Power in the Tongue. Hybrid Memoir by Caitlyn Hunter. Paperback. 160 pages. June 14th, 2022. ISBN 9781948800501.

Digging into the history of ourselves, the stories we tell are just as important as the facts—who was there, who rose above, how they did it, if they did it. There isn’t one long line connecting us to our ancestors; there is a constellation. Mixing history with folktales, Caitlyn Hunter’s Power in the Tongue centers not Black pain, but Black perseverance spanning centuries. In this hybrid of memoir and fiction, Hunter holds a mirror up to herself and in her reflection shows us ancestors, hypothetical and real, as well as a present world of oscillating tensions. She creates an interior world infused with magic, tricksters, talking animals, chopped hair, red and blue flashing lights, Pittsburgh steel. There is power in the tongue and the things it can say.