On bell hooks

Photo: Joyce Dopkeen / The New York Times / Redux

When I heard the sad news of African American author, professor, feminist and social activist bell hooks' passing on 15 December 2021, aged 69, I was completely taken by surprise. I couldn't believe it. I'm only one year younger but it wasn't that. I really liked her ... still do. This is such a great loss. I was, and still will, remain one of her admirers.

My knowledge of bell hooks started in the 1990s when I was studying two Birkbeck College, University of London courses: Black Women's Writing and Motherland to 'Motherland': Black Women's History. I read bell hooks' amazing work, in particular her critical thinking on imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchy. I continue to read and reference her in my current studies: Culture Diaspora Ethnicity MA at Birkbeck College.  

Image Source: Radical Reads

bell hooks was the author of 40 books, whose topics covered race, feminism, capitalism, and intersectionality. By the way, bell hooks was discussing intersectionality and writing about the subject long before the term was even conceived or coined by Kimberle Crenshaw. 

Here is a selection of favourite books from my bell hooks' collection, which I'm going to re-read and can definitely recommend:

• Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism (1981)
• Talking Back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black. Between the Lines (1989)
• Black Looks: Race and Representation (1992)
• Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work (1999)
• Where We Stand: Class Matters (2000)

Image Source: bell hooks institute

I've watched bell hooks deliver cutting edge talks many times from a distance in the comfort of my own home. On one unforgettable occasion, I actually met her face-to-face, at Hackney Town Hall, East London, during one of the numerous 1997 European Year Against Racism events, where I had the privilege of being photographed with her. I'm saddened that I cannot locate that picture.

bell hooks was one of those black female academics who transcended many disciplines to speak her mind both personally and politically. Sometimes she was misunderstood and this led to her being verbally attacked while she challenged the status quo. I'll remember bell hooks most of all for speaking her mind — talking back — I'm going to miss her.

Bernardine Everisto — Manifesto: On Never Giving Up

Image Source: Southbank Centre

On 3 October, I visited the Southbank Centre (again!). This time to see one of my favourite Black British female writers — Bernardine Evaristo. This event was held at Queen Elizabeth Hall, and I have to say that I really did prefer this space to the Royal Festival Hall. This time our seats were much closer to the stage.

For those of you who may not know, Bernardine Everisto was the first Black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other. I say win; she shared the prize with Margaret Atwood, which Bernardine did not mind in the slightest since her fandom has expanded dramatically:

“I am happy to share it, especially with Margaret Atwood who is such an inspiring feminist, environmentalist, legendary writer and generous person. I certainly don’t feel that I’ve won half a prize. My name alone appears on the Booker plaque sent to me, just as hers will do the same.” (bevaritso.com) 

Image Source: thebookerprize.com

My friends and I thought she should and could have been awarded the whole prize especially as Margaret Atwood had already won the prize in 2000. 

Bernardine Evaristo On Writing / Vogue Visionaries / British Vogue / YouTube 2021

I've met Bernardine face-to-face a couple of times, most recently on 9 November 2019 at a Wasafiri event at the British Museum: 'An Island Full of Voices', where she was featured in a panel on authorial activism and literary collectives with Rachel Long, Nikesh Shuka and Susheila Nasta. I literally bumped into her in the ladies’ toilets! This was just after winning the Booker Prize so I felt compelled to engage in a few quick words to congratulate her and remind her of the time in 1997 when she did a reading of her semi-autobiographical novel-in-verse Lara, at the Centerprise Bookshop, an iconic community centre where she signed my copy. Sadly, Centerprise closed in 2012 after Hackney Council seized its premises after four decades, during which it was a hub for all things book related. I facilitated a creative writing workshop there during the nineties as part of the Black Literature Development Agency.

Image Source: Amazon

I'd been looking forward to seeing and hearing Bernardine discuss her powerful new book Manifesto: On Never Giving Up ever since I heard of its existence when she shared the news on Twitter, especially as she would be in conversation with another one of my favourite Black British female writers, Afua Hirsch, also a journalist and broadcaster, known for her book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging.

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine started with a reading, some of which charted coming of age and leaving home after living within a family of eight children and two parents:

“When I think of it now, I landed very easily as an eighteen-year-old. I wanted a boyfriend, and had one; I needed a home, and walked into one; I needed a job, and found one. The only problem was that the boyfriend and I weren’t really at the nesting stage, but he was the easiest route out of my family home so what did I care? We briefly shared his room in this communal property until the one next door became available and I nabbed it. Finally, I had a room of my own. My first one. Up until this point, I had never slept a single night in a room on my own.”

I could so resonate with the yearning to leave home, although for me the motivation in the 1970s was because I wanted to return to a culturally diverse dynamic city to live in. After spending eight years living in Northamptonshire, due to no fault of my own, I strongly felt the need to move back to London to re-establish myself. 

