From the Editor
* The Gate Theatre is closing after nearly 50 years of “transformative international theatre” and “several years of survival in a precarious funding climate”. The news follows on the heels of an announcement that The Africa Centre is broke and has been forced to close. The Centre’s CEO said it must raise £100,000 to reopen the building.
Daniel Nelson london.globalevents@gmail.com
TALKS AND DISCUSSIONS
Thursday 24 September
* On Come What May, We're Here to Stay, historian and 2026 Orwell Prize finalist Taj Alias presents a landmark history of British South Asian political activism published in the wake of the riots of summer 2024, online. FANE, until 8 October.
* Omar El Akkad in Conversation, the author - born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada and now lives in the US - discusses his bestseller, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, 7.30pm, from £26, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. Info: Southbank Centre
* Black Cultural Archives, community meeting to discuss the future vision and plans for BCA, Wanda Wyporska, Harlynn Homan, Inez Brown, in person and online, 6.30pm, BCA, 1 Windrush Square SW2 1EF. Info: BCA
* The impact of the West Asia war on Asia, and on Asia–UK economic ties, Sir Vince Cable, 6pm, Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street W1G 7LP. Info: Democracy Asia
Saturday 26 September
* Photographing Palestine, symposium on how photography has shaped the ways Palestine and its people have been seen and understood, including a session focusing on 20th-century photographers from Gaza; with artists, curators and researchers, 10am-5pm, £8 - £10, V&A Museum, Cromwell Road SW7 2RL. Info: V&A
* Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: On Freedom, shares the story of her six-year imprisonment in Iran, 7.30 - 8.45pm, from £34.95, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS
* Earthmoving: Extractivism, War, and Visuality in Northern Kurdistan, book launch with Author Eray Çaylı + Nishat Awan, Yeşim Yaprak Yıldız and Austin Zeiderman, 4-6pm, Mosaic Rooms, 226 Cromwell Road SW5 OSW. Info: Launch
EXHIBITIONS
* 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
* 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 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
* 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, Littler Simz fashion and photographs, £22.50 weekdays, £24.40, V&A East, Queen Elizabeth Park, Olympic Park. Info: V&A East Museu
* 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
* When Third Cinema was a power in the land
* 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
* 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 Museums, 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
* A Life of Navigation, Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying explores our ambiguous relationship with 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, video works by Lawrence Abu Hamdan that address how sound can both sustain and disrupt the richness of community life, free, Barbican Centre, Silk Street EC2Y 8DS. Info: Barbican
* Amar Kanwar, the India-based artist’s film trilogy investigates legacies of decolonisation and the 1947 Partition, free, Serpentine North Gallery, West Carriage Drive W2 2AR until 31 January. Info: Serpentine
from Friday 25 September
* 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
ARTS OPPORTUNITIES
* Entries for Open City Documentary Festival 2027 are now open.
* LegalAliens Theatre’s is designed for migrants, refugees, people seeking asylum and anyone with English as a second language. All sessions are led by migrant artists from the theatre’s professional team: “an incredible opportunity to learn new skills, express creatively, practice English and build friendships.” Email Nada to register at legalalienstheatre@legalaliens.org.
* On 26 September and 3 October playwright John Webber is offering free, 90-minute sessions at the Arcola Theatre on dramatising your playwriting.
* The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series is inviting poems (40 lines or less) and short prose (100 words or less) exploring: African and African diasporic migration and (im)mobility; how African and Asian refugees are being left to drown in the English Channel; and Edward Nkoloso, Afronauts and the 1960s Zambian Space Programme..
* Applications for Projekt Empower’s Practice Lab workshops for international theatre makers are invited, and a new Immersion Lab aimed at translating documentary material into performance is underway.
* Wanted: poems and short prose on the tragedy of refugee deaths in the Channel.
* The Royal Court Theatre’s Writers’ Card aims to help playwrights through mentoring, networking, funding opportunities, events, subsidised meals and free script printing.
* The Climate Migration Collaborative seeks contributors to its Climate Migration Storytelling initiative.
* Comedian Munya Chawawa has launched Black Boys Theatre Club “to give young men access to a world of theatre”.
* The BFI is to invest £150m over the next three years under six headings: audiences, education & heritage, filmmaking & talent development, skills & workforce development, international, and insight & industry.
* Good Chance, formed in the Calais Jungle refugee camp, is launching Stage Door 10 - a national programme placing 10 creatives from refugee backgrounds in paid roles across 10 UK theatres and arts organisations.
* As Yet Unscene, year-round initiative to find and develop scripts in early stages of development. it includes workshops, rehearsed readings and fully-rehearsed performances of longer extracts. Details here
* The Cockpit Theatre offers classes, workshops, readings, advice sessions, support & performance opportunities.
