Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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14/04/2025

Events in London

Talks and discussions

Monday 8 September

* The Lure of Strongmen, James Bloodworth, Bonnie Greer, Albie Amankona, Anki Deo, John Sweeney, 7.30pm, £10/ £5, Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH. Info: Cockpit

* Love, Anger & Betrayal: Jonathon Porritt & Young Climate Campaigners, on their new book on intergenerational justice and global heating, 12.30-1.30pm, £16.80, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit

* Trade and Climate: Navigating new measures for Africa’s green industrialisation, Fitsum Assefa Adela, Carlijn Nouwen, Nimrod Zalk, Madeleine Diouf Sarr, Angus Miller, 4-5.30pm online. Info: Overseas Development Institute

Tuesday 9 September

* Escape from Kabul, Karen Bartlett, Fawzia Amini, Anisa Dhanji on the Afghan women judges who fled the Taliban and those they left behind, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* How can schools tackle misogyny? Embedding equality in education, Daniel Guinness, Lib Peck, Yona Nestel, Ruth Kagia, Rachel Marcus, 5-6.30pm, Overseas Development Institute, 4 Millbank, SW1P 3JA. Info: ODI

* Prosecuting the Powerful, Steve Cranshaw, 6.15pm, £16.80, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street, WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit

* The Earth convention live: land and soil, Isabella Tree, Thomas Halliday, Minette Batters, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, 7-8.30pm, £10/£15, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

* Indigenous Technology, Crafting Memory in the Digital Age, Chao Tayiana Maina, Mutuku wa Muindi, Kimani Njogu, Hannah Andrews, Omer Al Tijani, Zainab Gaafar, Connie Bell, Misha Masek, midday-7pm, in person and online, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1. Info: [email protected]

from Tuesday 9 September

* An Evening With the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Winners, Joshua Lubwama, Faria Basher, Chanel Sutherland, Subraj Singh, Kathleen Ridgwell, Neha Dixit, livestream, £4.99, until 23 September. Info: FANE

Wednesday 10 September

* How to Fix the Climate Crisis, with Tim Lenton, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

Thursday 11 September

* Witnessing A Genocide, Sohail Rahman, Natalie Roberts, Caroline Willemen, Sacha Deshmukh, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline

* Reparations: A new conversation on justice, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, 6-8pm, free, Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, 1 Victoria Embankment SW1A 2JR. Info: Registration

* Ocean Vuong: The Emperor of Gladness, on the author’s new novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive, 7.30pm, from £20, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1. Info: Book talk

Friday 12 September

* Robert Macfarlane meets Elif Shafak – Rivers of life, reimagining the nature of rivers, stories, and life itself, 7.30pm, £34.95, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

Sunday 14 September

* Jung Chang – Fly, Wild Swans, Jung Chang's book was banned in China; now she is back to share the story of her family's lives through China's rise to a global superpower, 7-08.15pm, £30, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

* ESEA Cultural Festival: Homegrown, performance, workshops, films, food, 10am-5pm, free, Pelican House, 138–148 Cambridge Heath Road, E1 5QJ. Info: Southeast and East Asian Centre

Tuesday 16 September

* The New Censorship: When the War on the Media Meets War, Ayala Panievsky, ASrwa Damon, James Rodgers, 7 - 8:30pm, from £7.13, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1Qj. Info: Frontline

* The Guardian’s climate assembly, George Monbiot, Mikaela Loach, Emma Pinchbeck, Feargal Sharkey, in person or livestream, 7.30-9pm, £20-£39.99, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road NW1 2BJ. Info: The Guardian

* Social and humanitarian assistance in crises: agendas, ambitions and aspirations for more effective intervention, Paul Harvey, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Jeremy Lind, Rachel Slater, 9:45-10:45am, Info: Institute of Development Studies

* Weathering the Storm: Making the case for social protection in crises, 3.45-4.45pm. Info: Institute of Development Studies

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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* Palestinian Childhoods: Solidarity & Ṣumūd, exhibition and programme of events seek to witness and convey Palestinian children’s struggle for everyday life, love, play and learning in the face of loss and brutality, UCL East Marshgate Building, 7 Sidings Street, E20 2AE.until 14 September. Info: UCL. Events include 8 Sept, Family day, workshops and film; 14 Sept, Beyond the Checkpoints, Youth Voices from Palestine panel

from Tuesday 9 September

* The 419, a playful poetry and photography exhibition, where 14 sonnets by Inua Ellams and 14 portraits by Oluwamuyiwa “Logor” Logo show how money flows through 14 lives on a typical day in Lagos, Nigeria, free, Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA until 14 September. Info: Somerset House

