The Black Italian Renaissance

Part of the series
Race, Migration, Italy

Screening
The Black Italian Renaissance: African Presence in Art
(Documentary, Italy, 2022, 90 min.)
In ENGLISH and ITALIAN with English subtitles

Directed by
Cristian Di Mattia

Written by
Francesca Priori

Followed by a panel discussion with:
Angelica Pesarini, University of Toronto
Ann Morning, NYU
Deborah Willis, NYU
Justin Randolph Thompson, artist

In ENGLISH

Blackness is not always immediately associated with Italian Renaissance history, but African people and people of African descent were integral parts of the Italian Renaissance. Their presence is attested to in Renaissance sculpture, painting, and archival records—hidden in plain sight. The documentary The Black Italian Renaissance: African Presence in Art (2022), written by journalist and screenwriter Francesca Priori and directed by filmmaker Cristian Di Mattia, seeks to uncover information about Black life in Renaissance Italy, asking: who were the African and Afro-descendant people depicted in Renaissance art? Where did they come from, and what were their experiences in Italy?

Trailer

About the speakers:

Angelica Pesarini is an Assistant Professor in Race and Cultural Studies/Race and Diaspora and Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Her work seeks to expand the field of Black Italia focusing on dynamics of race, gender, identity, and citizenship. Angelica is currently writing a book on the lived experience of Black “mixed race” Italian women during the (post)colonial fascist period in East Africa, and the use of oral sources as counter-narratives. As a scholar-activist, she is engaged in the Italian anti-racist movement.

Ann Morning is the Divisional Dean for Social Sciences, Vice Dean for Global and Strategic Initiatives, and James Weldon Johnson Professor of Sociology in New York University’s Faculty of Arts and Science. Her research focuses on race and the sociology of science, especially as they pertain to census classification worldwide and to individuals’ concepts of difference. She is the author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference (University of California Press 2011), An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States (with Marcello Maneri, Russell Sage 2022), and numerous articles.

Justin Randolph Thompson is an artist, cultural facilitator and educator based in Italy. He is Co-Founder and Director of Black History Month Florence and The Recovery Plan. Thompson is a recipient of a 2024 MAP Fund Grant, a 2022 Creative Capital Award, a 2020 Italian Council Research Fellowship and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award amongst others. His work and performances have been exhibited in institutions including The Whitney Museum of American Art and are part of collections including The Studio Museum in Harlem. His work grapples with cultural stratification in projects that connect academic discourse, social activism and DIY strategies.

Photographer and curator, Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is University Professor and chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch, New York University. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is the author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, among other books.

Race, Migration, Italy is a series of events (book discussions, theatrical performances, film screenings, lectures) sponsored by Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò in collaboration with NYU’s Department of Italian Studies. It aims to promote conversations on the intersections of race and migration in Italy and in Italian diasporic communities. moment. Conceived in connection with courses taught in the Department of Italian Studies, Race, Migration, Italy revisits the format launched by Casa Italiana’s Virtual Salons: Discourses on Black Italia, held virtually during the pandemic, by bringing together artists and scholars in order to address questions about race and racialization across Italian history and multifaceted geography.