Events in London
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Talks and discussions
* London Literature Festival, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, until 3 November. Programme includes 30 October, Black Arsenal, Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Matthew Harle, Lola Young, 7.45pm, from £15; 31 October, Ekow Eshun: The Strangers, five extraordinary Black men. Info: Festival
Monday 28 October
* Global health and colonial history, Alex Mold, 5.30-6.30pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, WC1E 7HT. Info: LSHTM
Tuesday 29 October
* The most unequal region in the world, Valentina Contreras, Julián Messina, Sebastián Nieto Parra, Andrés Velasco, 6.30-8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
Wednesday 30 October
* Hopes for democratic governance: What has changed?, Shandana Khan Mohmand, Marjoke Oosterom, Mick Moore, Hamid Khallafalla, 1-2.23pm. Info: Institute of Development Studies
Thursday 31 October
* Day of Action against extortionate visa fees, online rally, from 6pm. Info: Migrant Voice
* Mpox: vaccines to the rescue?, David Heymann, Chioma Achi, Jimmy Whitworth, 5.30-7pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, WC1E 7HT. Info: LSHTM
* Ending the fossil fuel era: how we win a just transition, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Irene Vélez Torres, Izzie McIntosh, 7-8.45pm, NEU, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9BD. Info: Global Justice Now
* Day of reflection and commemoration of the November 1984 massacres of Sikhs and honour the victims of genocide, Jassa Ahluwalia, Shyam Bhatia, Uma Chakravarti, Harvinder Singh Phoolka, Gurharpal Singh, Jasvir Singh, Pav Singh, Sanjay Suri, 5pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1. Info: SOAS
* Stand Together As One: The Famine, The Music, The Impact, screening and discussion featuring the final TV interview with artist-activist Harry Belafonte, the final television interview with We Are The World organiser Ken Kragen, and unseen footage of the 1983 Ethiopian famine, 7 - 9pm, £16.96-£6.13, Frontline Club, Norfolk Place, W2. Info: Eventbrite
* The Time-travelling Economist: Why education, electricity and fertility are key to escaping poverty, Charlie Robertson, 5pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1
Saturday 2 November
* National Demonstration for Palestine, 12-4:30pm. Info: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Monday 4 November
* A War Like No Other: Challenges and Change in Reporting Gaza, Jim Muir, 6.30-8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
* For a gender-just transition: advancing gender-responsive climate action at COP29, Ambassador Bitange Ndemo, Chido Nyaruwata, Elena Ruiz, Annika Flensburg, 4-5.30pm, online. Info: Overseas Development Institute
* The World In Crisis, Miguel de Beistegui, Demetra Kasimis, Jonathan White, 6.30-8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
* Why Taiwan is important in global and Indo-Pacific regional peace and security, Hung-mao Tien, 2-3.30pm, SOAS, Senate House, Thornhaugh Street, WC1.
Exhibitions
* Silk Roads, outstanding fresh look at east-west trade, cultural and intellectual routes in the period AD55-AD1000, £22-£25, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1 until 23 February. Info: Exhibition
+ ‘Made in Syria, buried in Essex’: Silk Roads busts its blocks
* A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang, step into a once bustling town on the Silk Road to meet the people who lived, travelled through, worked and worshipped there, British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW! until 23 February. Info: British Library
+ A voice from the Silk Roads: ‘I would rather be a pig’s wife than yours’
* Zanele Muholi, more than 280 photographs by the South African “visual activist” of her country’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities, including self-portraits, £18, Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG, until 26 January. Info: Tate
+ Black LGBTQIA+ lives matter, shout Zanele Muholi’s photos
* Hew Locke: What Have We Here?, Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke turns his lens on the British Museum collection in a collaborative exhibition exploring histories of British imperial power, adults from £12, under-16s free, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1, until 9 February. Info: British Museum
+ ‘It’s as if Amazon had their own army today’
* Grace, Alvaro Barrington’s “reimagining of Black culture and aspirational attitude under foreign conditions … explores how my grandmother, my mother, and my sister in the British Caribbean community showed up gracefully,” free, Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG until 26 January. Info: Grace
* The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained, display about the bitter-tasting fruit that has been important in West African culture and trade since at least the 11th century features stories about its entangled global histories, vibrant traditions, and new innovations, Wellcome Foundation, 183 Euston Road, NW1 until 2 February. Info: Wellcome Collection
* 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
* Inspiration Africa: Stories Beyond the Artifacts, exploration of V&A galleries through the lens of African heritage. Free, every second Saturday of the month, V&A museum, Cromwell Avenue, SW7. V&A tour
* Collecting and Empire, trail making connections between archaeology, anthropology and the British Empire. British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG.
