December 26, 1994 Contact: Francine Tyler (408/459-2495)

WELL-KNOWN WRITER AND CRITICAL THINKER TO SPEAK AT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CONVOCATION JANUARY 12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Bell Hooks, whose writing addresses black womanhood, feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and critical theory, will be the keynote speaker for the eleventh annual Martin Luther King, Jr., convocation taking place at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Thursday, January 12.

The convocation begins at 4 p.m. in the Porter College Dining Hall. Admission is free, but tickets--available from the UCSC Ticket Office--are required.

Open to the general public, the convocation honors the memory of Dr. King with speakers, music, and a keynote address by a prominent African American figure. Hooks's convocation speech is titled "Building a Beloved Community: Ending Racism."

Born in 1955 as Gloria Watkins, Hooks writes under the name of her great-great-grandmother to honor, according to Paula Giddings in Ms. magazine, "the unlettered wisdom of her foremothers." (Editor's note: Bell Hooks writes her name entirely in lower-case letters.)

After growing up in Kentucky, Hooks earned a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from UCSC. She went on to work as an associate professor in the African American Studies Department at Yale University, then as a professor at Oberlin College in the Departments of English and Women's Studies. Currently, she is a distinguished professor of literature at City College of New York.

Hooks has written numerous articles and books, including Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994); Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (1990); and Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981).

A Publisher's Weekly poll in 1992 named Ain't I a Woman one of the "twenty most influential women's books of the last twenty years."

Another of Hooks's books, Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (1991), explored black images in areas including advertising, Madonna's music videos, and the Anita Hill- Clarence Thomas hearings. Written with social critic Cornel West, the book caused a Library Journal critic to remark, "Hooks continues to produce some of the most challenging, insightful, and provocative writing on race and gender in the United States today."

Hooks is currently writing "A Killing Rage," a book about the later works of Dr. King, which will be released in September 1995.

At the convocation on January 12, the Reverend Robert Renfro of the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Santa Cruz will offer an invocation. The church's youth choir and Rita Lackey, a soloist and UCSC alumna, will perform. Assistant professor David Anthony of Oakes College will emcee. A reception follows.

The event is presented by Arts & Lectures in collaboration with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Parking is free in the Performing Arts parking lot. For more information, call the UCSC Ticket Office, (408) 459-2159.

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