“Given Name Listerine Wood” resurrects that palpable history of misnaming by the state and by those in power, sometimes intentionally so, as a way of erasing, diminishing, and deforming a human life. Naima Yael Tokunow reminds us of the power of poetry in setting the record straight, but even more, in divining lives and genealogies so that they shine like jewels in our imaginations.
