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A scholar and cultural critic, bell hooks infuses her writings with conversations of race and gender. In 1999, hooks wrote Happy to Be Nappy as her first children's book. Chris Raschka, two-time winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal for illustrations in children's books, created the images that accompany hooks's text. Written for ages 3 and above with a focus on those in their preschool and early elementary years, this book inspires young girls to celebrate the beauty of their hair "soft like cotton, flower petal billowy soft, full of frizz and fuzz." Although written with a focus on African or African-American girls, the narrative encourages all readers to see the beauty within them. Disney-Hyperion re-released the title in board-book form in 2017.
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What does it mean to be a boy? Can we perfectly capture the essence and energy of young manhood? How do we celebrate all things boy? Exuberantly capturing “all things boy”, comes Be Boy Buzz from famed author Bell Hooks. Her bold, poetic writing plunges into the essence and energy of what it means to be a boy - particularly an African-American boy. Soulful illustrations from Chris Raschka perfectly complement Hooks’ trademarked brevity and eloquence. Leaving readers irresistibly captivated by the delights and contradictions of young manhood, this rhythmic, life affirming book is a must read for anyone yearning to celebrate what it means to be a boy.
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“The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity and Love,” by bell hooks, helps men explore their emotions by addressing some of their most common concerns, which include fear of intimacy and their loss of place in the patriarchal society. Men want and need love, but the patriarchal culture can prevent them from knowing themselves and being in touch with their feelings, which causes them to have difficultly loving. The Will To Change helps men be open with things like fear of intimacy and the way they have lost their patriarchal place in society. Throughout the book, hooks explores things in new and challenging ways to get men to be in touch with themselves so they can reclaim the best parts and be open to love and experiencing a wide variety of emotions that have usually only been experienced by females.
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bell hooks establishes what feminism is truly about through Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. The book analytically explores feminism from an intelligent perspective, shining light on the successes and shortcomings of the feminist movement. Removing the strong sexual appetite from the topic of love, the author explores ways to end oppression and sexism. Consider the book a simple guide to understanding feminism.
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Teaching To Transgress is a collection of personalized essays about the state of traditional education in the United States where diversity and culture are concerned. Through a blend of personal anecdotes and provocative essays, bell hooks revolutionizes what it means to teach children of minority backgrounds. This collection of narrative essays touches upon the difficulties of race and the intersectional of culture. It instructs the reader how to approach educating children of different backgrounds, particularly those who are black and Latino. hooks suggests that teachers meet children at their cultural and social level to teach concepts that stick.
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For those interested in black womanhood, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks, published in 1981, should be on your must-read list. It evaluates and examines all aspects of black womanhood, including slavery, involvement in feminism, racism against black woman as well as strong black feminists, black male sexism, the devaluation of black woman and more. This book tries to move past racist and sexist assumptions and, through her groundbreaking writing and insightful viewpoints, hooks creates a book that should be on the bookshelf of every woman feminist scholar.
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Intimacy and the notion of love are discovered in Bell Hooks’ third sequel in her love series. “Communion: The Female Search for Love” challenges everything that we thought we knew about feminism. Have women indeed championed all things concerning equally? Are they really on the road to total wellness, or are we all just living in the delusion of gender equality being on the horizon? Bell Hooks has answers to some of the most challenging questions. According to the author, a woman’s search for love, not equality, is at the helm of all things. Freedom only comes when she realizes her value and appreciates herself instead of waiting for substantiation from a man. Hooks commands the attention of readers with language that forces them to consider their ideologies in comparison with what is presented in the book. “Communion” is not a book for those who are unwilling to evolve. It is, however, the ideal choice for women who have always silently wondered why intimacy and true fulfillment appear to be more fantasies than realities.
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The book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’ was written by a feminist author named Bell hooks. It was published in 1984 and was later edited in 2000. This is Hooks’ second book after Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Readers have found the theory provocative and relevant. In this book, Hooks gives hope that feminists around the world can create a mass feminist movement. She addresses the issues affecting the feminist movement: its goals, men’s role in it, pacifism, solidarity and the nature of the revolution. She became one of the most influential voices in feminism, through this book. All through this book, Hooks criticizes different phases of the American culture and offers possible answers to the problems she encounters. Through her discussions in the book, she argues that the system is corrupt and that such a system cannot achieve gender equality even if it wanted to. Therefore, to envision a life-affirming future, first, there has to be a complete transformation of the system, including the society and all institutions.
