This roundtable discussion about African American intellectuals, actors, and musicians in Rome in the postwar period will feature a video interview with the late William Demby, a writer, art critic, translator, actor, and journalist. Demby first arrived in Rome in 1943 as part of the Allied invasion of Italy. He returned in 1947 and quickly became a prominent figure in cultural circles after the publication of his first book Beetlecreek in 1950. His experimental novel The Catacombs (1965) subtly explores the subjectivity of an African American intellectual in an international context. A friend to artists and a translator (and occasional actor) at Cinecittà, Demby was as adept at writing about the postcolonial situation in the Horn of Africa, as he was collaborating with Fellini or explaining the work of artists such as Francesco Lo Savio and Mario Schifano.

Following the screening of excerpts from a video interview with William Demby, conducted by cofounder and director of “Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival” in Florence Silvia Lucchesi in 2004, the art historian and critic Christian Caliandro will conduct a discussion about the community of African Americans who made a major mark in postwar Rome.