toni two short sentences of an idea I had for a film. She gave me three pages of feedback and ideas to implement that vague vision. The result was the film Severed Soulsabout Corrine Sykes, the first African-American woman legally executed in Pennsylvania. Toni never saw the film, but she was so vital to its completion.

When Toni became ill, the Image Weavers (A Black & Brown Women’s Film Collective) got together with raw chef extraordinaire Zakiyyah Ali to prepare her meals. Nadine Patterson, Zakiyyah, and I would bring Toni her dinner. We would spend hours listening and laughing at Toni’s stories and adventures. It occurred to me one day that while we are scarfing all this delicious food, Toni was not eating. I think she really just enjoyed the laughter and the love.

So fast-forward 20 years later. I quit my job as an x-ray tech, went to graduate school for film, and I am now an Associate Professor in theSchool of Communications at Howard University. This happened because Toni Cade Bambara gave me permission to be what I could not even imagine myself to be…a filmmaker.

I love you, Toni. I thank you, and I miss you.