Archived Events
Our Events
Our Events
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Political Skulduggery: What Kept Charles Bradlaugh MP From Taking his Seat in Parliament?
Political Skulduggery: What Kept Charles Bradlaugh MP From Taking his Seat in Parliament?
Charles Bradlaugh, “Atheist, Republican and Malthusian”, was a maverick figure in late nineteenth-century radical politics. Bradlaugh needs to be remembered, not just for standing trial under the Obscene Publications Act in 1877 with Mrs Annie Besant for publishing a birth control pamphlet, but for the six-year battle he fought to take his seat as M.P. for Northampton. Extraordinarily Bradlaugh won his parliamentary seat in 1880 as a Liberal, yet it was Gladstone’s Liberal government which kept him out for the entire parliament. A bit of historical skulduggery with lessons for today.
In person | Virtual event
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Positive Disruption in Science and Medicine
Positive Disruption in Science and Medicine
Discover, discuss and debate emerging practice, cutting edge research and creative approaches to disruption in in science and medicine. This lecture, given by Professor Jim Smith, will examine the challenges and opportunities of disruption in these sectors and the positive impact it can have on our everyday lives. This event is one of many taking place across the four-day Bloomsbury Festival.
In person | Virtual event
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Light Behind Bars
Light Behind Bars
The Conway Collective have installed an interactive performance artwork that focuses a beam of light on the incarceration of prisoners of conscience. In 1819, Richard Carlile was imprisoned in Dorchester Gaol for publishing Thomas Paine’s 'The Rights of Man'. The desk he had with him in prison now lives in the Conway Hall library and is a centrepiece of this event. Carlile is the first of a celebrated roll call of prisoners of conscience associated with Conway Hall.Light Behind Bars not only remembers these prisoners, but, with the collaboration of Index On Censorship, throws light on those many prisoners around the world who are locked up today because of their thoughts, writings, art, and politics.
In person | Virtual event
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Reel Rock Film Tour
Reel Rock Film Tour
In its landmark 10th year, REEL ROCK features an extraordinary collection of short adventure and climbing films from some of the world’s best adventure filmmakers. Featuring alpine legends, amazing adventurers and climbing icons - prepare to be transported through the big screen to mountains and cliff faces across the globe as they strive to achieve their dangerous lifelong ambitions.
In person | Virtual event
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The Law’s Ambiguous Struggle with Slavery
The Law’s Ambiguous Struggle with Slavery
This talk considers the ambiguity that the law faced in the eighteenth century in its struggle with slavery. In this century, several English judges upheld the rights of slave owners to claim property in their "Negroes", either on the grounds that they were not Christians, or by appealing to the legal concept of jus gentium (law of nations). However, some judges upheld the rights of slaves, arguing that once a slave set foot in England, the slave became free.
In person | Virtual event
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Hungry Road
Hungry Road
'Hungry Road' tells stories about the lives of the unemployed men who gather at the side of the road around South African cities and rural areas waiting for the promise of a day's work. The three actors spent many hours researching and interviewing these men who shared insights into their lives, their hopes and their disappointments. Their astonishing stories were recorded, work-shopped and shaped into this 50-minute play.Director Zwai Mgijima leads the three-member cast of Xolani Ngesi, Zwai Mgijima and Mongezi Ncwadi in telling the moving, humorous and sometimes desperate stories of these men and their families.
In person | Virtual event
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How is Gandhi and Non-Violence Relevant to Politics Today?
How is Gandhi and Non-Violence Relevant to Politics Today?
What is the meaning of non-violence as a form of political action and how does it work? Using Gandhi's teachings as inspiration, Dr Shahrar Ali will characterise and assess what is as much of a legitimate question of our times as it was in his day. He will also explore the question of whether violence can coexist with nonviolence as part of an all-embracing account of political action.
In person | Virtual event
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Black History Month Talk & 3rd Anniversary Party
Black History Month Talk & 3rd Anniversary Party
London Black Atheists are delighted to announce that Dr Gus Casely-Hayford will be giving a full talk followed by a Q&A on the Malian Kingdom as part of the Black History Month and 3rd Anniversary celebrations.
