A thrilling collection of pieces made by black and diaspora artists that raises questions about identity, representation and the purpose of culture remain vital today.

The starting-point for The Place is Here is the 1980s: a pivotal decade for British culture and politics. Spanning painting, sculpture, photography, film and archives, the exhibition brings together works by 25 artists.

The exhibition traces a number of conversations that took place between black artists, writers and thinkers as revealed through a broad range of creative practice. Against a backdrop of civil unrest and divisive national politics, they were exploring their relationship to Britain’s colonial past as well as to art history. Together, they show how a new generation of practitioners were positioning themselves in relation to different discourses and politics.

Turner Prize nominee Lubaina Himid’s ‘We Will Be’ – a woman in defiant pose sets the tone for the exhibition.

Admission Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 | Late 11.00-21.00 Weds and Last Fri of the month
Duration
Age

dl gallery guide

65 Peckham Rd
London
SE5 8UH
020 7703 6120

Take the mic and sing reggae, dancehall and soca karaoke with backing from a live band by the river.

Kicking off a packed day of music, live bands and singing and dancing for all, Southbank Centre’s Summertime presents live Reggaeoke.

Show Times 13.00
Duration 120 mina
Age

Riverside Terrace, Level 2
outside Royal Festival Hall

All aboard The South London Soul Train, on their mission to move your mind and body. Feed your soul with the absolute best, funkiest times.

This takeover event comes from South London Soul Train host and CLF Art Cafe/Bussey Building founder, Mickey Smith: a 25-year DJ veteran renowned for his highly charged good-time sets of soul, funk, groove and much more.
This is a night to get on the dancefloor and join the soul train.

Schedule
3.30pm – 4pm: Jazzheadchronic [DJ]
4pm – 4.45pm: Old Dirty Brasstards
4.45pm – 5pm: Jazzheadchronic [DJ]
5pm – 5.45pm: Old Dirty Brasstards
5.45pm – 6.45pm: DJ Snowboy
6.45pm – 8pm: Uncle Frank Live
8pm – 9pm: Jazzheadchronic [DJ]

Show Times 15.30
Duration 330
Age
Riverside Terrace,
Level 2, outside Royal Festival Hall

1 DAY |15 PODCASTS | 2 PANELS

Shout Out is bringing the best podcasts from black Americans and Brits to the show. Acts include ‘Melanin Millennials’ and book podcast ‘Mostly Lit’.

If you’re a podcast super fan or if you’re a casual listener we have a ticket option for you! The day will be full of great talks, panels and entertainment from homegrown talent. We guarantee that you’ll leave with a ton of great shows to listen to on your commute, at the gym, or while cleaning the house.

Show Times 11.00 – 21.00
Duration
Age

Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way
London
WC1H 0AL

Everyman has been summoned by Death to meet his maker – and he doesn’t want to go.

This interactive performance brings his struggle directly to the audience, asking them to become part of the story and follow in his footsteps.  Will you help Everyman make his peace?

Show Times 10.30
Duration 100 mins
Age

68 Clapham Manor Street
Clapham SW4 6DZ
020 8050 3025
info@breadandrosestheatre.co.uk

Two short shows with interlocking themes.

Under The Mental Health Act through dark humour, comical irony and true stories of young adolescents creates an eye opening perspective and insight into what’s happening nowadays within our psychiatric facilities and a unique look into the lives of the patients who live within them.

Black love matters highlights the link between modern society and one of the biggest hidden secrets in history – the Willie Lynch Letter. Set in both a protest and an ironically funny game show, the characters through poetry and dark humour reveal an alternative view of today’s black community.

Show Times 19.00
Duration
Age

Out of Options is a trilogy of works that look deeply at the ramification of extreme loss, through short stories of growing up in a world engulfed in brutality, inanity, protest, and love.

The Trilogy bends through 3 separate worlds, the first of which follows 2 boys becoming men as they scrimmage through tragedy and loss. Followed by a highly energetic look at the ebullience of a group of boys growing up in a traditional setting. Then a daggering political comment at the triumph, tribulations, and glory of war in a world plagued in anarchy.

Show Times 19.30
Duration 90 mins
Age 12+
THE BUNKER
53a Southwark Street
London, SE1 1RU
boxoffice@bunkertheatre.com
0207 234 0486
Box Office Hours:
Mon – Fri, 10am – 5pm

Immigrate life in Britain.

Kareem’s settled in London, but the sudden arrival of his destitute brother forces him to re-navigate the system. Now 18 and independent, but with no refugee status, Elgi tries to stay optimistic despite his college prospects stalling. Failed asylum seeker Akram embarks on a stressful appeal until a chance connection might just be the thing that saves him. Stardom beckons for Filmon who is courted by TV producers – but is his face ‘refugee’ enough?

