Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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13/04/2026

Events in London

Migrant Voice

Talks and discussions

from Monday 19 October

* National Week of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention, until 25 October. Info: Right To Remain

* China Cure: The Rise of a Biotech, AI Medicine and Global Health Superpower, Ruby Wang, 10.30 - 11.30am, King’s College, Room: KIN 227Strand Campus, Strand, WC2R 2LS

* Chinese Business in the UK: What’s Changing?, Won Liu, Lin Wu, Suwei Jiang, Xin Sun, 1 - 2.30pm, part of King’s Lau China Institute’s China Week (19-23 October)

* China and a Multipolar World Order, Yang Han, Dani Solomon, Guilia Sciorati, Olivia Cheung, Astrid Nordin, 3.30 - 5pm, Room: KIN 227 Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

Tuesday 20 October

* Unheard, Untreated, Unwell: Women’s Health in Crisis, Sophie Harman and Annabel Sowemimo, in person and online, 6.30 - 7.45pm, free, British Academy, 10 - 11 Carlton House Terrace, SW1 6AH. Info: BA

* Two years on from the racist riots: community cohesion, the hostile environment and Islamophobia, All Party Parliamentary Group meeting, 6 - 7.30pm, Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Westminster.

* Demographic Anxieties: Bodies, Borders, and Reproductive Injustice in Palestine/Israel, Osama Tanous (online), Ghada Majadli, Ala Sirriyeh (online), Patricia Hamilton, 6.30 - 8pm, Common Ground, Room G11, Ground Floor, South Wing, UCL, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT. Info: University College London

* The good, the black and the boujee - how Black Britain became middle class, Symeon Brown, Clive Chijioke Nwonka, 6.30 - 8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2

from Tuesday 20 October

* London Literature Festival, includes 22 Oct, Kwame Dawes: Afro-Style School & Kinships, Jamaica’s Poet Laureate celebrates the influential poetry programmes and collectives that have fought against literature and publishing’s lack of diversity; 23 Oct, readings from – and conversation about – books that defy the ordinary, hosted by Okechukwu Nzelu and Eliza Clark; 24 Oct, A Celebration of British Somali Poetry, Somali poets rework an ancient tradition through readings and conversation with award-winning poets; 28 Oct, Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses at 25; 31 Oct, Real-life stories from journalists, writers and activists, readings and discussion confronting rising threats to expression; Wasafiri: New Writing Prize 2026, the magazine announce the winners. Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX until 1 November. Info: Festival

Wednesday 21 October

* Ta-Nehisi Coates & Tareq Baconi: On Freedom, the struggle for justice in Palestine, with Nesrine Malik, 7.30pm, from £47, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. Info: Southbank Centre

* China and the changing geopolitics of global communication, Daya Thussu, 5 - 7pm, City University, Northampton Square, EC1V 0HB. Info: City University

* China in BRICS+: Multilateralism and Intra-BRICS Contestation, Zeno Leoni, Soumya Mishra, Rishika Chauhan, Maria (Mary) Papageorgiou, Mauro Bonavita,

1-2pm, King’s College, Room: KIN 227 Strand Campus, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

* Only Daughters - Women and China’s One Child Policy, Ye Liu examines how talent, virtue and gendered expectations are negotiated in post-reform China, 3 - 4pm, King’s College, King’s Building, Strand campus

* Black History as Therapeutic Practice: Part Two. Rashid Nix, 6.30 - 8.30pm, £6 - £10, Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square SW2 1EF. Info: BCA

* The 2026 Emissions Gap Report launch, Inger Anderson, Katie White, Anne Olhoff, 10 - 11.30am, livestream. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Thursday 22 October

* An Evening with Pachinko author Min Jin Lee: American Hagwon, the author discusses her new novel. Set during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it explores family, sacrifice and ambition through the story of the Koh family + Q&A, 7.30pm, King’s Place, 90 York Way N1 9AG. Info: King’s Place

Friday 23 October

* Dynasties in Dialogue: The Tang, the Qing, and China Today, Xiaolu Guo and Paul French, 7.15 - 8.30pm, £13, British Library, 96 Euston Road NW1. Info: Library

* China and the Middle East, Mohammed Al-Sudairi, Jonathan Fulton, Andrea Ghiselli, Émilie Tran, Reyhaneh Fallah-Noshiravani, 10 -11am, King’s College, King’s Building, Strand campus

* China and the World: A New Global Order?, Isabel Hilton, 6.30 - 8pm, King’s College, Room: BH 8th Floor (North & South)Strand campus, 30 Aldwych, WC2B 4BG

* Exploring Rangeland Myths: Consultation Equals Participation, Fozia Noor, Kholosa Magudu, Nosiseko Mtati, local field Officers from Meat Naturally Africa, 11am - 12.30, online. Info: Institute of Development Studies

