‘All About Love’: Be inspired by the best bell hooks words to live by

If there’s one certainty in this world, it’s that we can learn a lot from bell hooks. The feminist writer & educator has many wise words for us to take from, including All About Love, a bell hooks classic that still rings true today.

As we say goodbye to such an influential writer & academic, let’s also honor her internationally renowned writings and their effect on our culture. Now, we wonder what can we learn from her, and how do we move forward? Let’s dive in and see.

Who is bell hooks?

The writer bell hooks (real name Gloria Jean Watkins, who took her pen name from her great-grandma, Bell Blair Hooks) is an academic who was born in 1952. She grew up voraciously reading various writers, and as she attended higher education, she wrote her first nonfiction book: Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, which was published in 1981 and critically acclaimed.

Bell hooks became an English & Ethnic Studies professor at the University of Southern California in 1976, and from there, she taught at various universities. Also, she continued to release academic books, and her standing as a teacher & author cemented her standing as an academic thinker & critic of the culture. Notable titles include Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center & All About Love, a bell hooks masterpiece.

To say bell hooks is a great writer would be an understatement. Her works dig deep into various topics regarding the culture we live in and seek to understand, then question the normalities around us. To read a bell hooks book is to seek to see why things should change, and try and gain a better perspective on how that can be possible.

And of all of her works, All About Love is one of bell hooks’s best. Let’s look into that one, shall we?

The enduring classic, All About Love

All About Love: New Visions is a 2001 book from bell hooks. It’s part of the Love Song To The Nation series of books, which also includes Salvation: Black People and Love & Communion: The Female Search for Love.

In All About Love, bell hooks seeks to define and understand what love is, and why society often fails to help us see what it truly is. She writes, “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet . . . we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” and digs deep into an analysis of what that emotion truly is.

Notable points include the fact that love cannot exist in the same place as abuse, that true love requires the parties involved to keep working toward it, and that the patriarchy plays a part in how we view love.

All About Love is one of bell hooks’ best works. But sadly, we cannot expect any more books from this amazing writer.

The death of bell hooks

On December 15th, 2021, bell hooks passed at age 69. The statement from her family reads as follows: “We sadly confirm that our sister Gloria Jean Watkins (bell hooks) passed away at her home in Berea KY in the early morning hours today. She chose cremation so a celebration of life service will be at a later time.”

The death of this feminist icon brought responses from many, many people. One of them, Ibram X. Kendi (an anti-racist academic) said the following on Twitter: “The passing of bell hooks hurts, deeply. At the same time, as a human being I feel so grateful she gave humanity so many gifts. . . Thank you, bell hooks. Rest in our love,” and included a quote from All About Love by bell hooks.

How to move forward with what bell hooks taught us

As we mourn the death of this great author, it’s important we don’t forget what we have learned from her. From All About Love to bell hooks’ many other works, we need to take the things she taught us, and use them not only to make a better future but demand it.

Let us never forget the greatness of bell hooks.