In person | Virtual event
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Creating Robust Mental Health: Tanya Byron in Conversation With Suzy Greaves
Creating Robust Mental Health: Tanya Byron in Conversation With Suzy Greaves
Psychologies’ editor Suzy Greaves will talk about Creating Robust Mental Health with Professor Tanya Byron, a chartered clinical psychologist, who specialises in working with children and adolescents.
In person | Virtual event
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Ada Lovelace Day Live! 2015
Ada Lovelace Day Live! 2015
This year’s Ada Lovelace Day Live! our annual ‘science cabaret’ in celebration of women in STEM. Playing host to the UK’s most fabulous women in STEM, ALD Live is an entertaining evening of geekery, comedy and music suitable for women and men, and girls and boys over the age of 12.
In person | Virtual event
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First Prime Minister of the London Empire: William Beckford, Jamaican Planter & Lord Mayor of London (1709 – 1770)
First Prime Minister of the London Empire: William Beckford, Jamaican Planter & Lord Mayor of London (1709 – 1770)
This talk examines the life of William Beckford, twice Lord Mayor of London, and one of the largest slave-owners in the British Empire. In a remarkable political career, he gained fame as a proponent of British liberties, while overseeing a transatlantic family business founded on colonial slavery. The talk will seek to demonstrate how these apparent contradictions highlighted many of the dilemmas Britain faced as a global empire, and helped to spark some of the earliest domestic debates about its future as an imperial power.
In person | Virtual event
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Ask for Evidence
Ask for Evidence
Every day we hear claims about what is good for our health, bad for the environment, how to improve education, cut crime, and treat disease. Some claims are based on reliable evidence and scientific rigour, however many are not. If governments and companies want us to believe them, we should ask them for evidence, as consumers, patients, voters and citizens. Speaker Dr Chris Peters co-ordinates the Ask for Evidence and Libel Reform campaigns.
In person | Virtual event
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Rally: Rise up Against TTIP!
Rally: Rise up Against TTIP!
Trade deals TTIP, CETA and TiSA are grave threats to the foundations of our democracy. But they have also created one of the most vibrant European people power movements seen in a generation - a movement that is winning in its battle to stop these toxic trade deals. Join us for a rally at the International Day of Action Against Toxic Trade Deals.
In person | Virtual event
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Freedom’s Debt: The Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1672 – 1752)
Freedom’s Debt: The Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1672 – 1752)
This talk will discuss the parts played by freedom and liberty in developing England's contribution to the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. It argues that Britain's relationship with slavery has largely been viewed in terms of Britain's contribution to the abolition of the trade. It suggests that British identity, British ideas, British institutions did much to develop the trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It examines the political deliberations that surrounded the Royal African Company - a monopolistic trading corporation formed to develop England's slave trade that would become, by the middle of the eighteenth century, associated with some of the earliest embryonic arguments for the abolition of the slave trade. The lecture will examine the role that Britishness and freedom played in developing the largest forced-intercontinental migration in human history.
In person | Virtual event
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Millions of Times Greener Than Green?
Millions of Times Greener Than Green?
There is a strong conjecture that climate change and world population numbers are linked. Population growth is driven by poverty and personal incomes are linked to energy poverty. Abundant quantities of clean affordable energy accessible by all nations, particularly those still developing, would bring about a transformation in society at the global scale.Could such an energy “utopia” ever be realised? Our speaker, Jasper Tomlinson thinks that this could be possible. Jasper initiated and participated in a recent Government–funded Molten Salt Reactor study, and the results clearly identified a way forward.
In person | Virtual event
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London is Changing: Regeneration, Gentrification and Redevelopment
London is Changing: Regeneration, Gentrification and Redevelopment
Join us for the first of many Londonist.com special events at Conway Hall. This time Iain Sinclair, Anna Minton, Tom Bolton and Helen Parton take part in a discussion on London, how it is changing, how it affects us and what can be done about it.
In person | Virtual event
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Business – The Search for an Ethical Compass
Business – The Search for an Ethical Compass
In this event Andrew Leigh will take a hard but informed look at the relationship between business and ethics. He will consider what ethics in business actually means, and ask the question what are the realistic prospects of changing the culture under which businesses operate?
