bell hooks has received an outpouring of appreciation online from those inspired by her work since she passed away last month. Around 200 people attended the event, which featured writers like Silas House recalling memories of bell hooks
and reading the late author’s groundbreaking work on racism, sexism, and love.
Jessica Mohler with the Carnegie Center says about 20 minutes in, the public Zoom session was joined by 10 to 15 people using racist hate speech. Mohler spoke over them as staff set up a new link and they were eventually able to continue the program.
She says based on a warning email from the platform just three minutes before the chaos broke out, the Zoom-bombers seemingly got in through a Twitter post.
The organization is going to local police, but she thinks the attack was very sophisticated and not local.
“We came back without the racists. We came back with even more love than we had before, because it solidified the work bell was doing–that this is going on, that it’s happening every day. It has been happening since the inception of this country. We came back to solidify her work, and let everyone who was listening know that we will continue to choose love.”Jessica Mohler, Marketing & Communications Director, Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning
Mohler says they ended the program with a reading from hooks’ All About Love: New Visions.
“‘I feel our nation’s turning away from love…moving into a wilderness of spirit so intense we may never find our way home again. I write of love to bear witness both to the danger in this movement, and to call for a return to love.’ And that’s how we ended. We ended together as a community. We ended as a community who came together for strength and for love and for humanity, and I think bell would have been proud of us. I think she would have been proud that we came back and I think she would have been proud that we continued to spread and share her message of love.”Jessica Mohler, Marketing & Communications Director, Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning
Mohler asked that the community support the state’s Black writers through the Carnegie Center’s Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative.
