Who is John Blanke?

Hastings Book Festival is delighted to welcome Michael Ohajuru, the Project Director of the John Blanke Project, a contemporary archive celebrating John Blanke, the black trumpeter to the court of Henry VII and Henry VIII now in the National Portrait Gallery and the first known person of African descent in British history for whom we have an image and documented record.

Dr Ohajuru will be introducing the work of the project, which explores how one man’s presence challenges and enriches our understanding of Tudor England, race and representation, offering a powerful platform for dialogue across art, history and identity. It also reflects on how brief, incomplete biographies like Blanke’s can inspire historians and artists to reimagine overlooked lives and connect them to our own, completing the circle that makes history real, relevant and resonant today.