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In this book, renowned author bell hooks provides clarity on teaching in her inimitable style. Hooks boldly raises controversial topics that require attention in order to move education forward in this country. Bravely addressing gender, race and class differences, she talks about the need for a complex balance that makes teaching so important and exciting. When we teach, it's important to value and learn from divisive works authored by sexist or racist writers. You can't fight what you don't understand. Hooks highlights that reading is essential to learning. Above all else, free speech is the most powerful tool of democracy and deserves primacy, no matter what the speaker is espousing. In her essays, she elevates the transformative process that accompanies critical thinking. This is provocative book is a celebration of the intellectual. If you are interested in teaching, education or pedagogy in this country, this book is a must read.
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The highly acclaimed, provocative New York Times bestseller—a personal, eloquently-argued essay, adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah. Here she offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
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Fans of bell hooks's earlier works will enjoy her collection of essays on combating racism and sexism in education. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope draws from hook’s personal experiences as both a student and teacher. Her stories offer insight into creating better communities as she covers topics like romantic relationships between professors and students, democratic education, and racism. Her descriptions of her experiences as a teacher, both in and out of the classroom, are valuable reading for educators looking for new perspectives.
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Gloria Jean Watkins, known as bell hooks, was born in 1952 and is an American author, activist, and feminist of great renown. This book addresses race, capitalism, sexuality, history, art, education, and gender just as her previous works have. Hooks has been a teacher, scholar, the subject of documentary films, and public lecturer. Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place is a book of hooks’ poetry focused on her return to Kentucky (her birthplace) and the meaning of life, grief, and ultimately love during her upbringing there. Hooks addresses her heritage and the influence of white supremacist violence, as well as similar land loss issues faced by both black and american indian people pushed off by white settlers.
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With her easy to decode yet provocative style of writing, Hook uses this book to answer the ongoing conversations that revolve around the production, exhibition and critic of art. She brings up the question of why art has not had a very big impact on the lives of most African Americans. This book is passionate and very personal. She talks about her own experience involving betrayal by a friend who is also an artist. She is disappointed by the lack of black critics and uses the works of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat to analyze the effect of historical photography on African Americans. It is a necessary need because there is a need to point out the insufficient representation of African American artists.
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A home is somewhere that we feel safe and wanted. It is a place that calls us when we feel weary from our daily struggles. However, does every person out there share this value of what home is supposed to mean? How does this person feel like they truly belong in their community? Hooks addresses these fundamental questions in her new book Belonging: A Culture of Place by sharing her personal stories with the reader. It tells her tale of constant travel, meeting new people, and coming back to her origin in Kentucky. She addresses race, gender, and class in Belonging that takes the reader to another world they may not find in theirs. It is a thought-provoking story that anyone can find a relation to that ultimately leads us back to where we all began: our own home.
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Black Looks: Race and Representation is a collection of twelve essays by bell hooks. Through her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen, bell hooks digs deeper into the personal and political repercussions of contemporary representations of ethnicity and race within the culture of white supremacy. The feminist icon examines the experience of African Americans on sensitive topics like black femininity and the commodification of the black culture and history as displayed in fashion, popular culture, literature, and much more. Bell hooks focuses on spectatorship while drawing on her personal experience in formulating new ways to look at blackness, whiteness, and black subjectivity.
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In Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood, hooks shares her pain and dreams. We see her strength and can foretell her survival. Many people, not only African American women can relate to her journey which is nothing short of inspirational. The issues she faces growing up are real problems that many people go through. This is an intelligent read that anyone can connect and associate with themselves.
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This extraordinary writer discusses how modern society impacts aspects of love. Hooks sets the stage with frank personal anecdotes, seasoned with her keen psychological and philosophical interpretations. She focuses in on romantic love, dissecting this source of longing and coming to the conclusion that, in American culture, men are socialized to mistrust women. She discusses the unfortunate consequence, which is the loss of love and meaningful relationships in the U.S. Each chapter features a different aspect of love. Hooks lays out her position and shows the reader external work on each element of love. Then she gives a roadmap of suggestions to reverse the dire effects of cultural training so that the reader can become better at giving and receiving love. The aspects covered include respect, affection, trust, recognition, care, commitment, and open communication. The idea is to overcome a viewpoint of domination, gender stereotypes, ego, control, and aggression.
