Kym L. Ragusa (born February 25, 1966) is an American writer and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.

Kym Ragusa
BornKym L. Ragusa
(1966-02-25) February 25, 1966 (age 58)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
OccupationWriter, filmmaker, teacher
Alma materNew School for Social Research
Hunter College
GenreNonfiction

Early life and education

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Ragusa was born in Manhattan, New York, to an Italian-American father and an African-American mother. Her paternal grandparents were immigrants from Messina; her maternal ancestors were brought to the United States as slaves.[1] She spent much of her childhood living alternately with her maternal grandparents in Harlem and her paternal grandparents in Maplewood, New Jersey.[2]

After attending public schools, Ragusa earned an M.A. in Media from the New School for Social Research.[1] She also studied creative writing at Hunter College, where she was a student of Louise DeSalvo.[3]

Career

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Ragusa directed two award-winning short documentary films, Passing (1995) and Fuori/Outside (1997).[3] Her other films include Demarcations, Threads of Memory, and Remembering the Triangle Fire.[2]

Her memoir, The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging (W. W. Norton & Co., 2006), was a finalist for the 2007 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for nonfiction,[4] and has been well received by critics.[5][6][7][8] An Italian-language edition, La pelle che ci separa, was published in 2008.[9] Her writing has also appeared in anthologies, such as The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture (2003),[10] Personal Effects: Essays on Memoir, Teaching, and Culture in the Work of Louise DeSalvo (2014),[11] and Are Italians White? How Race is Made in America (2012).[12]

Much of Ragusa's artistic work explores themes of racial identity and belonging. In the foreword to Olive Grrrls: Italian North American Women & The Search For Identity (2013), Ragusa describes her uneasiness with pat answers to the question, "What are you?" and concludes that "No identity is singular, clear-cut, fixed; each is situated in histories and in daily lives that are endlessly complex."[13]

Ragusa has taught Writing and Film Studies at Eugene Lang College and the City University of New York.[1]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Kym Ragusa" (PDF). University of Minnesota. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 10, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Ragusa, Kym". Encyclopedia.com. Gale. 2009.
  3. ^ a b Tenzer, Livia (2002). "Documenting Race and Gender: Kym Ragusa Discusses 'Passing' and 'Fuori/Outside'". Women's Studies Quarterly. 30 (1/2): 213–220. JSTOR 40004647.
  4. ^ "Kym Ragusa". Hurston/Wright Foundation. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  5. ^ "Review of The Skin Between Us". Kirkus Reviews. May 8, 2006. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  6. ^ "Review of The Skin Between Us". Publishers Weekly.
  7. ^ Antonucci, Clara (2008). "Review of The Skin Between Us". Italian Americana. 26 (1): 110–111. JSTOR 41353782.
  8. ^ Gennari, John (2017). "The Sounds and the Fury". Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge. University of Chicago Press. pp. 227–233. ISBN 9780226428468. Ragusa's memoir is exquisitely poignant, lyrical, and most of all—soundful: it demands a hearing from its readers.
  9. ^ Baldo, Michela (2014). "Painful Italianness: Translating the (post)migrant female body". Academia.edu. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  10. ^ DeSalvo, Louise; Giunta, Edvige, eds. (August 2003). "Baked Ziti". The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture. Feminist Press at CUNY. pp. 276–284. ISBN 9781558614536.
  11. ^ Caronia, Nancy; Giunta, Edvige, eds. (2014). "On Vulnerability and Risk: Learning to Write and Teach Memoir as a Student of Louise DeSalvo". Personal Effects: Essays on Memoir, Teaching, and Culture in the Work of Louise DeSalvo. Fordham University Press. pp. 105–110. ISBN 9780823262274.
  12. ^ Guglielmo, Jennifer, ed. (2012). "Sangu du Sangu: Growing Up Black and Italian in a Time of White Flight". Are Italians White? How Race is Made in America. Routledge. pp. 213–223. ISBN 9781136062421.
  13. ^ Ragusa, Kym (2013). "Foreword". In Greco, Lachrista (ed.). Olive Grrrls: Italian North American Women & The Search For Identity. Olive Grrrl Press.
  14. ^ a b "Kym Ragusa". Mixed Race Studies.

Further reading

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