Black Body

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.

• ContentsForewordIgiaba ScegoTranslators’ NoteEilis Kierans and Sandra Waters1          Seven Years Old2          African Braids3          Snakes and Dad4          Scars on Skin5          If You Know Your History6          The Secret Diary7          All the Relatives8          The Kpelle People9          The Initiation10        La Lingua Parlata     11        Mussolini the Italian12        The Diamond Princess13        The Power of Twins14        The First Sister15        Rocks in Our Shoes16        The Sound of Drums17        The Black Body18        Pidgin English19        Roma Nord20        The 2921        The Motivator22        The Guy from CasaPound23        Fingerprints24        Federico25        I Dream of Water       26        Silent on the Surface27        Mom Doesn’t Want Me to Go to Liberia28        The Journey to Liberia          29        Oceanic Currents       30        Blessings31        Italian Citizenship32        Karima  Notes on Contributors