Events in London
» Whats On Events in London
Talks and discussions
Monday 5 October
* Palestine: A British Question?, Humza Yousaf and Husam Zomlot discuss why Palestine resonates so powerfully in British politics, Britain’s responsibility today, and whether Britain’s relationship with Palestine is changing, 6.15 - 7.30pm, £16.80, livestream £6.50, The Conduit, 6 Langley Street WC2H 9JA. Info: The Conduit
* Malaria across scales: From global burden to cases on our doorstep, Jackie Cook, Fitsum Tadesse, Claire Rogers, 5..30 - 6.30pm, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, WC1E 7HT. Info: LSHTM
* Yugoslavism and its migrations: new directions in Yugoslav studies, Jelena Calic, Eric Gordy, Ljubica Spaskovska, 4pm, free, British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1. Info: Library
Tuesday 6 October
* Reporting The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Iona Craig, Jeanne Carstensen, Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes on reporting beyond the news cycle, the ethics and intimacy of telling other people’s stories, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2. Info: Frontline
* Every last girl: a journey to educate India’s forgotten daughters, Safeena Husain, 6,30 -8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
* Economies, institutions and gender: two talks on Taiwan’s development, Tsong-Min Wu and Elliott Fan, 7-9pm, SOAS,Thornhaugh Street, WC1
Wednesday 7 October
* Sixty Years On - How can Nigeria escape fragility trap and unlock its potential, Olu Fasan, 5.30 - 6.45pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
* Radical Justice - An Evening with Nani Jansen Reventlow, 6.30 - 8.30pm, £20, Black Cultural Archives, 1 Windrush Square SW2 1EF. Info: Eventbrite
* Backstage of Democracy: India's Election Campaigns and the People who Manage Them, Amogh Sharma on his new book, 5 - 6.30pm, King’s College, Room: BH (S) 2.02 Strand campus, 30 Aldwych, WC2B 4BG
* Book Launch: Ten Steps to Prevent World War Three, Tobias Ellwood, 6 - 7.30pm, K~ing’s College, Dockrill Room (KIN 628) Strand Campus, Strand, WC2R 2LS
Thursday 8 October
* Gladys West "I've got to get this right": A life of achievements that underpin GPS, Philip Moore on the woman of whom it was said: “Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology exists because of two people, namely Albert Einstein and Gladys West”, 6.30 - 7.15pm, free, in person and online, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS
* Palestinian Resistance: 1917 - 2026, short documentary + Philip Marfleet, author of Palestine, Imperialism and the Struggle for Freedom, Luca Salice and Helena Aksentijevic, 6.30 - 8.30pm, P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD. Info: P21
* UNRWA, Gaza and the future of multilateralism with Philippe Lazzarini, in his first public event since standing down as Commissioner-General of UNRWA, 4 - 5.30pm. Info: Institute of Development Studies
* Moving Caste: Fish, Labor, and Bicycles in Kolkata, 6 - 7.30pm, Malini Sur, 6-7.30pm, King’s College, Room: SE 2.10 Strand campus, 30 Aldwych WC2B 4BG
* State of the Commonwealth Small States: building resilience and strategic relevance, webinar with Matthew Bishop, Thomas Munthali, Opeyemi Abebe, Tamara Mughogho, Patrick Mifsud, Antigua and Barbuda High Commissioner Karen-Mae Hill, 3.30 - 5pm. Info: Overseas Development Institute
* Carrying Histories: Indigenous Feminisms and Photography, Tarrah Krajnak, born in Lima and adopted by a white working-class American family, explores the gaps in her personal history against the backdrop of Peru’s political upheaval, and Koyoltzintli reflects on how Indigenous origin stories and cultural traditions sustain connection across generations, 6.30 - 7.30pm, Autograph, Rivington Place EC2A 3BA. Info: Autograph
Thursday 8 October
* Dear Home Office… (Letters I’ll Never Send), speculative writing workshop led by Olivia Majumdar, enabling those with lived experience of migration to address the Home Office in a way not possible within the bureaucratic maze of the ‘hostile environment’, 6.39 - 8.30pm, Whitechapel Gallery, 77 - 82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX. Info: Workshop
Saturday 10 October
* Kim Choyeop, a leading voice in contemporary Korean science fiction discusses her debut collection, newly published in English, her latest novel and the ideas at the heart of her writing, 5pm, £10, Foyles bookshop, 107 Charing Cross road. Info: Foyles
Monday 12 October
* Sustainable post-crisis development: the need for a human rights approach, Agnes Callamard, Polly Truscott, Myfanwy James, 6.30-8pm, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2
Tuesday 13 October
* Twelve Days That Shook The Middle East, Marwan Bishara on his book which argues that the post-7 October 2023 conflict was an asymmetric anti-colonial struggle and the genocide was a blueprint, not a misstep, 7pm, from £6.13, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
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
* 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
* 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.
