In Memoriam: bell hooks

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In Memoriam: bell hooks commemorates the life and legacy of bell hooks through her literary works and words—which outline a lifetime of feminism, social justice, compassion, and unique wisdom. The exhibit, presented by Berea College Special Collections and Archives, and co-sponsored by Hutchins Library and the bell hooks center, claims to recall “the life, career, and contributions of Dr. hooks as documented in her archival legacy, the bell hooks papers.” The exhibit highlights this legacy by including some of Dr. hooks's most seminal works: Belonging: A Culture of Place (1990), Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989), Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981), and many others. It also highlights the scope of Dr. hooks's work by positioning her criticisms of white supremacy and misogyny, for example—heavy topics—alongside her children's books that teach the opposite—inclusion, compassion, and resilience.The bell hooks papers are a collection of the personal correspondence, published and unpublished writings, and academic records of Dr. hooks, who passed in December 2021. Staff used these documents to carefully curate the display now housed in the Hutchins Library at Berea College, with which hooks had been affiliated since 2004. Dr. hooks had a long career that involved her with multiple institutions of higher learning, including Yale University and Oberlin College. However, as “home” does for many Appalachians, it called bell hooks back, and she used her impact and platform to serve Berea College in the finest way possible.Dr. hooks, born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on September 25, 1952, as “Gloria Jean Watkins,” used the pen name “bell hooks”—choosing not to capitalize the name in an intentional effort to draw attention only to the works and words that she poured herself into. Dr. hooks's presence in the region was critical—and remains so. She fought consistently to dismantle the stereotypes associated with Appalachia. Her involvement with Black Appalachian poets and activists—including Frank X Walker, who coined the term “Affrilachia”—gave new recognition to a large group of African American Appalachians who throughout the years seemed to remain “unseen.” Dr. hooks states in her book All About Love: New Visions that “the practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control” (hooks 2000, 153). Dr. hooks took this risk every day, and it is evidenced in the legacy that she leaves behind.Her legacy lives on across Kentucky, and the world—but especially at Berea College. In 2014, the college installed the bell hooks Institute, and later, in 2019, it established the bell hooks center. The bell hooks center is “a feminist hub for scholarship, activism and radical inclusion” (Berea College 2022). The center notes on their website that across campus, Bereans are now thinking and living gender beyond a binary. To meet their needs, the College opened its Women's and Gender Non-Conforming Center in 2019, giving birth to what is now the bell hooks center. In addition to the variety of programming sponsored and housed in it, the bell hooks center offers marginalized students, especially LGBTQPIA+, femme, and students of color, a space to be as they are, outside of the social scripts that otherwise circumscribe their living. (Berea College 2022)This is steadfast with bell hooks's own ideology that “feminism is for everybody.” In keeping with that same energy—bell hooks is for everybody, and Berea College is making that absolutely possible.The In Memoriam: bell hooks exhibit, displayed at the Hutchins Library between February 1 and March 30, 2022, on the first floor of the library, was open to Berea faculty, students, and staff anytime during regular library hours. The books on display were available for checkout. The Hutchins Library—in the spirit of bell hooks being for everybody—has gone above and beyond to ensure that any person seeking out the wisdom of the late Dr. bell hooks will have access to it. Those who are not affiliated with Berea College can create an account and add digital resources from the bell hooks papers to their “research cart” on the library's website. In addition, special appointments and considerations may be made by contacting the Berea College library director. Curators of the exhibit did an amazing job memorializing bell hooks. And although she will be missed by so many in the Appalachian region, and Berea College in particular—her legacy of love, light, justice, and her wisdom with regard to intersectionality, and to the oppressive systems of racism and class domination, are things that generations of young people to follow will be able to use as a guide in navigating their own obstacles.