Esteemed New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay to speak at Berea College convocation

Writer, professor, editor and social commentator Roxane Gay will speak at the Berea College convocations on Thursday, March 2 sponsored by the bell hooks center as part of the center’s March 2023 programming calendar.

Gay will join bell hooks center founder and director, M. Shadee Malaklou, for a conversation about hooks’ fearless feminism. Entitled “Writing Toward a Better World,” the pair will think and dream with hooks about how to write toward a better world, addressing topics ranging from trauma to love to how we dismantle the intersecting structures of oppression that hooks names “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

Gay’s writing appears in “Best American Mystery Stories 2014,” “Best American Short Stories 2012,” “Best Sex Writing 2012,” “A Public Space,” “McSweeney’s,” “Tin House,” “Oxford American,” “American Short Fiction,” “Virginia Quarterly Review” and many more publications. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books “Ayiti,” “An Untamed State,” the New York Times bestselling “Bad Feminist” and “Hunger,” and the nationally bestselling “Difficult Women.” She is also the author of “World of Wakanda” for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also working on television and film projects. In addition, she has a newsletter, “The Audacity” and a podcast, “The Roxane Gay Agenda.”

The convocation begins at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel and is free and open to the public.

On Wednesday, March 15, the bell hooks center will host Jennifer Marley for its Gender Talk series. Gender Talk is a monthly series for which the bell hooks center invites distinguished feminist scholars to speak with Berea’s campus and community about contemporary issues. Marley is the co-founder of a popular podcast about indigenous life-worlds, named “The Red Nation Podcast” and is a doctoral student specializing in queer indigenous studies and indigenous feminism. The event will be from noon to 1 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

 

The following week, on Thursday, March 23, the bell hooks center will host a colloquium event with poet and writer Damaris Hill, who was a friend of bell hooks’. The colloquium series provides an opportunity for students to learn more about how they might apply feminism to their personal and professional practices. The event will be from noon to 1 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Finally, on Wednesday, March 29, the bell hooks center will host a student activist talk with international Ukrainian Berea College student Anya Kasianova, a member of the Class of 2024. The event will be from noon to 1 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

More information about the bell hooks center can be found here.

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Statement on the death of bell hooks from Berea College

bell hooks presenting papers to Berea College in 2015

bell hooks speaking during the formal presentation of her papers to Berea College on April 10, 2017.
(Photo: Bethany Posey ’18)

Berea College is deeply saddened about the death of bell hooks, Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, prodigious author, public intellectual and one of the country’s foremost feminist scholars. She died at her home in Berea after an extended illness.

Born Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville, Ky., on Sept. 25, 1952, she adopted the pen name “bell hooks” from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.

Continue reading Statement on the death of bell hooks from Berea College

bell hooks Honored in New York Times Column

bell hooks speaking at a podium

bell hooks speaking during the formal presentation of her papers to Berea College on April 10, 2017.
(Photo: Bethany Posey ’18)

bell hooks, Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, was recently highlighted in a New York Times column by award-winning novelist and former student, Min Jin Lee. In the article, Lee looks back on her time as a student at Yale University in hooks’ “Introduction to African-American Literature” class. The writer reflects on how hooks’ writing helped shape the perception Lee initially had of her place in the feminist movement as a Korean woman. Continue reading bell hooks Honored in New York Times Column

hillbilly Documentary Film to Debut, Berea College Faculty Featured

hillbilly documentary posterhillbilly, a new documentary film that explores the historical basis of cultural stereotypes about people from Appalachia in film and television, is scheduled to make its worldwide debut at the Nashville Film Festival on May 19, 2018.

The film’s two directors, Ashley York and Sally Rubin, both with Appalachian roots, interviewed Berea faculty, including Chad Berry, bell hooks and Silas House. Other Bereans connected with the film are musician and alumnus Sam Gleaves, who was interviewed and contributed music, and Sam Cole, who is the associate producer. Several other alumni made appearances in the film as well. Continue reading hillbilly Documentary Film to Debut, Berea College Faculty Featured

bell hooks to be Inducted Into Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame

bell hooks speakingBerea author, feminist and social activist, bell hooks, is one of four writers to be inducted into the 2018 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame on Jan. 31 at the Lexington Carnegie Center.

