Toni Cade Bambara

Velma Henry has always been a fighter, but she has fallen on hard times. Exhausted by her political struggles, she is undergoing healing in the Southwest Community Infirmary. Confronting her there is Minnie Ransom, spinster and fabled vehicle of the spirit world. Velma Henry has always been a fighter, but she has fallen on hard times. Exhausted by her political struggles, she is undergoing healing in the Southwest Community Infirmary. Confronting her there is Minnie Ransom, spinster and fabled vehicle of the spirit world.

Fifteen unforgettable short stories from an essential author of African American fiction gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, from uptown New York to rural North Carolina. "Bambara grabs you by the throat ... she dazzles, she charms." — Chicago Daily News A young girl suffers her first betrayal. A widow flirts with an elderly blind man against the wishes of her grown-up children. A neighborhood loan shark teaches a white social worker a lesson in responsibility. And there is more. Sharing the world of Toni Cade Bambara's "straight-up fiction" is a stunning experience.

https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-war-of-the-wall-1 “The War of the Wall” details the experiences of two kids as a street artist paints on their beloved wall in their neighborhood. The narrator describes the frustration that the people of the community have with the artist, who is not only painting over one of their favorite places to play, relax in the shade, and hold on to the memories of a lost friend, but the artist is unwilling to accept the hospitality from anyone who tries to offer her food, or find out what she is up to. When the narrator and Lou go out into the country to meet up with their grandmother, they learn about graffiti from dad and grandmother who are watching the news, and they decide that they are going to deface the painting when they return back to Taliaferro Street. When they return, however, they find that the mural was a beautiful picture that not only reminded the community of all of the things that they loved about the wall, but celebrated the vibrant cultural richness of their community.