Events in London

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Monday 9 November

* Manufacturing vulnerability in the Uyghur region: State-enforced forced labour and the crisis of corporate complicity, Laura T. Murphy, 5 - 6.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1

* COP31 Event: Country platforms: what countries want to know, 2 - 3pm. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Tuesday 10 November

* Fighting Populist Dictators: Lessons From the Arab Spring, Paul Schemm, Hossam el-Hamalawy, Muzna Alnaib, Khalid Sidahmed, 7pm, from £5.95, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Womanhood, Tahmina Begum discusses her book Womanhood: A Love Letter to South Asian Muslim Women, 7 - 8.30pm, The Auditorium (Level 6), Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road. Info: Foyles

* The Challenges to peace and democracy in the Middle East, Mary Kaldor, Rula Daood, Alon-Lee Green, Yonatan Levi, Armine Ishkanian, 6.30 - 8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2

* Sudan’s War: Political Economy, Regional Interests, and the Search for a Viable Peace, Mekki Medani El Shibly, 5 - 6.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street WC1

* Book launch: Escaping the Conflict Trap? Seeking Stability in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Alan Doss and David Harris, Felix Marco-Conteh, Mats Berdal, 2 - 3.30pm, King’s College, Room: Dockrill Room (KIN 628)Strand, WC2R 2LS

Wednesday 11 November

* Book Discussion:Spectacle State: How Hindutva Shapes Feeling and Culture, Brahma Prakash, M. Sudhir Selvaraj on the relationship between culture, performance and political power in contemporary India, 5 - 6.30pm, King’s College, Room: SE 2.10Strand campus, 30 Aldwych, WC2B 4BG

Thursday 12 November

* From Mogadishu to the world: Rethinking humanitarian health research in the horn of Africa, Najib Isse Dirie, Jihaan Hassan, Bashiru Garba, Maye Omar, 5.30 - 7pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street WC1. Info: LSHTM

* COP31 Event: Driving food system resilience at scale, 9 - 10am. Info: Overseas Development Institute

* Beyond the ‘green squeeze’: practical pathways to a ‘green ease’ in global sustainable trade, discussion, 3 - 4.30pm, in person and online, Overseas Development Institute, 4 Millbank, SW1P 3JA. Info: ODI

Saturday 14 November

* Global Day of Climate Action. Info: Climate Justice Coalition

Monday 16 November

* War Is Interested In You, Gabrial Rachman, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Chinese brands, Chinese stories? Commerce, culture and a globalising culture, Yaling Jiang, Wenwei Li, Kelly Meng, 5 - 6.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street WC1

Tuesday 17 November

* From outbreaks to endgame, the fight to end polio with Hamid Jafari, 5.30 - 7.30pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street WC1E 7HT. Info: LSHTM

* Is the environmental cost of decarbonisation too high?, a panel examines the geography, economics and ethics of decarbonisation, 7 - 8pm, in person £12, online £6, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

* Generation Hope: Climate Action Together, conversations, workshops and hands-on creativity, 6.30 - 9.30pm, free, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 5 DB. Info: Museum

* The Quest for Democracy in Saudi Arabia, book launch with Madawi Al-Rasheed and Maryam Aldossari, 5.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1

* The geopolitics and macrofinance of AI: a race between the US and China, Daniela Gabor, 6.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street WC1

* Inherited Inequality in Latin America, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, 3-5pm, online. Info; Institute of Development Studies. Info: IDS

Exhibitions

* 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

* 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

* Arcadia, John Akomfrah’s 5-screen cinematic experience takes you across time, from the pursuit of the New World in the 1400s to the present day and asks What damage has been done? What was the impact on people and the planet? What is our legacy?, free, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 until 3 May. Info: Museum

+ How the Columbian Exchange changed the world

* 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

* 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

* Golden Threads: Dress From Saudi Arabia, luxury garments from the Najd region, free, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road, SW& 2RL until 30 May. Info: V&A

* Windrush Food Culture Exhibition, explores the culture and its impact on Britain, Royal Maritime Museum, Romney Road SE10 9NF until 3 January. Info: Museum

* The Nue Black Aesthetic, more than 100 objects spanning fashion to furniture to architecture, product design and sculpture, by contemporary Black designers, Design Museum, 224 – 238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG. Info: Museum

* Constantinople to Istanbul: One city, two empires, 1,600 years of extraordinary art and design, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 2RL. Info: V&A

* 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

Performance

* 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

+ Tackling the legacy of apartheid

* The Bridge, Alaa Shehada performs his tale of family and connection in which he has to deliver olive oil from his mother in Jenin to her sister in Amman, which means he must cross ‘the bridge’ in the heart of Jordan Valley – the only way Palestinians in the West Bank are permitted to leave or return home, £15 to £35, concessions available, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road W12 8LJ  until 11 November. Info: Bush .

