Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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16/07/2020

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Monday 20 January

* Amplifying women's voices in family planning in francophone West Africa, Nour Horanieh, Thais Gonzalez-Capella, Eloisa Montt-Maray, Marieme Fall, Manuela Reveiz, 3-4.15pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, WC1. Info: LSHTM

Tuesday 21 January

* Capitalism in an Age of Conflict, Emma Nelson, Charles Hecker. Marta Lorimer. Simon Bergman, Tanya Costello, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Eventbrite

* World Briefing: Trump, Conflicts and the Economy, Robert Fox, Isa Soares, Ben Bland, Bianca Nobilo, Ravi Mattu, 6.15 – 7.30pm, £16.80-£6.50, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street WC2H 9JA, in-person or online. Info: On Frontline

* Harm and need in armed conflict: what to expect from law, policy and practice in 2025?, Andrew Bartles-Smith, Emiliano Buis, Ioana Cismas, Gemma Davies, Katharine Fortin, Helen Kinsella, Nathalie Weizmann, Shelly Whitman, 5.30-7pm, Overseas Development Institute, 203 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NJ.. Info: ODI

Wednesday 22 January

* A new vision for leadership: Collective action to tackle the crises of today and tomorrow, Flemming Konradsen, Tom Fletcher, Vilas Dhar, Kiki Del Valle, Nonkululeko Nyembezi, 3pm, online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Thursday 23 January

* Complicity - From Corporate Slavery Restitution to Repatriation of the Benin Bronzes, Deadria Farmer Paellmann, 5.30pm, Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square, SW2 1EF. Info: BCA

* Blended finance’s broken promise and how to fix it, Leila Fourie, Jon Johnsen, Hayashi Nobumitsu, Odile Françoise Renaud-Basso, 1.15-2pm, online. Info: ODI

Saturday 24 JJanuary

* Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: ‘Create a better future’ with JW3, 10.30am-12, in-person and online, JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, WC1B 5DP. Info: Holocaust Library

Sunday 26 January

* Ethical Matters: Seeing Truth in Museums, explores how artists and indigenous knowledge holders navigate power structures in museums (and beyond) to tell truth about colonial legacies in collections, and associated intergenerational trauma, and to advocate for processes of reconnection and reparation, 3-4.30pm, in-person and online, £7-£10, Conway Hall, Red Lion Street, WC1R 4RL. Also see: Exhibitions. Info: Conway Hall

Monday 27 January

* Children in Post-Conflict Iraq, Aaron Weintraub, Sangar Khaleel, Awadh Al-Taie, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Tuesday 28 January

* Recasting Development 2025, Aditya Alta, Felisa Anaya, Busiso Moyo, Stephen Devereux, Jing Gu, Lyla Mehta, Alex Shankland, 4.5.30pm, online. Info: Institute of Development Studies

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’

* As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, photographs from Africa and the diaspora in Canada, UK, US and The Caribbean, from £6 (access to three exhibitions), Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, SW3 4RY, until 20 January. Info: Black Atlantic

+ Every image contains some kind of magic

* 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

* Abi Morocco Photos: Spirit of Lagos, free, Autograph, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA, until 22 March. Info: Autograph

* 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

* 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

* Esther Mahlangu: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, brightly coloured geometric paintings rooted in South African Ndebele culture, free, Serpentine North, until 28 September 2025. Info: Serpentine

* Beware Blue Skies, immersive film installation about battle drones, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, until 16 March. Info: IWM

* The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, £22, V&A Museum, Cromwell Street, SW7 2RL, until 5 May. Info: V&A

* The 80s: Photographing Britain, includes work showing the Black arts movement and South Asian diaspora, Tate Britain, Millbank

SW1P 4RG until 5 May. Info: Tate

* I See the Same Sky, South African artist Justin Dingwall’s first UK solo exhibition, Doyal Whan, Third Floor, 91a Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY until 25 January. Info: Exhibition

from Saturday 25 January

* Seeing Truth In Museums, explores the colonial legacies of museum collections through a collaboration between British artist and historian Jane Wildgoose and Tasmanian Aboriginal artist Janice Ross, free, 11am-7pm daily, Conway Hall, Red Lion Street, WC1R 4RL until 2 February. Info: Exhibition

from Tuesday 28 January

* Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism, over 130 works by 10 artists from the 20th century, capturing the diversity of Brazilian art at the time, £23.50-£25.50, Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, until 21 April. Info: RA

Film

* Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, jazz and decolonisation are entwined in this historical rollercoaster of a documentary about the West’s murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, Curzon Bloomsbury 23 January; ICA 22 January

+ Congo, colonialism, Cold War conflict and all that jazz

* The Bibi Files, using previously unseen interrogation footage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his family, his associates and benefactors, the film uncovers high-level familial corruption and the disastrous lengths a political leader will go to escape accountability, Curzon Bloomsbury until 23 January

