Book Discussion | Belonging: A Culture of Place

Join us on Wednesday, January 25 at Bushel Collective in Delhi to discuss the book Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks. Light refreshments will be served. The reading schedule is as follows:

January 25: Chapters 1-6

TBD: Chapters 7-13

TBD: Chapters 14-21

Consider ordering/purchasing your book from a local independent bookseller. A few of our favorites are The Green Toad in Oneonta, the Lost Bookshop in Delhi, and Blenheim Hill Books in Hobart. Please reach out if you are unable to acquire a copy of the book. Email getwokecatskills@gmail.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK. What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community? When can we say that we truly belong?

These are some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic bell hooks examines in Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began–her old Kentucky home.

hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. Naturally, it would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link of the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky.

With characteristic insight and honesty, Belonging offers a remarkable vision of a world where all people–wherever they may call home–can live fully and well, where everyone can belong.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR. bell hooks’ writing focuses on the intersectionality of race, gender, and capitalism. Her focus is to describe how these factors converge to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination in our world. Her body of work consists of over 30 books and numerous scholarly articles, appearances in documentaries, and participation in public lectures.