Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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14/04/2025

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Tuesday 27 May

* Orwell and Propaganda, A New Age?, Kim Darroch, 7pm, from £6.13, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* A Humanist Foreign Policy for a Multipolar World, Ambassador Antonio Patriota on his new book, 3-4pm, online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Wednesday 28 May

* “I hope soon to get into a hospital”: Recruiting Jewish refugees into the BBritish nursing profession, Jane Brooks, 6.30-8pm, The Wiener Holocaust Library, WC1B 5DP. Info: Holocaust Library

* Palestine: Repair & Return - Stories of Hunger and Anger, Palestinian testimonies in Gaza and the West Bank with Ruth Lass, Jamal Al Rozzi and Hossam Madhoun, 6.30-8.30pm, in person and online, P21, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD. Info: P21

* Two Worlds films: online launch, new series of short films about pharma companies that put profit before health – and the people fighting to make medicines accessible to all + Sibongile Tshabalala, Bill Muriuki, Laura Castro, Tim Bierley, 6:30- 8pm online. Info: Global Justice Now

* New Romani Writing: Damian Le Bas, Karen Downs-Barton, Madeline Potter, 7pm, Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, £10/£7. Info: Foyles

* Power for the People – The Right to Clean, Affordable Energy, webinar with Chris Hayes, Seb Muñoz, Lala Peñaranda from Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, Colombia, and Lazarus Tamana from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Nigeria, 6pm. Info: War on Want

Thursday 29 May

* Hope, war and betrayal of an Afghan generation, Sune Engel Rasmussen on his new book, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Elite conflict, colonialism and democracy in the Middle East, Mohamed Saleh, 6-7.30pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2.

* Human Rights in Today’s World, Shami Chakrabarti, 6.15pm, £16.90, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street, WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit

Saturday 31 May

* Latin American Ingredients: Connecting Communities Through Food, Camila Marcías, Sara Castaneda, Laura Hoyos on how desserts forged a connection between Latin America and Europe, 11.15am, £6, British Library, Euston Road, NW1, part of the British Library Food Season Big Weekend. Info: British Library

* Festival of Black History, workshops on preserving and researching family and community histories, talks, art, and film screenings. A new play, Anatomy of a Black Rebellion, will close the festival, free, Goldsmiths, 8 Lewisham Way, SE14 6NW. Info: Festival

Tuesday 3 June

* ESEA Lit Fest summer party, A.Y. Chao, Tuyền Đỗ, Dani Heywood-Lonsdale, Callie Kazumi, Pyae Moe Thet, 6-9pm, £10, Hachette UK, 50 Victoria Embankment, EC4Y 0DZ. Info: Party

* Who is presumed guilty? Amnesty International UK keynote on predictive policing, Prevent and protest clampdowns, Ilyas Nagdee,10.30am-12, City Lit, Keeley Street, WC2B 4BA. Info: Amnesty

Exhibitions

* Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict, exhibits include sexual slavery of ‘Comfort Women Corps’ in World War Two and of Yazidi women and girls by ISIS in 2014, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road SE1 6HZ until 2 November. Info: War Museum

* Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times In An Instant), Mexican artist Teresa Margolles’ cuboid on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is a memorial to trans people worldwide

* Jose Maria Valasco: A View of Mexico, first UK show of work by the Mexican artist, from £12, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN until 17 August. Info: Gallery

* Ancient India: living traditions, the origins of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist sacred art in the nature spirits of ancient India – and how they live on 2,000 years later, from £16, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG until 19 October. Info: Museum

+ Starring role for snakes in Ancient India exhibition

* Collecting and Empire, trail making connections between archaeology, anthropology and the British Empire, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1. Info: British Museum

* British Library, installation of 6,328 books marks the contributions of migrants to UK, Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1. Info: Installation/ 7887 8888

* Between Two Worlds: Vanley Burke and Francis Williams, two Jamaican scholars’ portraits, shedding light on a 1745 painting, identity and colonial legacies, free, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7. Info: Exhibition

* Inspiration Africa: Stories Beyond the Artifacts, exploration of V&A galleries through the lens of African heritage, free, second Saturday of every month, V&A, Cromwell Road, SW7. Info: V&A

* African Deeds, showcases a collection that includes diaries, cassette interviews, videos, photos and documents of three generations of family history, inspired by grandfather Thomas’ land title deeds brought from West Africa in 1901, Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square, SW2 1EF. Info: BCA

* Target Queen, large-scale commission by British-Indian artist Bharti Kher, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre

* Esther Mahlangu: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, brightly coloured geometric paintings rooted in South African Ndebele culture, free, Serpentine North, until 28 September. Info: Serpentine

* Women of the World Unite: the United Nations decade for women and transnational feminisms 1975 to now, Celebrate International Women’s Day weekend with a discussion of the representation of Black women in All About Love. London School of Economics Library, Houghton Street, WC2 until 22 August. Info: LSE

* Making Egypt, exploring ancient Egypt's creativity and how it continues to influence art, design and popular culture today, £10, Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA. Info: V&A

* Deutsche Borse Foundation Photography Prize, shortlist includes work by Lindokhule Sobekwa on poverty and long effects of apartheid in South Africa, and Tarah Krajnak, Peru, £10/£7, Photographers Gallery, Ramillies Street, W1, until 15 June. Info: Gallery