L: Afua Hirsch R: Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine went on to tell us how her life of creativity, spanning four decades, included being an actress, playwright, teacher, and activist. Her book Manifesto provides a detailed account of how she lived her creative life, refusing to let any barriers get in her way, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to buy a copy as I could totally relate. This idea of never giving up despite social issues such as race, class, feminism, sexuality, and ageing is all-inspiring and particularly relevant in the society we live in.

Booker Prize Winner, Bernardine Evaristo / Full Q & A at The Oxford Union, 2020

Manifesto is such an inspiring read. I love that Bernardine never gave up and kept going with her writing amongst other pursuits. Her lifelong commitment to writing those original stories — novels, plays — that were often explorations and experimentations that took many years to write, were executed with a sheer determination and diligence that I admire and respect. So if you are creative and struggling with where you are at, you must keep on going, for you never know where your creativity may end up. You might one day win a prize! And even if that doesn't happen it will be well worth the ride.

Bios:

Bernardine Everisto is the author of nine books and numerous other works that span the genres of verse fiction, short fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism, journalism, and radio and theatre drama. Her writing and projects are based on her interest in the African diaspora. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.

Afua Hirsch is a writer, journalist, and broadcaster. She is a columnist for The Guardian, and appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and CNN. Her first book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was awarded a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction.

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Chimananda Ngozi Adichie: Notes on Writing

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Image Source:The Washington Post

What a few years it has been?! I hope you have kept well during such challenging times. I along with many people I know are now enjoying what was once taken very much for granted — socialising. Going out to a restaurant, theatre and jet-setting away on holiday have all taken on a new kind of norm.  Although we are still living with the global pandemic, I hope that the pandemic has now deferred to living with us, temporarily of course.

It is with much joy that I can actually write and share my recent literary shenanigans in the name of 'going out'. The last time I visited the Southbank Centre in south east London was to see Benjamin Zephaniah. So when I heard that places and spaces were opening up again, I eagerly checked out the listings and found some gems.

On 24 September, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Notes on Writing was held at the Royal Festival Hall. Chimamanda is the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. On the night, she reflected on writing and storytelling in conversation with Yomi Adegoke. She also discussed her most recent book, Notes on Grief  written following the death of her father last summer.

Image Source: Blackwells

My friends and I arrived thirty minutes early so as to soak up the exciting atmosphere in the Royal Festival Hall's foyer. The time soon passed and before we knew it, we were locating our seats.  Whilst keeping an eye on the two empty armchairs in readiness, I thought how lovely it was that we would soon be in the presence of such an iconic writer, who I've watched numerous times on YouTube. Now it was a whole different reality, I was going to see her in person.

As soon as 7.30 pm hit, Chimamanda and Yomi appeared and the whole audience woke up with welcoming roars and waves of applause. It was easy to get caught up in this momentous occasion and we enjoyed this warm rush of appreciation as much as she did.

Chimamanda started with a reading of chapter one from Notes on Grief.  I was struck by Chimamanda's openness and honesty as to how she felt, how angry she was that her family were getting prepared for her father's funeral proceedings:

"Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language."

L: Yomi Adegoke R: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

It was as if relatives speaking their condolences added more to the pain, the reality and finality of her loss.  Chimamanda wanted time to stand still for a while rather than go through the motions of liaising with family and friends although they meant well. She also had to mourn at a distance during the pandemic. During the lockdowns that spiralled like a domino effect around the world, Nigeria's airports weren't open which meant her father's funeral was constantly being postponed.

Notes on Grief written during the weeks and months following her father's death at the age of eighty-eight, is such a unique read. On the one hand, I can resonate with her words entirely yet she brings a kind of nuance to the language, reflections that are dignified and spiritually nurturing. In terms of her openness, I don't think I have heard death spoken about in such a poignant and realistic way to such a large audience. I listened intently to her mixture of sadness and humour at the way she wanted to resist dealing with grief itself seeing it as some kind of 'performative' action required of her:

"Grief is not gauzy; it is substantial, oppressive, a thing opaque. The weight is heaviest in the mornings, post-sleep: a leaden heart, a stubborn reality that refuses to budge. I will never see my father again. Never again."

Notes on Grief is a wonderful tribute to Chimamanda's father, James Nwoye Adichie, who was Nigeria's first professor of statistics.  Having now read a substantial amount, I found the book's structure of short, almost self-contained chapters works particularly well. It's as if grief can be divided into bite size chunks. Less is more.  The book isn't just for readers who have lost loved ones. Readers of Chimamanda's newest creation will not be disappointed as the story is a universal one. 

Bios:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She has written novels: Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Zikora (2020) and Notes on Grief (2021). In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur 'Genius' Grant.

Yomi Adegoke is a journalist for British Vogue, The Guardian and The i Newspaper. In 2018, she co-authored the book Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible with Elizabeth Uviebinene, for which she was named a Marie Clair Future Shaper and was awarded the Groucho Maverick Award. She is also a trustee of Arts Emergency, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 honouree.