Raymond's Run Flyer
By Toni Bambara Created By David Priebe
The story Raymond's Run is about a young girl named "Squeaky" or Hazel who is a serious runner. She is the fastes girl in her neighboorhood and everybody wants to beat her in the soon to be race. She lives in New York. She has ayounger brother who was a rare disorder where water builds up around his brain. She has a rival fromn the beggining of the story. They race each other at the race day.
About the Author
Toni Cade Bambara was born in 1939 in Harlem. Toni's given name was Miltona Mirkin Cade, after her father's white boss Milton Mirkin (Hull 2). She changed it to Toni around age five (Schirack 1). While searching through her grandmother's trunk, Toni found a sketchbook that contained a signature, Bambara. This became her adopted last name (Lauter 1). Maureen Schirack wrote, "the author's greatest influence and inspiration was her mother"(2). This strong influence helped Bambara become the social and political activitist that she is remembered for. Bambara received a bachelor's in theater and literature and a master's in modern American literature. Her education also took her abroad, where she studied filmmaking in England (Lauter 1). Bambara had many jobs before settling on teaching and writing. She worked as an investigator for the welfare office in New York , served at the Venice Ministry of Museums in Italy, a literacy instructor, college professor, and filmmaker (Hunt 1). Bambara published her first short story while an undergraduate. "Sweet Town" won the John Golden Award for fiction (Schirack 2). Bambara wrote two collections of short stories, three novels and edited some groundbreaking African-American writing. In 1986, Bambara won an Oscar for her documentary The Bombing of Osage Avenue about the bombing of the MOVE headquarters (a newly started black organization) in Philadelphia. Bambara was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1993 and died December 9, 1995 (Schirack 5)