Renee sits down bell hooks, feminist scholar and author of more than 30 books on issues such as social class, gender and race, on the next edition of Connections. They discuss her return to Kentucky and her latest book, Belonging: A Culture of Place. The program airs Friday, Dec. 26 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET2 and Sunday, Dec. 28 at 1:30/12:30 p.m. CT on KET1.
A Kentucky native, hooks discusses her decision to return to the Commonwealth and join the faculty at Berea College after holding positions at Yale University, Oberlin College and the City College of New York. She expresses her pleasure in having had both the experience of growing up in a tightly-knit rural Appalachian community and living and working in more cosmopolitan places like New York.
Then, hooks delves into some of the themes in Belonging: A Culture of Place and her recent articles published in the Appalachian Heritage Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, including the history and experience of black people in rural areas, the importance of community, and caring for and appreciating the environment. She also talks about one of her earlier books, Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery, which focuses on healing psychological damage inflicted by racism and sexism.
Finally, hooks discusses her pen name (her given name is Gloria Jean Watkins), her identity as a Kentucky writer and her love of teaching.
Connections with Renee Shaw is a KET production, produced by Shaw and Carolyn Gwinn. More information about Connections, including streaming video, is available at www.ket.org/connections.
