Kym Ragusa
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February 25, 1966
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Kym Ragusa | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kym L. Ragusa February 25, 1966 Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, filmmaker, teacher |
| Alma mater | New School for Social Research Hunter College |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
Kym L. Ragusa (born February 25, 1966) is an American writer and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.
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
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
- 1995: Juror's Prize, Women in the Director's Chair, for Passing[14]
- 1997: Best Video, South Bronx Film and Video Festival, for Fuori/Outside[14]
- 1999: New York Foundation for the Arts film fellowship[2]
- 2007: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist for The Skin Between Us
