Watch on Youtube & Reading List - Caretaking as Cultural Work: Lessons from Toni Cade Bambara and Helen Daniel by Zoe Bambara
By Zoe Bambara
A reading list by Zoe Bambara from the teach-in, “Caretaking as Cultural Work: Lessons from Toni Cade Bambara and Helen Daniel” for The School for Black Feminist Politics.
On Tuesday, June 17th, we hosted the teach-in, “Caretaking as Cultural Work: Lessons from Toni Cade Bambara and Helen Daniel” by Zoe Bambara. This teach-in is a part of our “Black Feminist Marronage Series”, which is inspired by the power, self-determination, and activism of Black women and gender expansive communities around the world, and their unrepentant and unyielding fortitude in creating transformative places and spaces of sanctuary, survival, and solidarity for ourselves and posterity.
You can watch the teach-in here: https://youtube.com/live/2PiCQHkwRjI
About the teach-in: I come from a line of two grandmothers who genuinely centered their communities: Toni Cade Bambara and Helen Daniel. Both were caretakers and cultural workers in their own right, laying the foundation for what I consider true organizing. My maternal grandmother, Toni, was a writer, organizer, and filmmaker. She fought oppressive systems through her art and knew how to engage with the community in meaningful ways to meet people’s material needs. My paternal grandmother, whom I called Mamas, was a mother of six and established the "Feeding the Unhoused Ministry" at Mt. Ephraim Church. She consistently looked after the children in the neighborhoods of Adamsville and Athens, Georgia. Even though they came from vastly different backgrounds, both grandmothers centered the communities around them. How can we call ourselves organizers if we don’t even know our neighbors' names? Cultural work takes many forms. In this teach-in, we will discuss how to find our place in the community, fill in the gaps, and honor our ancestors while doing so.
About the teach-in curator: Zoe Bambara is a Queer doula, cultural worker, organizer, and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Zoe has led and participated in many direct actions and protests surrounding state-sanctioned violence and the defense of reproductive justice in Georgia and Kentucky. She was the Digital Organizer for Women Engaged, a reproductive justice organization centering Black women, femmes, and girls. She was also the Deputy Director of Rise, a free college advocacy organization that fought for the expansion of investment in students' basic needs while obtaining a B.S. in Psychology from Morris Brown College. She is now the Community and Volunteer Engagement Coordinator for ARC-SE, the largest abortion fund in the SouthEast. She has received her Doula Certification from Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, and has received certification of completion from Sista Midwives. She has received her certification in Childbirth Education and Comfort Measures. She is now completing her Prison Doula Certification.She currently teaches Childbirth Education in County Jails in Georgia. Zoe’s work is deeply rooted in the Black Queer Feminist Radical Tradition, and her work is heavily influenced by her grandmother/writer/cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara. She hopes to open a brick and mortar for the Toni Cade Bambara Community Arts Center soon with her mother. In the meantime; they hold free film screenings and book club sessions for the community.
Reading List
Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara, edited by Thabiti Lewis
Toni Cade Bambara, Black History Month & Organizing by Zoe Bambara
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
The Adura Circle Prayers From The White Table by Michelle Hunton
Spirits Come from Water: An Introduction to Ancestral Veneration and Reclaiming African Spiritual Practices by Ehime Ora
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Cultural Worker, Not A “Creative” by Musa S.
"Care Must Be a Collective Practice of Survival, Not a Site of Profit Extraction" by Premilla Nadasen & Kelly Hayes (Podcast)