Events in London
» Whats On Events in London
Talks and discussions
Monday 15 June
* Outsourcing surveillance: Online public opinion management in China, Lynette Ong, 5pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1
Monday 15 - Sunday 21 June
* Refugee Week. Info: Refugee Week
from Monday 15 June
* How To Save the Planet, the LSE Festival includes talks, debates, films, workshops and family events, in-person and online, free, until 20 June. Info: Festival
Tuesday 16 June
* Feeding the world without costing the earth, Andrew Balmford gives the inaugural Royal Society Environment Prize Lecture, 6.30-7.30pm, free, in-person and online, Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace SW1Y 5AG. Info: Royal Society
* Grooming, coerced marriage and conversion of minority women: Global incidence and evidence, Martz Tadros, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Archbishop Angaelos, Javaid Rehman, 5-7pm, Committee Room 16, Houses of Parliament, SW1A 0AA. Info: Institute of Development Studies
* Big Tech and Democracy, Beeban Kidron joins Misha Glenny, 6.15pm, £16.80, online £6.50, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit
Wednesday 17 June
* The Long Reach of Authoritarianism, Hannah Lucinda Smith, Suzy Hansen, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
* Rebel English Academy, Mohammed Hanif on his novel in which a cast of disconnected characters face a modernising, martial law Pakistan with violence, passion and occasional sharp humour, 5.15pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1
* Inside the Dark Economy, Anja Shortland and Oliver Bullough, 6.15pm, £6.50 online, £16.80, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street, WC2H 9JA, Info: The Conduit
* Courageous campaigning: fighting for justice for migrants impacted by climate breakdown, Yazan Miri, 3-5pm, Jean Stokes Community Centre, Coatbridge House, Carnoustie Drive, N1 0DX. Info: JCWI
Thursday 18 June
* South Africa’s growth and reform agenda: implications for international economic engagement, 4-5.30pm, in-person and online, Overseas Development Institute, 4 Millbank SW1P 3JA. Info: ODI.
Saturday 20 June
* The Fourth Wall, Fergal Keane and Sorj Chalandon discuss war and storytelling + screening of the 2024 adaptation of the eponymous novel; part of Beyond Words Festival, 8-22 June, Institut francais, 17 Queensberry Place SW7 2DT.
* The Black Literary Festival, more than 25 authors, artists, academics and cultural leaders in a day of conversations, performances and discussion, including Paterson Joseph, Baroness Young, Roy Williams, Gary Younge, Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Blue Plaque Nubian Jak, Dwain Neil. The programme explores storytelling, Windrush, Black representation in literature and the arts, and the importance of preserving and celebrating Black history, heritage and culture, 11am-6pm, £15, Riverside, 101 Queen Caroline Street, W6 9BN. Info: Festival.
Sunday 21 June
* Queer Migrant Pride Festival, performances, workshops, stalls and services, 12-9.30pm, St Margarets House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL. Info: Festival
Monday 22 June
* Remaking global trade governance: trade, climate and global cooperation in a fragmenting world, Ese Owie, Jan Yves Remy, Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Faizel Ismail, Jodie Keane, Kasonde Chituta, Janet Njambi, 2-5pm, in-person and online, Overseas Development Institute, 4 Millbank SW1P 3JA. Info: ODI
Tuesday 23 June
* The British Society of Criminology’s Green Criminology Research Network annual conference, Elliot Doornbos, Melanie Flynn, Angus Nurse, Jac Reed, Damien Short, Nigel South, 10am - 4pm, Senate House, Malet Street, WC1E 7HU. Info: Conference
* Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas, the author discusses his debut novel about five characters caught in the crosshairs of conflict on the Sudan border, 6.30pm, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, WC1
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
* Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, 300 works including posters, journals, and film, from Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe, from the 1920s to the present. Artists include Kader Attia; Marlene Dumas; Inji Efflatoun; Sonia Gomes; David Hammons; Nicholas Hlobo; Claudette Johnson; Wifredo Lam; Simone Leigh; Ernest Mancoba; Kawira Mwirichia; Abdias Nascimento; Grace Ndiritu; Magdalene Odundo; Chris Ofili; Colette Omogbai, The Otolith Group; Ingrid Pollard; Samir Rafi; Cauleen Smith, Tavares Strachan, £19, Barbican, 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
* Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, work by more than 40 artists from 25 countries, V&A South Kensington until 10 January. Info: Vam.ac.uk
+ Striking voices in the Asia-Pacific region
* 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
* Hurvin Anderson, 80 new works by the British-Jamaican artist, Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG until 23 August. Info: Tate
* 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
* Target Queen, large-scale commission by British-Indian artist Bharti Kher, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
