No cause of death was reported, but Berea College in Kentucky, where hooks had taught since 2004, said in a press release that she had suffered from an extended illness.
hooks, who preferred to spell her name with no capital letters as a way of de-emphasizing her individual identity, was born Gloria Jean Watkins as the fourth of seven children in Hopkinsville, Ky., on Sept.
Three years later, her Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center explored and criticized the feminist movement’s propensity to center and privilege white women’s experiences.
Frequently, hooks’ work addressed the deep intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality and geographic place.
In a 2000 interview with All Things Considered, hooks spoke about the life-changing power of love—that is, the act of loving, and how love is far broader than romantic sentiment.
And I think that it would be absolutely fantastic to have that sense of ‘Let’s return to kind of a utopian focus on love, not unlike the sort of hippie focus on love.’ Because I always say to people, you know, the ’60s’ focus on love had its stupid sentimental dimensions, but then it had these life-transforming dimensions.