WLC's Winter Quarter Highlight

This past Winter Quarter, we were honored to celebrate Black History Month by hosting Fred Kuwornu for a screening of his film We Were Here. Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker, and scholar based in New York. His work bridges the past and present, exploring identity and race through the historical remixing of archival materials. Kuwornu's films have been exhibited at the 60th Venice Art Biennale (2024), the Museum of Moving Image (NY), the Library of Congress, and various international film festivals.

Kuwornu screened We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, which was exhibited in the Central Pavilion, directed by Adriano Pedrosa, at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. The film 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. The film raises important questions: How did they come to Europe? Were they truly all servants or enslaved people? If the Black faces in these Renaissance masterpieces could speak, what would they tell us?

Following the screening, Kuwornu hosted a Q&A-style lecture here at Cal Poly, where he engaged in important conversations with students. One student, Vito De Luca, noted that they thought the film “did an amazing job highlighting the presence of African people in Europe during the Renaissance, and how their involvement was of cultural importance in shaping our understanding of European religions.” Through this conversation, De Luca shared that they left with a “better perspective on the history of religion in Europe” and a greater understanding of how many different cultures impacted it.

For more information on Fred Kuwornu and his film We Were Here, please visit https://www.wewereherethefilm.com.