{"id":17003,"date":"2025-08-28T17:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=17003"},"modified":"2025-08-28T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:15:08","slug":"mounted-on-horses-blackness-and-liberation-by-bitter-kalli-c-2025-amistad-22-00-192-pages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/mounted-on-horses-blackness-and-liberation-by-bitter-kalli-c-2025-amistad-22-00-192-pages\/","title":{"rendered":"Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation by Bitter Kalli, c.2025, Amistad $22.00 192 pages"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

One thousand, two hundred pounds and four legs.<\/p>\n

Put that between your knees and you\u2019ll find out what real horsepower is.
\nYou\u2019re five feet off the ground, moving as fast as a car on a downtown
\nstreet, hooves pounding as hard as your heart. Dangerous? Maybe. But as
\nyou\u2019ll see in Mounted<\/em> by Bitter Kalli, your ancestors did it and so can
\nyou.<\/p>\n

When they were a young child, \u201caround the age of six or seven,\u201d someone
\ngave Bitter Kalli a set of \u201cpony books,\u201d the kind that appeal to young
\ngirls, mostly white ones. Kalli wasn\u2019t entirely comfortable identifying as
\na girl then but they adored the books, in part because the stories featured
\nthe kinds of friendships and acceptance Kalli wanted. After devouring those
\nstories, they begged their parents for riding lessons from a nearby
\nBrooklyn stable.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2014, when Kalli was 17 years old, an experienced
\nequestrian, a trans individual, and a protester at college. During that
\nprotest, they watched the horses that carried the police and wondered what
\nthose animals saw in the crowd.<\/p>\n

For that matter, what did horses see throughout Black history?<\/p>\n

In times of slavery, it was not uncommon for fleeing slaves to steal a
\nhorse or two to get away faster. Kalli shares heart-pounding tales of
\nescape, sharing examples of how human chattel was often compared to that of
\nequines in newspaper ads, as slaveholders mourned the latter loss much
\ndeeper than the former.<\/p>\n

Many Americans are unaware of the rich contributions that African Americans
\nmade to the settling of the West. Kalli examines a popular movie,
\ndeconstructing it and adding real history to the Hollywood tale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we know as the Wild West would not exist without the 182,000 enslaved
\npeople living in Texas in 1860\u2026\u201d they say.<\/p>\n

Horses are featured in many of the world\u2019s religions. Horsey language lends
\nitself to the erotic. Even, says Kalli, \u201cBlack and brown youth in Brooklyn\u201d
\nunderstood the appeal of a good-looking Polo pony\u2026<\/p>\n

Take a good study of the cover of Mounted.<\/em> Appreciate the artwork, notice
\nthe design. Then add this book to your \u201cThings I Never Really Thought
\nAbout\u201d list, because you\u2019ll think about it now. And you\u2019re going to want to
\nread every delicious word.<\/p>\n

Horses have been hiding in plain sight in Black history for centuries, but
\nauthor Bitter Kalli pulls them to the forefront, turning each facet of the
\nsubject over for deeper examination and additional thought. Happily, you
\nwon\u2019t feel forced to do that; their writing comes across like an invitation
\nto a warm, intimate conversation, the kind you get while casually hanging
\nout with a new group of friends on the patio. What you learn is highly
\nintriguing, and you won\u2019t ever see horses in the same way again.<\/p>\n

Beware that this book has one explicit chapter inside, but it fits the
\nnarrative and you won\u2019t mind. You\u2019ll be too busy enjoying what you read and
\nwanting more. For horse lovers and history lovers alike, Mounted<\/em> is the
\nperfect ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor One thousand, two hundred pounds and four legs. Put that between your knees and you\u2019ll find out what real horsepower is. You\u2019re five feet off the ground, moving as fast as a car on a downtown street, hooves pounding as hard as your heart. Dangerous? Maybe. But as you\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-17003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17005,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17003\/revisions\/17005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17003"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}