Belonging, Bell Hooks
Belonging, Bell Hooks
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Belonging
A Culture of Place

Author: Bell Hooks

Narrator: Adenrele Ojo

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/30/2023


Synopsis

What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community? When can we say that we truly belong?

These are some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic Bell Hooks examines in Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which Hooks moves from place to place, only to end where she began—her old Kentucky home.

Hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. It would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link of the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky.

About Bell Hooks

A cultural critic, an intellectual, and a feminist writer, bell hooks is best known for classic books including Feminist Theory, Bone Black, All About Love, Rock My Soul, Belonging, We Real Cool, Where We Stand, Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community, Outlaw Culture, and Reel to Real. She is Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, and resides in her home state of Kentucky.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hilary on August 20, 2013

So poorly edited it's a bit hard to read. Repetitive (even for a collection of essays from different contexts) and blatant grammar mistakes make it hard to pick up intended meaning. Sometimes seems like she wanted to find a way to relay meaningful quotes from books she has been reading. There are so......more

Goodreads review by zara on December 13, 2021

this was an interesting, sometimes odd, collection of essays. I enjoyed the essays “Representations of whiteness in the Black Imagination,” “Touching the Earth” and “To be Whole and Holy.” The interview with Wendell Barry, and hooks’ choice to frequently cite this white author’s work on Black agrari......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on January 04, 2021

Repetitive in parts - but beautiful reflections on what it means to be home. Her conversations with Wendell Berry are a gem.......more

Goodreads review by pooja on July 04, 2023

4.5/5 personal & political, bell hooks investigates what it means to spiritually belong to a geographical place, to heal with land, to return to our native place. I love the questions and sentiments she explores in this collection of essays. hooks' words as always are a source of nourishment and ins......more

Goodreads review by Eli on November 27, 2009

I'll admit I wasn't able to finish this. There's parts that are really powerful, like when she talks about the importance of reclaiming Black people's connection to the land, to farming, and the ways her grandparents and childhood community in the hills of Kentucky had of relating to the world with......more