Not knowing ‘bell hooks’ is a crime for all the educators. So what are you reading & teaching ? Gloria Jean Watkins better known for her pen name bell hooks which she borrowed from her maternal great grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. Born in 1952, she died from kidney failure at her home, on Dec 2021 in Kentucky, US.
An author of more than 30 books, she taught at Stanford , Yale and The city college of New York. She joined Berea college in Berea, Kentucky in 2004. In 2014, she founded the bell hooks institute.
One of the six children born she had a hard time. Her father a janitor & her mother worked as a maid in homes of the white families. She was educated in racially segregated public schools, later moving to an integrated school in the late 60s. Obtaining a BA from Stanford Univ in 1973 & her MA in English from Univ of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976.
During this time she was writing a book ‘Ain’t I a woman : Black women & Feminism’ which she began at the age of 19 & then got it published in 1981.
If we compare her degrees with any other person how can we say they are equivalent?? Or the book she wrote… it has no parallel! The kind of life she led is unique. Her achievements unparalleled.
In 1983 she completed her doctorate after several years of teaching & writing at the Univ of California, Santa Cruz.
Personally I can relate to all those years. I was on the brink of getting into my grad programme when she already had a doctorate under her belt. Occasionally writing & teaching for years, has given me an edge over my friends who could not work outside.
I fear the plight of women remains the same. The expectations of the family make our career or break it. Maintaining the balance is not so easy.
What she possessed is worth noting. One she was refreshingly different from the typical academic. Her books& articles flow like a river & touch the soul of the reader. Second she altered the character of her classroom. She encouraged young minds.
Third most important lesson: love is the essence of revolution. Warmth that is missing in the interactions needs to be nurtured.’Not forgetting the past but looking at itin a new way, letting it live in us in a new way’ Without love there cannot be any pedagogy of hope.
As Avijit Pathak writes ‘those who dream of a compassionate , inclusive & egalitarian world, bell hooks would remain alive & continue to sing her songs.’ We want that, we surely need it.
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