Events in London

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Tuesday 22 April

* The role of evidence used in finance ministries in Latin America’s budget cycle and crisis response, Aura Martínez Oriol, José Angel Mejía, Juan Andrés Roeschmann, Marcela Numa Paez, Rafael Jovine, 3-5pm, online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

* Reducing the cost of capital in small vulnerable states, Emily Wilkinson, Anton Edmunds, Gail Hurley, Ian Durant, Henry Mooney, Ritu Bharadwaj, 4-6pm, online event from World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Wednesday 23 April
* Education for Sustainability and Global Citizenship, book launch with Namrata Sharma, 3-4.30pm, online. Info: Institute of Education

* The future of global humanitarian action, Jake Cusack, Freddie Carver, 8.30-10am, online, event from World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington. Info: Overseas Development Institute

* What’s next for global cooperation, Elizabeth Campbell, Sara Pantuliano, Nathalie Samarasinghe, 3.30-5pm, online, event from World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Thursday 24 April

* The War in the DRC, Mélanie Gouby, Zoe Marriage, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Pastoralism in the Sahel Today: Honouring the work of Jeremy Swift, Sara Pantuliano, Ced Hesse, Annabelle Powell, Alex de Waal, Ibrahim Ag Youssouf, Simon Maxwell, Ian Scoones, Luka Biong Deng Kuol, Saverio Krätli, Tchello Kasse, 5-6.30pm, Overseas Development Institute, 203 Blackfriars Road SE1 8NJ and online. Info: ODI

* Chagos Reclaimed, film and discussion with Ellianne Baptiste, Thierry Mandarin, Chrisyl Wong-Gang-Sun, Audrey Albert, 6-9pm, free, Africa Centre, 66 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL. Info: Africa Centre

* Unlocking the potential of blended concessional finance: making aid work harder, Banji Fehintola, David Kuijper, Leticia Ferreras, Frederique Dahan, Samantha Attridge, 3-4.30pm online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

* Launch of Healthy Debt on a Healthy Planet: the Final Report of the Expert Review on Debt, Nature and Climate, Germán Ávila, Vera Songwe, Moritz Kreamer, Ali Mohamed, Niels Annen, 4.30-6.30pm online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Friday 25 April
* An Evening with Steve McQueen and Gary Younge, McQueen on his new book Resistance, 7pm, from £36.45, Union Chapel, Upper street, N1. Info: Union Chapel

Saturday 26 April
* Live from London: the other side of hope, launch of the online magazine’s latest multilingual issue, "other tongue, mother tongue", 7-9pm, Morocco Bound bookshop, SE1 3HB. Info: Morocco Bound

Saturday 26-Sunday 27 April
* HisFest, two-day history show that includes 26 April, Motherland: A Journey Through 500,000 Years of African Culture and Identity, Luke Pepera; 27 April, Humans: A Monstrous History, Surekha Davies; day tickets £30, weekend tickets £50; online tickets £15-£30; individual events £12, British Library, Euston Road, NW1. Info: British Library

from Tuesday 29 April
* On The Eyes of Gaza, journalist Plestia Alaqad shares her memoir The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience, 6.30pm, livestream, until 14 May. Info: FANE

* Food fight: from plunder and profit to people and planet, Stuart Gillespie, 4-5.30pm, online. Info: Institute of Development Studies

Exhibitions

* 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

* Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land, the Indonesian artist uses a 15th century painting technique to dismantle misconceptions of Balinese culture and confront its violent colonial past, free, Barbican Centre, Silk Street , EC2Y 8DS until 21 April. Info: Barbican

* 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

* 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

* Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights, stories of underrepresented 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

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

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

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

* 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

* Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, vibrant, large portraits of Black women at rest reclaim representation in art history, celebrating love and radical repose, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, from £19, until 5 May. Info: Hayward

* Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, survey exhibition of the late Jamaican-heritage British multi-media artist, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX until 4 May. Info: Whitechapel

* 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

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

* Sony Photography Awards Exhibition 2025, photos from around the world, Somerset House, The Strand WC2R 1LA until 6 May. Info: Sony Awards

Film

* Caught by the Tides, a singer and dancer quits life In a north-eastern Chinese city to embark on a long, countrywide search for a lost lover, ICA, The Mall, until 24 April

+ Two-decade relationship tells the story of China’s epic transformation

* Santosh, a woman inherits her late husband’s role as a policeman and is caught up in a high-profile murder case, BFI Southbank, Curzon Bloomsbury

* I’m Still Here, as Brazil faces a military dictatorship, a mother of five has to reinvent herself after her family suffers a violent act by the government, Picturehouses  Finsbury Park, Ritzy; Curzors Camden, Soho

* Sister Midnight, original genre-bending Indian comedy about a frustrated and misanthropic newlywed who discovers feral impulses, Ritzy Picturehouse; 23 April: Castle Cinema

* Hong Kong New Wave: 1979-1989, Garden cinema

* All The Mountains Give, two close friends are forced to smuggle goods across the border between Iraq and Iran, Curzon Bloomsbury until 22 April

* Warfare, following a platoon of US Navy SEALs as they occupy the home of an Iraqi family in this boots-on-the-ground narrative that thrusts viewers into the immediacy of combat, drawn from the memories of the men who lived it, Cineworlds Greenwich, Leicester Square, Wandsworth, West India Quay, Wood Green; Picturehouses Central, Clapham, Crouch End, Ealing, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood; Odeons Camden, Greenwich, South Woodford, Streatham, Tottenham Court Road, Wimbledon, Luxe and Dine Islington, Luxe Action, Luxe Haymarket, Luxe Holloway, Luxe Lee Valley, Luxe London West End, Luxe Putney, Luxe Swiss Cottage; Curzons Aldgate, Bloomsbury, Camden, Hoxton, Sea Containers, Soho, Victoria, Wimbledon; Rio;  Vues Eltham, Finchley Road, Fulham Broadway, Islington, North Finchley, Shepherds Bush, West End, Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City, Wood Green;  BFI IMAX + until 24 April, Garden cinema