+ Sonnets and scammers

Film

* Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi recorded her video calls over a year with photojournalist Fatma Hassona, creating a vivid video testimony of her daily life in Gaza, (Hassona was killed in April in an Israeli airstrike along with several members of her family. Curzon Bloomsbury, ICA, until 11 September

* In The Nguyen Kitchen, Stéphane Ly-Cuong blends musical theatre, Vietnamese cuisine and second-generation tension to create a bitter-sweet musical comedy about a Vietnamese-French actress who dreams of a theatre career and her mother who imagines a more conventional path for her daughter, Odeon Luxe Haymarket, Cine Lumiere until 13 September

* Mistress Dispeller, desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair. Elizabeth Lo's astonishingly intimate Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of the love triangle, Curzon Bloomsbury until 11 September

* Anna May Wong: The Art of Reinvention, “I want to be an actress, not a freak. I want to feel that people go to see my pictures because I perform well, not just because I am an Oriental” — a celebration of Wong’s trans-national life and career, an inspiration for Asian diasporic communities. National Film Theatre, until 28 September

* Central Station, 11 September; part of Brazil Ian Summer Nights season, Lexi

* Taiwanese Cinema: Now and Then, Garden cinema until 15 October

Monday 8 September

* Bright Future, at the time of the 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in North Korea a crucial shift was on the horizon with the impending collapse of the Soviet Union: a pivotal moment is captured by amateur filmmaker Emilian Urse’s rediscovered footage, Curzon Bloomsbury + 11 September

from Friday 12 September

* Holding List, on the morning of 7 October 2023 Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall they are captives in Gaza along with 250 others. Caught between international diplomacy and war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv’s release, Curzon Bloomsbury

* HongKong Film Festival, 52 films including 34 shorts. Highlights include Montages of a Modern Motherhood, Ten Years, Queerpanorama, Clara Law retrospective: Drifting Petals, They Say The Moon Is Fuller Here, Farewell China, Goddess of 1967; Johnnie To’s The Heroic Trio, two new Anthony Wong features - Valley of the Shadow of Death and Next Stop, Somewhere. Picturehouse Central, ICA, Rio, Theatreship Canary Wharf, Garden, Close-Up, Ealing Picturehouse, Act One, Brick Lane, UCL, Goldsmiths College, Loading Bar Stoke Newington, New Malden Methodist Church, Sutton Throwley Yard, House of Annetta. Until 28 September. Info: HKFF

* From Ground Zero: Stories From Gaza, dozens of 3-6-minute films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through the unimaginable reality of the genocide; 12 Sept + director Q&A, Genesis; from 12 Sept, Rio, Westfield White City, from 13 Sept, Vues Islington, Finchley Road, Fulham, Westfield Stratford; from 14 Sept, Curzon Soho; 16 Sept, Odeons Acton, Greenwich, Kingston Upon Thames, Swiss Cottage, Uxbridge; from 18 Sept, Curzon Bloomsbury; from 19 Sept, Act One, 23 Sept, Ritzy Picturehouse; from 23 Sept, Finnsbury Park Picturehouse, 24 Sept, Hackney Picturehouse; 1 Oct, Curzons Camden and Aldgate. Info: Cosmic Cat Films

from Saturday 13 September

* Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Festival, programme includes 20 Sept, Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda), “tender take on grief and queerness”; and Circo, “stunning portrait of Black queer life in Brazil’s margins”. Rich Mix until 21 September. Info: Rich Mix

Tuesday 16 September

* The Shadow Scholars, an estimated 40,000 Kenyans write academic papers for global students but what value can be placed in academic institutions when degrees can be bought without effort + filmmaker Q&A, 6.20pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

* Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, a forensic investigation into the impact of Israeli military operations on Gaza’s healthcare system + Q&A with Ben de Pear, Karim Shah, Khaled Dawas, 6.30pm, Castle cinema

Performance

* Black Power Desk, two sisters divided by grief and radical politics, motivated by love in 1970s London — but will their fight for the community be worth the damage to their sisterhood?, from £10, Brixton House, 385 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8GL, until 28 September. Info: Brixton House

+ ‘Why do I know more about Rosa Parks than our history?’ The musical bringing Britain’s Black history to the stage

Friday 12 September

* OWN IT!, MC Angel, Derek Owusu, Ify Adenuga, JJ Bola, Speech Debelle, Kevin George, Salena Godden, Reggie Nelson and others, poetry, performance and comedy, 7.30, from £10, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX. Info: Own It!

TV and radio

Monday 8 September

* Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, a probe into an immigration detention centre and the illegal sex industry, 10pm, BBC3

* Start the Week, Arundhati Roy on maternal inheritance, 9am, Radio4