photo: Haben Solomon/UR

Krull magazine is waiting impatiently for the launch of Melanin!

UR:s new TV-series Melanin is the first Swedish youth program that focuses on young Afro-Swedes’ everyday life in Sweden today.  Created from an Afro-Swedish perspective, Melanin’s aim is to give viewers the tools to recognize and challenge racism. In the series, young people will talk about their reality in episodes focused on different themes such as media, love, identity and beauty. Media is supposed to reflect the world we live in, but what happens when that reflection doesn’t represent the reality for many Swedes?

When I grew up I could never identify with anyone on TV or in magazines. I was constantly fed the message that “normal” is blond, skinny – and white – and of course that warped my self-reflection in a not so positive way. I wish a program like Melanin would have been around when I was 14, says Aida Wondimu, element producer and reporter for UR:s Melanin.

Melanin is made up of six 15-minute long episodes and can be streamed on UR Play or watched on SVT1 at 11PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting Tuesday November 29th.

Melanin invites well-known Swedes to share their reality and thoughts on for example identity and representation. We meet people such as filmmaker Baker Karim, model Roger Dupé, artists Sherihan ”Cherrie” Hersi, Abiel Abidaz and Ison Glasgow and Swedish Minister of Culture Alice Bah Kuhnke.

Azaa Ahmed Ali and Aida Wondimu, members of the editorial staff for UR’s tv series Melanin. © photo: Johan Bergmark/UR

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