* British Library, installation of 6,328 books celebrates the ongoing contributions made by immigrants to Britain. Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG.
* 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 the Gold Coast in 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
* All Our Stories: Migration and the Making of Britain, the centrality of migration to British life, free, Thursdays-Saturdays, Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre, SE13 7HB, until December 2025. Info: Museum
* Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights, stories of under-represented workers and their rights within precarious and unsafe labour environments, free, Wellcome Centre, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 27 April. Info: Wellcome
+ Working yourself into the ground
* Turner Prize 2024, Pio Abad’s exploration of cultural loss and colonial histories, often reflecting on his upbringing in the Philippines; Claudette Johnson’s figurative portraits of Black women and men; Jasleen Kaur, a Glasgow Sikh, brings her sculptures of everyday objects to life using unique sound compositions; Delaine Le Bas draws on the cultural history of the Roma people, focusing on themes of death, loss, and renewal; £14/ concessions available, Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG until 16 February. Info: Tate Britain
* Art of Palestine: from the river to the sea, showcase that aims to share the culture, heritage, and struggles of the Palestinian people through artistic expressions, P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD, until 21 December. Info: P21
* Belongings, installation by Susan Aldworth featuring the imagined contents of the suitcase her grandmother brought when she migrated from northern Italy to London in 1924, King’s College, Bush House Arcade, WC2B 4PJ until 8 November. Info: King’s College
* The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975–1998, group exhibition by over 30 Indian artists, bookended by two transformative events: Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, £20, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS until 5 January, free. Info: Barbican
* Haegue Yang: Leap Year, South Korean artist’s inventive, immersive, multisensory installations and sculptures weaving connections between disparate histories, cultures and traditions, from £19, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, until 5 January. Info: Hayward
* Huang Po-Chih: Waves, the Taiwan-born artist focuses on the macroscopic backdrop of trade and exchange, free, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, until 5 January. Info: Gallery
* Mire Lee, born in South Korea and living and working between Amsterdam and Seoul, her visceral sculptures use kinetic, mechanised elements to invoke the tension between soft forms and rigid systems, Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG until 18 March. Info: Tate Modern
* Umseme Uyakhuluma: a Celestial Conversation, work by a women’s artistic collective inspired by ancient forms of communication in Africa, Third Floor, 91a Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY. until 7 December. Info: Gallery
* Esther Mahlangu: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, brightly coloured geometric paintings rooted in South African Ndebele culture, free, Serpentine North, until 28 September 2025. Info: Serpentine
Film
* Dahomey, documentary on the return of 26 royal treasures from France to their rightful home in Benin; Curzons Bloomsbury, Camden, Wimbledon, Ealing; Picturehouses Ealing, Hackney, Ritzy; Castle until 31 October; Garden cinema, Cine Lumiere, until 7 November; 30 October: Vues Eltham, Finchley Road, Fulham Broadway, Islington, North Finchley, Piccadilly, Shepherd’s Bush, West End, Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City, Wood Green
+ The talking statue at the heart of Africa’s cultural restoration debate
* Emilia Perez, musical crime comedy about a lawyer who gets an offer from a cartel boss to help fake her death and transition into living as a woman, Picturehouses Central, Clapham, Crouch End, Ealing, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Gate, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood; Curzons Camden, Hoxton, Soho, Victoria, Wimbledon
* The Last of the Sea Women, documentary about the divers of South Korea’s Jeju Island who are renowned for centuries of diving to the ocean floor – without oxygen – to harvest seafood for their livelihood, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 31 October
* The Teacher, a Palestinian teacher struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with the chance of a relationship with volunteer worker and his role as father figure to a student, Garden cinema until 29 Oct
