Southbank Centre featured free events, 7 – 13 October 2019

These are some of the selected free events taking place at The Southbank Centre. Click on the event title for further information.

Southbank Centre Map — Southbank Centre Locations. Click to enlarge

Exhibition: Another Me

19 Sep – 3 Nov 2019| Open daily: 10am – 11pm | Exhibition Space, Level 1, Royal Festival Hall

The exhibition will close at 5pm for private events on the following dates:
Thu 17 Oct, Tue 29 Oct and Thu 31 Oct

Unlock your preconceptions at this year’s exhibition of works entered into the Koestler Awards for arts in criminal justice, curated by Soweto Kinch.

Over 150 artworks, including music, poetry, paintings, drawings and sculpture, speak of their makers’ concerns, hopes and dreams, illuminating the breadth of talent in UK prisons and other secure settings.

Mercury-nominated and MOBO-winning Kinch, one of the most versatile young musicians in both the British jazz and hip-hop scenes, has used his curatorship to put music at the forefront of the exhibition for the first time.

Kinch comments, ‘As a composer and performer I’m often drawn to works with a powerful sense of narrative, and those which challenge myths and stereotypes.’

Another Me challenges expectations and illustrates what goes on beneath the surface of the human psyche, inviting visitors to reassess their perceptions of people who have spent time inside.

Another Me is the 12th exhibition produced by Koestler Arts in partnership with Southbank Centre.

Literature: Fantastical Futures: Folk Tales from the Earth

12 Oct 2019 – 20 Oct 2019| Run times may vary | Royal Festival Hall, White Room, Level 1

Create visionary fiction in a three-day writing course for ages 18 – 25, led by award-winning writers and poets Farzana Khan, Selina Nwulu, Sai Murray and AHHA AHHA.

Explore themes of folktales and fairy tales and reimagine possible futures, plus get the opportunity to perform your work as part of our Poetry International festival.

Work on new pieces and build existing relevant work, develop your writing, editing and performance skills and receive mentoring and skill-sharing from award-winning writers and poets.

Selina Nwulu is a writer, poet and essayist. She has written for and been featured in outlets including The Guardian, New Humanist and Vogue and has toured her work internationally.

She was Young Poet Laureate for London 2015 – 2016. Her first chapbook collection, The Secrets I Let Slip, was published in 2015 and is a Poetry Book Society recommendation.

Sai Murray is a writer, poet, performance and graphic artist of Bajan/Afrikan/English heritage. His first poetry collection, Ad-liberation, was published in 2013. His novella, Kill Myself Now: The True Confessions of An Advertising Genius, was published in 2008.

Long-listed for a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship in 2017 and 2019, Murray has had poetry and short stories in anthologies including The Fire Next Time, Closure and Dance The Guns to Silence.

Farzana Khan is a writer, director, cultural producer and award-winning arts educator, and the co-founder and director of Healing Justice London, creating spaces for healing through arts practices for marginalised communities.

Khan was the creative and strategic director at Voices that Shake, a project that brings together young people, artists and campaigners to develop creative responses to social injustice.

AHHA AHHA is a writer, mentor and performer from E1, London, who does youth and care work, on the frontlines, in the shadows, and is in the process of centring queerness in everything.

AHHA AHHA assumes apocalypses, trusts in youth, and wants to create and destroy worlds with youth (the future). AHHA AHHA is interested in strategies for appearance and disappearance of hurt bodies. AHHA AHHA is interested in tongues untied, in human and non-human becoming.

Music: Koestler Curates Friday Lunch

Friday 11 Oct| 1pm | Royal Festival Hall , Central Bar, Level 2 | Free

Hear original tracks from The Pinnacle, a band formed on support programme for ex-prisoners Sounding Out, launched by the Irene Taylor Trust in 2012.

The Pinnacle is the fourth band to form on the programme, which is a two-year traineeship that aims to help bridge the gap between life inside and outside prison.

Through a combination of live music performances and paid training placements, participants are able to demonstrate on a very public platform the positivity, talent and creativity locked inside our prisons.

Sounding Out challenges the often negative perceptions of people who have spent time in prison.

Music: futuretense: Arlo Day

Friday 11 Oct| 6pm | Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Level 2 | Free

The haunting vocals and rumbling guitar tones of this singer-songwriter have earned her a quiet reputation as one of London’s best-kept secrets.

Arlo Day is a young songwriter and guitarist from South-East London newly signed to Domino Records.

Having cut her teeth in the same burgeoning scene that gave rise to artists like King Krule, Jerkcurb and Puma Blue – as well as touring with bands like Whitney – she’s honed a distinctive song craft that feels timeless and truly her own.

Day released EP Bad Timing in May 2019.

In partnership with BBC Music Introducing.

Literature: Another Me: Voices Out Loud

Sunday 13 Oct| 3pm | Royal Festival Hall , Exhibition Space, Level 1 | Free

Get the view from inside at a free performance of texts written by Koestler Awards entrants by actors with lived experience of the criminal justice system.

The actors, from Synergy Theatre, perform as part of Another Me, an exhibition of fine art, music and writing created in prisons, curated by musician Soweto Kinch.

This year’s exhibition is the 12th produced by Koestler Arts in partnership with Southbank Centre.

Another Me features over 150 artworks that illuminate the breadth of talent in UK prisons and other secure settings.

Location and times

Royal Festival Hall / London’s leading classical music venue
Hayward Gallery / Hayward Gallery is a world-renowned contemporary art gallery
Queen Elizabeth Hall / Enjoy classical music, gigs and performance events
Purcell Room / Literature, performance, classical, jazz and electronic
National Poetry Library / Find the most comprehensive collection of poetry from 1912 in Britain on Level 5 of Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Centre Archive Studio / An extensive archive of information accessible for the first time

Buses and underground

Waterloo and Waterloo East stations in the South of the river Thames and Embankment station in the North provide good underground and rail services. The area is served by many bus routes. Click here or the image below for directions.

Disclaimer: WISE16 publish public notices from London Borough of Southwark with the aim to encourage participation. Please visit Southwark Council’s website for further in