Born Gloria Jean Watkins (pen name = bell hooks) on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Father: Veodis Watkins. Mother: Rosa Bell Watkins. Siblings: Kenneth, Sarah, Theresa, Valeria, Gwenda and Angela. Education: Hopkinsville High School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She attended college first in Columbia, Missouri then went on to earn a B.A. in Palo Alto, California, an M.A. in Madison, Wisconsin, and a Ph.D in Santa Cruz, California. In 2004 she joined Berea College in Berea, Kentucky as a Distinguished Professor in Residence.

BOOKS (Bibliography)

* and there we wept (1978) poetry chapbook ASIN: B000J0SGJI
* Ain’t I a woman? : Black women and feminism (1981) ISBN: 978-0896081291
* Feminist theory : from margin to center (1984) ISBN 978-0896082229
* Talking back : thinking feminist, thinking black (1989) ISBN: 978-0896083523
* Yearning : race, gender, and cultural politics (1990) ISBN: 978-0896083851
* Breaking bread : insurgent Black intellectual life (1991) (and Cornel West) ISBN: 978-0896084148
* Black looks : race and representation (1992) ISBN: 978-0896084339
* Sisters of the yam : Black women and self-recovery (1993) ISBN: 978-0896084568
* A woman’s mourning song (1993) ISBN: 978-0863163180
* Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom (1994) ISBN: 978-0415908085
* Outlaw culture : resisting representations (1994) ISBN: 978-0415908115
* Killing rage : ending racism (1995) ISBN: 978-0805037821
* Art on my mind : visual politics (1995) ISBN: 978-1565842632
* Reel to real : race, sex, and class at the movies (1996) ISBN: 978-0415918244
* Bone Black : memories of girlhood (1996) ISBN: 978-0805055122
* Wounds of passion : a writing life (1997) ISBN: 978-0805057225
* Remembered rapture : the writer at work (1999) ISBN: 978-0805059106
* Happy to be nappy (1999) [illustrated by: chris raschka] ISBN: 978-0786804276
* All about love : new visions (2000) ISBN: 978-0688168445
* Feminism is for everybody : passionate politics (2000) ISBN: 978-0896086296
* Where we stand : class matters (2000) ISBN: 978-0415929134
* Salvation : Black people and love (2001) ISBN: 978-0060184940
* Communion : the female search for love (2002) ISBN: 978-0066214429
* Be boy buzz (2002) [illustrated by: chris raschka] ISBN: 978-0786808144
* Homemade love (2002) [with pictures by: Shane W. Evans] ISBN: 978-0786806430
* Rock my soul : Black people and self-esteem (2003) ISBN: 978-0743456050
* Teaching community : a pedagogy of hope (2003) ISBN: 978-0415968171
* The will to change : men, masculinity, and love (2004) ISBN: 978-0743456074
* Skin again (2004) [illustrated by: Chris Raschka] ISBN: 978-0786808250
* We real cool : Black men and masculinity (2004) ISBN: 978-0415969260
* Homegrown : engaged cultural criticism (2006) [and Amalia Mesa-Bains] ISBN: 978-0896087590
* When angels speak of love : poems (2007) ISBN: 978-0743456098
* Grump groan growl (2008) [illustrated by: chris raschka] ISBN: 978-0786808168

Coming Soon: *
Space [ ? belonging : a culture of place ¿ ] ISBN: 978-0415968164
Plantation Culture ISBN: 978-0415968201

WorldCat worldwide library search for author:bell AND hooks

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VIDEO

Find a collection of audio and video links at allaboutbell.com

February 3, 2006: bell hooks at the University of Oregon

11th Annual Women of Color Conference on the University of Oregon Campus.

—–Link—–> Univ. of Oregon Channel.

Also available on —–Link—–> You Tube.

May 5, 2002: C-SPAN Book TV In Depth: bell hooks

This is the Book TV video we have been watching in class:

—–Link—–> Book TV In Depth: bell hooks.

—–Direct Link for Video Player—–> RealPlayer Direct.

March 3, 2005: bell hooks at the University of Washington

Danz lecture with Q&A.

And a question from a distinguished PSU faculty member.

—–Link—–> Danz Lecture Series.

1997: bell hooks: Cultural Criticsm & Transformation

The first video we watched in class, bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation, is available on You Tube in 8 parts.

—–Link—–> You Tube

Or, the VHS tape is available from the library via Summit.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

ascent magazine:

ingredients of love – winter 2004

Author and cultural critic bell hooks has devoted her life to discovering the true nature of love. For bell, love & healing are acts of political resistance. Interview by juniper glass.

Interview Magazine:

bell hooks – Killing rage: ending racism Interview – October 1995

Shambhala Sun:

Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love – July 2006
The practice of love, says bell hooks, is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination. She traces her thirty-year meditation on love, power, and Buddhism, and concludes it is only love that transforms our personal realtionships and heals the wounds of oppression.

Love Fights the Power – July 2006
For bell hooks, fighting oppression doesn’t require anger or conflict—just opening our hearts and speaking the truth fearlessly. Barry Boyce tells the story of this renowned feminist and social critic, and how she came to embrace activism without enemies and a visionary kind of love.

Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh – January 2000
bell hooks Meets With Thich Nhat Hanh to Ask: How Do We Build a Community of Love?

Penis Passion – July 1999
“When women and men can celebrate the beauty and power of the phallus in ways that do not uphold male domination, our erotic lives are enhanced.”

Ain’t She Still a Woman – January 1999
Increasingly, patriarchy is offered as the solution to the crisis black people face. Black women face a culture where practically everyone wants us to stay in our place.

Rebel’s Dilemma – November 1998
From childhood on I have had to struggle to break from the impositions of images that don’t represent me accurately or well. Even though this is a drag, it too is part of the struggle, part of the process of decolonization.

When Men Were Men - September 1998
“The message is: It’s fine for women to stray from sexist roles and play around with life on the other side, as long as we come back to our senses and stay happily-ever-after in our place.”

Design: A Happening Life – July 1998
Today, there is no design for everybody. Design is primarily for those who can afford it and/or the people who are taught to think about aesthetics. Simply because people have money does not mean that they will have an eye for design, but there is an everyday pedagogy of design in our culture. Its lessons are brought to those of us with class privilege who know the right magazines to look at, the right stores to go to, the best designers to hire.

Voices and Visions – May 1998
“When the spirit moves into writing, shaping its direction, that is a moment of pure mystery. It is a visitation of the sacred that I cannot call forth at will.”

When the Spirit Moves You – March 1998
“I walked further and further away from father and son, but my steps always drew me closer to holy spirit.”

There’s No Place to Go But Up – January 1998
Maya Angelou in Conversation with bell hooks

Cultivating Openness When Things Fall Apart – March 1997
Pema Chödrön and bell hooks talk over life and all its problems

bell hooks talks to John Perry Barlow – September 1995
On paper, you are my polar opposite [bell hooks: iconoclastic feminist, leading African-American intellectual, progressive Buddhist, self-proclaimed homebody], yet I feel none of that in your presence. I’ve never met anyone from Wyoming before [John Perry Barlow: cyber philosopher, retired cattle rancher, world traveler, Grateful Dead lyricist, self-proclaimed Republican]. I sought you out. I wanted to hear your story.

More

bell hooks’ Film Recommendations

95 minute audio recording of bell hooks at Lewis and Clark College in 2006. The recording is not the highest quality, but worthwhile if only for her explanation of the phrase, “hold on to your anger and use it as compost for your garbage.”