Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

by bell hooks, Cornel West

Overview

In this provocative and captivating dialogue, bell hooks and Cornel West come together to discuss the dilemmas, contradictions, and joys of Black intellectual life. The two friends and comrades in struggle talk, argue, and disagree about everything from community to capitalism in a series of intimate conversations that range from playful to probing to revelatory. In evoking the act of breaking bread, the book calls upon the various traditions of sharing that take place in domestic, secular, and sacred life where people come together to give themselves, to nurture life, to renew their spirits, sustain their hopes, and to make a lived politics of revolutionary struggle an ongoing practice.

This 25th anniversary edition continues the dialogue with "In Solidarity," their 2016 conversation at the bell hooks Institute on racism, politics, popular culture and the contemporary Black experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138218765
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/15/2016
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

A cultural critic, an intellectual, and a feminist writer, bell hooks is best known for classic books includingFeminist Theory, Bone Black , All About Love, Rock My Soul, Belonging, We Real Cool, Where We Stand, Teaching to Transgress, Teaching Community, Outlaw Culture, and Reel to Real.hooks is Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies at Berea College, and resides in her home state of Kentucky.

Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has written over 20 books and edited 13, including Race Matters, Democracy Matters, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, Black Prophetic Fire, and Radical King. Dr. West is a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, CNN, C-Span and Democracy Now.

Table of Contents

In Solidarity: A Conversation with bell hooks and Cornel West (2016)

Introduction

1. Black Men and Women: Partnership in the 1990s
2. Introduction to Cornel West
3. Cornel West interviewed by bell hooks
4. bell hooks interviewed by Cornel West
5. Dialogue between bell hooks and Cornel West
6. Dialogue between bell hooks and Cornel West
7. The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual
8. Black Women Intellectuals

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the book:

"bell hooks and Cornel West's wonderful volume is theoretical poetry, poetic theory....The scope of topics addressed in the far-ranging conversations between the two authors is breathtaking....[The book] not only theorizes about how a transformed intellectual power might fuse deep moral concern and political engagement—it actually does it."—Patricia Hill Collins, Signs (Autumn, 1994)

"A series of dialogues between and interviews with two of the foremost black intellectuals in America today, this volume is of enormous importance and offers rewarding reading."—Publishers Weekly

Praise for the book:

"bell hooks and Cornel West's wonderful volume is theoretical poetry, poetic theory....The scope of topics addressed in the far-ranging conversations between the two authors is breathtaking....[The book] not only theorizes about how a transformed intellectual power might fuse deep moral concern and political engagement—it actually does it."—Patricia Hill Collins, Signs (Autumn, 1994)

"A series of dialogues between and interviews with two of the foremost black intellectuals in America today, this volume is of enormous importance and offers rewarding reading."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

A series of dialogues between and interviews with two of the foremost black intellectuals in America today, this volume is of enormous importance and offers rewarding reading. At the outset, hooks describes these conversations as a kind of ``testimony,'' in the religious sense, to ``what it means to be Blackstet cap intellectuals at this historical moment.'' West ( Prophetic Fragments ) and hooks ( Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black ) talk frankly about the difficult necessity of moving beyond the academy to reach an audience in the black community at large. Much of their talk focuses on the violence done to the black community by consumer capitalism, by rampant market forces that have eroded the traditional institutions of support within the community, replacing them with a Big Mac and designer sneakers. Both are suspicious of the easy appeal of certain brands of black nationalism currently fashionable, but their analysis of those trends is balanced and convincingly argued. In her concluding essay hooks, drawing on her own childhood experiences, writes movingly of the pressures put on black women to reject intellectual pursuits. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Activists and academicians hooks ( Talking Back , LJ 12/88) and West ( Prophetic Fragments , LJ 3/1/88) share roots in the black church and a commitment to the life of the mind. This, their first joint publication, takes the form of a dialog that explores diverse aspects of modern African American culture: the spiritual crisis in the black community, conservatism among the black middle class, the new black nationalism, depictions of African Americans in popular culture, uses of black icons by modern political leaders. Of particular interest are their discussions of gender and politics; both feminists, they hope their own intellectual engagement can serve as a model for new kinds of relationships between black men and women. Although they rely too much on academic jargon, these two have important things to say, and this book's audience should by no means be confined to blacks. Highly recommended.-- Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.

Library Journal

Adenrele Ojo gives an outstanding performance of a series of conversations between bell hooks and Cornel West. These two friends and colleagues discuss the complex realities of Black intellectual life. In between their conversations, hooks and West insert essays that they've written about each other, highlighting their academic achievements and mutual admiration. Ojo narrates the book beautifully, bringing a range of emotional depth to her performance of hooks and West's conversations. She creates unique voices for each author, making her narration easy to follow. But since much of the book is a dialogue, this audiobook is a missed opportunity to bring in a second narrator to perform with Ojo and enhance the listener's experience. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

Adenrele Ojo gives an outstanding performance of a series of conversations between bell hooks and Cornel West. These two friends and colleagues discuss the complex realities of Black intellectual life. In between their conversations, hooks and West insert essays that they've written about each other, highlighting their academic achievements and mutual admiration. Ojo narrates the book beautifully, bringing a range of emotional depth to her performance of hooks and West's conversations. She creates unique voices for each author, making her narration easy to follow. But since much of the book is a dialogue, this audiobook is a missed opportunity to bring in a second narrator to perform with Ojo and enhance the listener's experience. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile