Speaking for Ourselves

Events in London

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13/04/2026

Events in London

Migrant Voice

Talks and discussions

Tuesday 4 August

* The Gaza Tribunal, Neve Gordon, Shahd Hammouri and Jeremy Corbyn discuss their book, 7 - 8.30pm, £10, Foyles, Charing Cross Road. Info: Foyles

Thursday 6 August

* From Heathrow to Miami: Immigration Enforcement in Action, webinar with Naomi Steinberg, Theresa Schleicher, 6.30pm, online. Info: HIAS: JCORE

Tuesday 11 August

* Objects sent to the UK from 1850s Brazil, Luisa Karman, one of two free lunchtime talks, 1 - 2pm, British Library, Euston Road NW1. Info: British Library

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. Info: V&A East Museum

* 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

* 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: Parks

* The Meeting Ground: Scenes from the KNMA Collection, modern South Asian painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video from the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, free, Christie’s, 8 King Street SW1Y 6QT, until 21 August. Info: Christie’s

* 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

* 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 Jude 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 Ndirutu, Magdalene Odundo, Chris Ofili, Colette Omogbai, The Otolith Group, Ingrid Pollard, Samir Rafi, Cauleen Smith, Tavares Strachan, £19, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2 Y 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 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

* 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

* 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

* 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

* 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.

* 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

* Fozia Ismail: A Song for the Xeedho – The Knot Makers, interactive installation that centres on the wedding basket made by Somali nomadic women that has become endangered due to the climate crisis, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX until 6 September. Info: Gallery + Related events include 13 August, Under the Open Sky, screening and Q&A; 15 Aug, Listening to the Xeedho Archive, 2-3pm; Climate, Censorship and East African Futures, 4 - 5pm; 20 Aug, A song for the Xeedho, 6.30 - 9pm

* 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

* Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care – Spaces of Grief and Possibility, centres 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

* 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.

* Target Queen, large-scale commission by British-Indian artist Bharti Kher, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre

* 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

* 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

* Bitesize Festival, 50+ shows and events and a three-day short-film festival. Shows include 11 - 14 Aug, Beige, Swiss-Congolese theatre-maker Jessica Nlabu focuses on a woman caught between cultures and labels; 14 - 16 Aug, Stuck in Dubai; 17 - 23 Aug, Kingdom of Ghosts, solo performance that moves between rap and direct address to dial into Congo's unresolved past; Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline Street W6 9BN, until 30 August. Info: Festival

Friday 7 - Sunday 9 August

* Dear Kaffy: Diary of a Single Woman in Lagos, exploration of modern African womanhood — the pressures of marriage, family expectation, and societal judgement, and the courage it takes to choose oneself, £45, Shaw Theatre, 100 - 110 Euston Road, NW1 2AJ. Info: Shaw Theatre

Film

* Ish, set and filmed in the South Asian and Middle Eastern community in Luton, the film follows 12-year-old best friends, Ish and Maram, who are navigating childhood against a backdrop of political tension and personal loss. After a police stop and search, from which Ish flees, they wrestle to hold onto their friendship, Barbican, Curzon Bloomsbury, Picturehouses Central, Finsbury Park, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, ICA; + British Film Institute until 13 August

+ The tug of home, the lure of the street

* Flavours of Iraq, French-born journalist Feurat Alani narrates an animated documentary about his complicated connection to Iraq, the country of his parents, and the impact of US intervention, Curzon Bloomsbury until 6 August

* How To Feed A Dictator, the story of five brutal regimes, from Iraq to North Korea, through the eyes of the personal chefs who served them + director Q&A, 6.20pm, Cursor Bloomsbury until 13 August

* Cactus Pears, when a Mumbai call-centre worker returns to his ancestral village to observe the 10-day mourning ritual following his father’s death, he reconnects with a childhood friend facing similar struggles. Their bond deepens into an intimate relationship, creating a quiet exploration of grief, identity and queer love within a traditional rural community, Lexi until 4 August

* The Phantom Rain of Rojava, during the Syrian civil war, women in the autonomous Kurdish state of Rojava took to arms to defend democracy and the rights of women. The film follows a group of wounded soldiers over five years as they attempt to rebuild their lives in a safe house, Curzon Bloomsbury until 6 August

Tuesday 4 August

* Shoot The People, documentary capturing photographer and activist Misan Harriman’s journey documenting global protest movements, 8.30pm, Act One

+ Photographer of protest

* In The Mood for Love, Wong Kar Wai’s exquisite melodrama about married neighbours who gradually fall in love, 8.45pm, BFI Southbank

Wednesday 5 August

* Planet Israel, British-American Jew Gillian Mosely investigates how so many Israeli Jews voiced support for their country’s massive retaliation for the 7 October Hamas attack + Q&A with Mosely, 6.30pm, Castle cinema

* Israel is off the rails, says brain-fry documentary

from Friday 7 August

* Bouchra, wrestling with writer’s block for her first film, a queer Moroccan jackal living in New York starts having difficult yet overdue phone calls with her mother in Casablanca that begin influencing the project. Her emotional reckoning with her mother and herself becomes her path to expression in this weird film, ICA until 12 August

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

Saturday 8 August

* In the Mood for Love (Fa yeung ninwah), Wong Kar Wai delivers an exquisite melodrama about two married neighbours who gradually fall in love, 6.10pm, BFI Southbank

Sunday 9 August

* I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba), riveting camerawork meets revolutionary ideas in this utterly unique, hugely influential 1964 film, 12, BFI Southbank

TV and radio

Sunday 2 August

* Groomed: The Truth Behind the Lie, three-parter about the case of a woman found guilty of lying about a British-Asian grooming gang, 9pm, Sky Documentaries

* Captain Phillips, drama about a ship hijack by Somali pirates, 9pm, Film4

* John Simpson’s Dictators, the journalist looks back,10pm, Radio4

Monday 3 August

* Global Eye, the World Service infiltrates local BBC with this news magazine programme, 7pm, BBC2

* Becoming Frida Kahlo, second part of documentary about the Mexican painter, 10.20pm, 1.20am, BBC4

* How Did We Get Here? No World Order, second in series examines developments in the last 30 years, 9.30am, 9.30pm, Radio4

* Naturebang, discussion on rights for rivers and forests, 2.45pm, Radio4

Tuesday 4 August

* Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?, documentary, 9pm, 11pm, 12pm, BBC4

Thursday 6 August

* Who do you think you are?, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson heads for the Bahamas and Miami as she looks into her past, 9pm, BBC1

* Possession, horror drama set in Jamaica, 9pm, Sky Atlantic