Events in London

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Monday 24 February

* The Trump World Order, Justin Webb, 6.30pm, £22.59-£43.35, Smith Square Hall, Westminster. Info: Intelligence Squared

* Trump 2.0: The Middle East in Focus, Tolga Sinmazdemir, Nicholas Westcott, Dara Salam, Maria Gloria Polimeno, Alireza Shams Lahijani, 6.15-7.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1.Info: SOAS

Tuesday 25 February

* Afghanistan: Breathing Life into Heritage in a Fragile State, Andy Miller and Jonathan Rider on the role of heritage protection in peace-building and reconciliation, 2-3.30pm, free, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7. Info: V&A

* Stand with Colombia: Inside the global fight against corporate courts, Guillaume Long, Cleodie Rickard, Sebastián Abad Jara, 7pm–8.15pm, online. Info: Global Justice Now

* Trump and the World, Michael Goldfarb, Xenia Wickett, Roger Cohen and Patrick Wintour, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2. Info: Frontline

Wednesday 26 February

* Refugee Week 2025 Conference, this year’s theme is Community as Superpower; online, free. Info: Refugee Week

* Hurling money at Edtech: Understanding private profit and public funding during Covid-19, Kathryn Moeller, 4-5.30pm. Info: Institute of Development Studies

Thursday 27 February

* Hong Kongers, Ukrainians, coloniality of migration and citizenship, Michaela Benson on what it means to be a 'good migrant' in post-Brexit Britain, 12-1pm, Institute of Education, 55-59 Gordon Square, WC1H ONU. Info: IoE

* Music, Memory and the War on Blackness, George the Poet, 7pm, £18-£30, The Kiln, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR. Info: The Kiln

* Sumud: A New Palestinian Reader, Malu Halasa, Jordan Elgrably, Nadine Aranki and Saeed Taji Farouky mark UK publication of an anthology celebrating the power of culture in Palestinian resistance through memoir, short stories, essays, book reviews, personal narrative, poetry and art, 6.30-8.30pm, P21 Gallery, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD. Info: P21

* Community: Becoming Black and British, discussion and celebration, 6.30-8pm, Ritzy, Coldharbour Lane, SW2 1JH. Info: Black Cultural Archives

Friday 28 February

* Who do we think we are?: a radical look at the creative and cultural identity of Cypriot artists and creatives based and born in the UK, (“but the event is for anyone interested in cultural identities”), Anthony  Anaxagorou, Andy Charles, Martha D Lewis, Akin Gazi, Athen Madis, Marcus Marcou, 1:30-6pm, Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale, NW1 1TT. Info: Technis

from Sunday 1 March

* Jewish Book Week, King’s Place, 90 York Way, N1 9AG until 9 March. Talks include 1 March, Arts in the age of boycotts, Danny Driver, Lionel Shriver, Ed Vaizey; 2 March, The Promised Land? – Authors in Israel, Post 7 October, Amir Tibon, Ayelet Tsabari, Yossi Klein Halevi; Writing Israel, Yossi Klein and Jonathan Freedland; 5 March, Iran in Focus: Proxies, Power and Nuclear Ambitions, Sharan Tabari, Anshel Pfeffer and Jonathan Rosenthal; 8 March, Trump 2.0: What’s Next?, Mark Malcomson, Ian Morris, Zoe Striumpel, Tom Segev; 9 March, One Palestine, Complete, Tom Segev; The Battle For Israel’s Soul, Isabel Kershner; Young Zionist Voices, David Hazony, Oliver Anisfeld, Noah Katz; The Shortest History of Migration, Ian Goldin. Info: Book Week

Monday 3 March

* Is Britain An Integration Miracle?, Rakib Ehsan, 7-8pm, £5 non-members, Spying Room, The Morpeth Arms, 58 Millbank, SW1P 4RW. Info: Bright Blue

