Students in the Christian County High School Art Club painted and drew 24 portraits of bell hooks to display at her Celebration of Life earlier this month at the Alhambra Theatre.
Now their artistic interpretations of the feminist author and activist who grew up in Hopkinsville will be sold to the public through a silent auction online. The proceeds will go to the Christian County Literacy Council, the nonprofit organization that the art club chose for its community service project this year.
“I was impressed with the skill of our students,” said Francene Gilmer, the literacy council’s executive director and a member of the committee that planned the Celebration of Life for hooks.
The portraits capture hooks’ intensity, her humor and her beauty, said Gilmer.
Some of the early bids came from people in New York and Maine, in addition to several from the Hopkinsville area.
Born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, she chose the pen name from her great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, also of Hopkinsville. She said the pen name was written in lowercase letters to emphasize the work over her identity.
The author of more than 30 books, hooks died Dec. 15 of renal failure at her home in Berea. She was 69.
The online auction will conclude on May 14. Members of the public who submit bids can check the Christian County Literacy Council’s Facebook page for updates on bid amounts.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
