Beloved bell hooks and Baraka to speak this week

This week, two seasoned scholars will visit the College in observation of Black History Month.

bell hooks, a feminist scholar, author and social critic, will lecture at Afrikan Heritage House Monday She will also discuss her newest book, Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work, at the Co-op Bookstore Sunday.

Originally born as Gloria Watkins, hooks named herself after her maternal great-grandmother Bell Hooks, with whom she associates the courage and ability to speak one�s mind. In only 15 years, hooks has published 16 books. Her first book was a race-conscious feminist text entitled Ain�t I a Woman (1981), which was included in Publishers� Weekly�s �top 20 most important women�s books of the last 20 years.� A women�s studies professor here in 1988, hooks later joined the English department of City College of New York in 1993.

Many faculty and students are anticipating hooks� arrival. �bell hooks is a role model for many young black women,� said Rebecca Dixon, visiting instructor of African American studies.

�She�s very prolific,� said African American Studies Professor Calvin Hernton.

Amiri Baraka, formerly named LeRoi Jones, is a well-known author, playwright, musicologist and director. He will lecture at Finney Chapel on Thursday. �Baraka is not only a scholar, poet and activist. He was on the forefront of the Black arts movement in New York,� said Hernton.

According to Hernton, African Americans during the Black arts movement of the 1960s attempted to regain their cultural identity through the exploration of African peoples. �The aesthetics of this movement were the aesthetics of Africanness,� said Hernton.

In Hernton�s article, �The Witchcraft of LeRoi Jones� (1967), Baraka�s development is traced from his involvement with the beatnik movement to his role as high priest of Black Nationalism. �He was a leading figure in the beatnik movement, which was a movement predominantly of young white angry authors, mostly poets, who broke away from [traditional] forms of writing,� said Hernton.

On Jan. 13, 1969, Baraka, then LeRoi Jones, attended Finney Chapel for a lecture. �Black nationalism is like any nationalism,� said Baraka. �The black nation is a cultural nation with the same heritage and history, but it has forgotten its identities.�

Senior Ogbeyalu Onumah studied Baraka�s literature in Contemporary African- American Literature. �I got a chance to read some of his essays, poetry and plays. In terms of his poetry, I like SOS � the summoning of black men, women and children to take action. It�s a call to all Black people to come together to shape their existence and identity in America,� she said.

He�s a powerful reader. Nearly all [black] poets are powerful readers. It�s an oral African-American tradition. African-American poets are in this tradition and not in Western tradition,� said Hernton. �Baraka is in that tradition and if you haven�t heard him read, go and hear him read.�

Baby bell: The prolific artist bell hooks will visit Oberlin this week in observation of Black History Month. (photo courtesy College Relations)