Belonging: A Culture of Place

Quilts in Belonging serve as an important symbol of heritage, creativity, and intergenerational memory. Through her grandmother Baba’s quilt-making, hooks connects domestic labor to artistry, spirituality, and cultural survival. The fabric scraps stitched together carry personal histories—dresses worn by her mother and aunts, remnants from clothing earned in lieu of wages—and thus preserve narratives often erased from official histories. In resisting the erasure of Black women’s artistic contributions, hooks frames quilts as both utilitarian objects and aesthetic testaments to resilience, creativity, and love, challenging the notion that artistry belongs only to recognized “fine arts” traditions.

Porches emerge as spaces that symbolize community, visibility, and resistance, particularly for women. For hooks, the porch of her childhood home was a feminine sanctuary where women and girls could gather, converse, and watch the world. However, this space was also vulnerable to patriarchal intrusion, such as when her father’s violent outburst destroyed its sense of safety. In her later life, hooks reclaims the porch as a site of anti-racist resistance and civility, a place to practice connection across difference while honoring the fellowship once nurtured there.