Berea symposium honors life, legacy of Ky. native bell hooks
BEREA, Ky. (WTVQ) — The bell hooks center at Berea College hosted the inaugural bell hooks Symposium Friday.
The symposium will honor the life and legacy of hooks with three days of guest speakers, exhibitions, panels, performances and workshops.
Born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, hooks grew up in the segregated town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Her upbringing urged her to challenge topics such as racism and patriarchal norms. She adopted the name bell hooks to honor her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.
“We want the symposium to remind people of Bell’s fearless feminism. She was never afraid to do the unpopular thing. And she learned this kind of radical love in Kentucky. She credits it to ‘the cultural ethos of my ancestors and kin in the Kentucky backwoods,'” said Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou.
In the last few years before her death in December 2021, hooks bemoaned the absence of feminism in today’s society.
The inaugural bell hooks Center Symposium keeps her feminist message alive.
For more on the bell hooks center and Symposium, head here: https://www.berea.edu/centers/the-bell-hooks-center/symposium