Show Times 20.00
Duration TBC
Age 12+

A British financier and his wife host a lavish dinner party for their affluent American friends. The food is delicious, the conversation animated and dessert is on its way – when, from one second to another, the evening takes a sinister and alarming turn…

With dark comic moments and unexpected twists, this world premiere of Dessert, written by Oliver Cotton and directed by Trevor Nunn, is a powerful, thought-provoking play about wealth, greed and the lengths to which people will go to claim what’s theirs.

Show Times 19.30 | 15.00 Due to the nature of the staging there will be strictly no late entry.
Duration 2.15 inc interval
Age Please note this production includes mild violence and specifically the use of guns.

77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD, UK
020 7407 0234

Trajal Harrell, an American choreographer, is throwing some serious shapes and even voguing to traditional Japanese butoh.

Step into the dreamlike world of Trajal Harrell and uncover a series of imaginative encounters. Harrell’s performances are carefully crafted blends of fact and fiction in which he skilfully mixes the conceptual with the whimsical in an inventive, playful and sassy way. His choreography meshes together ideas and movements from across the globe spanning many cultures and centuries: from Japanese butoh dancing, postmodern and modern dance, to Classical Greek dancing, erotic dancing, voguing and entertainment alongside his signature use of runway movement.

Harrell rethinks how we process and interpret our pasts by creating dialogues between contrasting cultures, imagining how historical scenarios could have happened differently and in doing so, he is able to explore ideas around emotion, the body, gender, race, sexuality and culture.

Show Times 12.00 14.00 check tickets
Duration
Age

Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS

You have been selected.

We offer you a rare opportunity to participate in a secret focus group, playtesting a ground-breaking new technological innovation. Be the first to get your hands on the most exciting new piece of kit being developed today, and help the creators refine it for public release.

iAm 4.0 explores our attachment to technology, and the human cost we are willing to accept in the digital age. When we premiered the show in collaboration with the Bush theatre in London, audiences were excited to take part. iAm was nominated for a prestigious Off West End Theatre Award and won many four star reviews.

Show Times 20.15 14.00
Duration 60 mins
Age 7+

When a new couple move into a north London apartment block their neighbours are quick to invite them over for dinner, though not all is as it seems.

Just hope you’re never invited to dinner

Packed full of laughs, drama and dead animals, Sorry, I Killed Your Cat, is a hilarious piece of new writing about keeping up false appearances, broken relationships, alcohol and “accidentally” killing cats.

It will leave you hoping that you never get invited to a dinner party ever again.

Show Times 19.00
Duration
Age

Gateforth St, Marylebone, London NW8 8EH
020 7258 2925
mail@thecockpit.org.uks

A thrilling collection of pieces made by black and diaspora artists that raises questions about identity, representation and the purpose of culture remain vital today.

The starting-point for The Place is Here is the 1980s: a pivotal decade for British culture and politics. Spanning painting, sculpture, photography, film and archives, the exhibition brings together works by 25 artists.

The exhibition traces a number of conversations that took place between black artists, writers and thinkers as revealed through a broad range of creative practice. Against a backdrop of civil unrest and divisive national politics, they were exploring their relationship to Britain’s colonial past as well as to art history. Together, they show how a new generation of practitioners were positioning themselves in relation to different discourses and politics.

Turner Prize nominee Lubaina Himid’s ‘We Will Be’ – a woman in defiant pose sets the tone for the exhibition.

Admission Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 | Late 11.00-21.00 Weds and Last Fri of the month
Duration
Age

dl gallery guide

65 Peckham Rd
London
SE5 8UH
020 7703 6120

A Handful of Dust is a speculative history of the 20th century, tracing a visual journey through the imagery of dust from aerial reconnaissance, wartime destruction and natural disasters to urban decay, domestic dirt and forensic

The exhibition features works by over 30 artists and photographers including Marcel Duchamp, Walker Evans, Robert Filliou, Mona Kuhn, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter, Sophie Ristelhueber, Aaron Siskind, Shomei Tomatsu, Jeff Wall and Nick Waplington alongside magazine spreads, press photos, postcards and film clips.

Admission Tues – Sunday 11.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

77-82 Whitechapel High St,
London E1 7QX
020 7522 7888

Soul of a Nation shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists to a dramatic period in American art and history

The show opens in 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights movement and its dreams of integration. In its wake emerged more militant calls for Black Power: a rallying cry for African American pride, autonomy and solidarity, drawing inspiration from newly independent African nations.