* War, Empire and the Untold Stories of the Bengal Famine, Kavita Puri and Sathnam Sanghera, £18-£30, Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6. Info: Kiln

* Prosecuting the Powerful, Steve Crawshaw, Emma Graham-Harrison, Lindsey Hilsum, 7-8.30pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Tuesday 4 March

* Carbon Offsetting: Does It Really Work?, Myles Allen, 6pm, Gresham College, Barnard's Inn Hall, 6pm, EC1N 2HH. Info: Gresham College

* AI for a thriving Commonwealth: driving innovation and development, webinar with Suresh Yadav, Radika Kumar, Alberto Lemma, 2.30-3.30pm. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Exhibitions

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* SOIL: The World at Our Feet, includes Fernando Laposse’s work based on the impact of the North American Fair-Trade Agreement and use of agrochemicals in a Mexican village, Asunción Molinos Gordo’s visual geometry of Egypt’s Nile’s valley, inviting visitors to explore global agri-business; Annalee Davis drawing on knowledge of the former sugar plantation in Barbados where she lives and works; Somerset House, The Strand, WC2R 1LA until 13 April. Info:

+ Events programme

* Stories of Migration, celebrating 12 years of innovative storytelling from PositiveNegatives, SOAS Gallery, Thornhaugh Street, WC1 until 22 March.

* Through Motion, British Ghanaian artist Heather Agypeong focuses on mental health and wellbeing, invisibility and the African diaspora, Doyle Wham, 91A Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY until 22 March. Info: Doyle Wham

* Women of the World Unite: the United Nations decade for women and transnational feminisms 1975 to now, London School of Economics Library, Houghton Street, WC2 until 22 August. Info: LSE

* Mickalene Thomas: All About, vibrant, large-scale portraits of Black women at rest reclaim space and 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

* Visions from the Amazon, photography, painting and film by Claudia Andujar, rubber tapper Hélio Melo; Indigenous artists Denilson Baniwa and Tayná Satere plus Paula Sampaio, Luciana Magno, Nay Jinknss and Rosa Gauditano, Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD until 9 April. Info: Peltz:

* 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

Film

* To A Land Unknown, pacey drama about two Palestinian refugees living on the fringes of society in Athens who get ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge, Lexi until 26 February; Luxe Action 25, 25 February

+ Two desperate Palestinians: ‘We’re getting out, no matter what’

* The Seed of the Sacred Fig, shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof’s drama depicts a man recently appointed a judge in Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court at a time of growing unrest on the streets and discontent from his wife and daughters: since the film was made, three actresses have subsequently fled to Berlin to avoid persecution, Vues Finchley Road, Westfield, Westfield Stratford City; Lexi 28 February + 3, 4 March

+ Iranian Oscar nominee Mohammad Rasoulof: ‘After my arrest, I told myself: don’t hold back’

* No Other Land, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta teams up with an Israeli journalist fight to Israelis expulsions, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 27 February

* BFI Future Film Festival 2025, includes films and directors from or about China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, UAE and UK, BFI Southbank, online and cinemas until 6 March. Info:  Festival

* I’m Still Here, as Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship,  Eunice Paiva, mother of five, is forced to reinvent herself after her family suffers a violent and arbitrary act by the government, Picturehouses Central, Crouch End, Ealing, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Greenwich; Vues Finchley Road, Fulham Broadway, Islington, Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City, West Norwood;  ICA until 27 February; Cine Lumiere until 3 March, Riverside 24, 25 February; Lexi  from Friday 28 February to 6 March

Monday 24 February

* Black Girl, the seminal work from the father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène, focuses on a domestic worker who emigrates from Senegal to France in the hope for a better life + intro, 8.50pm, National Film Theatre

* Black Godfather of Scuba follows the extraordinary life and mission of Dr. Albert Jose “Doc” Jones, co-founder of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. After diving at the wreck of the Henrietta Marie, the first lost slave ship ever recovered, he dedicated himself to finding and recovering the remains of others, and to making sure those lost souls would never be forgotten + Q&A with director Matt Kay & other panellists, 6.30pm, Rich Mix

