Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, was a social activist, cultural critic, femenist theorist, and an American author and social activist. Celebrated as one of our nation's leading public intellectual by The Atlantic Monthly, as well as one of Utne Reader's 100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life, she was a charismatic speaker who divided her time among teaching, writing, and lecturing around the world. Sept 25, 1952 - Dec 15, 2021

(Introduction) Mikki Kendall is a New York Times bestselling writer, speaker, and blogger whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Time, Salon, Ebony, Essence, and elsewhere. She has discussed race, feminism, violence in Chicago, tech, pop culture, and social media on Good Morning America, The Daily Show, NPR (among others), as well as at universities across the country. She is also the author of Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights and a co-editor of the Locus-nominated anthology Hidden Youth, as well as a part of the Hugo-nominated team of editors at Fireside Magazine. A veteran, she lives in Chicago with her family.