Homeplace

The term homeplace is a subjective space of safety and political power created by African American women for the sustained psychological well-being [Page 530]of their loved ones. The theory of homeplace was constructed by cultural critic Gloria Watkins, better known by her pen name of bell hooks (all lower case), and explicated in her groundbreaking essay, Homeplace: A Site of Resistance. Homeplace remains an explicit demonstration of the complex nature of black women's love for their family and the black community at large. It also contains a specifically political element and remains the key component of black solidarity in the midst of what she considers to be a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

Homeplace is designed for two significant and simultaneous developments. Its primary purpose is as a place of healing from what hooks considers to be the ravages of living in a world that objectifies black people. Homeplace also allows for daily self-affirmation and the development of subjectivity and maternal nurturing. Its secondary, yet no less significant, purpose is as a site of community resistance. It is in these homes that children are taught valuable methods of survival, including, but not limited to, literacy and family/community history. Adults are also intended to benefit from this component of homeplace, as countless politically and psychologically subversive activities take place within its purview. It is important to note that homeplace supersedes the physicality of any slave shack or woman's kitchen, though such places are often the sites of its creation. An important characteristic of homeplace is the dominance of its psychological existence for the black familial network and the authority black women have in its creation and reproduction.