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PHOTOGRAPH BY KARJEAN LEVINE, GETTY IMAGES
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R.I.P. bell hooks: Her mom a maid, her dad a janitor, Gloria Jean Watkins rose from segregated schools in Kentucky to become internationally recognized for her work on how race, capitalism, and gender have led to systems of oppression. The author, poet, and feminist (shown above in 1996) was better known by her pen name, bell hooks. “Her loss is incalculable,” author Roxane Gay tweeted. Novelist Min Jin Lee wrote that reading hooks’ Ain’t I A Woman “was as if someone had opened the door, the windows, and raised the roof in my mind." hooks died Wednesday among family in Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. She was 69.
A museum for Barbados: The Caribbean country plans a museum, research center, and memorial tracing slavery’s toll. Work will begin on November 22, 2022, to mark the first anniversary of Barbados cutting ties with the British monarchy to become a parliamentary republic. See the rendering in the Art Newspaper.
Private loss, public spaces: An estimated 23 million global miscarriages and 2.6 million stillbirths occur every year. A growing number of gardens, monuments, and other sacred spaces are springing up to acknowledge the grief of pregnancy loss, Nat Geo reports.
How Kwanzaa began: The annual celebration of African American roots and heritage began in the 1960s and runs from December 26 to January 1. Kwanzaa, derived from the word “first” in Swahili, takes inspiration from the start of the harvest season in Africa. During the week, families gather to give gifts, share feasts, and light candles in honor of their ancestors and their hopes for the future, Amy McKeever writes in this brief history.
So what's this other holiday? Boxing Day, the relaxed holiday the day after Christmas in Britain and Commonwealth nations, is about charity. The charitable giving and goodwill of the day are practices associated with the Christian festival of St. Stephen’s Day, which also is celebrated on December 26, writes Erin Blakemore in a brief history.
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