Celebrated author, feminist and activist, Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name, bell hooks, has died on December 15, 2021 at her home in Berea.
hooks, 69, was surrounded by her close friends and family at home when she died from an illness, a press release from her niece, Ebony Motley, stated.
Born on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Ky. to Veodis and Rosa Bell Watkins, the fourth of seven siblings, she attended segregated schools in Christian County, then went on to Stanford University in California, then earned a master’s in English at the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
She adopted her great-grandmother’s name as her pen name in lower case letters, she told interviewers, in order to emphasize the “substance of books, not who I am.”
She published her first book, “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism” in 1981. Her literary career continued with more than 40 books, including essays, poetry and children’s books. Her topics include feminism, racism, culture, politics, gender roles, love, and spirituality.
In 2004, she returned to Kentucky to teach at Berea College. Another book, “Belonging: A Culture of Place,” discussed her move back. In 2010, the school opened the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. The institute houses her collection of contemporary African-American art, personal artifacts and copies of her books published in other languages.
The center has attracted visitors such as Gloria Steinem, actress Emma Watson and Cornel West.
In a 2018 interview with former columnist Tom Eblen when she was inducted into the Kentucky Writers’ Hall of Fame, hooks said that she wanted important people to come to the institute to speak with local people. “Lots of people aren’t comfortable coming on college campuses for a talk. They feel like that’s not their place,” she said. The thing about the institute is that its goal is to be this sort of democratic location. No degrees required.”
