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16 September 2026

With survivors and others affected still fighting for justice, Darkling is a story that must be remembered.

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

Friday 18 September

* 5 Years Disappeared: Proof of Life Now, Ghirmai Negash, Nduko o’Matigere, Martin Plaut, Abdurahman Sayed, 5 - 8pm, King’s College, Strand Campus, Strand, WC2R 2LS. Info: King’s

Saturday 19 September

* ESEA Festival Day, East and South East Asian literary festival programme includes On crossing continents and generations, Carla Montemayor and Natalie Gregory, 11-noon; On rules and devotion, Catherine Cho and Stephanie Sy-Quia; Kamayan, Rex de Guzman’s food fundraiser for Project Pearl, 1.45-3pm; On Girlhood and Wanting, Stacey Yu and Divua Maniar, 3.30-4.30pm; On Vastness and Ambition, Cecile Pin and Xiaolu Guio, 5-6pm + workshops, Foyles, Charing Cross Road. Info: Foyles

* Rebecca F Kuang: The Future of Education, the author on the transformative ideas redefining learning, plus Rose Luckin and Xine Yao, 2pm, from £24, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. Info: Southbank

Sunday 20 September

* Chuseok Festival London 2026, celebrate one of Korea’s most important traditional holidays, Samsung KX London, 1 Stable Street N1C 4DQ. Info: Instagram:

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 ze itg eist helped create Fridaman ia

* 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

* 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 19 September. Info: Petrie

* 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

* 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

* 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 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 Commission

* 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, WellcomeCollection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 7 February. Info: Wellcome

* 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

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 19, 26 September and 3 October playwright John Webber is offering free, 90-minute sessions at the Arcola Theatre on dra matising 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 t o drown in the English Channel; and Edward Nkoloso, Afronaut s and the 1960s Zambian Space Program me..

* 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

Thursday 17 September

* From Saint-Denis to Algiers, French-Algerian history is explored in these stories of exile, belonging and memory + intro by Arthur Asseraf, 8.:40pm, National Film Theatre

Friday 18 September

* 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 23 September

Saturday 19 September

* Sambizanga, reveals the human cost of colonial oppression during Angola’s struggle for independence + pre-recorded introduction, 3pm, National Film Theatre

* Among Mountains and Streams, two Chinese artists in exile walk through a forest, exchanging views on the authoritarian regime they fled and their artistic practice, 3.30pm, Curzon Bloomsbury

Sunday 20 September

* The Eternal Memory, a veteran Chilean journalist with Alzheimer’s and his partner face the inexorable descent of his physical and mental powers together, Lexi + 23 September

Monday 21 September

* Victims of Sin, an abandoned baby is saved and raised by Violeta, a rhumba dancer and indomitable mother who faces down all who threaten her new family in this 1950 Mexican film, 2.30pm, National Film Theatre

PERFORMANCE

* Darkllng, one-woman show exploring 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 – at any cost. 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

* Housemates 2026, six plays including ‍ 15 - 19 September, Runner Girl. Brixton House, 385 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8GL until 19 September. Info: Brixton House

* 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

+ Post-show events

* Fire, Fire, the latest attempt to stage climate change, £15 - £29, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street E8 3DL until 3 October. Info: Arcola

+ Gaia and pyramids in the line of fire

Friday 18 September

* Theertham, as drought tightens its grip on a community, a diviner discovers an extraordinary source of water beneath a widow's garden. But as people exploit it for profit, ghosts of the past begin to rise to the surface. New play by Nayantara Nayar, 7.45pm,. Royal Court, Sloane Square, 50-51 SW1W 8AS. Part of Autumn Open Submissions Festival.

Sunday 20 September

* Harsh Gujral: Live in London, Indian stand-up comedian, 7.30-10pm, £25, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR. Info: RGS

from Tuesday 22 September

* 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 community workshop, 4-6pm

TV and RADIO

Sunday 13 September

* Escape From Pretoria, film based on a true-life prison escape by three political prisoners in apartheid South Africa, 9pm, Film4

Monday 14 September