Nadeesha Uyangoda

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Who

Nadeesha Uyangoda is a writer, podcaster and freelance author. Her stories have appeared, among others, in Al Jazeera English, The Telegraph, Vice Italy, Open Democracy. Currently she is a columnist for Internazionale magazine and a contributor for Italian newspapers La Repubblica and La Stampa.
 
Her debut non-fiction book, L’unica persona nera nella stanza [The only black person in the room] earned a spot on many prestigious award longlists and shortlists. She is the creator of the podcast Sulla Razza [About Race], sponsored by Juventus Football Club.
 
She was awarded a residency at Art Omi International Writers Program (Ghent, NY) in fall 2023.
 
She lives in Milan with her dog Artù and is represented by Elisa Beretta at The Italian Literary Agency.

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“L’unica persona nera nella stanza”

66thand2nd, 2021

La razza è un concetto difficile da cogliere, pur non avendo fondamenti biologici produce grossi effetti nei rapporti sociali, professionali e sentimentali. La razza in Italia non si palesa fino a quando tu non sei l’unica persona nera in una stanza di bianchi. E quell’unica persona è Bellamy, Mike, Blessy, David… una moltitudine in parte sommersa, sotterranea. Quell’unica persona è chi si è sentito dire troppe volte che «gli italiani neri non esistono»: lo gridano negli stadi, lo dice certa politica, sembrano confermarlo le serie tv, la letteratura, i media.
In un certo senso è persino vero: gli italiani neri non emergono, non si vedono negli ambienti della cultura, nei talk show e nelle liste elettorali. O meglio, in quei luoghi esistono ma solo come oggetto del discorso, quasi mai come soggetto. La loro presenza è ridotta alla riforma della cittadinanza, ai casi di razzismo, all’«immigrazione fuori controllo», ai barconi, all’«integrazione».

Con un approccio inedito e un linguaggio fresco e «social», Nadeesha Uyangoda apre in questo libro, che incrocia saggio e memoir, un’onesta conversazione per comprendere meglio la dinamica razziale nel nostro paese.

Podcast

I created  Sulla Razza  in April 2020, a podcast written and co-hosted with Nathasha Fernando and Maria Mancuso. It is powered by Juventus Football Club and produced by Undermedia. Extra content is available on Vice Italia.

Sulla Razza  aims to translate into Italian words and expressions from the angloamerican culture, which we insist on applying to the Italian social context as well — for instance BAME, colourism and fair skin privilege. Sulla Razza is a conversation about race in Italy and it wants to provide non-white Italians with words to narrate their own experiences as minorities in the country. Words such as race, n-word or blackface have an impact on our lives. 

We need to take control over the language in order to control the conversation about us.

Where

you can find me: 

  • writing my weekly book review column on Internazionale
  • curating a section of BookPride‘s program.
  • working on the 2nd season of Sulla Razza 
  • trying to figure life out

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Why

not 


If you are curious about my work or you have any question, I might’ve already gotten into it at Ted X Milano or S/Confini. Or I may have talked about it at the European Parliament, NextGen – Festival of new generations, or in this talk with publisher and philosopher Maura Gancitano.

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For speaking engagements and similar inquiries,

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