Events in London
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Talks and discussions
Monday 13 July
* Detainees & Disappeared, launch of book tracing the memories of the Syrian revolution through stories and testimonies told through art and culture,Waad Al Kataeb, Sana Yazigi and Kholoud Helmi.6:30-8:30pm, The Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square EC1A 3DE. Info: Arab British Centre
* How history explains our world: The rise of the East, Peter Frankopan,7.30pm, £31 - £87, Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, TW9 1QJ. Info: History explains
Tuesday 14 July
* Fatherhood and colonial power in Jamaica, and Chinese labour in the British Caribbean, Jacqueling Crooks, Samuel Niu, 1-2pm, free, British Library, Euston Road NW1. Info: Library
Wednesday 15 July
* The Satellite Economy, Tira Shubarts, Anatolii Papulov, Cecilia Rikap, Laurence Russell, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
* Using AI to tackle global hunger and malnutrition: practical lessons for the UK, Sir Nick Clegg, Lord Jonny Oates, Maryam Rezaei, Joy Kiiru, Toby Norman, Suzy Madigan, David Mundell MP, 1 - 2pm, Overseas Development Institute, 4 Millbank SW1P 3JA. Info: ODI
Thursday 16 July
* Meet the Pioneers: The Revolutionary Publishers, Margaret Busby, Colin Grant, Alexander D Great, Beverley Mason, Lemara Lindsay Prince and Lemn Sissay, 7pm, £12, British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1. Info: Library
* How history explains our world: The rise of the East, Peter Frankopan, 7pm, from £19.62, Union Chapel, Upper Street, N1 2UN. Info: Union Chapel
* Winner of Winners, 25 previous winners of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content, including David Olusoga, Kojo Koram, Anita Anand and Avi Shlaim, consider the past, present and future of historical non-fiction + award for the best of the lot, 6.30pm, Foyles, Charing Cross Road. Info: PEN
* Blended finance factors and credit rating, Leticia Ferreras Astorqui, Astrid Manroth, Patrick Goodman, Kathrin Muehlbronner, Daniela Re Fraschini, Tanguy Hespel, Hans Peter Lankes, 2 - 3pm, online. Info: Overseas Development Institute
* Critical minerals and development: Breaking the structural impasse, Anabel Marin, Wei Shen, Patrick Schroeder, Phil Johnstone, 1 - 2.30pm, online. Info: Institute of Development Studies
from Monday 20 July
* Cyprus Week, theatre, film, discussion, comedy, dance, Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, NW1 1TT, until 26 July. Info: Cyprus Week
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 until 3 January. Info: V&A East Museum
* London Parks: An Exhibition, photographs by young asylum-seekers and refugees, free, Southbank Centre, Riverside Terrace, level 2, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX until 30 August. Info: Southbank
* The Arab Hall: Past and Present, the Hall in the 100-year-old Leighton House is a blend of 13th-century Damascus tiles and Victorian architecture. A new exhibition features contemporary art and a dedicated film, offering a deeper look at how Islamic art has influenced British spaces, £14, Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ until 4 October. Info: Leighton House
* 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 9TG until 3 January. Info: Tate
+ How the Zeitgeist helped create Fridamania
* Project A Black Planet:The Art and Culture of Panafrica, 300 works including posters, paintings, journals, sculpture and film from Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe from the 1920s to the present. Artists include Kader Attia, Mariene Dumas, Inji Effiatoun, Sonia Gomes, David Hammons, Nicholas Hlobo, Claudette Johnson, Wilfredo Lam, Simone Leigh Ernest Mancota, Kawira Mwinchia, Abdias Nascimento. Grace Ndiritu, Magdalene Odundo, Chris Ofili, Colette Omogbai, The Otolith Group, Ingrid Pollard, Samir Rafi, Cauleen Smith, Tavares Strachan, £19, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS until 6 September. Info: Project A Black Planet
+ About 50 related events have been scheduled, including talks, films, workshops and music. Details here
+ Project Black Planet fights its way through a thicket of jargon
* Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire, reimagines archival photographs from her family’s time in Vietnam and Europe, building visual reconstructions that echo how memory in the diaspora can slip from view, free, Autograph, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA until 19 September. Info: Autograph
* 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: .Vam.ac.uk
+ Striking voices in the Asia-Pacific region
* Mil Veces un Instant (A thousand times in an instant), Mexican artist Teresa Margolies’ cuboid on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is a memorial to trans people worldwide.
