The class displayed their agitation with bouncing knees and rolling eyes as Neil pulled his eyebrows close together and frowned. We sat on the floor in the dull winter light of her second grade classroom, textbooks heavy in our laps, waiting for Neil Machever to pronounce the words on the page so that Erin Troncati, cross-legged next to him and furiously chewing the ends of her blond hair, could read the next sentence. A worn rectangle of beige carpet marked out the parameters of our reading circle. Byline: Danielle HendersonĬultural critic, writer and feminist bell hooksCredit: 'Bellhooks' by Cmongirl - Own work. Subhead: 'I felt like she'd been waiting out there, to help me make sense of my life,' says Danielle Henderson about discovering hooks' work, in this excerpt from the book of essays 'Icon.' Suddenly being shut out for being a black woman made more sense. * Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.