Admission 10.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

Bankside, London SE1 9TG
+44 20 7887 8888

Photographs by South African artist Mohau Modisakeng

Admission Tuesday – Saturday: 10.30 – 17.00 Late night Thursday until 20:00
Duration
Age

Exhibition Rooms
SOAS University of London
10 Thornhaugh Street,
Russell Square
WC1H 0XG
(0)20 7898 4046

Set on summer evenings in the 1960s and the present day, Twilight Song traces one family’s hidden liaisons over half a century. Elyot’s evocative final play conjures a heartbreakingly funny tale of fathers and sons, desire and denial, and lives half-lived

The full cast comprises two-time Olivier nominee Adam Garcia (Kenneth Branagh’s The Winter’s Tale), Bryony Hannah (Call the Midwife, The Children’s Hour), Paul Higgins (Line of Duty, The Thick of It), Philip Bretherton (As Time Goes By) and Hugh Ross (Jamie Lloyd’s Macbeth and director of Park Theatre hit The Roundabout).

Show Times 19.30 15.00
Duration 70 mins no interval
Age 12+

Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
020 7870 6876

Purchased from Russia. Developed in India. Delivered to the UK.
A global transaction over nine months that offers ‘a lifetime of happiness’ for all involved.

Vivienne Franzmann’s new play explores the human cost of surrogacy, and what we’ll overlook to get what we want.

Show Times 19.45 | 15.00
Duration TBC
Age 14+

Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
Box office: 020 7565 5000

A journey from the First World War to the present day, exploring how peace movements have influenced perceptions of war and conflict

From conscientious objectors to peace camps and modern day marches, Fighting for Peace tells the stories of passionate people over the past one hundred years and the struggles they have endured for the anti-war cause.

Over three hundred objects including paintings, literature, posters, placards, banners, badges and music reveal the breadth of creativity of anti-war protest movements, reflecting the cultural mood of each era.

Admission 10.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

IWM London
Lambeth Road
London SE1 6HZ

This thought-provoking exhibition brings together several series of work by artist-photographer Edmund Clark to explore the hidden experiences of state control during the ‘Global War on Terror’.

The exhibition brings together work including images and documents of CIA operated secret prisons or ‘black sites’, photographs from the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, correspondence from around the world sent to a British detainee in Guantanamo that was transformed by the censorship and intervention of the US military, and the experience of a ‘controlled person’ who was placed in a house in suburban England under the restrictive conditions of a control order – a form of house arrest or detention without trial – introduced in 2005.

Admission 10.00 – 18.00
Duration
Age

IWM London
Lambeth Road
London SE1 6HZ

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is a play with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting some events in the life of Billie Holiday.

It is 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia. Billie Holiday puts on a show that unbeknownst to the audience, will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime.  Through her poignant voice and moving songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all-time shares her loves and her losses.

Show Times 19.45 | 14.45
Duration
Age

32-36 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
0844 482 5120

The genre-defining exhibition of art, design, film and literature.

Uncover the mysterious lands of Jules Verne and Ray Harryhausen where Science Fiction narratives first took root. Venture on an odyssey into our solar system, with vintage artwork promoting Soviet visions of space alongside immersive work by Soda_Jerk. Visit a gallery of aliens, and stand alongside iconic spacesuits from a galaxy of blockbusters including Star Trek and Interstellar.

Imagine dystopian worlds with Margaret Atwood and 28 Days Later. Then, with nowhere left to explore but human consciousness, delve deep and experience the transformation and mutation of the body through the eyes of Jack Kirby and Ex Machina.

Curated by historian and writer Patrick Gyger, this festival-style exhibition consists of more than 800 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. Continuing across the Centre, it includes artwork from Isaac Julien, Larissa Sansour and Conrad Shawcross, and an installation from the creators of Black Mirror.

Admission 10.00
Duration
Age

Concessions: £12.00
Students/14-17: £12.00
Art Fund Members: £12.00
Under 14s: £5.00
Under 5s: Free

Barbican Centre
Silk St
London
EC2Y 8DS
020 7638 4141

Exhibition. Photographs by award-winning Russian documentary photographer Sergey Ponomarev, featuring more than 60 unforgettable colour photographs from two recent bodies of work.

The exhibit covers

‘Assad’s Syria’ offers a rare insight into what life was really like for people living in Government-controlled areas of Syria in 2013-2014.

‘The Exodus’ captures the determination, endurance and suffering of people from Syria and elsewhere who sought asylum and a better life in Europe in 2015-2016.

Admission 10:00 last admission 17:00

Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Rd
London
SE1 6HZ
020 7416 5000

Exhibition. Turner Prize winner Chris Ofili unveils a new tapestry, handwoven by Dovecot Tapestry Studio

Ofili has been collaborating with the internationally renowned Dovecot Tapestry Studio to see his design translated into a handwoven tapestry. The imagery reflects Ofili’s ongoing interest in classical mythology and the stories, magic, and colour of the Trinidadian landscape he inhabits.