Saturday 24 October

* Twende: African Women and Cinema Symposium, special symposium and screening programme explores the journeys, histories and evolving practices of women who have shaped African cinema – both on screen and behind the camera. Featuring filmmakers from across the continent and the diaspora, Twende brings together curated screenings, lively panel discussions and public conversations that reflect on authorship, representation, archives, distribution and the future of African filmmaking, 1 - 5pm, National Film Theatre

* Organise Together: London Summit, against the far right, with Jen Brister, Sharon Graham, Mawaan Rizwan, Maxine Heron, Louisa Munch, Daniel Kebede, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Rachel Millward, Minnie Rahman, Shabna Begum, Asad Rehman, Lisa Moorish, Samira Ali, Lewis Nielsen, 10.30am - 5pm, 20 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AL GB. Info: Together

Monday 26 October

* Elections in Brazil Roundtable, Oswaldo E. do Amaral,Lucio R. Renno, Lígia Mori Madeira and Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos, 6 - 8pm, King’s College, Room: 2.09Strand, WC2R 1AE

Tuesday 27 October

* Geography and the wealth of nations, Jeffrey D Sachs, 6.30 - 8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2

* The rise of the global shadow fleet and the geography of flags of convenience

Discover how shadow tankers, flags of convenience and weak regulation create risks for people, the environment and the future of maritime responsibility, 7-8.30pm, £10/£12 - £5/£6, in person and online, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

Exhibitions

* Moved to Care: Stories of Health and Migration, explores the contributions of migrants from across the globe to healthcare over the last 150 years, from the 19th century colonial legacy of missionary nurses to the Windrush Generation, free, 20 Cavendish Square, W1G OR until 2 November. Info: Royal College of Nursing

+ Migrant nurses: Looking after Britain’s health

* The Music is Black: A British Story, how Black British music has shaped British culture from 1900 to today through objects like Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, fashion worn by Little Simz and photographs, £22.50 weekdays, £24.40, V&A East, Queen Elizabeth Park, Olympic Park. Info: V&A East Museum

* Frida: The Making of an Icon, how Frida Kahlo became one of the most influential artists of all time, from her political activism to global Fridamania, £25, Tate Modern, Bankside SE1 9TC, until 3 January. Info: Tate

+ How the zeitgeist helped create Fridamania

* Rising Voices, Contemporary Arts From Asia, Australia and the Pacific, work by more than 40 artists from 25 countries, £17, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 until 10 January. Info: V&A

+ Arresting voices of the Asia-Pacific

* Korea, exploring over two millennia of Korean art and culture, £18, British Museum, Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG until 31 January. Info: Korea

+ Two millennia of K-history: hard to remember, hard to forget

* 100 Years of the Slavery Convention, exploring the links between historical and modern forms of exploitation in slavery, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, NW1 2AE until 2 November. Info: Exhibition

* Reimagining Democracy, exhibition of illustrations by artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds, Kensington Central Library, 12 Phillimore Walk, W8 7RX until 30 October. Info: Counterpoint Arts

* Sanle Story: The Colour Years, photographs capturing daily life, youth culture and fashion in Burkina Faso, £7 - £12, Photographers Gallery, Ramillies Street, W1 until 21 February. Info: Gallery

* Hybrid forms and live realities: the sculpture of Bharti Kher, the British Indian artist explores the body, womanhood, mythology and cultural identity, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, until 24 January. Info: Exhibition

* Childhood in War, the UK’s first dedicated exhibition exploring how war affects and shapes young lives, Uk oriented but including contemporary stories and quotes from Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ until 28 February. Info: War Museum

* Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care – Spaces of Grief and Possibility, the lived experience of Black people whose mental healthcare in the UK is shaped by racist discrimination, free, Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 7 February. Info: Wellcome

* Amar Kanwar, the New Delhi-based artist and filmmaker’s film trilogy investigate legacies of decolonisation and the 1947 Partition, free, Serpentine North Gallery, West Carriage Drive, W2 2AR until 31 January. Info: Serpentine

* The Unclassified, group exhibition of four leading contemporary Korean and Korean-heritage artists: Meekyoung Shin, Ayoung Kim, siren eun young jung and Gala Porras-Kim, Korean Cultural Centre, Grand Buildings, 1-4 Strand WC2N 5BW. until 31 December. Info: KCX

* Salman Toor: Someone Like You, born in Lahore and currently living in the US, his work “depicts queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”, £10 - £16, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 0RN until 10 January. Info; Courtauld