* The Arab Hall: Past and Present, commissioned short film by Syrian director Soudade Kaadan, three art installations and exhibition and publication containing extensive new research, Wednesdays to Mondays, free with £14 House entry fee (conc. available), Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, W8 7BH, until 4 October. Info: Leighton House
* 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
* Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire, reimagines archival photographs from her family’s time in Vietnam and then Europe, building elaborate visual reconstructions that echo how memory in the diaspora can blur and slip from view, free, Autograph, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA until 19 September. Info: Autograph
* The Music is Black: A British Story, how Black British music has shaped British culture from 1900 to the present day 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
* 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
from Tuesday 16 June
* 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. Into: Hayward
Performance
* The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, musical based on an international best-selling book, and a Netflix film by Chiwetel Ejiofor. It tells the true true story of 13-year-old William Kamkwamba who dreams of saving his Malawian village — but no one believes he can, from £25 @SohoPlace, 4 Soho Place, W1D 3BG until 18 July. Info: @SohoPlace
* The Harder They Fall, based on the cult classic film that brought reggae to the world, tells the story of Ivan, an aspiring singer who arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, determined to live out his dreams on his own terms and make it as a music superstar, £10-£53, Stratford East, until 4 July. Info: Stratford East
+ “What’s this groove becoming? How The Harder They Come captured Jamaica and blazed on to stage
* The P Word, charts the parallel lives of two gay Pakistani men under the UK government’s increasingly hostile position against migrants, Bush Theatre, until 27 June. Info: Bush + post-show discussions: 18 June, Being Seen and Heard: Representation and Visibility in the Digital Age. Nikita Gill, Ranj Singh; 25 June, Queerness, Justice, and Political Courage, Zarah Sultana MP, Richard Attendet
+ When the P word meets the G word
* Under the Shadow, eerie adaptation of an award-winning horror film. Set during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, it explores the boundary between the rational and the irrational, and the question of whether to leave or stay, £27.50-£55, Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, N1 1TA until 4 July. Info: Almeida
* Driftwood, drama of power, passion and drama set in a downtown gentleman’s club in colonial Trinidad where support for independence is growing, £15-£40, Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road NW6 7JR until 4 July. Info: Kiln
* Soldiers of Tomorrow, former Israeli Defence Force soldier Itai Erdal, accompanied by Syrian-born musician Emad Armoush, shares the story of his military service in a personal insight into the Arab-Israeli conflict, the occupation of Palestine, and the conditions that led to 7 October, the horror of Gaza, and war with Iran and Lebanon + post-show discussion after each performance. Erdal says, “Since its original run in 2023, it has been nearly impossible to find a theatre brave enough to present Soldiers of Tomorrow, and I am glad to be able to finally bring the show back to the UK at the ever-courageous Finborough Theatre”, £18 - £29, Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, SW10 9ED until 4 July. Info: Finborough
* A Fine Idea, aid worker Jo has built a career helping those most in need but now wonders if the system she believes in might be part of the problem and whether we really want to change things - or whether we just like the idea of helping, £15-£29, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street E8 3DL until 4 July. Info: Arcola + Post-show events: 23 June: Meet the team, the cast, director + writer Christine Bacon discuss the ideas behind the play and bringing it to the stage. + 29 June: Let’s talk about debt, Naomi Nyamweya of Malala Fund and Eva Watkinson of Debt Justice UK + 4 July, Q&A with Jason Hickel
+ A Fine Idea joins the dots on aid
Wednesday 17 June
* Alt B: This Is Who I Am, rehearsed reading of verbatim testimonies of three LGBTQIA+ refugees navigating the UK asylum system + Q&A on the making of the script, the realities behind the testimonies, the wider pressures faced by LGBTQIA+ people seeking asylum, and how audiences can support LGBTQIA+ refugees, 8pm, £10-£20, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ. Info: Bush
from Wednesday 17 June
* Camdenwalla, based on true stories in Camden in 1994, the play focuses on a group of volunteers organising against growing racist attacks, £12-£18, Camden Peoples Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road NW1 2PY until 4 July. Info: Camdenwalla
from Tuesday 23 June