In person | Virtual event
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Free Verse Poetry Book Fair 2015
Free Verse Poetry Book Fair 2015
Free Verse is an all-day bazaar market library meeting place performance venue information resource and more. Celebrating the vitality of contemporary poetry in the UK publishers both large and small both experimental and traditional display and sell their work direct to the public.
In person | Virtual event
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50 Shades of Pleasure: The Role of BDSM & Fetish in Sex
50 Shades of Pleasure: The Role of BDSM & Fetish in Sex
This talk by Dominic Davies, one of the UK’s leading clinical sexologists and "sexperts" on alternative sexualities and sexual practices. This meet-up is co-hosted by Nicola Martin MSc.
In person | Virtual event
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Brain-Buzz: Electrical Brain Stimulation – Miracle or Myth?
Brain-Buzz: Electrical Brain Stimulation – Miracle or Myth?
Electrical brain stimulators can now be bought freely. Are they risky, pseudoscientific gimmicks, or is this a genuine breakthrough in treating mental health?
In person | Virtual event
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Camerata Alma Viva “Paint it Black”
Camerata Alma Viva “Paint it Black”
Charlotte Maclet - leader / directorMozart: Divertimento in D K136 Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364 (arr. Eric Mouret) Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in C minor Op.110a (arr. Rudolph Barhsai [approved by Shostakovich] - based on Quartet No.8)
In person | Virtual event
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When was Once Upon a Time?
When was Once Upon a Time?
In this event our thought-provoking speaker, Peter Logan, will contradict the common sense view that there are thousands of myths and that they change continually over time. He sets out to demonstrate that not only is there just one myth, but also that there has always been only one myth, and it has been incredibly influential in the development of our society.
In person | Virtual event
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God and the Bible
God and the Bible
Join Professors Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Keith Ward and atheist philosopher of religion Stephen Law in debate and discussion of God and the Bible. A day conference presented by The Centre for Inquiry UK, Conway Hall Ethical Society and the British Humanist Association.
In person | Virtual event
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TRANS*FIGURATIONS 2
TRANS*FIGURATIONS 2
A sequel to last year's extremely successful 'Trans*Figurations' event.Presentations from two different approaches to the representation of trans identities. From Goldsmith's University, Natacha Kennedy presents academic findings from her researches into trans issues. Fresh from her Edinburgh show, AJ McKenna is a performance poet who will be exploring trans issues through artistic expression.
In person | Virtual event
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Hierarchy and the Political Economy
Hierarchy and the Political Economy
Inequality, oppression, corruption, war and the destruction of nature are products of the Political Economy shaped to benefit the Structural Elite, and rooted in the hierarchical structure of society.In this presentation, Clive Menzies will present a penetrating analysis of this interpretation of the undoubted present woes in today's society and will argue from an apolitical standpoint that salvation lies in the dissolution of hierarchy. The challenge is how?
In person | Virtual event
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Alastair Creamer – Would You Take Your Own Career Advice?
Alastair Creamer – Would You Take Your Own Career Advice?
In this powerful, interactive session, leading creative thinker, coach and Eyes Wide Opened co-founder, Alastair Creamer will help you become the best role model you can be to those at a career crossroads – be it your best friend, partner, sibling, your teenager, or yourself. Learn how to be both pragmatic and inspirational. The acid test is, would you take your own career advice?
In person | Virtual event
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The Inventor of the Zombie: The life and times of William B Seabrook: pervert, drunk, cannibal, occultist and ‘negrophile’
The Inventor of the Zombie: The life and times of William B Seabrook: pervert, drunk, cannibal, occultist and ‘negrophile’
This talk will explore the life of William Seabrook (1884-1945), once a celebrated feature writer, journalist, travel writer and friend to many key artists of the New York and Paris Modernist era. Seabrook's exotic travels led him to join the Bedouins, attempt to eat human flesh in West Africa, experiment with witchery with Aleister Crowley, pay Man Ray to photograph Lee Miller in bondage, and in his most lasting legacy travel to Haiti and publish Magic Island, the book he claimed introduced the zombie to American popular culture.
In person | Virtual event
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