+ Shehada pours olive oil on troubled Middle East waters

* Voila! Festival, includes 17 November, Staging the (Un)translatable: Global Voices and Panlingual Dramaturgies, panel. Festival venues: The Cockpit, Barons Court Theatre, Canal Cafe Theatre, Etcetera Theatre, The Playground Theatre, The Space Theatre, Theatro Technis & Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Until 21 November. Info: Festival

Monday 9 November

* The Black Jacobins, rehearsed reading of work by C. L. R. James on the history of Haiti and its diaspora, 6.30 - 9pm, £13.70, Music Hall at Silk Street, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DT. Info: School of Music

from Thursday 12 November

* Nine Night, as more and more mourners gather to mark Gloria’s death, bringing rum and curry and complaints, tensions build and the Caribbean UK family must face uncomfortable truths in this celebration of the humour and hardships of grief, £15 - £45, Kiln, 269 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR until 2 January. Info: Kiln

Thursday 12 - Saturday 14 November

* Racists, Recession and Revolutions, discover the true untold story behind the birth of Fake News with a young Macedon/Brit who will stop at nothing to build an empire of lies as she defies tech giants, Covid lockdowns and a crumbling economy, £17/ £19.50, Theatre 503, Battersea Park Road, SW11 3BW. Info: Theatre 503

Friday 13 - Saturday 14 November

* Latinx Scratch Night, new short plays by Latin American writers, performed for the first time, 7.45pm,  £3 - £28, Omnibus,  1 Clapham Common Northside, SW4 0QW. Info: Omnibus

from Saturday 14 November

*  The Afronauts, Zambia, 1964; a schoolteacher rallies misfit dreamers to train as astronauts and defy the space race’s status quo, from £15 - £74,, Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS until 19 December . Info: Royal Court

from Tuesday 17 November

* Are You Even Indian?, a British-born Indian woman and an Indian-born man fall in love but questions of identity, family and belonging begin to test the future they imagined. Which country is home? What language will their child speak? And who gets to decide what makes someone truly Indian? An intimate and relatable love story about navigating relationships, heritage and the experience of living between two cultures, Riverside, 101 Queen Caroline Street, W6 9BN until 29 November. Info: Riverside

Film

* NAZA, the film that’s caused a storm in Israel; it reveals the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, by the people who designed and operated them, Curzon Bloomsbury, Castle until 11 Nov; Barbican, until 12 Nov;  BFI Southbank, Cine Lumiere, ICA, Picturehouses Central, Clapham, Crouch End, Ealing, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood

* One In A Million, a Syrian girl’s decade-long journey to Germany and back as she and her family face life amidst war and as refugees, showing the hopes and hardships of starting afresh, Curzon Bloomsbury, Finsbury Park Picturehouse; 10 Nov, Odeon Luxe Holloway; 10 - 12 Nov, Odeon Greenwich

* The Eyes of Ghana, a fascinating voyage through Ghanaian cinema and a portrait of the country, Curzon Bloomsbury until 11 November

+ A love letter to Ghanaian cinema gold

* 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

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

* Korean Film Festival, 22 films, including 10  Nov, The World of Love; 11  Nov, Mad Dance Office; 12  Nov, Mongrels; 13  Nov, Once We Were Us; 14  Nov, Women’s Voices Shorts; Journey There; 15  Nov, Hana Korea; 16 Nov, Tristes Tropiques + Q&A.  BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, ICA, until 16 November. Info: Programme

* Women and the World Film Festival, explores the roles of women in conflict as defenders, leaders and peacemakers; features, documentaries and shorts, until 12 November. Info: Festival

* Raise The Red Lantern, revival of Zhang Yimou’s classic about  a promising student forced to become the fourth concubine of an aging man and discovers a household ruled by a merciless ritual, ICA, The Mall, until 12 November.