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As far as intellectuals go, author bell hooks is one that outpaces all others. In her work, “Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism,” hooks engages in conversation with Chicana artist, Amalia Mesa-Bains. Spanning topics like creativity, power, and politics, the pair work through difficult topics and present them in a way that challenges the reader and forces them to evaluate the relationship between minorities and our society today. The book’s overarching theme is the effort of society to separate and polarize both Latinos and African Americans, illustrating and emphasizing differences in an effort to create a “preferred minority.” With two views on the topic that come from both sides of the coin, readers can truly get the whole story and make up their minds on their own.
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Homemade Love by bell hooks has no plot, but it is still effortless to understand. It uses bright and bold colors that give it a fun look. The style is poetically infused with soothing and energetic messages that keep readers or listeners captivated from the beginning to the end. The book passes across the message that parents love their children at all times. Even when children make mistakes, their parents do not love them less. The girl’s dress signifies different moods and what is going on in the story. Bell hooks answers the questions that most children ask ‘Will my parents continue to love me even when I make mistakes?’ The overall message of the story is forgiveness, overcoming fear, and the unconditional love that children deserve from their parents.
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“Killing Rage: Ending Racism” is a collection of twenty-three essays that were collected and compiled by author bell hooks. Hooks works to address the issues that come with any concept that ends in “ism” and how it relates to social inequality and bias of our society as we know it. All the essays in the work are written from the standpoint of an African American feminist, and the book overall works to address the fact that women are largely left out of the discussion when it comes to ending racism. This book is broken up into essays so that readers can better internalize and rationalize what they are reading and read each piece either individually or as a whole.
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No one addresses social justice quite like bell hooks. The author delves into African-American culture with her collection of essays, as presented in "Outlaw Culture," that seeks to challenge the reader while providing explanations for some of the most pressing issues. This collection is both electrifying and surprising as hooks brings the truths about feminism to the forefront. Readers will get powerful insight into the social constructs that seek to oppress one group while bolstering another. Who better than bell hooks to present such an amazing collection of works on feminism and the need to change?
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Designed as kids’ art book, Grump, Groan, Growl digs down and connects with kids at their level with a picture book that is intended to help toddlers understand emotional control. This is about giving kids their first lesson in redirection energy that winds them up and makes them otherwise crazy little tornadoes of mayhem in a household. bell hooks takes what is her normal acidic skill at social commentary and transforms it into a help book for first-year readers. In doing so, Grump, Groan, Growl attaches to kids at their communication level with the favorable analogies of animal sounds, but in reality, it’s teaching them their first lessons at assimilating with society, starting with their home life.
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Date night at the movies is about more than what audience members bring to the setting. There is also what is shown onscreen, which is why bell hooks has comprised a collection of essays known as "Reel to Real." Readers can expect to get a beyond-the-veil experience as bell breaks down what those famous sex scenes really mean. Of course, hooks remains true to her cultural roots as well as her feminist ideologies in this collection of essays. Readers will never quite view movies the same after getting insight as to the reason why some films remain with the heart long after the viewer has watched them on the big screen. Reel to Real gives readers a modern-day explanation for the notion of catharsis that Aristotle introduced several centuries ago.
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Through her postmodernist perspective, bell hooks addresses several issues including racism, sexuality, art, history, and feminism in this contemplative collection of essays. She celebrates various aspects of literacy such as the joy of writing and reading in the Remembered Rapture. Hooks is always optimistic that she will eventually bring awareness to the issues of gender and race oppression to help empower women. Her work is often relatable because she artistically uses personal experiences to illustrate various concepts and ideas in writing. She has consistently proven that regardless of the challenges she encounters in life and her career path, she is not afraid to face them. She is always dedicated to writing about issues that most writers find a little too sensitive, especially women writers who find it challenging to create work that goes against the grain. Hooks learned the power of written word and the value of speaking her mind from an early age. She has been a lecturer at Yale and Oberlin among other colleges.