* Our Bodies Have Been Bridges, three feminist artists from the Americas whose work acknowledge how bodies carry memory and ancestry while resisting erasure; Charan Singh: Your Tongue in My Mouth, celebrating the lives and collective resistance of gender fluid communities in India. Both free, Autograph, Rivington Place EC2A 3BA until 13 February. Info: Autograph

from Monday 26 October

* Transnational Diaries, text and photo collages portraying the everyday lives, stories and journeys of Chinese migrant traders running family-owned shops in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, Peltz Gallery, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD until 16 December. Info: Pelz

+ 7 October, Transnational Diaries: Art History Festival 2026, Mara Nogueira and Gracia Ramirez, 6.30 - 8pm, free
+ 6 November, Transnational Diaries: A Conversation Across Borders, Mara Nogueira and Birkbeck College colleagues, 5.30 - 7.30pm, free

Performance

* Darkling, one-woman show on the impact of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster in India, £15 - £45, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 24 October. Info: Bush

+ A bleak story that needs to be re-told

* The Story, when a white teacher is killed in a black neighbourhood four journalists are forced to confront what they are prepared to risk to tell their version of the truth, National Theatre, South Bank SE1 9PX, until 24 October. Info: National

+ Blood of My Blood, South Carolina, 1862. As war rages beyond the plantation, Ginnie Good raises five children in a cabin that will outlast them all. Today, in the same cabin, now a trendy Airbnb, a pregnant Black woman communes with her ancestors, seeking answers to questions she's afraid to ask anyone else, £15-£30, Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS until 7 November. Info: Royal Court

* For coloured girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, “Stories of love and violence, joy and survival - and what it feels like to come out the other side”, Yard, Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, E9 until 17 October. Info: The Yard

+ Post-show events

* The Hungry Ghost, Mei Leng Yew’s sexy horror rom-com exploring what lies between superstition and rationality, £15 to £25. Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 31 October. Info: Bush

* Fences, alive with rhythms of blues and jazz, humour and heartbreak, August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, set in the 1950s, is a portrait of grief, love and what it means to be a family in post-war Black America, £10 - £55, Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL, until 31 October. Info: Lyric

* For The Culture, Celebrations of Blackness Festival, “an act of resistance, a space for joy, reflection, and conversation, a place to champion and celebrate Black British artists, activists, and thinkers within our community”, Lyric Square, King Street W6 0QL until 31 October. Info: Lyric

from Sunday 18 October

* Cultivate: Black Playwrights Week, five new plays presented as rehearsed readings, £7 each, Leave to Remain by Adja Gaye, When It Snows in April (Chantelle Alle), Put It On My Head (Inyang Edoho), The Other Half (Shola Asante), Hope Is A Dangerous Thing (Albrin Junior), Riverside, 101 Queen Caroline Street, W6 9BN until 22 October. Info: Riverside

Tuesday 20 October

* Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, the dazzling, defiant world of artist and activist Joséphine Baker, as soprano Julia Bullock brings her voice, spirit and story vividly to life in this genre-crossing performance, 8pm, from £24, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS,. Info: Barbican

from Tuesday 27 October

* The Moth, UK-based South African playwright Paul Herzberg's psychological thriller is set across three decades after a chance meeting on a train between a Black British journalist and a White South African ex-soldier. Its departure point is apartheid and the writer;s own experience of serving as a soldier in the Angola Border War, £18 - £29, Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED, until 21 November. Info: Finborough

Film

* Hong Kong Film Festival, free virtual programme available online until 31 October. Info: HKFF

+ The return of the Hong Kong Film Festival

* NAZA, the film reveals the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, by the people who designed and operated them, 20 October: Castle screening + discussion with Khaled Dawas, British-Palestinian consultant surgeon; Neve Gordon, British-Israeli academic; and Manal Massalha, British-Palestinian sociologist; Curzon Bloomsbury until 21 October; Barbican, Lexi, Garden; Picturehouses Central, Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Gate, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood

Monday 19 October

* Burning An Illusion, Menelik Shabazz showcases the complexities of Black love and community in 1980s London, 6.20pm, National Film Theatre + 27 October

Tuesday 20 October

Monday 19, Thursday 22 October

* Kikuyu Land, while investigating Kenya's global tea industry, Nairobi journalist Bea Wangondu stumbles upon her own family's concealed secrets, pushing her to peel back the layers of Kenya's colonial legacy, Curzon Bloomsbury

+ Two Kenyans fight on for a glimpse of paradise

Tuesday 20 October

* MKO, examines the cover-up behind one of Africa’s most consequential political crimes, the suspicious death of Nigeria’s 1993 election winner: Moshood Abiola + Q&A, 6.20, £10/£12.50, Curzon Bloomsbury

* Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class, a multilayered interpretation of race and class at a watershed moment in US history + introduction by Matthew Barrington, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre

