# Event Details - **Event Name**: We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe - **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 13 Nov, 2025 at 06:30 pm – Thu, 13 Nov, 2025 at 08:30 pm - **Event Description**: LOCATION: room 1600, SFU Harbour Centre FILM SCREENING AND Q&A WITH DIRECTOR FRED KUWORNU **RSVP full name and email to insthum@sfu.ca** We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the era’s most celebrated artists. How did they come to Europe? Why were they portrayed? Were they truly all servants or slaves? If the Black faces portrayed in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us? Directed by award-winning filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu and produced by Do The Right Films, this multilingual documentary takes viewers on an expansive journey through the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and France, offering a compelling reexamination of European art history and its cultural legacy. Featuring insights from leading scholars in Art History, Black Studies, and History, alongside Black activists and curators, the film provides a rich, layered perspective on a neglected chapter of European history. We Were Here has already attracted international attention, having been exhibited in the Central Pavilion curated by Adriano Pedrosa at the 60ᵗʰ International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which attracted 700,000 visitors. The documentary has received critical acclaim for its fresh, thought-provoking exploration of race, art, and identity in the Renaissance. ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker, curator and scholar based in New York. His work bridges past and present, the seen and unseen, exploring identity and race through historical remixing of archival materials. Kuwornu’s films have been exhibited at the 60th Venice Art Biennale in the Central Pavillion curated by Adriano Pedrosa (2024), museums and international film festivals. In 2025, Kuwornu was awarded the Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship for his innovative approach to early modern European history through the lens of the African diaspora. He also received the Dan David Prize, the worldʼs largest history award, in recognition of his career-long contributions to public history and cultural memory through audiovisual. He is currently developing a new video installation inspired by the Adinkra symbols of Ghana, exploring visual heritage as a speculative and connective language across Black diasporas. DIRECTOR’S PERSONAL STATEMENT “I was born and raised in Europe, yet throughout my school years, I never saw myself reflected in our history lessons. The only mention of Black people came in the context of the slave trade, and when we studied the Renaissance, there were no stories or images of African descent in our textbooks. Discussions about Black people in the 15th and 16th centuries typically focus solely on their condition as enslaved individuals, overlooking the remarkable figures who lived in Europe during that time. This film aims to empower the Black diaspora by highlighting their presence as an integral part of Renaissance Europe’s societal fabric. It seeks to address the gaps in our historical education and challenge the narrow narrative that has long shaped our understanding of this period. Black life was omnipresent, yet the narrative that is selectively told remains problematic.” - Fred Kudjo Kuwornu TRAILER: https://youtu.be/wbOzEEep4bY - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/vancouver/we-were-here-the-untold-history-of-black-africans-in-renaissance-europe/200029190389447 - **Event Categories**: entertainment, art, sports, festivals, contests, exhibitions - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 8 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: http://facebook.com/200029190389447?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=vancouver-events ## Event venue details - **city**: Vancouver - **state**: BC - **country**: Canada - **location**: 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada, British Columbia V6B 5K3 - **lat**: 49.28427 - **long**: -123.11193 - **full address**: 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada, British Columbia V6B 5K3 ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 2 - **organizer**: Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University (https://allevents.in/org/institute-for-the-humanities-at-simon-fraser-university/24840854) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/7633c0ad56e789d139050dbc96343e82f70a236fe5b14f14d1b25399b336aa31-rimg-w1200-h682-dcf6d2a7-gmir?v=1763026487 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/6913554f3f4ab2c9683d5b6c779e96cc419fd837d8fb66c1c25cce7646d345a0-rimg-w300-h300-dcf8d1a5-gmir?v=1763026487 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Thu, 13 Nov, 2025 at 06:30 pm - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada, British Columbia V6B 5K3 - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** entertainment, art, sports, festivals, contests, exhibitions - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/7633c0ad56e789d139050dbc96343e82f70a236fe5b14f14d1b25399b336aa31-rimg-w1200-h682-dcf6d2a7-gmir?v=1763026487", "startDate": "2025-11-13", "endDate": "2025-11-13", "url": "https://allevents.in/vancouver/we-were-here-the-untold-history-of-black-africans-in-renaissance-europe/200029190389447", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada, British Columbia V6B 5K3", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "375 Richards St, Vancouver, BC V6B, Canada", "addressLocality": "Vancouver", "addressRegion": "BC", "addressCountry": "CA" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "49.28427", "longitude": "-123.11193" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "LOCATION: room 1600, SFU Harbour Centre\n\nFILM SCREENING AND Q&A WITH DIRECTOR FRED KUWORNU\n\n**RSVP full name and email to insthum@sfu.ca**\n\nWe Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissa", "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/institute-for-the-humanities-at-simon-fraser-university/24840854" } ] } ] ```