Since the beginning of time, women have graced the world with the possession of intellect, wisdom, creativity, revolution, and sacred powers. Collectively, we have always been a source of greatness; women of activism born across far-flung continents unalike, some working from within concealed shadows while others are center stage, but all gathered within the resistance. The legacy of women who’ve arrived before each generation already lived, and the legacy of women yet to be born, accrue an incredible catalog of legendary influences from past to present and future; shaping the world between snarling lips and raised eyebrows. Bold women who are defiant with attitude; women like you, women like me, and women like bell hooks.
bell hooks is a celebrated woman. It was an average Wednesday afternoon when I received the news that bell hooks - activist, writer, poet, feminist, and all-around superpower – had died at her Kentucky home at sixty-nine years young. With the news of her passing, I noticed a long shadow descend across my bookcase. It’s funny how the weight of a heavy heart can make a bookshelf look so different. hooks' books are crowded across two middle rows, coupled and towered on top of each other, each containing a wealthy romance of language that addresses intersectionality, race, and gender. Strong words. Fighting words. Salivating words of self-identity and leadership.
For most people reading bell hooks, you’re going to get schooled in the social issues that encumber minority communities. She’s loud on civil rights, rushing words into white spaces and filling them with protest – something I greatly admire about her. As for my journey with bell hooks, she reached into the depths of my soul and implanted an illuminated anchor of validation and guidance. For all her greatness, her artistry in teaching women to stay present within themselves is what had the most profound impact on me.
It wasn’t easy growing up as me. I became aware of my differences early on and with such realizations, my life grew increasingly challenging. Before I knew it, I had absorbed one hate speech too many, and suddenly, my internal voice had betrayed me; mimicking all the vulgarity that others had said about me. No lie more significant than I was worthless. However, bell hooks didn’t think I was worthless. And she told me so, time and time again. Let me set the record straight: I have never had the privilege of meeting or speaking with bell hooks. She had no idea of my existence. Although she might not have known my name, how I take my tea, or what struggles I’ve faced over the years, her voice was a beacon for people like me. Vulnerable women and girls across the globe, living as strangers and neighbors, who shared one terrible characteristic: we didn’t know our worth.
bell hooks was many things. Amongst her extraordinary credentials that bridge further than the entire length of my body, she was the woman who taught me how to reconnect with myself. Lessons penned through verses spoken powerfully, yet with an almost gentle voice. She was instrumental in my self-recovery, preaching that it was a deserved honor and right to be whole within myself. I remember going through a particularly devastating period of life in my late teens, feeling both hopeless and exasperated by the ongoing pursuit of identity. One commonplace day, I stumbled upon the solution between the dogeared pages of a discarded book I found on the London Underground. The book Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics offered the solution in a single sentence: “If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.” Just like that, something astonishing unlocked within my being.
I’m no longer the youngster who believed the lies that people spoke into me. I haven’t been that young girl in decades. Today, I’m a loud-mouthed feminist, conversationalist, writer, poet, artist, and activist - ballsy with it - and acknowledge myself as a confident and brilliant woman. Equally, I’m proud of the groundbreaking work my peers and I continue to achieve in challenging the patriarchal system. Big brassy moves are being made.
Without the guidance of women like bell hooks, who taught me the power of spelling one’s name in lowercase, I wouldn’t be the woman I am today. Many of us have been inspired by hooks, helping us to realize our potential while continuing to support and invest in women. And if that isn’t a legacy then I don’t know what is.
With a formidable, innovative, and educationalist godmother on your side, like bell hooks, you can’t go wrong.
bell hooks
September 25th, 1952 – December 15th, 2021
(Image sourced from Google Images)
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