* Rewriting the Rules, Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970, 23 Oct, 27 Down, a young man’s life is irrevocably altered by a train journey from Bombay to Varanasi; 2 Nov, The Circus Tent, the lives of a circus troupe; 7 Nov, Duvidha, a ghost falls in love with a bride; 13 Nov, India Cabaret + Maid Servant, double bill on women’s rights; 1 Dec, Report To Mother, road movie set in ‘80s Kerala; 4 Dec, In The Name Of God, provocative documentary; 12 Dec, Alley of Ill repute, India’s first queer film; £13, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, until 12 December. Info: Barbican
* Film Africa 2024, programme (in which one-third of the films are directed by women) includes Dahomey, documentary shows the return of 26 royal treasures from a museum in France to their rightful home in Benin; Black Tea, an Ivorian woman embarks on an odyssey to China, where she finds unexpected love; Mambar Pierrette, a seamstress in Cameroon struggles to support her children and mother; After the Long Rains, coming-of-age story that follows a 10--year-old Kenyan who dreams of becoming an actress, befriending a fisherman to get a job on a boat so she can sail to Europe; Everybody Loves Touda, a single mother performs in dingy bars to make ends meet but longs to become a traditional Moroccan singer and dancer to give her deaf-and-mute son a better life; The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos, a young mother from a waterfront slum stumbles on a hoard of corrupt blood money; Black Corporeal (Breathing by Numbers) highlights the impact of air pollution in inner-city London and features the voice of campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, whose 9-year-old daughter Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death; Nyame Mma, a young man returns home after his father’s sudden death, offering a perspective on how isolating grief can be for queer African men; Black People Don’t Get Depressed, the filmmaker faces her depression head-on, addressing the stigma of mental illness in Black and African communities. Info: https://royalafricansociety.org/event/film-africa-2024/
+ The Douala seamstress who’s the real action hero
+ The talking statue at the heart of Africa’s cultural restoration debate
* Echoes In Time: Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, two-month season offering an introduction to Korean cinema through 30 essential films, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, until 31 December. Info: Korean season
Tuesday 29 October
* Mother City, follows the David versus Goliath battle as activists and domestic workers take on property power and politics in Cape Town – a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid 30 years into democracy + Q&A with co-director Pearlie Joubert and human rights lawyer Mandisa Lusanda Shandu, Curzon Bloomsbury
Thursday 31 October
* Stand Together As One: The Famine, The Music, The Impact, screening and discussion featuring the final TV interview with artist-activist Harry Belafonte, the final television interview with We Are The World organiser Ken Kragen, and unseen footage of the 1983 Ethiopian famine, 7 - 9pm, £16.96- £6.13, Frontline Club, Norfolk Place, W2. Info: Eventbrite
from Friday 1 November
* London Korean Film Festival, the largest Korean film festival outside Korea showcases a variety of films, ranging from new releases to independents to special strands, including Women’s Voices, celebrating 15 years of Korean female directors, BFI Southbank until 13 November. Info: BFI
Saturday 2 November
* Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy + Palestine Is Still the Issue, dispossession lies at the heart of this double bill of documentaries by John Pilger, which centres on the unequal relationships between those in occupied states, 3pm, £11.70/£13.50, BFI Southbank. (John Pilger and the Power of Democracy season)
Sunday 3 November
* Miriam Miente, a biracial 14-year-old struggling with questions of identity and acceptance does not know how to explain to her family that her boyfriend is black, in this delicate drama from the Dominican Republic + Q&A with filmmaker Natalia Cabral, 3pm, £12.50, Rich Mix
Monday 4 November
* Milisuthsando, artist-turned-filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela's intensely personal essay traces her childhood in South Africa during apartheid - though she didn't know it was happening until it was over, 6.30pm, Lexi
+ The shock of learning that your life has been cooked in a soup of propaganda’
Performance
* King Troll (The Fawn), “dark and otherworldly thriller about two South Asian sisters, desperate to escape the border regime without losing their humanity. A dystopian exploration of migrant experiences in all their complexity”, New Diorama Theatre, £3-£22, 15 - 16 Triton Street, Regent’s Place, NW1 3BF, until 2 November. Info: New Diorama
* Statues, days after his father's death, English teacher Yusuf discovers a dusty mixtape that changes everything he knew about a man who barely spoke. Turns out, Mustafa spent the ‘90s rapping about pretty girls and Kilburn life, plotting dreams of superstardom with his best friend Omar. How did this passionate wordsmith become a silent statue?, from £15 (concessions available), Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 9 November. Info: Bush Theatre
+ That, for a modern British Pakistani Hamlet, is the question
