Kym Ragusa reads from The Skin Between Us

Kym Ragusa’s memoir is situated at the crossroads of two Harlem communities during the 1970s, the West Harlem of her African American mother and the East Harlem of her Sicilian American father. Their respective families despaired at the match, while in the streets the couple faced taunting threats from a city still racially divided. Ragusa’s childhood was centered around her two grandmothers who provided the loving core of her upbringing and which, in turn, enabled them to overcome their prejudices. Ragusa delves into the richness of her mixed heritage of rent parties and religious feste, baked yams and baked ziti, offering an account of astonishing delicacy and strength.