“Cut on the Bias”: Toni Cade Bambara as a Touchstone of Black Feminist Humor Studies

ABSTRACT. As a writer, editor, scholar, and activist, Toni Cade Bambara left an indelible imprint on African American literature and Black feminist thought. This article elucidates Bambara’s significance to Black women’s humorous practice and articulates the mutuality between Black feminism’s ongoing project to render Black women visible and to recover and engage in the bounty of Black women’s humorous expression. Through her “cut on the bias” approach to using humor in the short story “Medley,” Bambara offers an “alternate design sensibility” of racial and gender difference that illuminates the perspective of being Black and female.