A review by maeveaickin
She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks by M. NourbeSe Philip

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

"The African artist in the Caribbean and in the New World must create in, give voice to and control her own i-mages. This is essential for any group, person, or people, but more so for the African in the New World, since in one sense, our coming upon ourselves, our revelation to ourselves in the New World was simultaneous with a negative re-presentation of ourselves to ourselves, by a hostile imperialistic power, and articulated in a language endemically and etymologically hostile to our very existence. In a very real sense, it can be argued that for the African in the New World learning the English language was simultaneous with learning of her non-being, her lack of wholeness."