The works of two Kentucky artists will come together this weekend when R&B performer Martha Redbone will set poems by Hopkinsville native bell hooks to music along with her band in the late writer’s hometown.
Redbone, whose music career spans three decades, said this was a project to honor the life and legacy of bell hooks, an influential Black feminist writer and artist.
“The project is honoring her life, and sending the poetry from her book ‘Appalachian Elegy’ to music,” she said. “It was also in a way, for myself, an ode to Kentucky, being raised in Kentucky myself and with my whole family from there since the beginning of time.”
Redbone is a native of Harlan in southeastern Kentucky in the Appalachian mountains. Similar to hooks, Redbone said she loves the Bluegrass State for its beauty and diversity.
“I think it's really important to celebrate those stories and to celebrate the land because I live in New York City now. But ever since I was a teenager, I've told people that I'm from Kentucky. People have a kind of monolithic image and viewpoint of what they think Kentucky means until you actually go there and you see how beautiful the land is, and you see how diverse the communities are, and the mindsets of the people,” she said.
“I come from a long line of coal mining. When you go to that mine where my grandpa and great uncles and cousins and everyone worked, you will see that it was people from all cultures came to that mountain to work to feed their families. And even though coal is an environmental controversial topic, it fed a lot of our families during that time, and it brought together a lot of brotherhood.”
She said the imagery of Kentucky on display in hooks’ work was part inspiration for why she wanted to start the music project with her poetry.
“When reading bell hooks's ‘Appalachian Elegy’ and those poems, and her prologue, and you see her lamenting and yearning and appreciation for the beauty of this land, and even though we know how ugly American history can be, we all know that we are all aware and fighting racism and and economic systemic oppression from all people. Because when you go to Kentucky, that's when you'll really see – that the oppression really stems from the economic standpoint,” Redbone said.
“And you'll see people from every single culture who are all struggling for the same thing: for a better way of life, for community. People stick together, and that's something that I really wanted to highlight in her work about how much she loved this land and how much it meant to her and all the people who came before her.”
While Redbone said she wouldn’t consider herself a scholar of hooks’ work, the musician said she has been a longtime fan of her writings. Redbone is also family friends with Bill Turner, a historian who broke ground in researching Black history and influences in Appalachian communities and who worked with hooks at Berea College. Redbone said Turner gave her the idea of putting hooks’ poetry and writings to song.
“I am a songwriter and a lyricist. So people often wonder ‘why are you thinking of poetry,’ … and it's because I believe that there's certain works that need to be repeated. And as a composer and a songwriter and lyricist, I think that great words should be resonated and continue on through the generations.”
Redbone said she felt a responsibility to keep the memory of hooks and her work alive.
“bell hooks was one of the leading African American feminists in the United States, and I think it's really important to recognize that there are Black feminists in the state of Kentucky, in the Midwest, who have always been fighting for equal rights for all people. And I just don't want her legacy to be forgotten,” she said. “Not everybody's going to get up and pick up a poetry book and sit there and read it, you know, before bedtime or anything like that. But people do tend to listen to music for all different reasons; while they're cooking, while they're hanging out with friends, when you're going out. And I think that having music as a vehicle to celebrate her legacy through her poetry is a really beautiful way to honor her and her family.”
Redbone’s “Guardian Spirit - Words of bell hooks” is taking place Friday at 7 p.m. at the Alhambra Theatre in Hopkinsville. Ticket information at the theatre’s website.
