The Sea Birds Are Still Alive

by Toni Cade Bambara

Ten stories of Black life written with Ms. Bambara's characteristic vigor, sensibility and winning irony. The stories range from the timid and bumbling confusion of a novice community worker in "The Apprentice" to the love-versus-politics crisis of an organizers wife, to the dark and bright notes of the title story about the passengers on a refugee ship from a war-torn Asian nation.

Young girls, weary men, lovers, frauds and revolutionaries -- Toni Cade Bambara handles them all the expertise, passion and huge talent. As the Chicago Daily News said, "Ms. Bambara grabs you by the throat...she dazzles, she charms."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Novels, African American, African American Literature

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade (March 25, 1939 – December 9, 1995) was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.

Toni Cade Bambara was born in New York City to parents Walter and Helen (Henderson) Cade. She grew up in Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), Queens and New Jersey. In 1970 she changed her name to include the name of a West African ethnic group, Bambara.

Bambara graduated from Queens College with a B.A. in Theater Arts/English Literature in 1959, then studied mime at the Ecole de Mime Etienne Decroux in Paris, France. She also became interested in dance before completing her master's degree in American studies at City College, New York (from 1962), while serving as program director of Colony Settlement House in Brooklyn. She has also worked for New York social services and as a recreation director in the psychiatric ward of Metropolitan hospital. From 1965 to 1969 she was with City College's Search for Education, Elevation, Knowledge-program. She taught English, published material and worked with SEEK's black theatre group. She was made assistant professor of English at Rutgers University's new Livingston College in 1969, was visiting professor in Afro-American Studies at Emory University and at Atlanta University (1977), where she also taught at the School of Social Work (until 1979). She was writer-in-residence at Neighborhood Arts Center (1975–79), at Stephens College at Columbia, Missouri (1976) and at Atlanta's Spelman College (1978–79). From 1986 she taught film-script writing at Louis Massiah's Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia.

Bambara participated in several community and activist organizations, and her work was influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s. She went on propaganda trips to Cuba in 1973 and to Vietnam in 1975. She moved to Atlanta, GA, with her daughter, Karma Bene, and became a founding member of the Southern Collective of African-American Writers.

Toni Cade Bambara was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1993 and died of it in 1995, at the age of 56.

(from Wikipedia)

aka Toni Cade

Reviews

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I cannot believe it took me this long to find this woman's work. I struggle to think of very many writers who do the short story better; there are no writers who do a better job writing short stories about young Black people. Part of what I appreciated in the difference between Sea Birds and, say, Gorilla, My Love, is the turned attention to other Black peoples of the world. This collection felt more international than GML, though each are heavily invested in centering the Black experience.

My incredibly minor critique is I wish the last short story was, well, longer.

[Carrie Laben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1977, this book is not only still relevant in terms of content (most of the stories center around Black women active in community/political life) but glorious in its celebration of language and non-linear form.

[Elma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could have read this in community like BC or a class. I’m sure I missed some things but grateful to have read it. Very poignant and fitting still in 2023, unfortunately. I can see the influence Bambara’s had on more recent black feminist books I’ve read.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story perfect. Fiction that never loses sight of the struggle of reality. The reality of being a Black woman in America; the reality of being a radical, of the political being inseparable from daily life; the reality of community, fragmented but always verging on coming together; the reality of love and the lack of love; the reality of maturing; the reality of the war in Vietnam; the reality of trying to live in a world of death. Not enough words in this box, on this site, in this world to come up against the words inside this book. Bambara is a master of voice and of telling a story while also interrogating how any story is told. The little she left us will last many lifetimes.

[Aditya · Rating 5 out of 5]

P good. Felt like I was transported to different worlds w each chapter. And idk it was p cool. Took me a while to read it but Would recommend to others to read as well. And I don’t just say that so check it out

[KL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slice of life stories about really well-realized characters. Really good. Often sad. As timely today as it was when it first came out.

[Erssie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A must for enjoyable and educational reading
I read this when I did a newspaper article on the Women's Press fiction.