Events in London

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Monday 28 July

* An African History of Africa, Zeinab Badawi, 7pm, £15.99-£32.99, Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR. Info: Kiln

Tuesday 29 July

* Iran: Voice From the Ground, Tara Kangarlou, Leila Molana-Allen, Imtiaz Tyab, 7-8.30pm, £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Wednesday 30 July

* Flipping the Script: who decides on humanitarian reform?, webinar with Khlood Al-Arashi, Modi Enosa Mbaraza, Maritza Adriana Copete Hernández, 2-3.30pm. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Thursday 31 July

* Eloghosa Osunde in Conversation with Irenosen Okojie_, the author of Vagabonds! on their second novel, Necessary Fiction, a story of cross-generational queer life set in contemporary Nigeria, 7-8.30pm, £10, 107 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DT. Info: Foyles

* Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain, book launch, 6.30-8pm, £8, Autograph, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA. Autograph

* Tomi Adeyemi in Conversation with Zai Sylla, on the paperback publication of 'Children of Anguish and Anarchy', part of Adeyemi’s internationally bestselling Legacy of Orïsha series, due to be released in cinemas next year, 7-8.30pm, £10, Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0DT. Info: Foyles

* Poets on the Dance Floor, Iris Colomb, Rob Gallagher, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Belinda Zhawi chronicle dance floors that have inspired them, 7.45pm, from £15, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX. Info: Southbank Centre

Wednesday 8 August

* Racial inequities and health impact of Brazil’s cash transfer programme, Joanne Guimaraes, Julia Pescarini, 1.30-2.30pm, online. Info: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Exhibitions

* Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict, exhibits include sexual slavery of ‘Comfort Women Corps’ in World War Two and of Yazidi women and girls by ISIS in 2014, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road SE1 6HZ until 2 November. Info: War Museum

+  Sexual violence in conflict: ‘The cheapest weapon known to man’

* Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, from ancient Mesopotamia and Victorian London to modern-day Nepal and Singapore, the exhibition combines art, science, history, technology and indigenous knowledge to deepen understanding of our relationships with freshwater, free, Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 1 February. Info: Wellcome

+ Thirst: an exhibition bridge over troubled water​

* Ancient India: living traditions, the origins of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist sacred art in the nature spirits of ancient India – and how they live on 2,000 years later, from £16, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG until 19 October. Info: Museum

+ Starring role for snakes in Ancient India exhibition

* Earth Photo 2025 exhibition, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. until 20 August. Info: RGS

*  Mumbai + London: new perspectives on the ancient world, small exhibit focussed on Greek god Dionysius and India’s Vishnu, British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG until 11 January 2026. Info: Exhibition

* 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

* 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

* 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

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

* 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

* 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

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

*  Ghazaleh Avarzamani and Ali Ahadi: Freudian Typo, photography, sculpture, video work and found objects by two Iranian-Canadian artists which playfully critique Britain’s imperial past and how it manifests today, tracing connections between historical sources and current events in politics and finance, free, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre until 31 August. Info: Hayward

* Said Dicko: Tracing Shadows, the multimedia artist from Burkina Faso paints over his prints to create unique work, free, Photographers Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW until 7 September. Info: tpg.org.uk

* 0710 Journeys, Wayne Campbell’s photographs of Gaza protests in Britain and the everyday landscape of the occupied West Bank, £5, P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street NW1 1JD until 5 September. Info: P21

* Wellcome Photography Prize, top 25 entries from categories including health problems in South Africa and climate change, free, Wednesdays–Saturdays, Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT until 18 October. Info: Exhibition

* Virtual Beauty, exploring the impact of digital culture and technologies on the traditional definitions of beauty today, pay what you can, Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA until 28 September. Info: Somerset House

* More Than Human, how design can help the planet thrive by shifting its focus beyond human needs, £14.38 students £5, Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street W8 6AG, until 5 October. Info; Design Museum

* Imaging Peace, outdoor exhibition featuring global community peace photography projects, part of ‘Lost & Found: Stories of sanctuary and belonging’, a free programme of arts and ideas at King’s College, Strand, WC2R 2LS. Info: Peace exhibition

Film

* Zero, thriller in which two Americans wake up in Senegal to find bombs strapped to their chest with 10 hours to follow instructions on earpieces from a villainous caller, Westfield Stratford City

+ Senegalese time-bomb thriller is a blast

* South Asian Heritage Month, themed ‘Roots to Routes’. Films include Heat and Dust, A River Called Titas, Nidhanaya, Badnam Basti, Manthan (The Churning), I’m British But…; Shambhala, LGBTQ+ shorts; The Cinema Travellers; Movies, Memories, Magic, Garden cinema until 7 August

* What Does That Nature Say To You, a Korean poet in his thirties drops off his girlfriend at her house but runs into her father and ends up spending the entire day with the family, ICA, The Mall, Garden Cinema until 31 July

* Under the Flags, the Sun, uses a mosaic of meticulously sourced, long-forgotten archive footage to examine the years of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship in Panama, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 31 July

Tuesday 29 July

* A State of Passion, an account of British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah, who has become a vital witness to the devastation wreaked by Israel’s bombing of Gaza + filmmaker Q&A, 6.20pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

Saturday 2 August

* The Harder They Fall, attitude and music aplenty in this landmark Jamaican crime adventure, 3pm, £12.20 - £14, National Film Theatre

Sunday 3 August

* Green is the New Red, Latin America's political and social history gives shocking context to today's deadly fight against agribusiness, 3.30pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

Performance

* The Estate, the opposition leader has been forced to resign in a scandal. Against the odds and Angad Singh emerges as the favourite — if his sisters keep their mouths shut, in Shaan Sahota’s debut play, National Theatre, South Bank SE1 9PX until 23 August. Info: National

* The Camden Fringe, over 400 shows, the London alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe. Programme includes 29 July, Uncle Tom’s War: Haiti and the Whipping Machine; 30 July, Prateek Kohli: Denial; 10 August, Mustafa Algiyadi: Almost Legal Alien; 11-12 August, The White Lotus, reimagine Chinese theatre. Borough of Camden until 24 August. Info: https://camdenfringe.com

TV and radio

Saturday 26 July

* Captain Philllips, exciting film drama about the kidnap of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates, “based on a real story (or ”true to life”), 10.35pm, BBC1

Sunday 27 July

* China, the US and the rise of XI Jinping, 9.55pm, PBS America

* Thirteen Lives, film drama about the real-life rescue of a team of Thai schoolboy footballers trapped in a cave as the water rise, 10pm, BBC2

Monday 28 July

* Singapore 1942: End of Empire, second part of interesting historical documentary about a battle that helped destroy the myth of white global supremacy, Commonwealth soldiers and Indian soldiers turning on their colonial masters, 8pm, BBC4

* En-Gulfed, how Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have spread their influence, 11am, Radio4

Tuesday 29 July

* Nelson’s Caribbean Hell-Hole: an 18th Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered, the discovery of human bones on an Antiguan beach uncovers a dark chapter of British imperialism, 9pm, BBC4

Wednesday 30 July

* Captain Philllips, exciting film drama about the kidnap of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates, “based on a real story (or ”true to life”), 9pm, BBC3

* Chasing Peace, last in series about whether war can be avoided, 9am, Radio4

Friday 1 August

* Limelight: Central Intelligence, drama series about CIA escapades, this time in Cuba and Congo, 2.15pm, Radio4

* Chasing Peace, last in series about whether war can be avoided, 4.30pm, Radio4

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