* Papatango hopes its new Playwrights’ Studio will be a home for playwrights of all levels of experience. Its advantages include digital workshops, lone-to-one, and thousands of pounds in open-access funding.
* If you are a refugee, immigrant or asylum-seeking writer interested in exploring your own poetry and prose, Exiled Writers Ink offers classes.
FILM
* 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, Picturehouses Central, Finsbury Park, Hackney and Ritzy; Curzon Bloomsbury, until 1 October; Garden cinema until 24 September
Wednesday 23 September
* Poetry Is Political, the power of culture through portraits of Haitian poet René Depestre, Colombian artist Ana Mercedes Hoyos and Martinican French author Aimé Césaire + poetic response by Binta Yade, 8,45pm, National Film Theatre
The Eternal Memory, a Chilean couple with Alzheimer’s face the decline of the man’s physical and mental powers, Lexi
* Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition, six films selected by London Indian Film Festival, 6.30pm, Genesis
Thursday 24 September
* Life Support, doctors’ firsthand accounts and visceral footage of Israel’s attack on Gaza reveal the struggles of healthcare workers navigating bombed hospitals, dwindling supplies, starvation and the influx of casualties + Ben de Pear, Daniele Rugo, James Smith, Victoria Rose, 7pm, from £5,94, Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place W2 1Qj. Info: Frontline
+ Phone calls from the Gaza apocalypse
PERFORMANCE
* Darkllng, one-woman show on the impact of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster in India, £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 as new evidence emerges, each is forced to confront what they are 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, Queen’s Yard, White Post Lane, E9 until 17 October. Info: The Yard
* Fire, Fire, climate crisis two-hander, £15-£29, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street E8 3DL until 3 October. Info: Arcola
+ Gaia and pyramids in the line of fire
* 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 + 28 Sept, Shadow World Investigations workshop, 6-8pm; 1 Oct, post-show Q&A: Media Ethics, Mike Berry; 2 Oct, International State Crime Initiative workshop, 4-6pm; 5 Oct, Shadow World Investigations community workshop, 6-8pm; 6 Oct, Producing Political Theatre workshop, 4-6pm; 9 Oct, International State Crime Initiative, workshop, 4-6pm
from Wednesday 23 September
* Palart Festival, celebration of Palestinian theatre. The Shroud Maker, Ahmed Masoud’s darkly comic one-woman show set in Gaza; Return to Palestine, ensemble piece tracing a diaspora Palestinian’s first journey home; El Manshiyyeh, minimalist meditation on memory from El-Hakawati; 2077: Who Wants to Survive, dystopian thriller from Ramallah’s Ashtar Theatre; Sami Abu Wardeh Hates You, chaotic and defiantly funny exploration of the value of hate today; Two Names, Meet and Part, coming-of-age story about identity and activism in the US; Hanna Shammas Takes it to Heart, a warm stand-up storytelling show from Haifa + talks, workshops and an industry networking event. Developed in collaboration with The Freedom Theatre, Al-Hakawati Theatre and ASHTAR Theatre. Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, N7 9EF, until 3 October. Info: Festival
from Friday 25 September
* Sykes-Picot & Air Pressure, two performances bring together audio evidence to confront the violence of borders in the Middle East, 7.30pm, from £24, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS. Info: Barbican. + 23 - 26 September, Zifzafa, free exhibition of video works by Lawrence Abu Hamdan that address how sound can both sustain and disrupt the richness of community life + 26 September, Final Repercussions, sonic and visual experiences exploring the intersection of technology, testimony and surveillance, 7.30pm, £24. Info: Barbican.
TV and RADIO
Monday 21 September
* Clive Myrie’s Caribbean Adventure, travelogue, 6.30pm, BBC2
* Global Eye, news magazine, 7pm, BBC2
* Finding Britain’s Slave Traders With David Olusoga, two-parter on the dark side of British history and the institutions that are still benefitting, 9pm, BBC2
* Taiwan: The Pacific Breaking Point, 4pm, Radio4
Tuesday 22 September
* Clive Myrie’s Caribbean Adventure, travelogue, 6.30pm, BBC2
* Finding Britain’s Slave Traders With David Olusoga, two-parter on the dark side of British history and the institutions that are still benefitting, 11.50pm, BBC2
Wednesday 16 September
* Clive Myrie’s Caribbean Adventure, travelogue, 6.30pm, BBC2
* Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, spotlight on tourist sleaze, 9.30pm, BBC3
* Where is Austin Rice?, inquiry into the disappearance of a Western journalist in Syria, 9.30am, Radio 4
Thursday 24 September
* Dispatches: Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed, documents mealy-mouth British governments’ responses to events in Gaza since the 2023 Hamas attack, 11.05pm, Channel4
* The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu, documentary, midnight20, BBC4
* Omid Djalili: Namaste, the British-Iranian comedian looks at social media and cancel culture, 6.30pm, Radio4