Black American feminist author bell hooks, known for her work on gender, race and class, died Wednesday at age 69, her family reported.
Born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, bell hooks – her pseudonym, in lowercase – passed away Wednesday at her Kentucky home, “surrounded by family and friends,” her niece Ebony Motley tweeted.
His family is “deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved sister on December 15, 2021,” says a statement released by Motley, which does not specify the cause of death.
However, Kentucky’s Berea College, where he had taught since 2004, said in a statement that he had died “after a long illness.”
Under her pseudonym in honor of her great-grandmother Bell Blair Hooks, the author published her first book of poems in 1978, “And There We Wept.”
In 1981 she was acclaimed for “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism”, in which she examined the impact of sexism and racism on Afro women as well like racism within feminism, advocating a more inclusive movement.
She then published some 40 works, including poetry, children’s fiction, memoirs, and literary criticism, delving not only into feminism, racism, and social justice issues, but also love.
“I’m talking about a transformative love, which challenges us in both our private and civic lives,” he told NPR in 2000. “We can love in a profound way that transforms the political world we live in.”
With numerous honors throughout his career, bell hooks earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1983 upon graduation from Stanford, and was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2018.
His words about love were the focus of the many tributes that hit social media after his passing.
A celebrated thinker, bell hooks’ works became a must-read in many college courses, gaining new readers in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice.