* La Haine, 1995 French social thriller about youth unrest in Paris suburbs, Garden cinema, until 24 April; Ritzy

* London Bengali Film Festival, the largest Bengali film festival in the world, outside of Bengal, until 27 April. Opening night: Dear Maloti (Priyo Maloti) + talk with director Shankha Das Gupta. Info: Festival

Wednesday 23 April
* Chinatown Cha-Cha, the 92-year-old former owner of the illustrious ‘Forbidden City   Nightclub’ and starlet Coby Yee go on a final tour, bridging once isolated Chinese communities in the US, Cuba, and China + live dance performance from the Grand Avenue Follies troupe featured in the documentary, 4.25pm, Garden cinema

from Wednesday 23 April
* Queer East Festival, over 100 titles, including features, shorts, documentaries and moving image work, exploring the evolving queer landscape across East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities, until 11 May. Info: Festival  

Thursday 24 April
* Balomania, a secret society of giant hot air balloon makers in Brazil's favelas risk everything to  fly their illegal masterpieces, Curzon Bloomsbury, 

from Friday 25 April

* The Accidental Spy, days after 9/11, Blerim Skoro was recruited from a Manhattan prison by the CIA and FBI to roam the Middle East as a US spy inside al-Qaeda. The story of how one man risked everything to protect his family, and how he was betrayed by the country he strived to defend, Curzon Bloomsbury

* LC Barreto: 60 Years of Brazilian Film Production, Garden cinema, until 4 May. Info: Garden 

Tuesday 29 April
* Relentless Memory, a woman retraces the Mapuches’ deportation route, giving voice to a displaced people and the genocide inflicted on them during the military invasions that founded Argentina and Chile, 6.20pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

Performance

* Speed, in Mohamed-Zain Dada’s drama, a nurse, a delivery driver, and an entrepreneur walk into a speed awareness course. Is it a coincidence that they’re all British Asians?, £10-£35, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 17 May. Info: Bush

+ Comedy drama of warp-speed Desi drivers

* Shanghai Dolls, an unusual friendship in China between China’s first female director and the architect of the Cultural Revolution, Kiln, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR until 10 May. Info: Park

* Kyoto, the world’s nations are in deadlock and 11 hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Agreement feels a world away. The greatest obstacle: a US oil lobbyist and strategist, 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 Guest, play set in an overheated near future and developed in collaboration with migrants, Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common Northside, SW4 0QW, until 26 April. Info: Omnibus

+ Home truths about hospitality, asylum and climate change

from Wednesday 23 April
* Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera, the heroine, Kenate, embarks on a journey of love, betrayal and redemption through an Afrofuturistic lens, written and composed by Helen Epega, £12.50 – £25, Wilton’s Music Hall, 1 Graces Alley, E1 8JB until 26 April. Info: Opera

Thursday 24 April
* Oh To Believe in Another World, South African artist William Kentridge’s film and Shostakovich’s symphony that inspired it, both works sharing themes of freedom against totalitarianism and oppression, 7.30pm, £17-£82, Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road,  SE1 8XX. Info: Southbank Centre

Thursday 24-Saturday 26 April
* When the Cloud Catches Colours, written and directed by Chng Yi Kai, the play explores the experience of two queer Singaporeans as they grow older, delving into relationships, family, insecurity, kindness and safety, £18, part of Queer East, a festival showcasing LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts, and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS. Info: Barbican

from Friday 25 April
* Scenes From A Repatriation, Joel Tan’s shape-shifting play unfolds a 1,000-year-old statue from China to Britain and back again, stirring up centuries of ghosts and raising the question of who can claim cultural artefacts – and why, £15-£30, Royal Court, Sloane Square, until 24 May. Info: Royal Court

from Saturday 26 April
* The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, a scandalous, engrossing tale of sexual politics and family strife in modern-day Nigeria adapted from Lola Shoneyin’s best-selling novel, £12-£39, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DKL until 31 May. Info: Arcola

from Monday 28 April
* Lessons on Revolution, play about a 1968 student demo against apartheid-era Rhodesia and its unexpected impact in London 56 years later, Jermyn Street Theatre, 186 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6ST, until 3 May. Info: Jermyn Street Theatre

TV and radio

Sunday 20 April
* Robben Island’s Hallelujah, the story of a choir performance by apartheid-era South African political prisoners, 7.15pm, Radio 4

Monday 21 April
* Conflict and Co-operation: A History of Trade,11.45am, 12.30am, Radio 4

Tuesday 22 April
* Sorry, I Didn;’t Know, Black comedy quiz, 11.50pm, ITV1
* Conflict and Co-operation: A History of Trade,11.45am, 12.30am, Radio 4

Wednesday 23 April
* Myanmar’s Military Moles, documentary, 4.05am, BBC2
* Conflict and Co-operation: A History of Trade,11.45am, 12.30am, Radio 4

Thursday 24 April
* Targeted: Lebanon’s Deadliest Attack, 1.55am, BBC 2
* Conflict and Co-operation: A History of Trade,11.45am, 12.30am, Radio 4

Friday 25 April
* Conflict and Co-operation: A History of Trade,11.45am, 12.30am, Radio 4

Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.

Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.