Meet bell hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks (stylized in lowercase), was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She was best known for her writings on race, feminism, and social class. 

Her work explored the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. She published numerous scholarly articles and nearly 40 books, in styles ranging from essays and poetry to children's literature, with a body of work that addressed love, gender, art, history, sexuality, and mass media.

The popularity of hooks's writing surged amidst the racial justice movements ignited by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, with her book All About Love: New Visions entering the New York Times bestseller list over 20 years after its publication.