The Will to Change: A bell hooks Panel
This panel focuses on the continued influence, even rebirth, of bell hooks even after her death in 2022. We'll specifically look at the call for change she makes to men as they examine masculinity and love in their lives.
About the authors
D NOBLE is an activist, teacher and radical cultural worker. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in the African American & Diaspora Studies department at UNC Greensboro. His research interests include Black Class Antagonisms, African American Literature, Popular Culture and Hip Hop Studies. His work has been published in The African American Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, The Journal of Black Masculinity, Socialism & Democracy, Works and Days, Cultural Logic, Red Wedge and other leftist digital and print publications. He is a member of Greensboro Revolutionary Socialists and resident cultural worker for Black Workers for Justice.
BRANDON WRENCHER is a minister, community organizer, trainer, author, and consultant. Over the last fifteen years, he has worked across the US within faith, higher education, and non-profit sectors at the intersections of decolonizing church, contemplative activism, and local presence to build beloved communities. He's one of the founders of The Good Neighbor Movement, a multiracial, Black-led faith justice network of contemplative activists based in Greensboro, NC. Brandon is an ordained elder in the Western North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. He works full-time as senior community organizer with The Carolina Federation, an independent political organization building a new political majority in NC centering the multiracial working class, rooted in a culture of belonging, powerful enough to win elections and govern. Brandon is an author of two books: Liberating Church: A 21st Century Hush Harbor Manifesto (Wipf & Stock and The Voices Publishing) and Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities (Baker Academic). Brandon is married to Erica, a cultural organizer and community educator, and they have two elementary-aged sons.
The Reverend Doctor LEONARD CURRY, PhD is a sought-after thought leader, public speaker, teacher, and writer. Leonard has a BA in Religion from Rhodes College, an MA in Teaching from Christian Brothers University, an MDiv and STM from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD in Religion, Ethics, and Society from Vanderbilt University where he focused on feelings, ethics, and antiblackness. Leonard is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Xavier University of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the owner of Leonard Curry Consulting, LLC, a company that focuses on antiracism and inclusion consulting. Leonard loves roundness and the moon and sees the divine in sparks of creativity.
About the Host
E. Gale Greenlee, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a writer/independent scholar from Greensboro, NC. She is currently a Teacher-Scholar in Residence at the bell hooks center at Berea College where she teaches Black Feminist Theory through the lens of Black Girlhood Studies. She holds a doctorate in African American literature from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Gale is the author of "A Blueprint for Black Girlhood: bell hooks’s Homemade Love" as well as "The Archive that bell Built," and she is one of the co-curators of the installation in the bell hooks center. She's one of the organizers of the Inaugural bell hooks Symposium to be held June 2023.