Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

» Whats On

16/07/2020

Events in London

Talks and discussions

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

* Playwrights, Politics and Polarisation, discussion with Mark Borkowski, Lilli Geissendorfer, Katie Posner, Devyani Saltzman and Nina Segal, 4.30-5.30pm, free, Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1 8AS. Info: Royal Court

* 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

Wednesday 29 January

* Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 – The Genocide in Darfur: When will it end and a ‘Better Future’ begin?, the current situation, challenges facing survivors and their families as they seek safety in the UK and what support can be offered, hosted by Wiener Holocaust Library, Waging Peace and the Darfur Diaspora Association UK, 6.30-8pm, The Wiener Holocaust Library, 29 Russell Square, WC1B 5DP. Info: Holocaust Library

Thursday 30 January

* How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe, Sathnam Sanghera, 7.30pm, £29.95-£64.95, Royal Geographical Society

* Trump, Russia and the New World Order, Chris Steele, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* How to achieve justice for victims and survivors of international crimes in today’s global landscape, Antonia Mulvey, 4.30-6pm, online. Info: Institute of Development Studies

* Revolution and rupture: humanitarianism and human rights in Syria and Myanmar, Caoimhe de Barra, Sana Kikhia, Zoya Phan, 6.15-7.45pm, in-person and online, ODI, 203 Blackfriars Road, SE1. Info: ODI

Friday 31 January

* The ‘C’ Word: Being Chinese in Britain Today, Eddie Chan, Chung Min Pang, Lucy Sheen, Xinran, Anne Witchard, Yan Wang Preston, Ken Cheng, Ben Chu, Georgie Ma, Geoff Leong, Wenlan Peng, 7pm, £10-£5, British Library, Euston Road, NW12DB, NW1. Info: Library

Saturday 1 February

* Seeking Truth in Museums Conference, Bergit Arends, Alexis Boylan, Chidi Nwaubani on colonial legacies, 1.30-5pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Street, WC1. Info: Conference

* Palestine Solidarity Campaign annual general meeting, 9:30am–4.30pm, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1 4RL. Info: PSC

Monday 3 February

* The Future of the Middle East, Andreas Krieg, Negin Shiraghaei and Ali Ansari, 6.15pm, £16.80, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street, WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit

* Cast transfers, past, present and future, Ugo Gentilini, Anna McCord, 12-1pm, Overseas Development Institute, 203 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NJ. Info: ODI

* RSA LGBT+ History Month event with UK Black Pride, Saba Ali Frsa, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah aka Lady Phyll, Aisha Shaibu-Lenoir, Chloë Davies, 4-6pm, Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, WC2N 6EZ. Info: RSA

* The New Cold War: How the Contest Between the US and China Will Shape Our Century, Sir Robin Niblett, 6-7.30PM, King’s College, Strand Building, WC2R 2LS. Info: King’s

* Finding Peace in an Era of Conflict, John Paul Rathbone, Mark Goodwin-Hudson, Laurent Saillard, 7pm, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Tuesday 4 February

* Waiting for the Revolution to End: Syrian displacement, time and subjectivity, Charlotte Al-Khalili on her ethnographic monograph of the Syrian 2011 revolution and Syrians' displacement to Turkey, 2-3.30pm, Anatomy Museum, Strand Campus, King's College, WC2R 2LS. Info: King’s

* Stolen Nation: The Right to Reparation of Palestinian Refugees, Lena El-Malak on her book about the right to reparation of Palestinian refugees for property destruction and expropriation during the Nakba, 6-7.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1. Info: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/stolen-nation-right-reparation-palestinian-refugees

* Political mobilisation of medical professionals in Pakistan, 4-5.15pm, online. Info: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

* Driving inclusive and sustainable economic transformation: a roadmap for low- and middle-income countries, Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Aidy Halimanjaya, Balgis Inayah, Vidya Diwakar, Stephen Danyo,11am-12.30pm, Overseas Development Institute, 203 Blackfriars Road, SE1. Info: ODI

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’

* 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’

* 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

* 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

* Art of Palestine | from the river to the sea, the culture, heritage, and struggles of the Palestinian people through various artistic expressions, P21 Gallery, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD until 31 January. Info: P21

from Thursday 30 January

* 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

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, 27 January, 1 February

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

* Emilia Perez, musical crime comedy about a Mexican cartel leader who enlists a lawyer to help her disappear so that she can transition into a woman, Cine Lumiere, 17 Queensberry Place SW7 2DW until 3 February, Curzons Aldgate, Bloomsbury, Camden, Victoria, Wimbledon

* All We Imagine as Light, drama about three women navigating life in Mumbai, BFI Southbank, 29-30 January

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

* Echoes and Horizons: Contemporary Bolivian Cinema, 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 30 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

* 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

* July Rhapsody, character-driven 2002 exploration of broken relationships, destructive yearning and lost dreams, drawing on Chinese poetry, starring Ann Hui, Jackie Cheung and Karena Lam, Garden cinema until 10 February

Monday 27 January

* PopChange Film Club, shorts from the Other Cinemas Film School highlighting filmmakers from migrant and refugee backgrounds + Q&As, 6.30-8pm, RichMix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA. Info: Film Club

Wednesday 29 January

* Floating Dreams, unflinching Al Jazeera film on the refugee crisis in the central Mediterranean, exposing the devastating impact of new European policies that hinder rescue operations and criminalise humanitarian efforts + Q&A with Salam Hindawi and Ali Kishk, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Kaili Blues, a small-town doctor finds himself interacting with people from his past and future while travelling the countryside to locate his nephew. Shot primarily in Kaili, Guizhou Province, using local dialect; with Chinese and English subtitles, 8.10pm, Castle Cinema. Info: Chinese Cinema Project

Thursday 30 January

* Children of the Revolution, documentary about how, five years after the signing of a peace agreement with the Colombian government, three demobilised ex-FARC guerrillas struggle to adapt to civilian life while trying to reinvent themselves + Q&A with the director, 6.15pm, £12.50, Rich Mix

* Raise The Red Lantern, 1991 classic: after her father's untimely death, 19-year-old Songlian is forced to become the fourth wife of Chen Zuoqian, a powerful lord. The competition among his wives soon gets out of hand, 7.30pm, Castle Cinema

Monday 3 February

* The Lonely Wife, touching story about a lonely wife is regarded as Indian director Satyajit Ray’s finest achievement (1964), 6pm, National Film Theatre

Tuesday 4 February

* Transition, chronicles the experience of Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon, embedded with the Taliban as they come to power in Afghanistan, while undergoing his gender transition + Q&A with Jordan Bryon, 6.40pm, Castle cinema

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

* 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

+ Anxieties over race and money in Stillwater run deep

* 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

Wednesday 29 January

* Creative Encounters: The Bitten Peach, performances, workshops and new year vibes from the UK’s first queer pan-Asian cabaret company, 7.30pm, free, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1. Info: Bitten Peach

from Thursday 30 January

* 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

* Antigone [on strike], inspired by stories of the ‘ISIS Brides’, the play follows law student Antiya as she campaigns against an ambitious Home Secretary to bring her sister back from Syria. Anitya’s risky hunger strike causes a media frenzy that engulfs her and the Home Secretary’s family in a PR game that no one is certain how to play. The audience participates by casting real-time votes and comments with wireless keypad devices, interrogating how our choices have real-life consequences and can easily be monetised and weaponised by the highest bidder, Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP until 22 February. Info: www.parktheatre.co.uk

+ Clicks and democracy: do our opinions really matter?