Speaking in Tongues and Dancing Diaspora: Black Women Writing and PerformingThe oral tradition has always played an important role in African American literature, ranging from works such as Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God to Toni Morrison's Beloved. These and countless other novels affirm the power of sonance and sound in the African American literary canon. Considering the wide swath of work in this powerful lineage in addition to its shared heritage with performance Mae G. Henderson deploys her trope of