Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation

Essayist and art critic Kalli meditates on their lifelong love of horses in this fascinating debut. Blending history, pop culture, and memoir, Kalli considers the horse as both a tool of oppression and a symbol of liberation for Black people across the African diaspora. They investigate the role horses have played in systems of slavery, both as agents of escape and as tools of surveillance, squaring that history with their own as the child of Filipino and Jamaican immigrants who went on to become the only Black member of Columbia University’s equestrian team. Elsewhere, they offer close readings of Kanye West’s Polo iconography, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, mapping a lineage of Black equestrian aesthetics that runs from Clint Eastwood to Jamaican dancehall, and unpack the surprising class lessons they learned when reading “pony books” like National Velvet and Black Beauty. Throughout, Kalli writes with urgency and grace, grounding their wide-ranging musings with a tender image that bookends the narrative: the author resting a hand on a horse’s shoulder (“I will place my hand on a horse’s shoulder and learn about the ground beneath my feet”). Slim but potent, this packs a punch. Agent: Ayla Zuraw-Friedland, Frances Goldin Literary. (Aug.)