* Safe Haven, set in 1991 between the Kurdish mountains and the Foreign Office in Whitehall, the play follows two diplomats and a Kurdish refugee pushing the British government to act and prevent a genocide. The playwright is a former British diplomat in Iraqi-Jurdistan and based on real events, £15-£39, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street E8 3DL until 27 June. Info: Arcola
+ How last-minute diplomacy halted a genocide
Film
* Loving Karma, In the remote foothills of the Himalayas, former monk Lobsang Phuntsok has built a community for children who have endured abandonment and neglect, Curzon Bloomsbury until 17 June
Monday 15 June
* Disciples, On the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi, two boys enter a revered Hindu school where lessons in ancient scripture blur into something more troubling, 6.30pm, Curzon Bloomsbury
From Monday 15 June
* Dreamers, Nigerian migrant Isio (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́) finds love while detained in the Hatchworth Removal Centre, Lexi + 16, 17 June
Tuesday 16 June
* Allies In Exile, traces Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi’s 14-year friendship from documenting the Syrian uprising to life inside the UK asylum system + Q&A, 6.20pm, £9.50, National Film Theatre
* My Foreign Land (Minha Terra Estrangeira), collective cinema rethinking land, identity and belonging from Indigenous Brazilian perspectives, 8.50pm, National Film Theatre
* The Second Mother (Que Horas Ela Volta?), funny, piercing look at class and care inside a privileged São Paulo household, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre
* Cactus Pears (Sahar Bonda), sensitive romantic drama exploring grief, tradition, longing and the realities of lower-class queer life in India + Q&A with the director, Rohan Kanawade, 6.15pm, National Film Theatre
Tuesday 16-Wednesday 17 June
* A Last Big Story, Jon Snow comes out of retirement to travel to Zambia to uncover a mining disaster covered up by officials in what becomes a year-long pursuit to expose how a Chinese-owned mine has decimated a community’s land and water, Curzon Bloomsbury
Wednesday 17 June
* Cactus Pears, a Mumbai call-centre worker returns to his ancestral Maharashtra village to observe the 10-day mourning ritual for his father and reconnects with a childhood friend facing similar struggles in life + Q&A with director Rohan Kanawade + Q&A, 6.15pm, Castle
* The Day I Met You (O Dia Em Que Te Conheci), a chance encounter transforms routine and longing in this quietly luminous Brazilian romance, 9pm, National Film Theatre
* The Runaway (Bari Theke Paliye), 1954 Indian story of discovery, longing and hardship in an indifferent city, Kolkata, 6pm, National Film Theatre
* Wadjda, Saudi Arabian debut shows a rebellious girl, her eyes set on the bicycle of her dreams, realising that financial independency is the path to freedom + intro by Sarah Agha, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre
* The Boy and the Wind, a boy disappears in a rural Brazilian community and all fingers point to a stranger in this magical realist drama, 6.20pm, Barbican
* A World Not Ours, Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel shares the lives of his family, friends and home in the Ain El-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon before resettling in Denmark,
from Wednesday 17 June
* 34th Raindance Film Festival, programme includes Lost Land, follows a 4-year-old and his 9-year-old sister, who leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia; No Lastname, during the Covid-19 pandemic, an undocumented family living on society’s margins struggles with poverty, grief and emotional collapse. As death and desperation close in, fragile relationships begin to fracture; Paro: The Untold Story of Bride Slavery, Marathi actress Trupti Bhoir plays a woman whose journey exposes the horrors of being sold as a bride, enduring abuse, and losing her son; Rooted Out: Chapter 1, set against the backdrop of the 2024 Southport Riots when a dispute between neighbouring families spirals into a volatile confrontation, exposing buried prejudice, racial tension and moral hypocrisy; Child of Dust, 55-year-old Sang: an unwanted and discriminated child from the Vietnam war, must confront his own weaknesses and fatherly shortcomings when he miraculously finds his American father; In The Path of Giants, hungry elephants in southern Bangladesh trapped by the world’s largest refugee camp rampage over farmland, resulting in tension between refugees, local Bengalis and indigenous farmers; Let Us Be, portrait of Intersex individuals across India, Brazil, and the US. Until 26 June. Info: www.raindance.org/festival
Thursday 18 June
* The Woman of Everyone (A Mulher de Todos), a delirious anti-heroine tears through São Paulo, in a defining classic of Brazil’s Cinema Marginal + intro by Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, 6pm, National Film Theatre
* Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos), Sonia Braga dazzles in this sensual and hugely popular classic, 8.25pm, National Film Theatre
* No Pride in Genocide, short films co-organised by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, 6pm, Castle, 64-66 Brooksby’s Walk E9. Info: Castle