* 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
* 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
* 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
* A Life of Navigation, Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying explores our ambiguous relationship with both analogue and digital technologies through installation, video, photography, and sculpture, free, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, until 18 October. Info: Hayward
* Zifzafa, free exhibition of video works by Lawrence Abu Hamdan that address how sound can both sustain and disrupt the richness of community life, Barbican Centre, Silk Street EC2Y 8DS. Info: Barbican
Thursday 8 October
* 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
* 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
* Darkling, one-woman show exploring the impact of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster, £15 - £45, Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, W12 8LJ until 24 October. Info: Bush
+ A bleak story that needs to be re-told
* The Story, when a white teacher is killed in a black neighbourhood, four journalists race to get the headline. But when shocking new evidence pulls them into the dark heart of the case, they are each forced to confront what they’re prepared to risk to tell their version of the truth, National Theatre, South Bank SE1 9PX, until 24 October. Info: National
* For coloured girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, “Stories of love and violence, joy and survival - and what it feels like to come out the other side”, Yard Theatre, Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, E9 until 17 October. Info: The Yard
* The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media), BÉZNĂ Theatre’s multimedia investigation into the relationship between mainstream media, public opinion and state crime, £13 - £19, New Diorama Theatre, 15 - 16 Triton Street, Regent's Place, NW1 3BF, untll 10 October. Info: New Diorama
+ 5 Oct, Shadow World Investigations community workshop, 6-8pm; 6 Oct, Producing Political Theatre workshop, 4-6pm; 9 Oct, International State Crime Initiative community workshop, 4-6pm
+ Angry response to the first year (of the Gaza Genocide)
* The Hungry Ghost, Mei Leng Yew’s sexy horror rom-com exploring what takes root in the space between superstition and rationality, £15 to £25. Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Rd, W12 8LJ until 31 October. Info: Bush
+ Blood of My Blood, South Carolina, 1862. As war rages beyond the plantation, Ginnie Good raises five children in a cabin that will outlast them all. Today, in the same cabin, now a trendy Airbnb, a pregnant Black woman communes with her ancestors, seeking answers to questions she's afraid to ask anyone else, £15-£30, Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS until 7 November. Info: Royal Court
from Tuesday 6 October
* Fences, alive with rhythms of blues and jazz, humour and heartbreak, August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, set in the 1950s, is a timeless portrait of grief, love and what it means to be a family in post-war Black America, £10 - £55, Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL, until 31 October. Info: Lyric
Wednesday 7 October
* Shanzhai Lyric Runway Reading, reading and wearing of poetry inspired by counterfeit T-shirts made in China, shaking up what we think about language and power, 8pm, from £13, National Poetry Library, Blue Side, level 5, Royal Festival, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. Info: Poetry Library
from Sunday 11 October
* For The Culture, Celebrations of Blackness Festival, “an act of resistance, a space for joy, reflection, and conversation, a place to champion and celebrate Black British artists, activists, and thinkers within our community”, Lyric Square, King Street W6 0QL until 31 October. Info: Lyric