* Planetary Portals: I am in your dreams, but you are not in mine, weaves together the environmental landscapes of 19th-century mining of gold and diamonds in South Africa with the scripting process of AI, £10/£7, Photographers Gallery, Ramillies Street, W1, until 15 June. Info: Gallery

* Arpita Singh: Remembering, her first solo exhibition outside India, she draws from Bengali folk art and Indian stories, interwoven with experiences of social upheaval and global conflict, free, Serpentine North, until 27 July

* '(Un)Layering the Future Past of South Asia: Young Artists’ Voices, 26 emerging artists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal look at the history, memory, and identity of South Asia through a decolonial lens, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1 until 21 June. Info: SOAS

* Eileen Perrier: A Thousand Small Stories and Dianne Minnicucci: Belonging and Beyond, free, Autograph, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA, until 13 September. Info: Rivington Place

* Art of the Palestinian Poster, exhibition by artists who began Palestinian modern art – Vera Tamari, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, and Nabil Anani – alongside contemporary artists such as Gazan Hazem Harb, Khaled El Haber and Haneen Nazzal, P21, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD until 13 June. Info: www.p21.gallery

Film

* An Unfinished Film, in January 2020 a film crew reunites near Wuhan to resume the shooting of a film halted 10 years earlier, only to share the unexpected challenges as cities are placed under lockdown, Odeon Luxe Haymarket, ICA; until 27 May, Curzon Bloomsbury + 26, 27 May;

* In Focus: Fatimeh Motamed-Arya, eight films featuring the award-winning Iranian film and stage actress , ICA, until 1 June. Info: ICA

* Abbas Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy, Kiarostami’s series of films set in a rural northern Iranian town, Garden cinema + 29 May, 5 June

* Fashion in Film Festival, programme includes 28 May, The Magino Village Story: Raising Silkworms; Barbican Centre, until 30 May

* Mongrel, an undocumented Thai immigrant working in Taiwan as a caregiver to the elderly and disabled in the face of enduring hardship must choose between survival and dignity, ICA until 29 May

* Caught By The Tides, In an industrial city in northeastern China, Qiaoqiao makes a small living as a singer and nightclub dancer. When her lover leaves, she begins a year’s search that spans the whole nation, ICA + 1, 4 June

Performance

* Insane Asylum Seekers, a British-Iraqi playwright and screenwriter who is also the founder of the British-Arab Writers Group, a collective of over 200 British-Arab writers, explores the complexities of the British-Iraqi refugee experience; previews £15, from 14 May £20, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road W12 8LJ until 7 June. Info: Bush

+ Brilliant British story about asylum - and OCD

* Little Brother, the true story of Ibrahima Balde's journey from West Africa to Europe in an attempt to find his missing brother, £20-£35, Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6ST until 21 June. Info; Jermyn Street Theatre

+ 5 June, Royal Society of Literature post-show conversation, Gabriel Gbadamosi and Timberlake Wertenbaker, free

+ A story, and a life, that’s not easy to tell

* Elephant, delightful exploration of identity, part gig, part musical love story, part journey through Empire, £44.50-£35, Menier Chocolate Factory, 4 O'Meara Street, SE1 1TE, until 15 June. Info: Menier

+ Race, the elephant in the room

* The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, scandalous, engrossing tale of sexual politics and family strife in modern-day Nigeria, adapted from Lola Shoneyin’s novel, £12-£39, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DKL until 31 May. Info: Arcola

* Marriage Material, sweeping family portrait based around The Bains’ corner shop in Wolverhampton that has been at the centre of the family for three generations, by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti from the novel by Sathnam Sanghera, from £10, The Lyric, Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL until 21 June. Info: Lyric

* Shubbak Festival, the UK’s largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab arts and culture, theatre, performance, music, visual arts, literature, talks & workshops, family, experimental, fashion, “with an insistence on art in the face of crisis”, until 15 June. Programme includes until 31 May, Peace De Resistance, comedy; until 2 June, PalArts Fest x Shubbak, programme of Palestinian theatre featuring works such as Application 39 and Return to Palestine; 27 May-3 June, Gaza Remains The Story, multimedia exhibition; 28 May-1 June, Return to Palestine, stories from refugee camps; 12 June, Talks to Reframe the Arab world; 13, 14, 17 June, Language: No Problem, multilingualism in the face of oppression.

+ Shubbak returns

Friday 30 May

* Hackney Comedy Experience With Sindhu Vee, plus Ester Manito, Felicity Ward, Andrew White, 7pm, from £26.48, EartH, 11 Stoke Newington Road, N16 8BH. Info: EartH

from Friday 30 May

* Permission, leaping between a Heathrow immigration line and a rooftop in Karachi, two friends navigate their changing friendship in a play that questions the trope of ‘the oppressed Muslim woman’ and its link to patriarchy, protest and the global political order, £25-£20, Tara Theatre, 356 Garratt Lane, SW18 4ES until 7 June. Info: Tara

* Miss Myrtle’s Garden, five characters from different backgrounds interact in the garden of an elderly, first-generation Jamaican woman with dementia, £10-£35, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 12 July. Info: Bush

Saturday 31 May

TV and radio

Sunday 25 May

* Desert Island Discs, writer Abdulrazak Gurnah picks records and talks about his life,10am, Radio4

Monday 26 May

* Amazon: Earth’s Great Rivers, documentary, 7pm, BBC2