Local History

Erica Hunt is an African-American author whose first book of writings has long been awaited by her peers– members of progressive political movements and other poets. Work in periodicals has fed the growing clamor for this book. Local History, written almost entirely in prose, has tapped the warp and woof of the poetic line for its telling. And tell it does! She has elected the word to represent social events, and chosen political realities as that stone against which words might sharpen themselves. The caustic in her voice is medicine not poison, and as we read we know that we in every way deserve our part of it. This present catches up the future. Erica lives in New York City where she makes a living by confronting and changing some of the recalcitrant social conditions of the African-American place and time. This commitment is evidenced in Local History, as the title itself implies. The book is itself part of the solutions she has demanded in her progressive political action. Local History is a mosaic of those of her writings which she chose to maintain. It’ s mostly-prose sections are organized in a way that invites reading, and not perusal. One moves through it much as one would through a novel, its sections more chapters than not.