Film
* Knife; The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, explores the author’s life, career and recovery following an attempted assassination in 2022, Barbican, Curzon Bloomsbury until 8 October
+ Rushdie film: ‘It’s not just about me. It’s about freedom’
* Cotton Queen, in a Sudanese cotton-farming village, teenage Nafisa grows up with her matriarch grandmother's heroic tales of resistance against British colonisers. But when an ambitious businessman arrives with genetically engineered cotton and a high-stakes development plan, Nafisa finds herself at the centre of a battle for her village's future, Vues Fulham Broadway and Westfield Stratford City; ICA, Institut francais, until 8 October
* Kikuyu Land, while investigating Kenya's global tea industry, Nairobi journalist Bea Wangondu stumbles upon her own family's concealed secrets, pushing her to peel back the layers of Kenya's colonial legacy, Curzon Bloomsbury until 7 October; Garden 7, 13 October
+ Two Kenyans fight on for a glimpse of paradise
* The Cycle of Love, reconstructs a 1977 journey, when a Delhi street artist set off on a 6,000-mile trip to find the woman who had captured his heart, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 8 October; Lexi 7 October
Monday 5 October
* Life Support, since October 2023, Gaza has been sealed from the world except for international doctors who find a humanitarian crisis and a calculated dismantling of life itself + Q&A with director Daniele Rugo, Victoria Rose and Robert Del Naja, 6.10pm, + 8.55pm, Lexi
+ Phone calls from the Gaza apocalypse
Wednesday 7 October
* Critical Affection Trilogy by Michelle Williams Gamaker, the artist presents a trilogy that reimagines overlooked film histories, challenging the colonial and imperialist narratives of early British and Hollywood cinema + discussion, 6.20pm, £15.50, Barbican
from Wednesday 7 October
* BFI London Film Festival, this is the big one - films from everywhere, for everyone. Features (thematic strands: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Experimenta, Shorts, Family, Animation, Series) + immersive and extended reality, discussions, free events, until 18 October. Info: Festival website
+ Africa, Asia and Latin America at the London Film Festival
+ A message from Yemeni women: ‘No men, no weapons, no politics’
+ The Philippines as a luxury golf resort
+ More a whydunnit than a whodunnit
+ China’s one-child policy delivers a girl with three names
Thursday 8 October
* Cinema F’El Salon: Emra’ah wa Khamsat Regal, Ghazal is a modest gal who climbs from maid to MD, breaking hearts along the way + dance party, 6 - 11pm, Multi Story at Peckham Levels, 95a Rye Lane SE15 4ST. Info: Cinema F’El Salon
Friday 9 October
* Wealth Of a Nation and From These Roots, two films by William Greaves that explore his interest in the Harlem Renaissance and his advocacy for racial justice + conversation with David Greaves, Liani Greaves and Kodwo Eshun, 6.30pm, Barbican
from Friday 9 October
* Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, the story of photographer, freedom fighter and activist Kwame Brathwaite, Curzon Bloomsbury until 11 October + 14, 15 October
TV and radio
Monday 5 October
* Global Eye, news magazine, 7pm, BBC2
* Michael Palin in The Philippines, part 2, thankfully less bland than the 83-year-old’s previous travelogue series, 9pm, Channel 5
* All We Imagine As Light, drama about the lives of three women in Mumbai, 10.20pm, Film4
* Wakhri, Pakistani drama, 2.50am, Channel4
Tuesday 6 October
* The Lost World of Tibet, 11.30pm, 1.55am, BBC4
Wednesday 7 October
* Sorry, I Didn’t Know,, Black comedy quiz, 11.35pm, ITV1
Thursday 8 October
* Alexander Armstrong in India, bland travelogue, and, to add insult to injury, the broadcaster’s name ranks higher than the name of the country, 10.05pm, Channel5
Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.