In this presentation, Karen Vargas talks about her personal quest to find identity, ancestry and origins, highlighting her recent trip to Ghana where she attended the 400 Year Return, an international commemoration of the 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.

Karen has traveled the world over researching and learning about personal identity, painstakingly unearthing threads of her own genealogy, and the ancestry and migrations of enslaved Africans in the United States. She has traveled across the country and beyond and this year her research led her to Ghana, Africa where she participated in the 400 Year Return of Enslaved Africans. Karen explains, “People all over the world are searching for who they are, seeking that greater understanding of who they are and their heritage. I know where I have been, but I do not know where I am from.”

Karen will be joined in conversation by Zac Davis and Mary Flowers from the City of Seattle.