* How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, a family competes for a multimillion-dollar inheritance: Thailand's Oscar submission set attendance records across Southeast Asia and claimed the audience award at New York’s Asian Film Festival; Ealing Picturehouse, ICA

* All We Imagine as Light, drama about three women navigating life in Mumbai, ICA until 23 January, BFI Southbank, Curzon Bloomsbury

+ ‘Women are made to feel as if they’re against each other’: the hit Indian film that challenges the patriarchy

* Separated, one of the darkest chapters in recent US history: the policy of separating children from their parents at the US border, brought in by the Trump administration in 2017/8, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 23 January

* Echoes and Horizons: Contemporary Bolivian Cinema, 25 Jan, Echoes and Horizons: Puerto Escondido; 8, 9 Feb, Bomba animated shorts; 21 Feb, Chaco; Garden Cinema, until 21 February

* My Stolen Planet, using her own home movies, filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi reveals the dual existences lived by women in Iran, Curzon Bloomsbury until 23 January

* London Short Film Festival, Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA until 26 January. Info: The Programme

* Only The River Flows, a detective in a rural Chinese town finds himself in a dark world where mystery hangs over every lead, Whirled Cinema, 259-260 Hardess Street, SE24 OHN until 26 January. Info: Whirled Cinema

Wednesday 22 January

* Nargis: Reflections on Myanmar, fundraiser screening and discussion with Ko Banya from Stars of Myanmar Friendship UK and feminist activist/researcher and filmmaker Shun Lei; 6.20pm, £12.50, Curzon Bloomsbury

* Echoes of the Unseen, films from Taiwan and Mexico are included in this selection from the London Short Film Festival 2025 programme + Q&A, 8.45pm, £11.70-£13.50, BFI Southbank

from Friday 24 January

* Plastic People,author and science journalist Ziya Tong investigates the impact of microplastics on our health and the environment, Curzon Bloomsbury until 29 January

from Saturday 25 January

* K-Family Affairs, the recent political history of South Korea is interwoven with the family life of filmmaker Arum Nam, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 30 January

Performance

* Nine Nights, when Yasser decides to take part in itikaf, sleeping and fasting in the mosque for the last 10 nights of Ramadan, he soon regrets his decision. But as he navigates smug worshippers, shared bathrooms, and recurring thoughts of chunky chips, Yasser’s isolation forces him to confront a side of himself he’s been trying to keep hidden, Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline Street, W6 9BN until 26 January. Info: Riverside

* Kyoto, the nations of the world are in deadlock and 11 hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out and agreement feels a world away. The greatest obstacle: US oil lobbyist and master strategist, Don Pearlman…, from £25, Soho Place, 4 Soho Place, Charing Cross Road, W1D 3BG, until 3 May. Info: Soho Place

+ Kyoto turns climate change into an entertaining thriller

* The Lonely Londoners, 1950s London. Newly arrived from Trinidad, Henry ‘Sir Galahad’ Oliver is impatient to start his new life in London. Carrying just pyjamas and a toothbrush, he bursts through Moses Aloetta’s door only to find Moses and his friends already soured on city life. Will the London fog dampen Galahad’s dreams? Or will these Lonely Londoners make a home in a city that sees them as a threat?, Jermyn Street Theatre, 16B Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6ST until 22 January.

+ ‘What is it that we want that white people find it so hard to give?’

* A Good House, Amy Jephta’s satirical view of neighbourliness and the pressures that come with wanting to fit in, acting as a microcosm of community politics in South Africa, Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS until 8 February. Info: Royal Court

from Tuesday 21 January

* Santi & Naz are bestest-friends in a village in pre-partition India. One Sikh, the other Muslim; they have little understanding of how religion will divide them, £11-£22, Soho Theatre, Dean Street, W1, until 8 February. Info: Soho Theatre

Thursday 23 January

* First Drafts, pieces by Alisha Rahim & Alysha Nelson (Malaysia), Anita Brokmeier & Devaki Rajendran (Germany/ Poland & India), Francesca Matthys (South Africa), Linn Johansson (Sweden), Max Percy (Hong Kong) and Sol Santana (Brazil/ Switzerland) are inspired by the quote ‘The very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope’, 7pm, £5, New Diorama Theatre, 15 - 16 Triton Street, Regent’s Place, NW1 3BF. Info: New Diorama

Friday 24-Saturday 25 January

* Stand By Me!, drama that follows the lives of three Iranian women who meet during a protest against a controversial workplace law in Europe mandating prolonged standing; in Farsi with no subtitles, Theatro Tachnis, 26 Crowndale Road, NW1 1TT. Info: Technis

Saturday 25 January

* An Evening With Sir Lenny Henry, performing extracts from his solo play, August in England, about a Brummie greengrocer with the gift of the gab, whose world is turned upside down in the wake of the Windrush scandal; 8pm, from £80, in aid of the Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12. Info: Bush

+ Lenny Henry’s one-man Windrush play