Toni Cade Bambara Quotes

I know that government doesn't have the all solutions that real solutions do not come from the top down. Instead, the ways to end poverty come from all of us. We are part of the solution.

I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.

People, wherever they are, can make a community.

The degree to which we connect to a community is in proportion to our individuality.

I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. It's like, 'Who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman.

I have one thing in common with the emerging black nations of Africa: We both have voices, and we are discovering what we can do with them.

I emphasize the dual mission of the Life Cube Project: involving as many members of the community as possible; and encouraging people to write down their goals, ambitions and wishes. I hope that the concept has an impact on these students' lives - that would be my dream.

People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don't realize they can do that. They think 'It's OK for other people, but I myself can't do it.' Hopefully, that will come out of the film.

I heard Dr. King speaking on the radio, and it seemed like he was saying, "John Robert Lewis, you too can make a contribution. You can get involved!"

If people do not organize in the name of their interest, the world will not take them as being serious. And that is the chief reason that every person who is gay should join some gay organization. Because he must prove to the world that he cares about his own freedom.

Writing about your community is difficult for any writer.

Now people are really inspired to do a lot, and the fire got lit under our asses to be more politically aware and be more politically involved in our community and pay more attention to what's going on.

[A.J. Muste] never engaged in violence but he believed, as [Mahatma] Gandhi did - and he knew Gandhi slightly - he believed that a pacifist had to be active in the community.

I began to realise that we are all oppressed which is why I would like to do something about it, though I'm not sure where my place is.

Love IS the People's Power

I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That's the important thing.

When I'm talking to people, I find myself quoting the three organizing rules of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was initiated by three young women, and too few people know that. But, anyway, the first one is lead with love. The second is low ego, high impact. The third is move with the speed of trust. I must say those make me feel very hopeful for the future.

We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.

The [Booker] prize was actually responsible in many ways for my political activism. I won this thing and I was suddenly the darling of the new emerging Indian middle class – they needed a princess. They had the wrong woman. I had this light shining on me at the time, and I knew that I had the stage to say something about what was happening in my country. What is exciting about what I have done since is that writing has become a weapon, some kind of ammunition.

I played team sports, but I never felt like I fitted in that well, so this allowed me to be part of a community but to do it in my own way.

My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That's one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn't be there. This is why peoples' lives are so enriched.

We have greater awareness of where we're falling short than we used to. Just take the example of community police relations.

All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause – there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once...Even just learning enough about a subject so you can speak against an opponent eloquently makes you an unusual personage. Start with that. Any one of you would have cried out, would have intervened, had you been in that crowd in Bashiqa. Well thanks to digital technology, you’re all in it now.

To name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary.

People need to believe that they can participate fully in the decisions that affect their lives and have a stake in the societies in which they live