Tickets are available for a special musical program on Friday, Oct. 16, at the Alhambra Theatre. The show is based on the life and words of bell hooks.
Singer-songwriter Martha Redbone will present “Guardian Spirit: The Words of bell hooks,” at 7 p.m.
Along with a band of 10 musicians, Redbone will perform a mix of soul, blues and spiritual songs. The show includes visual elements that highlight Kentucky and bell hooks, who was born as Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville and became a highly regarded feminist writer, cultural critic and university scholar. hooks died on Dec. 15, 2021, at her home in Berea, Kentucky.
Tickets for the Oct. 16 show can be purchased online. Use the promo code “bell50” to receive two standard tickets for $50. There is also an educational workshop, which is not a full-length performance, at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Alhambra. Those tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
“It is one of the most moving performances I have seen,” said Margaret Prim, executive director of the Pennyroyal Arts Council. Prim first saw Redbone perform “Guardian Spirit” in 2024 at the Apollo Theater in New York City. She made the trip to see the show with Alissa Keller, executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, and Gwenda Motley, one of bell hooks’ sisters.
“It is incredibly spiritual and soulful,” said Prim. “I’m just so excited for people to hear this music.”
The show’s visual elements, which play on a large video screen behind Redbone, give the performance a strong sense of bell hooks’ connection to Kentucky.
Redbone, who spent time with her grandparents in Eastern Kentucky and identifies as Native American and Black, last performed in Hopkinsville in 2022 at the Big Read kickoff event. That show, “Bone Hill — The Concert,” was inspired in part by her Eastern Kentucky family ties. It addressed social justice issues, culture and traditions through songs and stories.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