* Sapphire, an investigation into the murder of a young woman reveals issues of racial identity and racism in 1950s London, 8.40pm, National Film Theatre

* Young Soul Rebels, two young Black men reckon with the death of a close friend while pursuing their dreams in 1970s East London, 8.50pm, National Film Theatre + 24 October

Wednesday 21 October

* What We Were and What We Are, first-time directors from the Sahrawi Refugee camps explore how their culture has changed after 50 years of enforced displacement, 6.20pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

from Wednesday 21 October

* I Am Furious Black, retrospective tracing the career of William Greaves, a filmmaker, producer and activist whose trailblazing work defies racial and artistic barriers across the 20th century, Barbican until 28 November

Thursday 22 October

* Mandabi, the first feature-length African language film to be produced out of West Africa, courtesy of Senegalese maestro Ousmane Sembène, 2.40pm, National Film Theatre

from Thursday 22 October

* London Breeze Film Festival, includes 22 October, director director Sahand Kabiri’s The Crowd (Jama'at) which follows a young gay man in Tehran as he plans a secret underground farewell party for his partner before he leaves the country, Riverside

Friday 23 October

* A Dry White Season, an ordinary man’s conscience is ignited as apartheid’s violence shatters his complacency, in this searing drama about moral courage and the cost of looking away, 8.40pm, National Film Theatre

from Friday 23 October

* The Eyes of Ghana, a fascinating voyage through Ghanaian cinema and a portrait of the country, from cinema’s inception through to the present day, Curzon Bloomsbury until 29 October

+ A love letter to Ghanaian cinema gold

* Film Africa, features include documentaries Camera Arabe, Crocodile, Let Them Be Seen, Life After Seaham, My Father and Qaddafi, Tutu; features include In a Whisper, Submergido, Obi Is A Boy, Lady, Language of the Wind, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, Behind the Palm Trees, Calle Malaga, Congo Boy, Clarissa, O Profeta, Ben’imana, One Woman One Bra, Chronicles Of A Siege, Dahomey, Dao, Her Daughters’ Mother, Strawberries, Dear Ajayi, Variations Of A Theme, until 1 November. Info: Film Africa

+ Rwandan mother and daughter are challenged when Never occurs Again

+ The war reparations scam that snagged a South African community

+ Two sides of Nigeria: raucousness and restraint

+ The Bedouin land that turned into concrete

+ Congo Boy becomes a Bangui man and hits the jackpot

+ Inspirational biopic of the Arch who helped topple apartheid

+ The Cotton Queen’s tale

+ One Woman One Bra and one non-message film with a message

Saturday 24 October

* Young Soul Rebels, two young Black men reckon with the death of a close friend while pursuing their dreams in 1970s East London, 8.40pm, National Film Theatre

* Cotton Queen, in a Sudanese cotton-farming village, teenage Nafisa grows up on her matriarch grandmother's heroic tales of resistance against British colonizers. But when an ambitious businessman returns from abroad with genetically engineered cotton and a high-stakes development plan, Nafisa finds herself at the center of a battle for her village's future, 6.15pm, National Film Theatre

+ The Cotton Queen’s tale

from Saturday 24 October

* The Battle of Chile trilogy, documentary maker Patricio Guzmàn’s magnum opus The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie, The Coup D’Etat, The Power of the People, Curzon Bloomsbury

* Made in Taiwan, classic and contemporary works from the region, Garden cinema until 6 December. Info: Garden

Sunday 25 October

* Expose, 30-minute film created with first-time actors aged 13–17 from migrant families in London, 3pm, Vue Wood Green

Monday 26 October

* Inside Iran: War and Revolution, documentary with footage and first-hand testimony from citizens, journalists and grieving families, many speaking anonymously and at significant personal risk + Ben Zand, Maya Rostowska and Tom Giles, 7 - 8.30pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2n 1 QJ. Info: Frontline

* Bamako, docudrama takes the world financial systems to task in this unusual and fascinating courtroom drama, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre

* Fear of the Dark: Lola Young on Race, Gender and Sexuality in Cinema, Baroness Lola Young discusses the impact of her acclaimed book and its ripple effect across the last three decades, 6.15pm, National Film Theatre

* Flame in the Streets, a committed trade union boss fights against discrimination at work while being confronted with his own racial prejudices when his daughter falls in love with a Jamaican teacher, 8.35pm, National Film Theatre

Tuesday 27 October

* Burning An Illusion, Menelik Shabazz showcases the complexities of Black love and community in 1980s London, 2.40pm, National Film Theatre

* My Father and Qaddafi, Jihan K is a Libyan American filmmaker, best known for this critically acclaimed feature-length documentary debut + intro by director Jihan K., 8.45pm, National Film Theatre