* Hurvin Anderson, 80 works by British-Jamaican artist, Tate Britain, Millbank SW1P 4RG. until 23 August. Info: Tate
* The Land Carries, exploration of Sudanese history, culture and nationhood through contemporary art, free, 1-5pm, University College London Petrie Museum, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT until September. Info: Petrie
* Donald Locke: Resistant Forms, works by Guyanese-British ceramicist, sculptor and painter, free, Camden Art Centre, Arkwright Road NW3 until 30 August. Info: Art Centre
* When words fall silent, cinema speaks Zineb Sedira’s installation on Algeria’s key role in African cinema in the 1960s and ‘70s, Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG until 17 January. Info: Tate Commission
* When Third Cinema was a power in the land
* gadzi, installation by nora chipaumire that draws on the legends, stones, and soil of her native Zimbabwe, free, Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG until 23 August. Info: Tate
* The South Asia Edit, series of exhibitions celebrating six modern artists (Francis Newton Souza, Mohan Samant, Bhupen Khakhar, Zarina, Zahoor ul Akhlaq and Sheherezade Alam), Sotheby’s, 4 - 35 New Bond Street W1A 2AA, until 7 August. Info: Sotheby’s
* Anish Kapoor, sculptures and paintings by the Mumbai-born Indian-British artist, £22, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX until 18 October. Info: Hayward.
* Kulpreet Singh: Indelible Black Marks, poetic meditation on the urgent link between climate change and agricultural crises, free, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX until 2 August. Info: Hayward
* Earth Photo, 50 winners of international competition on issues affecting the climate and life, free, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR until 24 July. Info: RGS
* 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/
* Target Queen, large-scale commission by British-Indian artist Bharti Kher, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
Performance
* The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, musical based on a book and Netflix film tells the true story of 13-year-old William Kamkwamba who dreams of saving his village but is disbelieved by everyone, from £25, @SohoPlace, W1 until 18 July. Info: @SohoPlace
* Love You Long Time (Already), funny and moving intergenerational epic about mothers and daughters, migration and memory, written by Vietnamese-American playwright Katie Đỗ and directed by Jennifer Tang, Theatre 503, 503 Battersea Park Road SW11 3BW until 25 July. Info: Theatre 503. Related events include 16 July, Vietnamese Community Night
Tuesday 14 - Wednesday 15 July
* Ali in Wonder(Eng)land, a twist on the Lewis Carroll novel telling the story of Ali, who discovers that the UK is a strange land with rules that make no sense. It reflects the experiences of a changed British society as well as new participants, including people from Iran, Venezuela, Eritrea, Cameroon and Poland, £15, Jacksons Lane, 269 Archway Road, N6 5AA. Info: Jacksons Lane
Friday 17 - Saturday 18 July
* Esther’s Revenge, inspired by the true story of Esther Ada Johnson, interactive theatre experience exploring racial discrimination, gender-based violence, abuse of power and social injustice, 6-7pm, free, The Africa Centre, 66 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL. Info: Booking
Saturday 18 - Sunday 19 July
* Riverside Writers Group Showcase, eight emerging playwrights present extracts from plays-in-development, including Your Neighbour by Nayib Jean Baptiste, Sessions by Zainab Swanzy, Angel by Jonas Feind, Really? by Kiko Itasaka, and Dolphins by Set Myint, 7pm, £12/£8, Riverside, 101 Queen Caroline Street W6 9BN. Info: Riverside
Film
* Life Support, first-hand accounts and visceral footage of three international doctors in the Israeli attack on Gaza offer a rare chronicle of the daily struggles of healthcare workers as they navigate bombed-out hospitals, dwindling supplies, starvation and the overwhelming influx of casualties, Picturehouses Central, Finsbury Park, Hackney, and Ritzy; Curzon Bloomsbury; Barbican, Castle, Garden cinema until 16 July; Odeons Acton, Greenwich, Holloway, Kingston, 14 July; Act One, 17 July
+ Phone calls from the Gaza apocalypse
* Shoot The People, documentary about Nigerian-British photographer and activist Misan Harriman who specialises in covering grassroots protests, Picturehouse Central; Curzon Bloomsbury, Barbican
* Birds of War, a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist and cameraman retrace their love story over 13 years of war, revolutions and exile, Curzon Bloomsbury until 16 July.
