A passionate scholar, philosopher, and educator, bell hooks is the critically acclaimed author of books on racism, feminism, education, class, and culture. A listing of just some of her titles shows the breadth and depth of thought and concerns: Critical Thinking, Teaching to Transgress, Sisters of the Yam, Teaching Community: The Politics of Hope, Art on My Mind: Visual Politics, All about Love, Feminism is for Everyone, Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism, Ain’t I a Woman. bell hooks was born in 1952 in Kentucky and grew to womanhood during the Civil Rights Movement.
The following excerpt is from the preface of Critical Thinking (2009):
“I went to college to become a teacher. But I had no desire to teach. I wanted to be a writer. I soon learned that working menial jobs for long hours did not a writer make and came to accept that teaching was the best profession a writer could have. By the time I had finished graduate school I had encountered all types of teachers. Even though progressive teachers who educated for the practice of freedom were the exception, their presence inspired me. I knew that I wanted to follow their example and become a teacher who would help students become self-directed learners…Nurturing the self-development and self-actualization of students in the classroom, I soon learned to love teaching. I loved the students. I loved the classroom. I also found it profoundly disturbing that many of the abuses of power I experienced during my education were still commonplace, and I wanted to write about it.” (p. 3)
More on bell hooks:
Women, Words, and Wisdom 
Thanks for reminding me about B. H.
It’s been years and rereading her I see she’s even better than I recall.
Great going!
My favorite book of bell’s is Remembered Rapture. It is a book for and about writers. I love what she says about diaries: “However much the realm of diary-keeping has been a female experience that has often kept us closeted writers, away from the act of writing as authorship, it has most assuredly been a writing act that intimately connects the art of expressing one’s feeling on the written page with the construction of self and identity, with the effort to be fully self-actualized.
I awarded you The Inspiring Blogger Award. Thanks for sharing such great information.
Thank you. There are so many wonderful women’s voices to share.
Keep up the excellent work.