Tuesday 10 November

* Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako’s docudrama takes the world financial systems to task in this unusual and fascinating courtroom drama, 8.30pm, National Film Theatre

Thursday 12 November

* Burning an Illusion, in his pioneering debut, Menelik Shabazz showcases the complexities of Black love and community in 1980s London, 8.50pm, National Theatre

* The Finance Curse, from the careworkers taking on the private equity barons to whistleblowers chasing offshore tax dodgers, the film follows the global fight to stop financiers and far-right billionaires from capturing our economies and corrupting our democracies + Q&A with Hettie O'Brien, Ann Pettifor and Daniel Bertossa, 7pm, from £5.04, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Friday 13 November

* Mandabi, the first feature-length African language film to be produced out of West Africa, courtesy of Senegalese maestro Ousmane Sembène, 9pm, National Film Theatre

from Friday 13 November

* London Palestine Film Festival, 27 screenings, 11 venues, until 27 November. Programme includes 13 - 14 Nov, Who Is Still Alive? + Q&A, 15, 22 Nov, Edward Said: Between Worlds; Partition; 18 Nov, Habibi Hussein, 19 Nov, Do You Love Me; 19 - 20 Nov, Mohammad Bakri tribute; 21 Nov, Life Support; Mediterranean Fever; The Clown of Gaza; One More Show; 22 Nov, Gaza’s Twins, Come Back To Me; Revolutionaries Never Die; Lovely Butterfly; 23 Nov, Chronicles From The Siege; 24 Nov, Madleens; 25 Nov, Palestinian Unwanted; Goddard Double Bill; 26 Nov, Land of Canaan; Concrete Land; 27 Nov, Conversation With the Sea; + shorts   Info: Festival/ Films

+ The Bedouin land that turned into concrete

* A Fox Under A Pink Moon, at 16, Afghan artist Soraya Akhlaghi has spent five years trying to escape a violent marriage in Iran and reunite with her mother in Europe. Through intimate footage, drawings, and sculptures, the film weaves a harrowing story of abuse, survival and artistic resilience, capturing a young woman determined to defy her circumstance, Curzon Bloomsbury until 21 November. Screening on 21 Nov includes Q&A with directors Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi, as part of the LDNDOCS 2026 festival.

* Soul Patrol, focusing on the first Black special ops team in the Vietnam War, the film uncovers a hidden chapter of American military history + 14, 15, 18 November

Saturday 14 November

* The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, set in 1980s northern Chile, this queer work of magical realism follows 11-year-old Lidia, raised by a found family of trans women and performers. When illness sparks paranoia, she searches for the truth + Q&A with director Diego Céspedes, 8pm, Hackney Picturehouse

* Pressure, a bright school-leaver and son of Caribbean immigrants in 1970s Notting Hill is torn between his parents’ church-going conformity and his brother’s Black Power militancy, in this first Black British feature-length film, preceded by a panel discussion, Black Britain 50 Years On, 7pm, Hackney Picturehouse
* Tenzing / Everest: The Other Side, double-bill on Everest and mountaineers, Lexi + 18 Nov

* NW, BBC adaptation of Zadie Smith’s 2012 novel tells the story of the divergent experiences of two childhood friends in north-west London + Q&A with Lola Young and actor Nikki Amuka-Bird, 6pm, National Film Theatre

Sunday 15 November

* Bouchra, wrestling with writer’s block for her first film, a queer Moroccan coyote living in New York starts having difficult but overdue phone calls with her mother in Casablanca that begin influencing the project, 2.30pm, Hackney Picturehouse

+ A hen, a ghost in a vacuum cleaner and now talking canids

* Lady, inspired by the remarkable life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy admiral and raised within the household of Lord Mansfield, this 18th century drama is a stirring exploration of race and justice and a life caught up in the legal challenges to the transatlantic slave trade, 6.20pm, National Film Theatre

Tuesday 17 November

* Saint Omer, mesmerising, enigmatic French legal drama based on the true story of a French Senegalese woman accused of killing her mixed-race baby daughter, 6.15pm, National Film Theatre

* A Screaming Man, Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, tells a haunting story of a father’s sacrifice during war time, 8.55pm, National Film Theatre

TV and radio

Saturday 7 November

* Full Circle With Michael Palin, celebrity visits Vietnam and The Philippines, 7.25pm, 3am, BBC4

Sunday 8 November

* Shayda, a young Iranian mother and her six-year-old daughter find refuge in an Australian women's shelter during the two weeks of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, 1.40am, Film4

* Belonging in Spain, Spain’s plan to regularise the status of “illegal” immigrants, 1.30pm, Radio4

Monday 9 November

* Global Eye, news magazine, 7pm, BBC2

* Fire and Floods: Our Extreme Weather, 8pm, BBC1

* Belonging in Spain, Spain’s plan to regularise the status of “illegal” immigrants, 4pm, 5.05am, Radio4

Tuesday 10 November

* History’s Heroes, the last queen of Punjab, Maharani Jindan, 3pm, Radio4

Thursday 12 November

* Unreported World, South Africa’s whistleblower hitmen, 4.05am, Channel4

Friday 13 November

* Unreported World, drug cartels in Juarez, Mexico, 7.30pm, Channel4

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