Admission 10:00 – 18:00 Fri 10:00 – 21:00

08 May, Curator’s introduction to Chris Ofili – 13–13:45pm
20 May, Weaving the Magic Workshop 14:00 attendees have the opportunity to discover the creative process of weaving a tapestry,

Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
020 7747 2885

Workshops. Get in touch with your creativity in poet Rachel Long’s exclusive space for women of colour. Rachel has curated a new series centred on reading, writing and poetry.

The workshops in Rachel’s new series are:

Tuesday 29 August
What is an image of summer without the sun? This session is dedicated in part to poems from Melissa Lee-Houghton’s collection Sunshine (Penned in the
Margins, 2016).

Tuesday 26 September
How can we communicate the incommunicable through poetry?

Age 18+
For black and minority ethnic women only.
Admission 18:30 – 20:30

Tickets £10 per session or £50 when booking for all 6 sessions
booking fee: £1.75 (Members £0.00)

Royal Festival Hall
Level 3 Function Room
Belvedere Road SE1 8XX
Tel: +44 (0)20 7960 4200

Art. The first exhibition dedicated to queer British art

Deeply personal and intimate works are presented alongside pieces aimed at a wider public, which helped to forge a sense of community when modern terminology of ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘trans’ were unrecognised. Together, they reveal a remarkable range of identities and stories, from the playful to the political and from the erotic to the domestic.

Featuring works from 1861–1967 relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) identities, the show marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England. Queer British Art explores how artists expressed themselves in a time when established assumptions about gender and sexuality were being questioned and transformed.

Admission 10:00 – 18:00

Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG

Exhibition. Explore the experience of those who travelled from the Caribbean and West Africa to live in London

This display brings together works from the 1960s and 1970s by eight photographers who documented Black communities in London: Raphael Albert, Bandele ‘Tex’ Ajetunmobi, James Barnor, Colin Jones, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris, Syd Shelton and Al Vandenberg.

The photographs reveal the many and varied experiences of individuals who travelled from the Caribbean region and West Africa to live in London, from everyday family life to political engagement. They show people as they respond to, react against and move beyond the racial tension and exclusion that were part of life for Black communities in the British capital. The title of the display, ‘Stan Firm inna Inglan’, is taken from the poem It Dread inna Inglan by Linton Kwesi Johnson, who in the 1970s gave a voice and poetic form to the Afro-Caribbean diaspora and its resistance in the face of racism. The poem expresses in Jamaican patois (creole) the resolve of African, Asian and Caribbean immigrants to ‘stand firm in England’, asserting the determination of Black British communities to remain in Britain and declare it as their rightful home.

Open 10:00 – 18:00 daily

Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG
020 7887 8888

Tickets

Experience. Let your adrenaline levels go through the roof during a 50-minute white-knuckle ride on the Thames River.

Feel your excitement heighten as the boat’s engine roars into life and propels you toward iconic London landmarks like Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and St Paul’s Cathedral. Gaze at the sharp spire of the Shard as you reach speeds of up to 35 miles (56 km) per hour. Listen to fascinating commentary during slower periods of sailing and glide under the monumental Tower Bridge as your skipper yanks back the throttle and accelerates to high-velocity speeds. Gasp as your skipper performs break-neck turns and wave jumps, and then catch your breath during a brief interlude at Canary Wharf. Enjoy a leisurely cruise back to the boat’s original departure point

Departure hourly 10:00 – 12:00 then 15:00 and 17:00
Running time 50 mins

Tickets from $53

Exhibition. Robots reveal’s the astonishing 500-year quest to make machines human.

Exhibits from the dawn of mechanised human forms to cutting-edge technology fresh from the lab. Focusing on why they exist rather than on how they work, this blockbuster exhibition explores the ways robots mirror humanity and the insights they offer into our ambitions, desires, and position in a rapidly changing world.

An incredible journey spanning five centuries, illustrated with robotic artifacts from around the globe. From a 16th century mechanised monk to some of film’s most iconic robotic creations and the very latest humanoids, Robots will make you look at yourself and society in a whole new way.

Entry 10:00 – 18:00
Tickets adults £15 | kids £13 Under 7’s free
Museum Lates: Adults Only from £ £7:50 | £6:50 concs | £7:00 seniors. Last Wednesday of each month until August

Science Museum
Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD

Exhibition. 100 exceptional images, revealing the astonishing diversity of life on our planet.

From intimate portraits to dramatic landscapes, see how photographers’ passion for the natural world produces startling images.

Admission 10:00 -17:50
Tickets Adults from £10.50 | Child & concs from £6.50 | Family from £27.00

The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
SW7 5BD