Claudia Jones, bell hooks and a Black Feminist Genealogy of Love

• In Event: Black Women, Survival and Love

Abstract

This paper examines the role and the practice of love in the writing and life of Black Communist feminist Claudia Jones (1915-1964) and Black feminist writer bell hooks (1952-2021). By comparing Jones’ practices of love for her partner Abhimanyu Manchanda (1919-1985) in her letters to him during their time apart and her autobiographical fragments to hooks’ writing about her practices of love in her 2004 book Communion: The Female Search for Love, this paper constructs a Black feminist genealogy of love that is a departure from the classical, Euro-centric and over-generalized philosophies of love that still dominate contemporary conversations.

Presenter

• Lubabah Chowdhury, Washington and Lee University