+ 28 Oct, Post-show discussion: Meet the artists, after evening show
* Mulatto Boy, Huvi’s always seen himself as a member of the three lions but unfortunately not everyone else feels the same way: a one-man show that asks what it is to be Black, Mixed Race and British and who gets to decide what we are, £16/£18, Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common Northside, SW4 0QW, until 3 November. Info: Omnibus
* The Buddha of Suburbia, south London in the late ‘70s. High unemployment, high inflation, food shortages and strikes. But despite the winter of discontent, 17-year-old Karim’s life is about to explode into glorious technicolour as he navigates a path to enlightenment. Or at the very least, Beckenham. Based on Hanif Kureishi’s award-winning 1990 novel, exploring family, friends, sex, theatre and, ultimately, belonging, from £25, Barbican, Silk Street, Y8DS until 16 November. Info: Barbican
* Wish You Were Here, five women exchange dreams whilst planning their lives, but as unrest in Iran grows, wedding songs are replaced by sirens and protests break out across the country, futures become uncertain and friendship is threatened as hard choices and emigration pull them apart, £5-£24, Gate Theatre, 38 Mayton Street, N7 6QR, until 23 November. Info: Gate
+ Ticket gives free admission to three playlets by British-Iranian writers: 8 Nov, Maids, by Jasmin Mandi-Ghomi; 15 Nov, Between Beats and Hearts, by Melina Namdar; 22 Nov, The Veil, by Afsaneh Grey
* Women Who Blow On Knots, four women on a road trip from Tunisia through Libya and Egypt to Lebanon, in Leyla Nazli’s adaptation of Ece Temelkuran’s novel, £30-£12, Arcola Theatre, Ashwin Street, E8 3DL, until 23 November. Info: Arcola
* White Rabbit Red Rabbit, “forbidden to leave his country, playwright Nassim Soleimanpour distilled the experience of a generation in a wild, utterly original play … as much about contemporary Iran as it is about power dynamics in the rest of the world”, 4 Soho Placer, W!D 3GB, until 9 November. Info: Soho Place
* Open Research Week: Roger Casement in the Amazon, a week of exploration into the making process of a new performance with theatre-maker Mark Maughan, 28 Oct, Context & Perspectives, readings from Casement’s diaries and testimonies from the Bora, Huitoto, Muinane, and Okaina nations; 29 Oct, Theatre & (In)justice, moments from Casement’s 1912 trial + discussions with experts in justice and human rights; 30 Oct, Representation & Interpretation, Maughan and filmmakers from the Amazon explore the ethics of re-telling and representing real stories on stage; 1 November, reflection and look-ahead to next steps. Free, Battersea Arts Centre, 1 Lavender Hill, SW11. Info: BAC
* Valchera's, explores the themes of emigration from the often forgotten perspective of women, £16.50/ £12.50, The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH until 2 November. Info: Valchera’s
* Soliloquio (I woke up and hit my head against a wall), procession, followed by Tiziano Cruz’s performance exorcising centuries of injustice, in Spanish with English subtitles, 7pm, pay what you can, Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN, until 2 November.
from Monday 4 November
* Voila Theatre Festival, multi-venue, panlingual festival, from £8. Programme includes 7 November, conference on Theatre’s Social and Political Responsibility, £34-£50; 12-13 November, Ludo, bilingual one-woman show telling the (sur)real life story of Ludovica "Ludo" Fernandes Mano, exploring themes of survival, post-colonialism, language-culture, and the human spirit's capacity to endure. Playground Theatre, 8 Latimer Road, W10 6RQ, until 24 November. Info: Playground
* Drum, photographer James Barnor encounters broadcaster Mike Eghan for the first time at the BBC in London. Thrown together far from home, two rising Ghanaian creatives navigate their perception of identity, success, assimilation and home, from £15, The Pleasance, Carpenters Mews, North Road, N7 9EF until 6 November. Info: The Pleasance
TV and radio
Saturday 26 October
* The Year We Lost the Climate, 8pm, Radio 4
Sunday 27 October
* The Coffee Trail With Simon Reeve, travel documentary, 7pm, BBC2
* Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, inquiry into human rights, 10.15pm, ITV1
* Singing in Gaza, lessons continue amidst the fighting, 1.30pm, Radio 4
Monday 28 October
* Mr Loverman, charming Antigua-born UK resident Barry is hiding a secret - but it’s not what his wife suspects, in this adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s story about being true to yourself, 9pm, BBC 1
* Singing in Gaza, lessons continue amidst the fighting, 1.30pm, Radio 4
Tuesday 29 October
* On Assignment, Ghana, Gaza and Mongolia, 10.45pm, ITV1
Wednesday 30 October
* Helmand: Tour of Duty, intense documentary about the Welsh Guards in Afghanistan, 9pm, BBC 2
* The Conflict: Middle East, discussion, 9.30pm, Radio 4
Friday 1 November
* Central Intelligence, play about political maneuvering in Iran, 2.15pm, Radio 4
Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.