Tuesday 25 February

* This Is Ballroom, documentary about a bounteous and transformative space for Brazilian people of colour + Q&A, 6.20pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

Wednesday 26 February

* Emilia Perez, musical crime comedy about a Mexican cartel leader who enlists a lawyer to help her disappear so that she may transition into a woman,  Lexi + Clapham Picturehouse 27 February

+ The rise and fall of Emilia Pérez: how did it all go so wrong for the Oscar-nominated film and its star?

* A Night of Knowing Nothing, Payal Kapadia’s documentary evokes the personal effects of India’s political climate on its youth, 8.20pm, Riverside Studios.

Wednesday 26-Thursday 27 February

* Hiding Saddam Hussein, the life of Iraqi farmer Alaa changed dramatically in 2003 when deposed dictator Saddam Hussein demanded to be hidden. Two decades later filmmaker Halkawt Mustafa tracked Alaa down to learn the story of the 235-day secret, Curzon Bloomsbury

Thursday 27 February

* Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, documentary portrait of a photographer who revealed the cruelties of South African Apartheid to the world + Q&A with Raoul Peck, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre

Friday 28 February

* The Last Year of Darkness, documentary about Funky Town, the underground queer club in Chengdu, China, 8.15pm, Garden Cinema

from Sunday 2 March

* A One and a Two (Yi Yi), a beautifully observed, wry and involving portrait of family life, National Film Theatre

Tuesday 4 March

* The Harder They Come, Jamaica’s first feature film, based on the life of a real-life criminal, stars Jimmy Cliff as a country boy who moves to Kingston to find fame as a reggae singer, but soon confronts trouble, 8.55pm, National Film Theatre

Performance

* 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

* blackbird hour, babirye bukilwa’s “visceral and moving exploration of a queer Black woman’s call to arms for loving oneself when love has made itself scarce”, from £20, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 1 March. Info: Blackbird

* A Knock on the Roof, Pack Bag. Set timer. Run. Repeat. Mariam knows the army often drops small warning bombs – a knock on the roof - giving tenants in Gaza 5-15 minutes to evacuate. With wit and determination, Mariam meticulously rehearses for the run of her life; by Khawla Ibraheem, Royal Court, Sloane Square, until 8 March. Info: Royal Court

Saturday 1 March

* Their Name Is joy, coming of age drama that explores a terrifying loss of childhood innocence, as experienced by a group of young British casual labourers when they come face to face with the reality of modern day slavery, 6.30pm, £2, Canada Water Theatre, 21 Surrey Quays Road, SE16 7AR. Info: Theatre

from Tuesday 4 March

* The Queen of Quex Road, Niamh’s turning 30 and she’s bringing her mystery boyfriend home to meet the family who fled from Belfast to Kilburn, the beating heart of the London Irish community and Ireland’s 33rd county. . They’re in for an explosive afternoon, Bread and Roses Theatre, 68 Clapham Manor Street, SW4 6DZ until 15 March. Info: Bread and Roses

TV and radio

Sunday 23 February

* Storyville: Gaucho Gaucho: Argentina’s Last Ranchers, quietly fascinating observational documentary, midnight30, BBC4

Monday 24 February

* Go Back To Where You Came From, controversial “reality” TV series based on six Brits visiting political hot-spots and talking about migration, 9pm, Channel 4

* Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October, first of new series, 9pm, BBC 2

* Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace, 11.50pm, BBC 4

Tuesday 25 February

* The Battle For Laikipia,  documentary about a land dispute in Kenya, 10pm, BBC4

* Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace, 11.30pm, BBC 4

Wednesday 26 February

* Himalaya With Michael Palin, travelogue, 8pm,BBC4

* Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October, first of new series, 11.35pm, BBC 2

Friday 28 February

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