* Surviving Earth, based on a true story, we follow talented harmonica player Vlad, who arrived in the UK in the 1990s after fleeing the conflict in Yugoslavia. Vlad, now living in Bristol, has brought his roots and love for Balkan music to the city by forming a band with his friends from work + director Q&A, 7pm, £3, Lexi
Friday 19 June
* Khartoum, five residents - a civil servant, a tea seller, a resistance committee volunteer and two young bottle collectors - re-enact their lives and escape from the city + discussion with Snoopy Ibrahim, Philip Cox, Yousef Jubeh, Giovanni Stopponi, 6.10pm, £9.50pm, National Film Theatre
+ Sudan’s war re-enacted in exile
* Flee, animated documentary about an Afghan refugee and his life-long secret + discussion with director, 6.10pm, £15.50, Barbican
* Alien Nights (Noites Alienígenas), an urgent Amazon-set drama of youth, violence and Indigenous identity, 8.55pm, National Film Theatre
from Friday 19 June
* KIlling Anna, a Syrian woman goes undercover online to track down a war criminal, creating a fake profile and befriending the man she believes responsible for a massacre during the Syrian civil war, Curzon Bloomsbury until 25 June
* Cactus Pears (Sahar Bonda), Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s debut feature is a sensitive romantic drama exploring grief, tradition, longing and the realities of lower-class queer life in India, National Film Theatre until 25 June
Saturday 20 June
* Incomplete Works, three incomplete films and a short documentary by Indian director Ritwik Ghatak + intro by season curator Sanghita Sen, 6.10pm, National Film Theatre
* Iracema: Uma Transa Amazonica, a once-banned, newly restored road movie captures a transforming Amazon, 8.40pm, National Film Theatre
* The Uprooted (Chinammul), the earliest documentation of the refugee crisis caused by the Partition of India, 12.15pm, National Film Theatre
* Pilar’s Diary in the Amazon (O Diário de Pilar na Amazônia), upon visiting the Amazon, young Pilar decides to take some environmental action, in this powerful family drama, 12:20pm, National Film Theatre
* Lúcio Flávio, o Passageiro da Agonia, Brazilian thriller about a real-life criminal, 6pm, National Film Theatre
Sunday 21 June
* Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, an investigation into the impact of Israeli military operations on Gaza’s healthcare system, where all 36 main hospitals have been damaged or destroyed and over 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed + discussion between Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Moosa Qureshi and a representative from Basement Films, 3pm, £14.50, Rich Mix
* Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (Babenco: Alguém Tem que Ouvir o Coração e Dizer Parou), tender portrait of one of Brazil’s most influential filmmakers + Q&A with director Barbara Paz, 6.15pm, National Film Theatre
* The Diamond Butterfly (Heerer Prajapati), an intriguingly charming journey of a lost butterfly-shaped diamond brooch, 3.15pm, National Film Theatre
* Pixote (Pixote, a Lei do Mais Fraco), visceral portrayal of abandoned childhood and institutional violence in Brazil is considered a masterpiece of social realism + intro by director Barbara Paz, 2.20pm, National Film Theatre
* Libya in Motion, shorts filmed over three years by emergent filmmakers in post-revolution Libya + intro and post-film discussion, 4-8pm, Good Shepherd Studios, 15a Davies Lane, Leytonstone, E11 3DR. Info: Maghreb Cinema
Monday 22 June
* Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus), lyrical road movie wherein cinema and friendship cross Brazil’s arid countryside + introduction by season co-curator Adriana Rouanet, 6.20pm, National Film Theatre
* White House, vibrant new perspective on favela life, rooted in community, loss and lived experience + Q&A with director Luciano Vidigal, 8.40pm, National Film Theatre
* Shorts and Documentaries, a selection of work directed and supervised by Indian director Ritwik Ghatak, 6.30pm, National Film Theatre
from Tuesday 23 June
* The Mission, follows British-Iraqi NHS nerve surgeon Mohammed Tahir as he embarks on his third humanitarian mission to Gaza in October 2024: a personal, unfiltered account filmed over four months, filmed on phones smuggled into Gaza, Apple TV, YouTube Movies and Vimeo On Demand
* Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra), the first documentary by Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel reflects on a 2009 land dispute that resulted in the death of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar, Curzon Bloomsbury until 11 June
*
TV and radio
Sunday 15 June
* Free Nelson Mandela, first in documentary series about the great man, 9pm, Ch4
* Windrush: Portraits of a Generation, 10 paintings, 10.05pm, 1am, BBC4
Monday 16 June
* Lebanon’s Abandoned Lives, 4pm, Radio4
Tuesday 17 June
* Thinking Allowed, the sociology programme looks at colonial histories, inequality and the history of sociology, 3.30pm, Radio4
Wednesday 18 June
* To Catch A King, documentary series about the hunt for a people-smuggler, 9.30am, Radio4
Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.