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A Ms. conversation with bell hooks bell hooks say? whatwould Ms. called the iconoclastic scholar, writer and activist to find out BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS In 1981, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism introduced us to bell hooks, a writer who would become one of the 20th century’s foremost critical voices on feminism, race, class, cul- ture and sexual politics. Since then, the famously lowercased hooks has published more than 30 books, ranging from feminist film criticism and studies of black masculinity to essays on teaching and community to works of memoir and poetry. Her definition of feminism, in Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, as a “move- ment to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression” equipped feminists with an accessible re- sponse for students and naysayers who felt alienated from the “F” word. Agree or disagree with every analysis, we came to rely on hooks’ sharp perceptions of the myriad ways that “white su- premacist capitalist patriarchy” shapes representations of women, people of color and sexual minori- ties in American culture. In the past few years, especially in light of the social changes that have taken place in America’s so-called “post-racial” and “post-feminist” culture, we’ve missed that voice we’d come to depend on to “tell it like it is.” So I was thrilled with the opportunity to catch up with bell hooks in her home state of Kentucky, where she is a distinguished professor in residence at Berea College, which launched the bell hooks Institute for Critical Thinking, Contemplation and Dreaming last year. I talked to her about how to live feminism and not just think it, and got her take on some of the hot button issues of our time. Ms.: Feminists were used to hearing from you and we’ve missed you. We even celebrated bell hooks week on the Ms. Blog last fall. Some of our readers felt you had disappeared—did you? bell hooks: Not at all. I left New York in part because my parents were aging. I also grew up in Kentucky and want- ed to give back to the kind of people who had given a lot to me, so I went to teach at Berea College, which is a needs-based college. None of our students pay tuition. I wanted them to see what Kentucky can bring. You can be cosmopolitan and be a country girl from Kentucky. In the past few years both my mom and dad have died, so I accomplished what I wanted to do—spend time with them while they were still well and be with them in their dying process. Ms.: I’m sorry to hear about your parents. How did that experi- ence and the return home influence the direction of your work? 40 | SPRING 2011 bell hooks: I wrote a book called Belonging: A Culture of Place, which came out about a year ago, about organic farming, black people and sustainability, and eco-feminism. Those are big issues in Appalachia. I feel like what’s hap- pening with people in Appalachia is what’s going to happen with everybody in the United States—food shortages, lots of people growing their own food. I also just finished a big essay on Simone de Beauvoir and her influence on my thinking. Ms.: In what ways did you feel her influence? bell hooks: I came upon Simone de Beauvoir as a late teen and thought, This is it. This woman is an intellectual. I want to be an intellectual. She is going to be the person that I follow. My dad had always said if you’re too educated you’re not going to have partnerships, and her long-term love rela- tionship with Sartre inspired me and so many other young www.feminist.org LIZA MATTHEWS/COURTESY OF SHAMBHALA SUN MAGAZINE