Nov 10, 2015

Conversations: bell hooks & Kevin Powell : Black Masculinity - Threat or Threatened?


Great discussion about black masculinity in popular culture today. Kevin Powell is an activist, writer, public speaker and entrepreneur. I first heard of him in the earky nineties when he was a writer for Vibe magazine. His articles were fire & I was always looking forward to reading them.
For more than three decades, bell hooks (née Gloria Watkins) has been recognized internationally as a scholar, poet, author, and radical thinker. The dozens of books and articles she has published span several genres, including cultural and political analyses and critiques, personal memoirs, poetry collections, and children's books. Her writings cover topics of gender, race, class, spirituality, teaching, and the significance of media in contemporary culture. I actually met bell hooks many moons ago in a hotel lobby. I was holding a book in my hand by another favorite public intellectual, namely, Adrienne Rich, which caught her eye. She approached me and asked if she could see the book. After exchanging pleasantries, I let her hold the book for a while after which she wrote in the front page a personal note hoping that the vision of Adrienne Rich could expand my consciousness as much as it expanded hers. My respect for bell increased exponentially after that fortuitous encounter. And my consciousness continued its deepening.....
OneLove
aft.