You Belong Here at the Southbank Centre

You Belong Here at the Southbank Centre, 29th June to 8th September.
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From Saturday 29 June to Sunday 8 September, the Southbank Centre proudly presents You Belong Here, an extensive multi-artform summer programme with a message of welcome at its core. Taking its name from the nine-metre-high neon artwork illuminating the Hayward Gallery exterior as part of Tavares Strachan: There Is Light Somewhere exhibition, You Belong Here features a wealth of world-class events for families, adults and diverse communities which explore notions of belonging and encourages a sense of togetherness and community.

With key voices from activism, history, journalism, filmmaking and the performing arts, You Belong Here presents an inclusive programme that focuses on the importance of welcoming all, including those who may often feel sidelined by society.

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, says: “One of the Southbank Centre’s guiding principles, born out of the legacy of the Festival of Britain in 1951, is that arts and culture should be inclusive and accessible to everyone. In that spirit, You Belong Here is a vibrant mix of voices and communities showcasing a diverse range of cultures, art-forms and lived experiences. In a society that often looks for scapegoats and with the fires of the culture wars stoked to create division, our programming this summer celebrates difference and creates bridges of understanding through welcoming, wonderful experiences for all to enjoy.”

Amongst a stellar line-up, events include:
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Home: Short Films Screening + Q&A

Sun 30 Jun, 3pm, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Arab Film Club returns to the Southbank Centre this June for a special screening for Refugee Week, which this year has the central theme of ‘Home’.

Each title has been written and directed by a refugee filmmaker or draws on real life experience. These films demonstrate the power of cinema and humanise struggle and injustice through art.

The screening is followed by a Q&A hosted by Sarah Agha with the filmmakers on stage.

Strong Like Us: Kelechi Okafor & Friends

Sat 13 Jul, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Embark on an enlightening chapter with author Kelechi Okafor, alongside remarkable women she has encountered on her life’s path so far.

The panel features Agnes Mwakatuma, the driving force behind Black Minds Matter UK; Laurence Sessou, a healer, educator and artist; Liz Pemberton, an educational consultant; and Dr Elizabeth Egbase who is an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant.

Using Okafor’s debut children’s picture book Strong Like Me as a lens, they discuss with Okafor their personal interpretations of strength and Black womanhood in today’s world.

Sathnam Sanghera: Empireworld

Sun 14 Jul, 2.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Sathnam Sanghera is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Empireland: How Modern Britain is Shaped by its Imperial Past, memoir The Boy With The Topknot, and novel Marriage Material.

With an inimitable combination of wit, political insight and personal honesty, the award-winning author and journalist explores the international legacies of British empire – from the creation of tea plantations across the globe, to environmental destruction, conservation and the imperial connotations of Royal tours.

His journey takes him from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond. In doing so, Sanghera demonstrates just how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world – and why it’s time Britain was finally honest with itself about empire.

Notes of a Native Son: Baldwin and Artists’ Roles

Sun 21 Jul, 3pm, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall

‘Notes of a Native Son’ is the title essay in the nonfiction collection that launched James Baldwin into the world as a cultural critic in the 1950s.

Book club Conversations with Baldwin presents a staged reading of the titular essay by acclaimed actor and theatre director Burt Caesar, followed by a panel discussion with writers and artists.

Presented by Words of Colour and the Southbank Centre in celebration of the 100th birthday of James Baldwin, one of the 20th century’s most iconic writers.

Conversations with Baldwin: Baldwin and Fashion

Sun 21 Jul, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall

This book club conversation draws on experience from different areas of the arts to amplify and reflect on the under-discussed sartorial style of James Baldwin.

Conversations with Baldwin celebrates the 100th birthday of one of the 20th century’s most iconic writers, James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) in a collaboration between creative change agency Words of Colour and the Southbank Centre.

Raymond Antrobus: Signs, Music

Wed 4 Sep, 7.45pm, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall

Centred around two poetic sequences about imminent fatherhood and the birth of a child, Signs, Music is a profound book about masculinity, fatherhood, and love.

The speaker, looking backwards to his late father and forwards to his new son, prepares to become a parent for the first time. Meditating on the cognitive and emotional dissonances between the ‘hypothetical’ and the ‘real’ of becoming a father, this irreversible transition causes the poet’s ‘lines [to] lead towards my father (again!)’.

Raymond Antrobus was born in Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of To Sweeten Bitter, The Perseverance, All The Names Given and the children’s picture books Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses. A number of his poems were added to the UK’s GCSE syllabus in 2022.
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