“bell hooks is one of the most influential cultural critics of our time,” said Neil Chethik, executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. “She has built a worldwide readership over 40 years with unique insights on such topics as love, race and power.” Continue reading bell hooks to be Inducted Into Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame

bell hooks and Crystal Wilkinson Featured Speakers at Kentucky Book Fair

bell hooks and Crystal Wilkinsonbell hooks and Crystal Wilkinson will be “In Conversation” at the Kentucky Book Fair Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. The annual event, presented by Kentucky Humanities, features more than 180 writers and speakers from across the country.

Continue reading bell hooks and Crystal Wilkinson Featured Speakers at Kentucky Book Fair

bell hooks Named Iconic Black Trailblazer, Represents Kentucky

Congratulations to bell hooks, professor in residence in Berea College’s Appalachian Center for being named as one of “50 Iconic Black Trailblazers Who Represent Every State In America” by Huffington Post. Continue reading bell hooks Named Iconic Black Trailblazer, Represents Kentucky

Notable Black Women Authors Captivated Audiences in Berea

Ten national and regional black authors spoke recently at the inaugural Black Women Writers Symposium: Writing the Natural World, Appalachia & Beyond at Berea College. The day-long event, the first of its kind in the region, was presented FREE to the public. Continue reading Notable Black Women Authors Captivated Audiences in Berea

Black Women Writers To Gather at Berea College Symposium

Noted national and regional black women authors will be presenting at the Black Women Writers Symposium: Writing the Natural World, Appalachia & Beyond, to be held Friday, October 21 at the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center on the Berea College campus. The day-long event, the first of its kind in the region, is FREE and open to the public. Refreshments will be served throughout the day. Continue reading Black Women Writers To Gather at Berea College Symposium

“Conversating: Black Men Speak”

conversating: Black Men Speak

The bell hooks Institute at Berea College will be hosting events called “Conversating: Black Men Speak” on April 9, and April 11-13, 2016.

Acclaimed intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, artist and writer bell hooks will hold conversations with the following guest speakers: Continue reading “Conversating: Black Men Speak”

Berea Women: In Synch With Success

Women in Science

Berea’s female students completely SWEPT the undergraduate category of the poster session at the recent Tri-State Women in Computing Conference held in Cincinnati. They took all three top places! Raunak Shona Thakur received Honorable Mention (Third place) in the Undergraduate Category for “Using Web Technologies to Improve Application Process.” In Second Place in the Undergraduate Category, Phyo Phyo Kyaw Zin was awarded a $300 scholarship for “Developing Dashboard Management System (DMS).” The First Place Award in the Undergraduate Category went to Amber Tolleson and Ashley Aiken for “The Detection of Gas in Fracking Contaminated Water,” for which they received a $1,000 scholarship to be split between them. Continue reading Berea Women: In Synch With Success

Gloria Steinem and bell hooks Speak at the bell hooks Institute

Gloria Steinem and bell hooks

Gloria Steinem and bell hooks

Noted American writer, lecturer, political activist and feminist Gloria Steinem and bell hooks, Berea’s Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, recently spoke at the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. During the event Steinem and hooks shared memories from their distinguished careers, passages from their books and reflections about feminism and other current issues. The occasion was part of a series of ongoing events to celebrate the opening of the bell hooks Institute.

Largest Gathering of Appalachian Writers in History to Assemble at Berea College in September

The largest gathering of Appalachian writers in history will happen at Berea College on September 9 and 10. The Appalachian Symposium will be two days of public conversations focusing on the current state of the region’s literature and will feature keynote addresses by famed feminist author and activist bell hooks as well as Pulitzer Prize finalist Maurice Manning.   Continue reading Largest Gathering of Appalachian Writers in History to Assemble at Berea College in September

Berea Professor, bell hooks Inducted Into Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame

Noted author and Berea College Professor, bell hooks was one of 35 people inducted into Kentucky’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame today.

The Kentucky Commission of Human Rights selects individuals for this distinction in recognition of their efforts to help improve the quality of life for Kentucky, the United States and beyond, in the areas of human and civil rights. Continue reading Berea Professor, bell hooks Inducted Into Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame

Two Renowned Authors Offer ‘Advice from Appalachian Intellectuals’ to Berea College Graduates, May 4

Watch the live video stream on the day of commencement.

bell hooks, a celebrated author and social activist, and Silas House, a best-selling novelist and environmental activist, will address 271 members of Berea College’s 142nd graduating class during a special commencement service titled “Advice from Appalachian Intellectuals.” Both commencement speakers are faculty members in Berea College’s Loyal Jones Appalachian Center. Continue reading Two Renowned Authors Offer ‘Advice from Appalachian Intellectuals’ to Berea College Graduates, May 4