Overview

The Black Body is the story of Anna Maria Gehnyei, also known as singer Karima 2G. Anna was born in Rome to Liberian parents, hailing from the Kpelle people -- among the first to leave their native lands for Europe. Despite being born Italian, the people of northern Rome treated her poorly: children made cruel jokes, the teachers ignored the needs of Anna and her twin, employers expressed shock at her prolific (in fact, native) Italian, policemen racially and sexually harassed her. Carrying her through these experiences are the stories about Liberia that her mother told her as a child, of a magical land rich in resources and the hidden rituals of her father's village. Anna Maria, a Black Roman child, dreams of Africa. The Black Body tells the story of a Black girl's coming of age, marked by continual, painful negotiation of two cultures: the Italian one which does not accept her and the African one to which she does not fully belong. Gehnyei's is the story of a generation made up of those who are seen only as immigrant children, and not as full citizens. Composed of memories, sounds, love, and shame, this political and personal memoir, creatively documenting the increased sophistication of the young Anna Maria's thinking as she grows from girl, to teen, to woman, has been translated into English for the first time by Eilis Kierans and Sandra Waters.  

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9781978840973

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Reviews

""In this important memoir, Anna Maria Gehnyei revisits the route she traveled in order to inhabit her 'Black Body' with pride and determination, in a country like Italy, where bodies like hers are constantly racialized. Through the exploration of her family memory and a journey to Liberia, Gehnyei grounds her present in the past, creating continuity between her own story and the stories of the children of the African diaspora around the world.""--Caterina Romeo ""author of Interrupted Narratives and Intersectional Representations in Italian Postcolonial Literatu"" ""A rapper, dancer, and beatmaker, Anna Maria Gehnyei is also a bold and brash writer. Every line of her electrifying memoir pulses with sharp social critique. You will love it all!""--Abdourahman A. Waberi ""author of In the United States of Africa""

Author Information

ANNA MARIA GEHNYEI, also known as Karima 2G, is a singer, rapper, dancer, beatsmith, and producer born in Rome to Liberian parents. She is the founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in Rome, Italy. The Black Body, her first book, delves into her experience growing up as a second-generation Black Italian. EILIS KIERANS is assistant professor of teaching in the Italian Department at the Pennsylvania State University. She is coeditor of the translation series Other Voices of Italy at Rutgers University Press.  SANDRA WATERS is the managing editor of Italian Quarterly and coedits the Other Voices of Italy series at Rutgers University Press. She is editor of The Spaces and Places of Horror and cotranslator of Porpora Marcasciano’s AntoloGaia: Queering the Seventies, A Radical Trans Memoir (Rutgers University Press, 2023). IGIABA SCEGO is a Somali Italian writer, cultural activist, and freelance scholar. She was born in Rome to Somali parents who took refuge in Italy following a coup d'État in their native country, where her father served as foreign minister. She holds a PhD in education on postcolonial subjects, has done extensive academic work in Italy and around the world, and has a special interest in immigration and mobility. Her first memoir won Italy's prestigious Mondello Prize. Her novel The Color Line won the Premio Napoli. Scego received the International Viareggio-RÉpaci awards in 2021. Most recently, she was longlisted for Premio Strega for her second memoir Cassandra a Mogadiscio. Her previous novels include Beyond Babylon and Adua. She also co-edited the anthology series Africana (Feltrinelli) with Chiara Piaggio.

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