* Cactus Pears, tender romantic drama exploring grief, tradition, longing and the realities of working-class queer life in India, Castle cinema, until 16 July;
* Persepolis, based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, the film follows her life in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe, Cine Lumiere until 26 July; Picturehouses Central, Crouch End, Finsbury Park, Gate, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood, 13 July
* Call Of My Life, Nigerian romcom, Odeon Greenwich until 15 July;
* London Indian Film Festival, premieres from South Asia, plus restorations of classics of Indian cinema and British Asian shorts. Remaining programme includes In Search of the Sky, Ancestral Hauntings, programme exploring ancestry, heritage, and the lasting impact of colonialism; In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones; + documentaries - If I Could Tell You and Give It A Shot. BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Ciné Lumière, Forest Cinema Walthamstow, Genesis, ICA, Lumiere Romford, Nehru Centre, Regent Street Cinema + 17, 18 July, 52 Blue, Too Desi Too Queer shorts, Anmol - Lovingly Yours and All About Weddings at Lumiere Romford and Forest cinema Walthamstow. Festival ends 18 July. Info: Festival
* Replica, follows three women in China whose virtual boyfriends fill emotional gaps left by loneliness, unfulfilling marriages and the pursuit of independence, revealing the fragile boundary between emotional freedom and reliance on AI and explores how AI reshapes love, intimacy and gender in China, Curzon Bloomsbury. until 16 July
Monday 13 July
* Into The Darkness, former Palestinian detainees describe violence, deprivation and abuse inside Israeli prisons + Q&A with Hind Hassan, Diana Buttu and Nada-Mai Issa, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club 13 Norfolk Place W1. Info: Frontline
Tuesday 14 July
* Birds of War, the love story of a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist and cameraman, told through 13 years of personal archives across revolutions, war, and exile + Q&A with Abd Al-Kadr, Janay Boulos, Ben De Pear, 7pm, £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
Wednesday 15 July
* Bhaji On The Beach, Gurinder Chadha’s tale of British Asian women bonding on a coastal day-trip is an understated gem and a vital portrait of Thatcher’s Britain + introduction by Bhavini Goyate, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre
from Wednesday 15 July
* Peace de Resistance, Sami Abu Wardeh’s show blends Palestinian resistance, identity, and goofy comedy, £21 - £25, Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace N4 3JP until 18 July. Info: Park
Thursday 16 July
* Amores Perros, 25th anniversary of a film classic that chronicles the Mexico City underworld through the perspectives of an amateur dog fighter, a supermodel and an assassin, 7pm, introduction, screening 7.30pm, Curzon Mayfair
Friday 17, 19, 22 July
* The Secret Reading Club of Kabul, in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where women are barred from education, work and public life, a group of young women secretly form a reading club. They document their lives through handwritten diaries and covert phone footage, recording moments of fear, defiance, and solidarity. Interwoven with their journey is director Shakiba Adil’s return, as she reconnects with a new generation confronting the same repression she once fled, Curzon Bloomsbury
Monday 20 July
* No Exit From El Fasher, documentary about the civilian survivors of an 18-month siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces + panel with Eva Khair, Joey Shea, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Julia Steers, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place 1QJ. Info: Frontline
Tuesday 21 July
* Bullet in the Head, John Woo Vietnam war melodrama, an underrated and emotionally devastating masterpiece + introduction by Katie Smith-Wong, 8.25pm, National Film Theatre
TV & radio
Sunday 12 July
* Letters From Baghdad, documentary film about Gertrude Bell who helped shape the Middle East after World War 1 in ways that still reverberate, 10pm, BBC4
* Banel and Adama, a young Senegalese couple try to go their own way in a remote village, 1.05am, Film4
Tuesday 13 July
* I For India, chronicles a touching 40-year exchange of tapes and home movies between a migrant doctor and his family in Manchester and the family he left in India, 2.50am, Channel4
Wednesday 14 July
* Silent War: The Shadow of Atomic Bombs, two-part documentary looks at nuclear testing, 10.40am, PBS America
Thursday 15 July
* Nothing is Normal, drama about a Tehran taxi driver driving through airstrikes, 2.15pm, Radio4
Friday 16 July
* Michael Palin in Venezuela, travelogue, 8pm, Channel5
* The Food programme, the impact of shifting cacao prices, 11am, Radio4
* Central Intelligence, part of series dramatising CIA espionage: this one looks at a British plan to sell buses to Cuba in the 1960s, 2.15pm, Radio4
* Simpson’s dictators, veteran journalist John Simpson recalls meetings with dictators, 9pm, Radio4
Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.