Events in London
» Whats On Events in London
Talks and discussions
Monday 27 July
* Industrialising Africa: why manufacturing drives Africa’s transformation - and delivers returns, 11am - 12.30pm, online. Info: [email protected]
* The Revolutionists, Jason Burke on the extremists who hijacked the 1970s, 7pm, from £5.94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ. Info: Frontline
Thursday 30 July
* 25 Years Since 9/11: Changing British South Asian and Muslim Identities,John Pandit, Jagbir Jhutti-Johal, Sughra Ahmed, Avaes Mohammad, 12-1pm, online. Info: British Future
* Nur Turkmani: October, launch of the debut collection by Lebanese poet Nur Turkmani who tells editor Farhaana Arefin about the six years that inspired the poems, marked by profound change in Lebanon since 2019, 7 - 9pm, Mosaic Rooms, 226 Cromwell Road SW5 OSW. Info: Mosaic Rooms
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
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
* 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.
* 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
* 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
* Bashar Alhroub: Resurrection, “an artistic exploration of war, trauma, and universality” in Palestine, P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD until 28 July. Info: P21
* 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
* 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
from Friday 31 July
* 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
* Bury Me Before You Marry Me, in parts of Asia there is a belief: that when a young man dies unmarried, his parents will find him a bride and hold a ghost wedding to accompany him in death. One day, a British man discovers that his Chinese girlfriend has been involved in a ghost marriage. Dark comedy in which the audience makes decisions about the fate of the characters, £35/£30/£25/£20/£15, The Cockpit until 1 August. Info: Cockpit
* Bitesize Festival, 50+ shows and events and a three-day short-film festival. Shows include 27July- 2 Sept, PalesTEENian, growing up Palestinian in South London; 28 - 30 July, Crush, two Somali teens meet cute; 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
from Thursday 30 July
* Kidnap, based on the true story of writer Samia Rida’s kidnap to Saudi Arabia as a child, the show is a dark, challenging, and defiantly funny exploration of multiculturalism, domestic abuse, having a disabled sibling, and how kidnap can involve a swimming pool, £15, Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace N4 3JP until 1 August. Info: Park
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, Curzon Bloomsbury until 30 July
+ Phone calls from the Gaza apocalypse
* The India Story, a community confronts the devastating impact of pesticide contamination as industrial negligence threatens public health. The fight for accountability exposes systemic failures in regulatory oversight and corporate responsibility, Cineworld Wood Green, Vues North Finchley and Westfield Stratford City
* 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 until 29 July
* 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 30 July
Monday 27 July
* 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, Curzon Bloomsbury
Tuesday 28 July
* Lamo Auru - Old Forest, New Lines, a tree climbing expedition documentary where three British climbers with their indigenous Nakanai guides set out to make first ascents of giant Strangler Fig trees in Papua New Guinea’s remote and untouched Lamo Auru Caldera + Q&A, 6.20pm, Castle cinema
Wednesday 29 July
* Tea Time, female Chilean director Maite Albert’s film five elderly women gather for tea once a month, in female Chilean director Maite Albert’s film, until the absence of one of them makes them face a period of transformations, 6.30pm, £10, Lexi
from Wednesday 29 July
* 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, where Maram is searched and Ish manages to run away, they wrestle to hold onto their friendship + Q&A with co-writer, director, producer and actors, 6.15pm, British Film Institute, Southbank Centre until 13 August; + 30 July, Ritzy Picturehouse, 31 July, Curzon Bloomsbury, ActOne, Picturehouse Central, Finsbury Park and Hackney, Rio, ICA
+ The tug of home, the lure of the street
from Friday 31 July
* The Phantom Pain of Rojava, in the autonomous Kurdish state of Rojava, northern Syria, a group of female fighters once dreamt of changing the world. In the shadow of a failed revolution. Once celebrated as global heroes in the war against Islamic State, they now find themselves abandoned by their allies, living secretly in a house for wounded soldiers, Curzon Bloomsbury, until 6 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 a tender and intimate relationship, creating a quiet exploration of grief, identity and queer love within a traditional rural community, Lexi until 4 August
Tuesday 4 August
* Shoot The People, documentary capturing photographer and activist Misan Harriman’s journey documenting global protest movements, 8.30pm, Act One
* In the Mood for Love (Fa yeung ninwah), Wong Kar Wai delivers an exquisite melodrama about two married neighbours who gradually fall in love, 8.45pm, BFI Southbank
TV and radio
Monday 27 July
* Becoming Frida Kahlo, part of a documentary series about the Mexican artist, 10.30pm, BBC4
* Pooja, Sir, when inspector Pooja is sent to investigate the kidnapping of two boys in a small Nepalese town, she runs into political unrest, violent protests, discrimination and misogyny, and seeks help from a local Madhesi policewoman, 2.45am, Channel4 (is it a cast-iron TV rule that interesting films from the Global South are broadcast at times when only a handful of people are watching?)
* How Did We Get Here? No World Order, new series examines developments in the last 30 years, 9.30am, 9.30pm,Radio4
Tuesday 28 July
* Blinded By The Light, a teenager from a British Asian family in 1987 learns to live his life and understand his family through the music of US rock star Bruce Springsteen, 10.40pm, BBC1
* Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?, repeat of documentary series, 11pm, BBC4
Friday 31 July
* Michael Palin in Venezuela, travelogue, 8pm, Channel4
* Central Intelligence, part of drama series about CIA activities, 2.15pm, Radio4
Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.