BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — Berea College will host the inaugural bell hooks day from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 21.
The late bell hooks, who was a feminist scholar and former Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, died in December 2021.
In honor of hooks’ 70th birthday—which would have been this year—Berea College is hosting several events.
bell hooks day begins with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on bell hooks way on Berea’s campus at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The ceremony will also include remarks from the Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou, director of the bell hooks center, Associate Provost Dr. Eileen McKiernan-Gonzalez, and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dr. Dwayne Mack.
bell hooks way is located off Main Street and runs between the Berea College Farm Store and the Margaret A. Cargill Natural Sciences and Health building.
Beginning at 11:30 a.m., the bell hooks center will host hooks’ colleague and friend, Monica Casper, for a Gender Talk discussing hooks’ ideas about reproductive freedom. The Gender Talk will be held in the Alumni Building’s Activities Room.
From 1-3 p.m., Berea College students and community members are invited to the Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Educational and the Black Cultural Center for activities, including flower crown-making and graffiti-making.
Student Life will sponsor a DJ, kettle corn, caricaturist, and more. The day will conclude with a faculty workshop on public scholarship: “How to talk to ‘the public’ when ‘the public’ talks back?” The hour-long workshop will take place at 4 p.m. in the bell hooks center located in Room 106 of Draper Building.
All events are open to the public and masks are required.
