"bell hooks saved me. I say that in all sincerity. At a critical time in my life, when I was at my lowest point, it was bell hooks, through her books, who pulled me out of a hole of profound depression and set me on a path of self-renewal on which I have remained ever since. Newly divorced with two very young sons, I was determined to give a better fatherhood experience than the one I had."
"I knew early on in life that I didn't want to grow up to be a man like my stepfather. The mistaken assumption I carried was that that sole desire was sufficient. What I didn't realize is, without any alternative liberating visions to turn to, those internalized experiences would surface within me. It took me hitting rock bottom to realize that the patchwork façade of manhood I had scrambled to embody was woefully incapable of enabling me to become the man I desired to be."
A man emerged from profound depression after encountering bell hooks' books, which initiated a sustained path of self-renewal. Newly divorced with two very young sons, he resolved to provide a better model of fatherhood than he had experienced. Lacking examples of responsible and loving manhood, he initially relied on a fragile façade that later proved inadequate. Prior exposure to Malcolm X's autobiography introduced the possibility of remaking the self, but bell hooks' Sisters of the Yam became the decisive catalyst. Those writings provided liberating visions to replace internalized harmful behaviors and supported his transformation into the man he sought to become.
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