Honoring Bell Hooks: A Legacy of Feminist Thought and Liberation

Bell Hooks authored over 40 books throughout her lifetime, cementing herself as a groundbreaking feminist theorist. Hooks, who passed away this week at 69, was a prolific writer and thinker who examined race, class, gender, media, and art. Her work spanned multiple genres, from literary criticism to children’s fiction and memoirs. As a pioneer of intersectional Feminism, feminism space for the voices of Black and working-class women, she was pushing back against a discourse that had historically excluded them. Her influence extended to a new generation of writers, allowing them to engage with joy, intimacy, and resistance.

Most importantly, she made sure there was room for them. “I think of bell hooks as being pivotal to an entire generation of Black feminists,” Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Columbia law professor and leading scholar in critical race theory, told the New York Times. “She was utterly courageous in putting on paper thoughts that many of them have had in private.”

We asked writers to share the belBelloks books and essays that have impacted their lives.

‘I became a feminist because of Bell.’

I wouldn’t be a writer without bell hooks. When I met BelBell in the early ’90s, her work had already transformed me. I had already read Ain’t I a Woman, and her book Sisters of the Yam taught me the value of sisterhood and the power of communal healing. It provided a space for Black women to heal the “world of hurt” within us.

I became a feminist because BelBell even took a job at Berea College, where she was a scholar in residence, partly to be closer to her. Though I wouldn’t call myself her best or closest friend—she had so many intimate relationships—whenever she invited me into her living room to talk, I felt unique and inspired. After each visit, I would leave feeling motivated to change, write, resist, and become more comfortable in my skin. She was my friend, and though I hesitate to call her my mentor, she taught me in every way that mattered. —Crystal Wilkinson, author of Perfect Black and The Birds of Opulence

‘She confirmed I could be a writer.’

I encountered bell hooks on the page for the first time as a teenager. In high school, I wrote a research paper on Black feminist thought and one of my primary texts was her Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.

Her book Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery was a revelation. It named my melancholy and affirmed that my emotional interior was worthy of attention. Reading Hooks taught me to be audacious and self-reflective and that Black women’s thoughts, feelings, and musings were a worthy starting point for literature. Bell Hooks confirmed that I could be a writer. —Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill

‘She gave me permission to love generously.’

I first read bell hooks in middle school when I sneaked All About Love from my mother’s bookshelf. It was the first thing I’d read that helped me understand love’s overwhelming hold on me. Hooks’ scholarship permitted me to be sensitive and love generously, even in a world that often makes love feel unnatural.

Her work has allowed generations of thinkers to view love as a lens through which we can understand our world. Today, we are different people because of her touch. —Camonghne Felix, author of Build Yourself a Boat

‘Her self-permission marveled me.’

I didn’t go to college. When I was 26, I picked up Feminism Is Feminismybody, which completely transformed my thinking. For six weeks, I read every bell hooks book I could find. That was my college. I marveled at her sense of self-permission—how she had become so accessible and untangled from the constraints of patriarchal thought.

One line from her book The Will to Change brought me to tears: “Women are waiting for men to die so they can truly live.” It articulated the profound grief of living under patriarchy. Her work also showed me that feminism is powered by love, not rage, to sustain me. That revelation gave me a new life. —Jessica Hopper, author of Night Moves

‘She gave me a language.’

There are many Belkovsky texts that I go back to, but one I often return to is Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. I first read it as an undergraduate in the late 1990s, and it profoundly shaped how I viewed myself in feminist spaces. Hooks provided the language and accessibility I couldn’t find elsewhere in feminist theory.

Her work continues to influence me, and I often revisit her quote, “Whenever domination is present, love is lacking,” as a guiding principle in my life. —Samhita Mukhopadhyay, author of Outdated and editor of Nasty Women

‘She refused simplification.’

The first time I read Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, it felt like the top of my head was coming off. It was everything I wanted from theory—fierce, graceful, and prophetic. It refused simplification and was brilliantly right in ways that enraged me for not discovering it sooner.

I’m forever grateful for her ideas, which continue to guide my writing and thinking. —Jordan Kisner, author of Thin Places

‘I’m so grateful for her wisdom.’

I keep a photo of bell hooks pinned to my bulletin board for inspiration as a Black academic woman. When I face hostility or Racism, I reach for this quote: “Sometimes people try to destroy you because they recognize your power—not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and don’t want it to exist.”

I’m so grateful for her wisdom, even though we still fight the same battles she fought. —Emily Raboteau, author of The Professor’s Daughter and Searching for Zion

‘Her books acknowledged my pain.’

Until I read All About Love in college, I was angry at my societal position and didn’t know what to do with it. That book changed everything. It acknowledged my pain while also instilling in me the will to change my circumstances.

Her philosophy helped me better understand myself and others, changing how I relate to the world. —Kaila Philo, political reporter

‘Reading hooks was a revelation.’

Reading Killing Rage: Ending Racism in College was a revelation. It spelled out the systems of domination that shape the world and helped me see my surroundings in new ways. I’m eternally grateful for the care Hooks poured into her writing, knowing it shaped me and future generations. —Diamond Sharp, author of Super Sad Black Girl

‘Her work cracked open the door to feminism.’

Would many of us even be feminists without bell hooks? In college, I encountered her work for the first time, and it cracked open the door to a feminism that felt like it included me. Before then, I had held feminist beliefs but never felt the sisterhood of it belonged to me. Bell Hooks changed that. She challenged us, always telling the truth, even when it was hard to hear. —Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose

‘She taught me to ask hard questions.’

Bell Hooks taught me to ask hard questions, not only of the world but of her work, too. For example, I disagreed with her controversial description of Beyoncé, but that disagreement reflects Hooks’ ability to spark critical thinking and debate. Her work is an endless reflection on love, healing, and justice. —Crystal Marie Fleming, sociologist and author of Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy