deep cuts vol 8.1!

rest well, bell hooks 🕊

originally, i did not intend for today’s newsletter to be an eulogy. but it’s absolutely necessary that this post honors our elevated ancestor: bell hooks, the prominent feminist scholar, author, and critic who has passed away at 69.

bell hooks, by Monica Almeida (via the NYT)

i was in actual shock to discover this news via an official press statement on my timeline. shortly after, the collective grieving across Twitter and Insta showed just how impactful her life’s work had been to recent generations.

yesterday, i literally (and very randomly) was scrolling on actress Laverne Cox’s IG and saw a post where she recently mused about hooks’ (née Gloria Jean Watkins) impact in her life. at the time, my stomach dropped as i briefly thought the beloved writer had already departed and i missed the memo — sadly, it happens way too often that we lose our legends too soon. so to find out that she passed the next day was nearly unfathomable. i’m sure many people can remember the first time they were rightfully shook by hooks’ thought-provoking cultural criticism and powerful prose. it’s mainly due to her that i type in lowercase as i do.

halfway through my college journey, i decided to minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. part of that urge came from how i had encountered the work of scholars like hooks online and wanted a more streamlined arena than Tumblr to explore said work. we read so many of her essays in school throughout various courses; it’s safe to say that Black Feminism would not be what it is today without thinkers like her.