Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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16/07/2020

Events in London

Talks and discussions

No talks at the moment because all the talkers are Christmas shopping or on holiday. January talks will be listed as soon as Migrant Voice returns to work in early January.

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

March of the Hummingbirds, Aneesa Dawoojee documents the histories and cultures of the Caribbean and Mauritius, from £6 (access to three exhibitions), Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, SW3 4RY, until 5 January. Info: Hummingbirds

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

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 19 December; Ritzy 18 December; Hackney Picturehouse 19 December

+ 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, ICA, the Garden, until 19 December,

* No Other Land, a young Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist document the erasure of Masafer Yatta, the largest single act of forced transfer carried out in the occupied West Bank, Curzon Bloomsbury, 16, 18 December

* 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

* All We Imagine As Light, dramatic portrait of three women navigating life in Mumbai; Garden Cinema, until 19 December, ActOne; JW3; Vue Finchley Road 17, 19 December

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

* On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni’s second film is a fierce and darkly funny portrait of a woman’s strength in the face of crisis, Lexi until 19 December; Picturehouses Central, Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood

Tuesday 17 December

* Sarah Maldoror's Carnaval Trilogy looks at carnival and celebration after independence in West Africa in the 1980s + introduction by Alexandra Reza, 6.30pm, Barbican cinema 2

Tuesday 17 December

* Sarah Maldoror's Carnaval Trilogy looks at carnival and celebration after independence in West Africa in the 1980s + introduction by Alexandra Reza, 6.30pm, Barbican cinema 2

* 2073, unsettling commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow + Q&A with Asif Kapadia and journalist and author Carole Cadwalladr, 6pm, BFI Imax

Thursday 19 December

* Made in Ethiopia, when a massive Chinese factory complex attempts a high-stakes expansion in rural Ethiopia, three women in search of prosperity have their faith in industrialisation tested to the limit, Curzon Bloomsbury

+ China-African development: ‘Those who fall behind get trampled on’

from Friday 20 December

* Total Trust, the full extent of the surveillance state in China is revealed in this doc, which follows the stories of Chinese citizens who have been monitored, intimidated and manipulated by the state, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 26 December

* Hollywoodgate, Ibrahim Nash’at’ spends a year inside Afghanistan following the Taliban as they take possession of the arms cache left by the US and transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime, Curzon Bloomsbury until 24 December

from Sunday 22 December

* Bye Bye Tiberias, pieces together images of today, family footage from the 90s and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds, despite exile, dispossession, and heartbreak, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 28 December

from Friday 27 December

* Agent of Happiness, two census officials cross Bhutan meeting citizens to assess their happiness, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 1 January

from Saturday 28 December

* Four Daughters, exploration of the life of Tunisian mother Olfa and her four daughters, two of whom have gone missing, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 2 January

Performance

* Expendable, playwright Emteaz Hussain spotlights the often-overlooked voices of Pakistani women, delving into the shortcomings of law enforcement, politicians, and the media when hundreds of young girls were sexually exploited in northern towns by gangs of predatory men, £15 - £26, Royal Court, Sloane Square until 21 December. Info: Royal Court

from Wednesday 8 January

* 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

from Thursday 9 January

* 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

* 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.